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Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

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Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
North American box art
Developer(s)Nintendo R&D1
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Hiroji Kiyotake
Takehiko Hosokawa
Producer(s)Gunpei Yokoi
Programmer(s)Takahiro Harada
Yuzuru Ogawa
Artist(s)Hiroji Kiyotake
Takehiko Hosokawa
Makoto Kano
Composer(s)Kazumi Totaka
SeriesSuper Mario
Platform(s)Game Boy
Release
  • JP: October 21, 1992
  • NA: November 2, 1992
  • UK: November 28, 1992
  • EU: January 28, 1993
  • AU: March 12, 1993
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins[a] is a 1992 platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It is the sequel to Super Mario Land. In Super Mario Land 2, the player assumes the role of the protagonist Mario, whose main objective is to reclaim his personal island, Mario Land, from the clutches of his greedy rival Wario. The gameplay builds and expands on that of its precursor with innovations carried over from Super Mario World.

Super Mario Land 2 received critical acclaim upon release and sold over 10 million copies, becoming one of the most successful and highest-rated titles on the Game Boy. Reviewers emphasized that the game surpassed its predecessor in all aspects. Super Mario Land 2 marks the debut appearance of Wario, who would become a prominent character in the Super Mario series as the antihero of several games, the first being this game's sequel Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. Super Mario Land 2 was re-released in 2011 as a downloadable title for the Nintendo 3DS, and the Nintendo Switch in 2023, as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service.

Plot

Super Mario Land 2 takes place immediately following the events of Super Mario Land.[1] While Mario was away in Sarasaland, a jealous childhood acquaintance named Wario puts an evil spell over Mario's private island, Mario Land, brainwashing its inhabitants into believing Wario is their master and Mario is their enemy.[2] Wario's motive behind this sudden attack is to steal Mario's castle out of a desire to have a palace of his own. After traveling through Mario Land and collecting the six Golden Coins, Mario regains entry to his castle. Inside, Mario confronts and defeats Wario, who shrinks and flees, breaking his spell and causing Mario's castle to revert to its normal form.

Gameplay

In-game screenshot

The objective of Super Mario Land 2 is to reach the end of each level, defeating or avoiding enemies while doing so. The game retains several enemies from the Mario series, such as the Goomba and the Koopa Troopa, and also introduces several new enemies. Enemies can usually be defeated by jumping on their head, but also may need to be defeated by different means, such as by use of fireballs. Other established mechanics include Warp Pipes which allow the player to enter hidden areas or find shortcuts, coins, and ? blocks which hide coins and items. Unlike in previous Mario games, coins are not accumulated to automatically grant extra lives; instead, they are used to play games in a special area that awards lives and other power-ups. To gain lives, instead, the player must find hearts like they did in the previous Game Boy entry. After killing 100 enemies, a star drifts down to provide a short period of invincibility when touched. The star can also be found in other places in the game. While Mario is invincible, the 5th and each subsequent enemy he defeats will provide one extra life.

While its predecessor was similar to the original Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Land 2 has more in common with Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World: there is a overworld map, the player is no longer restricted to moving only right in a stage, many stages contain higher and lower areas instead of entire stages all at a single level, and any stage (except for the introductory stage and "boss" levels) can be replayed multiple times.[3] At the end of a level, there is a door that must be touched to clear a level. In addition, there is also a bell high above the door which, if touched, activates a mini-game where the player can try to get either a power-up or 1-ups. The game saves the player's progress after beating a stage, being the first Mario game released on a portable system to have a save feature.

There are 32 levels in total, based in several different themed zones.[2] There are some secret levels that can only be accessed by finding alternative exits found in regular levels. Once a player clears or loses a life in these secret levels, they are returned to the level where the secret exit was found. Each zone has its own boss, which must be defeated to get one of the 6 Coins. If the player loses all of Mario's lives, all of the Coins Mario retrieved are returned to the bosses, which must be defeated again to retrieve the coins. From the beginning of the game, the player may choose to complete the zones in any order.

Super Mario Land 2 features three returning power-ups—the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Starman. The Super Mushroom increases Mario's size, the Fire Flower gives him the ability to shoot fireballs, and the Starman makes Mario invincible for a short time to anything besides pits. Both the Super Mushroom and the Fire Flower also allow Mario to do a spin jump like in Super Mario World. Due to the grayscale palette, Fire Mario is differentiated from Super Mario by having a feather in his cap, a feature not seen in any other Mario series game. Also unique to Super Mario Land 2 is the Magic Carrot power-up, which turns Mario into Bunny Mario.[4][5] Bunny Mario can jump higher, jump repeatedly by holding down the jump button, and descend slowly using his ears.

