This game is great! Charming Gameboy comfort food. It's inventive and weird. There's a hippo level! You fight mini-Jason Voorheeses! You can feel the Wario Land DNA originating in this game. The soundtrack has that same strange ambience.

The jump physics are a little wonky though, and the level design is simple and forgettable. The last level sucks and I refuse to beat it.

The castle at the end of the game is one of the most challenging Mario stages ever. Very satisfying to complete, though. Thankfully fighting Wario is simple. He ain't no Bowser!

I remember feeling like it was a huge step up from the first game, which was just sort of... ok.

@Zero

Super Mario Land is an absolute banger of a Mario title! What other Mario game lets you pilot a missile-equipped submarine with infinite ammo? None, that's what.

Plus that music. SO. GOOD.

I'd love if they remade this with some really high quality hand drawn 2D art or something. The Link's Awakening remake was awesome. Some of these Gameboy games just hold up really well.

The only downside, maybe, from this game, is that it's really short, but I've played it so many times since I was a kid, so I don't really view that as a downside.

Have you seen the fan re-color of the game? I wish Nintendo would do stuff like this. I feel like it had to have been on their to-do list back during the Game Boy Color days.

GameDadGrant said:

@Zero

Super Mario Land is an absolute banger of a Mario title! What other Mario game lets you pilot a missile-equipped submarine with infinite ammo? None, that's what.

Plus that music. SO. GOOD.

I'll co-sign this. When I go back to the non-Wario Super Mario Lands I go back to the first game, not the sequel. I think the pace and the general platforming feels more like old school Mario to me, even if the movement physics are a bit iffy at times. Also, I think the enemy designs are cooler.
Not that I don't like SML2. It's a really good game.

GameDadGrant said:

The castle at the end of the game is one of the most challenging Mario stages ever. Very satisfying to complete, though. Thankfully fighting Wario is simple. He ain't no Bowser!

Yeah, "sucks" isn't accurate. It does a great job of building tension. I think it could be half as long and accomplish the same thing though.

What's with the secret levels outside the Halloween world? Are they worth trying to get to?

Secret_Tunnel said:

What's with the secret levels outside the Halloween world? Are they worth trying to get to?

For the dance sequence alone, yes.

This game has some interesting ideas in it that I've always wanted to see them return to, such as being able to select any world from the beginning. I s'pose due to the lack of colour, the world themes are more distinct (with enemies to match) than the usual fire-ice-desert stuff; this game did Mario in space long before Super Mario Galaxy! A counter for defeating enemies, though the reward is a little underwhelming.

GameDadGrant said:

Thankfully fighting Wario is simple. He ain't no Bowser!

Perhaps, though Bowser did eventually copy Wario's shtick of using Mario's powerups against him...!

I just beat this game the other day. Still a fun little romp...holds up pretty well for such an old game.