Super Mario Land

The Good
As you probably noticed by now, I'm extremely biased towards the kind of games that keep you nailed to your seat for hours at a time. Super Mario Land is one of them, and being one of the first games to ever come out for the Game Boy (not to mention a mandatory game in any Game Boy fan's collection), it does so with extreme perfection.

While the graphics in Super Mario Land aren't stunning, they're at the least pleasing to the eye, and more importantly, they're faithful to the original NES classic. The music is nothing short of wonderful, a testament to true Game Boy programming prowess (limited FM sound hardware producing excellent sound tracks), as it is in every Mario game in history.

Level design is excellent, with the typical Super Mario plethora of tunnels, bizarre secret areas and hidden blocks; still it improves on the old NES classic with some underwater levels and an Egyptian level. Bosses are not overly difficult, which provides for smooth, non-frustrating gameplay. Controls are excellent as usual (though only on the Game Boy itself - they're horrible on an emulator).

In short, Super Mario Land is a good, fun game!

The Bad
No save option (unlike in 6 Golden Coins, it's sequel), so unless you intend to spend a few hours on it, don't even bother to start a game.

The Bottom Line
Extremely well-made platform game. Heartily recommended!

The Good
Since the general idea has been used, and probably reviewed at MobyGames, many times, I will not comment to much on that. The graphics were very good with no lack in details. The same can be said for the environments. I spent half the time looking at the background instead of looking at Mario. At times the game could get difficult, but the very good controls help you get out of the tricky situations. The levels varied much from each other, extending the durability of the game.

The Bad
As before the story was to rescue Daisy from the bad guys. It would have been great to have a different story. But enough about that... The sound effects was one of the few things that could have been better. Whenever an explosion happened it sounded like someone scraped to cookies against each other.

The Bottom Line
If you have played other games with Mario, then this game will probably not interest you much. But true Mario-lovers will love this game.

The Good
This is the brain-child of Legendary Nintendo Innovator Gunpei Yokoi, so you can expect it to be a bit different, such as the SuperBall power, newer and stranger enemies, and the cool shmup-like vehicle stages!

The Bad
Pretty short but that is fine with high replayabilty.

The Bottom Line
Must play for those who want to play one of the very best 2D mario games along with its sequel.