Upon collecting all Golden Coins, Mario's Palace is unlocked, where Mario must fight Wario in the castle throne room. To defeat Wario, Mario must jump on his head three times, a process that must subsequently be repeated in two additional rooms where Wario uses power-ups identical to Mario's.[6]

Development

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, the sequel to 1989's Super Mario Land, was developed by Nintendo's Nintendo Research & Development 1 (R&D1) department led by Gunpei Yokoi, who were responsible for several other Game Boy titles including the original Super Mario Land game.[1] As with its predecessor, Yokoi served as the game's producer,[7] while it was directed by Hiroji Kiyotake, who had previously worked on other R&D1 titles such as Dr. Mario and Metroid II: Return of Samus, and Takehiko Hosokawa, who also designed several of the game's enemies. Hosokawa initially came onto the project as "assistant character designer" before ultimately becoming "half a director" alongside Kiyotake.[8]

Development for Super Mario Land 2 began in November 1991, lasting about a year and ending in September 1992. According to Kiyotake in an interview included within the game's official strategy guide, the development team wanted the game not to feel "bound by the conventions of the previous games", striving to make it feel unique compared to the previous Super Mario games. This attitude was toned down slightly after the team completed the first draft and concluded that what they were making didn't feel much like a Super Mario title, opting to make the game closer in design to Super Mario World.[8]

The plot of Super Mario Land 2, which depicts Mario trying to reclaim ownership of his castle, was intended to be a change in routine from other Super Mario games by having him pursue something for his own benefit, as opposed to other entries in which he is fighting to help another individual, such as Princess Peach. The game's antagonist, Wario, was designed by Kiyotake, who described the character as "the Bluto to Mario's Popeye." The name "Wario" is a play on "Mario" and "Warui", the Japanese phrase literally meaning "bad". The team also realized that the letter "W" was coincidentally similar to the letter "M" turned upside-down, and chose to stylize the character as such, giving him a hat similar to Mario's but with a "W" emblem rather than an "M". Additionally, the creation of Wario is said to have been representative of R&D1's attitude towards having to work on Super Mario Land at the time of development. Apparently, the R&D1 team had little creative passion for the Super Mario series, which was originally created by Nintendo's Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD) team led by Shigeru Miyamoto, who was busy working on Wave Race and Super Mario Kart; thus, Wario was created by R&D1 out of the disdain they felt towards having to work on a game starring a character that they didn't create.[1][9][10][11]

The music and sound effects were made by Kazumi Totaka, who had previously done sound design for Mario Paint. "Totaka's Song", a signature piece of Totaka's found in most of his works, is also hidden in the game and can be heard in the Game Over screen after waiting for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.[12] According to Totaka, the team chose to use different sound effects from those in other Super Mario games, as they were worried that players would otherwise become subconsciously aware of the game's hardware inferiorities compared to the Super NES's Super Mario World, such as its small screen size and lack of sprite scaling.[8]

Release

In the United Kingdom, the game was released on November 28, 1992. Nintendo UK marketed it with an print ad and slogan that states: "Why did the Hedgehog cross the road? To get to Super Mario Land 2."[13]

Super Mario Land 2 DX: 6 Golden Coins

On December 25, 2017, a ROM hack of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins was released entitled Super Mario Land 2 DX: 6 Golden Coins, which removed lag and screen flickering issues present in the original game, as well as adding color and the ability to play as Luigi: who, much like he does in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, jumps higher than Mario at the cost of having worse traction.[14]

Re-release

The game was released for the Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console service via the eShop; on September 29, 2011 in North America and PAL regions, on October 12, 2011 in Japan, and on June 1, 2016 in South Korea.[5] When Game Boy games were added to the Nintendo Switch Online service on February 8, 2023, the game was one of nine titles made available at launch.

Reception

In Japan, it topped the Famitsu sales chart in November 1992,[20] and went on to sell 2.6 million units in Japan alone.[21] In the United States, the game topped Babbage's Game Boy sales charts for two months in 1992, from November to December.[22][23] By March 1993, more than 5 million cartridges had been sold worldwide.[24] The game sold a total of approximately 11.18 million copies worldwide, making it the fifth best-selling Game Boy game of all time.[25]

Like its predecessor, Super Mario Land 2 received critical acclaim, with many of them considering it an improvement over the original.[26] Official Nintendo Magazine ranked the game 44th on their list of the "100 Greatest Nintendo Games".[27] Nintendo Power listed it as the seventh best Game Boy/Game Boy Color video game, praising it for its improvements over Super Mario Land and for having impressive visuals for a handheld game.[28] Allgame also commented on the graphics, stating that the similar platform game Donkey Kong Land displays "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." The review concluded that "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."[16]

Before it became available for the Nintendo 3DS, GamesRadar listed Super Mario Land 2 as one of the titles that they want on the 3DS Virtual Console.[29] PC Magazine listed it in the "Top 10 Best Game Boy Games".[4] In their ranking of every Super Mario game from best to worst, Digital Trends listed Super Mario Land 2 as the 19th best game in the series, calling it "likely the game fans were hoping for" due to its comparable gameplay to the home console games, but considering it somewhat obsolete now that there are other options for playing Super Mario games portably.[30] The UK-based magazine Total gave the first Super Mario Land game 94%, but only gave the sequel 70%.[31] The Washington Post ranked Super Mario Land 2 the 15th best Mario game overall, stating: "This is when Nintendo started to think outside of the box when it came to level settings."[32]

Legacy

The character Wario, introduced in this game, would go on to star in his own spin-off series beginning with 1993's Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. Wario has also continued to regularly appear in various Mario spin-offs such as the Mario Kart series, as well as crossover games such as the Super Smash Bros. series.

