As a child my Game Boy rarely left my side; road trips, concerts, movies, church… my Game Boy was always there. One of my favorite games and one of the first games I ever completed was Super Mario Land 2 (for some strange reason I never completed Super Mario Land). Super Mario Land 2 finds Mario returning from his very odd journey on another planet (see Super Mario Land) only to find his beloved castle in the Mushroom Kingdom is inhabited by someone other than himself. This marks the first time Wario is introduced in a Mario game. Wario continues to be a staple of many Mario games and even went on to have his own series of games.
Mario returns and finds himself locked out of his own castle by a fat Mario doppelganger. In order to gain entrance and evict the rotund squatter, Mario must travel the different lands of the Mushroom Kingdom and unlock the 6 golden coins. With these 6 coins Mario will be able to open the gate leading to his castle.
Super Mario Land 2 introduces several new enemies including kamikaze birds and sharks (Jaws anyone?). Mario has a few new tricks up his sleeve to handle the new obstacles, including one of my favorite Mario suits, the bunny ears. The bunny ears allow Mario to jump higher and control his decent. Super Mario Land 2 is also chalk full of secret levels for you to discover, this will keep you going through the many levels over and over again to make sure you didn’t miss a thing. The game play is distinctly Mario, side scrolling plat-former all the way. Super Mario Land 2 had slightly more challenging levels than previous Mario games but nothing too challenging until the final level (it happens to be the longest and there is no progress save point).
After a brief change the play style returns to a more Mario 3-esque style and allows Mario to backtrack to levels already completed. Another innovative feature was the ability to save and play 3 separate games on the same cartridge. All in all this was a very enjoyable play through and brought back many fond memories, I would recommend this to anyone looking for a little nostalgia and fun.
Worth: buying, if you can find one, check e-bay.
Did well: Fun, challenging levels and good replay value.
Did poorly: Not much, pretty good for the technology of the day.
Would my wife sit and watch: probably not, though she might be more inclined to watch a Mario game over many of the others.