Super Mario Land

SUPER MARIO LAND

Now, let's move on, shall we? Now I want to start covering the original run of handheld games, meaning Super Mario Land, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Wario Land II, Wario Land 3, and Wario Land 4. I expect we'll see a handful of newcomers (Tatanga, Daisy, Wario, and Captain Syrup are my pre-guesses), though definitely not as many as before, and certainly not as many that will be revised this time around.

Super Mario Land was the first ever 2D handheld Mario platformer, and one of the first games for the Game Boy system. This first game was held back a little by the limitations of its time, something more than made up for with the sequel. At its core it only has three main characters, being Mario, Tatanga the new villain, and Princess Daisy, our stand-in for Princess Peach.

Mario functions much as he does in most 2D platformers, running and jumping being his basic abilities. He can gain an ability called the Super Ball, which is functionally the fire flower, except that the projectiles like to bounce around the screen more. He is also able to pilot a submarine, from which he can fire lasers, and fly a plane, from which he can fire Super Balls. Daisy, on the other hand, is mostly a living goalpost much like Peach, Pauline, and Toad before her. She could function as an echo of Peach as she is right now, but on the other hand, she could also be a reference character for this game, much like Pauline. After all, the Super Balls, submarine, and plane do offer up some possibilities.

Tatanga is our main villain, an alien from outer space seeking to conquer Daisy's kingdom, and may be working for Wario (see next game). His boss battle in this game mostly consists of him piloting a one-man craft from which he will fire three massive energy balls that spread out in a fan shape. He doesn't give me much, but his boss battle in the second game and the possibility of references may give him plenty to work with.

As far as returning enemies go, we only have four. Goombas return, functioning the same as most of their appearances. Koopas kind of return, though with a live bomb for a shell that will explode if they're ever stepped on (so I guess someone crossbred them with a Bob-Omb?). Piranha Plants return, acting more or less the same. Finally, instead of Bullet Bills, we now have Bullet Biffs. There's really not much difference.

I chose to cover the returning enemies first, as basically all new enemies and bosses are unique to their specific stage, so I thought I'd cover all that in one fell swoop. We start off with the Birabuto Kingdom, a desert-themed stage based on Egypt. The boss of the stage is King Totomesu, a giant fire-breathing sphinx and a larger version of the smaller Gao enemies, who also mostly spit fire. The stage is also home to Flies, who bounce forward, and Bunbuns, who fly overhead and drop spears.

The next stage is the Muda Kingdom, a water stage more or less themed after Atlantis. The boss of the stage is Dragonzamasu, a giant fire-breathing sea horse and larger version of the smaller Yurarin, who do mostly the same. Other enemies include skeletal fish named Honen, regular fish named Torion, an octopus that turns into fireballs when killed named Gunion, and Mekabon, a robot that throws its head at you.

The third stage is the Easton Kingdom, based on Easter Island. The boss is Hiyoihoi, a giant Easter Island head that throws rocks (called Ganchan, because rocks need names) at you, and is a larger version of the Batadon, E.I. heads that can fly, and the Tokotoko, E.I. heads that run around. Finally, the stage also plays home to the Suu and the Kumo, two spiders, one that drops from above, one that bounces around.

Then finally, we have the Chai Kingdom, which is based on China. That's about it. It does move out into the sky eventually, but yeah, that's about it. Tatanga is the boss, but you're fought just beforehand by Biokinton, a giant cloud that births Chickens, which apparently fly forward at you instead of just falling to their deaths as any real chicken would. Other enemies include the Pionpi, bouncing zombies dressed in traditional Chinese tunics, Nyololin, snakes that spit fire, Pompon Flowers, somewhere between a Volcano Flower and a Ptooie from previous games, and Roketons, enemy planes that fire Bullet Biffs back at you.

Finally for our items, we of course have the Super Ball Flower and that's mostly it.

Let's see what we've got:

Characters:
Mario: run, jump, super balls, submarine, plane
Tatanga: fly ship, three energy balls
Daisy: not much, unless reference character
Koopa: explode
Goomba: walk forward
Piranha Plant: bite

Bosses:
King Totomesu
Dragonzamasu
Hiyoihoi
Biokinton

Stages:
Birabuto Kingdom
Muda Kingdom
Easton Kingdom
Chai Kingdom

Items:
Super Ball Flower

Thanks for reading! Next time, we'll cover my personal childhood: Super Mario Land 2!