Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Review

by Aaron Kosydar

Super Mario Land 2 brings the quality and fun of Nintendo's console platformers to the Game Boy. The game shares a similiar style to Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo except that progression is less linear. Instead of going from world to world, the player is able to move about the overworld map and play the 6 worlds in any order in which he chooses. The object is to clear the group of stages within each world in order to get the golden coin from that particular world. Once the player has beaten all 6 worlds and earned the 6 golden coins, they are able to get into the final stage.

Each level contains a mid-point bell that, when bumped into, allows you to start the level at that point should you die before clearing the stage. There are also the classic blocks and bricks that you smash in order to get powerups. Powerups include "Super Mario" which makes Mario bigger and able to sustain an extra hit, and "Fire Mario" which gives him the ability to throw fire balls. The levels are designed to challenge your running and jumping skills while defeating enemies along the way. There are also main bosses at the end of the worlds that must be defeated. Each boss has his own weakness although the simple "jumping-on-their-head" strategy is usually the best to try first.

Super Mario Land 2 has a very clean and attractive graphics style with nicely sized characters and enemies. Though there are other Gameboy games such as Donkey Kong Land that display more detailed graphics, the downside to this is that levels tend to blur quite a bit more when in motion. So in this respect, you get a fair trade off.

Unfortunately, the game doesn't feature any classic Mario tunes like from the original Super Mario Bros. Instead, new original tunes were composed to coincide with the worlds' individual themes. For instance in the Space World where there is little or no gravity, the background music matches Mario's slow, bounding movements with a similiar rythm and speed. While some tunes do get annoying after some time, most are very well done.

In overall fun and enjoyment, it's hard to go wrong with this title. It's not a very long game, but even experienced players should find a little challenge in it. It's excellent for road-trips where you may only play in short sessions. Additionally, the non-linear aspect keeps the game from becoming boring if you are having difficulty on a particular stage or world.