ShroomZed
Goomba
Super Mario Land, released 1989 for the Game Boy is by far one of the most overlooked in the entire series which is a pity since it is absolutely fascinating in my opinion when it comes to presentation and atmosphere.
Unlike just about every other 2D platformer core Mario game, there is no standard "World 1" represented by welcoming, friendly grasslands. Instead, you proceed in the Birabuto Kingdom. Now it's not like a desert stage is unusual for a Mario platformer at all, but the fact it is the first thing you see coupled with the more exotic music tells you that this is going to be a strange game. The enemies include unusual variations of the goomba and koopa (due to the technical limitations of the GB) and then branch into sphinx statues that breathe fire and strange bees that shoot down arrows.
By the time you make it to 1-3, the game is in full mysterious mode. The music is a fantastic dark Egyptian pattern that accompanies the stonework on the floors and ceilings and hieroglyphs supplemented by occasional candles in the background. It's an entire world away from the normal Bowser fortresses we normally get in these sorts of games, it genuinely feels so odd and engaging, being an extremely fascinating effort to create a genuinely creepy desert ruin that no other game in the series does like this. Instead of a Bowser minion, you fight a sphinx who explodes. How badass is that?
The rest of the game is spurred on extremely from the tension of 1-3. I'm not going to go into as much detail for the rest of the game, but I will give special mention to the Easton Kingdom (World 3) which is by far my favourite. The entire world suffocates in that same Birabuto music and takes on an Easter Island theme which just puts so many thoughts into my head about what this world would have in store if I could explore it more. Climbing on those narrow rocks and riding the boulders in front of the Moai - that cave with the pointy rocks, waterfalls, and falling spiders, and the palace in the sky surrounded by those tiki poles - one of the most tense and enchanting places in the entire series.
It should really say something about the effort that was put into these aesthetics for it to be this atmospheric on a bloody Game Boy of all things. I've always been just so genuinely in love with the choices made for the world themes, the music, the backgrounds, the enemies, and the progression of Super Mario Land. I wish we had another game that explored more of Sarasaland and these locales and captured the same genuinely dark, pressing, mysterious feeling that plaques this game. Does anyone else feel this way?
Unlike just about every other 2D platformer core Mario game, there is no standard "World 1" represented by welcoming, friendly grasslands. Instead, you proceed in the Birabuto Kingdom. Now it's not like a desert stage is unusual for a Mario platformer at all, but the fact it is the first thing you see coupled with the more exotic music tells you that this is going to be a strange game. The enemies include unusual variations of the goomba and koopa (due to the technical limitations of the GB) and then branch into sphinx statues that breathe fire and strange bees that shoot down arrows.
By the time you make it to 1-3, the game is in full mysterious mode. The music is a fantastic dark Egyptian pattern that accompanies the stonework on the floors and ceilings and hieroglyphs supplemented by occasional candles in the background. It's an entire world away from the normal Bowser fortresses we normally get in these sorts of games, it genuinely feels so odd and engaging, being an extremely fascinating effort to create a genuinely creepy desert ruin that no other game in the series does like this. Instead of a Bowser minion, you fight a sphinx who explodes. How badass is that?
The rest of the game is spurred on extremely from the tension of 1-3. I'm not going to go into as much detail for the rest of the game, but I will give special mention to the Easton Kingdom (World 3) which is by far my favourite. The entire world suffocates in that same Birabuto music and takes on an Easter Island theme which just puts so many thoughts into my head about what this world would have in store if I could explore it more. Climbing on those narrow rocks and riding the boulders in front of the Moai - that cave with the pointy rocks, waterfalls, and falling spiders, and the palace in the sky surrounded by those tiki poles - one of the most tense and enchanting places in the entire series.
It should really say something about the effort that was put into these aesthetics for it to be this atmospheric on a bloody Game Boy of all things. I've always been just so genuinely in love with the choices made for the world themes, the music, the backgrounds, the enemies, and the progression of Super Mario Land. I wish we had another game that explored more of Sarasaland and these locales and captured the same genuinely dark, pressing, mysterious feeling that plaques this game. Does anyone else feel this way?
