After the player has completed the game they may play through again on a harder mode, in which the levels are the same apart from enemies being more numerous if the player completes the harder mode, the game allows the player to start another play on any level in the game. Some elements recur from the previous Mario games, such as blocks suspended in midair, moving platforms that must be used to traverse pitfalls, pipes that lead to other areas, collectible coins that grant an extra life when 100 are collected, and Goomba enemies. The first three bosses may be destroyed with projectiles, or the player may move past them to the exit without destroying them first the last level has no regular exit, and the two bosses at the end of that level must be destroyed with projectiles to complete the level and the game. There are five unique bosses, one at the end of each of the four worlds, and a fifth and final boss being Tatanga, who appears when the fourth boss is defeated. Compared to Super Mario Bros., which contains 32 levels subdivided into 8 "worlds" with 4 levels each, Super Mario Land is smaller, with 12 levels subdivided into 4 "worlds" with 3 levels each.
When jumped on, Koopa shells explode after a small delay, Mario throws bouncing balls rather than fireballs (referred to as "Superballs" in the manual), 1-Up Mushroom power-ups are depicted as hearts, and the level-end flagpoles are replaced with a platforming challenge.
Mario pursues Princess Daisy, in her debut, rather than the series standard damsel in distress, Princess Peach. Unlike the other Mario games, which take place in the Mushroom Kingdom, Super Mario Land is set in Sarasaland and drawn in line art. Levels end with a platforming challenge to reach an alternative exit located above the regular exit, the former leading to a chutes and ladders style bonus minigame that awards 1 to 3 extra lives or a Superball Flower power-up.
Two of the game's twelve levels are "forced-scrolling" Gradius-style shooters where Mario helms a submarine or airplane and fires projectiles towards oncoming enemies, destructible blocks and bosses. Mario travels to Sarasaland to save Princess Daisy from Tatanga, an evil spaceman. As Mario, the player advances to the end of the level by moving to the right and jumping across platforms to avoid enemies and pitfalls, the screen only scrolls to the right, as the player advances, but will not scroll back to the left, and sections of a level that have passed off screen cannot be revisited. Super Mario Land has been included in several top Game Boy game lists and debuted Princess Daisy as a recurring Mario series character.Īs a side-scrolling platform game and the first in the Super Mario Land series, Super Mario Land is similar in gameplay to the Super Mario Bros. The game begot a series, including Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992) and Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994), the latter of which would later be spun-off into its own sub-series. Both contemporaneous and retrospective reviewers particularly praised the game's soundtrack. The handheld console became an immediate success and more than 18 million copies of Super Mario Land were sold, more than Super Mario Bros. The game was lauded by critics, who were satisfied with the franchise's transition to the Game Boy, but noted its short length. Super Mario Land was rereleased for the Nintendo 3DS via Virtual Console in 2011, which features some presentation tweaks. The game launched alongside the Game Boy first in Japan in April 1989, and later worldwide. Super Mario Land was expected to showcase the console until Nintendo of America bundled Tetris. Accordingly, the development team shrunk gameplay elements for the device and used some elements inconsistently from the series. It is the first handheld console Mario game and the first to be made without Mario creator and Yokoi protégé Shigeru Miyamoto. The game has two Gradius-style shooter levels.Īt Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi's request, Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi's Nintendo R&D1 developed a Mario game to sell the new console. Unlike the other Mario games, Super Mario Land is set in Sarasaland, a new environment depicted in line art, and Mario pursues the debuting Princess Daisy. In gameplay similar to that of the 1985 Super Mario Bros., but resized for the smaller device's screen, the player advances Mario to the end of 12 levels by moving to the right and jumping across platforms to avoid enemies and pitfalls. It is the first Mario platform game to have been released for a handheld console. Super Mario Land is a 1989 side-scrolling platform video game developed and published by Nintendo as a launch game for its Game Boy handheld game console.