Collection essentials #162: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy)

The second Super Mario Land was also made without the involvement of series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, so it continues to feel quite distinct from the console Mario games, but it also is quite different from the first Super Mario Land as well.

I’m happy to say that this is quite an improvement over the first Super Mario Land in pretty much every way. There’s more content, better graphics, better music, better gameplay…better everything. The game has a world map this time (where you move Mario around the world in order to select which level to play next), and the levels are divided up into a series of “zones” with different themes. For example, in “Pumpkin Zone” you will play Halloween-themed levels. This helps the game inject more “personality” into its levels and makes them more memorable. 

There’s some exclusive stuff in this game, such as the “Bunny Mario” power-up which lets him hover. Quite a few of the enemies don’t appear in any other Mario game. However, there’s one thing this game introduced that DID become a staple for the series…the villain. Super Mario Land 2’s antagonist is not one of Mario’s previous foes, but a new character named Wario, a chubby greedy dude with a pointy mustache who wears a hat and suspenders much like Mario does. Although, perhaps surprisingly, this is the only time Wario usually doesn’t appear as an antagonist or at all in most regular Mario games; he usually stars in his own less-virtuous adventures or appears in Mario spinoff games.

This game is also notable for being the last new side-scrolling platformer featuring Mario for well over a decade, since the genre fell out of favor in the mid-90s in favor of 3-dimensional games.

I still think Super Mario Land 2 isn’t quite the same tier of excellence as the console Mario titles that preceded it, but it’s still one of the best Game Boy platformers and definitely worth killing an afternoon with in modern times. A legit essential.