Super Mario Land

It was a big deal for Nintendo to condense their flagship plumber's usual adventure onto their first cartridge-based handheld, and it would take them a bit before they understood the console enough to really get it right. However, their first attempt was just zany enough to be absolutely worth playing, despite its relatively archaic structure compared to its successors.

Super Mario Land starts out like one would expect from a traditional Mario game, but slowly begins to feel like it came straight out of a parallel universe. It's still a platformer tasking you to get from point A to point B, you still jump under blocks to reveal hidden items, you still collect power-ups, and you still jump on top of enemies to defeat them. However, there are no more flagpoles, just a pair of exits, with the higher exit earning you a mini-game for extra lives. The fire flower is gone, replaced by a new premier power-up granting you the ability to throw unnaturally bouncy balls. On top of all of that, the enemies may look familiar at first, but the first time a Koopa-looking shell explodes, it's obvious that this isn't the Mushroom Kingdom that we are used to.

This blend of familiar and bizarre permeates throughout the whole experience, and I honestly really love it. I feel like most of the changes were made to accommodate the developers' relative unfamiliarity with the Gameboy, but I think it gives Super Mario Land the kind of character that makes it worth revisiting. If this was just a less-good version of the original game (á la Donkey Kong Land), then I wouldn't have much reason to play it when the original is so accessible. Because this game lets me fight sphinxes and throw bouncy balls, it stands out more than enough to warrant your attention.

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