The January 1993 issue of Nintendo Power magazine contained a 10-page comic entitled Mario vs. Wario which was a loose retelling of Super Mario Land 2's plot. In the comic, Mario's childhood playmate Wario invites him over to his castle to "catch up on things". Unbeknownst to Mario, however, Wario is secretly plotting revenge on Mario, whom he believes used to bully him when they were children. During his trip to Wario's castle, Mario encounters several of the bosses from the game who were sent by Wario to eliminate Mario, a detail of which Mario is unaware. Upon reaching Wario's castle, Mario encounters a giant Wario, whom he defeats by pulling a plug on his overalls. The comic ends with Mario apologizing to Wario and playing cowboys, with Wario once again vowing revenge on Mario. In August 2016, it was reported that Mario vs. Wario and its predecessor Super Mario Adventures would be re-released by VIZ Communications.[33]

Notes

  1. ^ Known in Japan as Super Mario Land 2: 6-tsu no Kinka (スーパーマリオランド2 6つの金貨, Sūpā Mario Rando Tsū Muttsu no Kinka, lit. "Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins")

References

  1. ^ a b c Oxford, David (1 February 2008). "The History of Wario: Part 1". Kombo. Archived from the original on 3 June 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  2. ^ a b Mugleston, Alex (2021-11-12). "Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins - One of the Best Game Boy Games Ever Made". GameSpew. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
  3. ^ "Planet3DS.de - Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins - Nintendo eShop Spiel". www.planet3ds.de. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
  4. ^ a b "The 10 Best Game Boy Games".
  5. ^ a b "Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins". Nintendolife.com. Retrieved 2011-09-25.
  6. ^ Super Mario Land 2 - Six Golden Coins manual Accessed April 29, 2022
  7. ^ "Celebrating the Bizarre Super Mario Land 30 Years Later | GameCrate". www.gamecrate.com. Archived from the original on 2019-05-09.
  8. ^ a b c "Super Mario Land 2 – 1992 Developer Interview - shmuplations.com". shmuplations.com. 2022-01-11. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
  9. ^ "Archived copy". www.n-sider.com. Archived from the original on 23 May 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. ^ "1994: Wario's Woodsy Land Blast of a Year - Feature".
  11. ^ "There's far more to Wario than being Mario's fatter arch nemesis". 3 September 2015.
  12. ^ Inside Nintendo 38: Super Mario Land wird 25! (Teil 2) (Nintendo-Online.de, 2014-04-20)
  13. ^ "Why did the Hedgehog cross the road? To get to Super Mario Land 2" (PDF). Computer and Video Games. No. 133 (December 1992). 15 November 1992. pp. 4–5.
  14. ^ Machkovech, Sam (25 December 2017). "A Christmas gift from Game Boy ROM hackers: Super Mario Land 2 in color". Ars Technica. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
  15. ^ a b c "Game Rankings Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins Reviews". GameRankings.com. Archived from the original on 2019-05-04. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
  16. ^ a b Kosydar, Aaron. "Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins - Review". Allgame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
  17. ^ "Super Mario Land 2". Bad Influence!. Series 1. Episode 5. 26 November 1992. ITV. CITV. Archived from the original on 2014-11-09. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  18. ^ Gregory, Mark, ed. (5 December 1992). "Little Mario Strikes Gold". Mega Guide. p. 2.
  19. ^ "Nintendo Power Awards '92: The NESTERS". Nintendo Power. No. 48. May 1993. pp. 36–9.
  20. ^ "Weekly Top 30 (11月27日)". Famicom Tsūshin (in Japanese). No. 208. 11 December 1992. pp. 14–5.
  21. ^ "Inside Nintendo 38: Super Mario Land wird 25! (Teil 2)". Nintendo-Online.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  22. ^ "EGM Top Ten". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 42. January 1993. p. 46.
  23. ^ "EGM Top Ten". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 43. February 1993. p. 38.
  24. ^ "Nintendo sells 100-millionth 'Mario' game". United Press International (UPI). June 2, 1993. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  25. ^ "Die 10 erfolgreichsten Game-Boy-Spiele aller Zeiten". TECHBOOK (in German). 2019-04-23. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  26. ^ "Replay – Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins". gameinformer.com.
  27. ^ East, Tom (2 March 2009). Official Nintendo Magazine. Retrieved on 18 March 2009
  28. ^ "Nintendo Power - The 20th Anniversary Issue!" (Magazine). Nintendo Power. 231 (231). San Francisco, California: Future US. August 2008: 72. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  29. ^ "12 classic Game Boy and Game Boy Color games we want on 3DS". Gamesradar. January 19, 2010. Archived from the original on October 10, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  30. ^ "The Best Mario Games of All Time". 18 February 2021.
  31. ^ "Total! Special (1993)". Total!. 1993. pp. 38–40. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
  32. ^ "Every Mario game, ranked". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
  33. ^ Peters, Megan (7 August 2016). "Nintendo Power's Super Mario Adventures Comic Getting New Collection". Comicbook.com. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
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