Even with it's flaws and difficulties, it's a Mario game. That enough makes it the best Game Boy game to date, and one
Super Mario Bros. was a gift for mankind. This game was that changed the appearence of games being parlor tricks into amazing adventures that you could not have imaged before. And the two sequels standed up amazingly to this formula. But with the release of the Game Boy, the little impressive piece of hardware needed an amazing platformer to go with it. Enter Super Mario Land.
Super Mario Land keeps and translates the original winning formula and moves it into a portable form. It's like playing Super Mario Bros. with brand-new worlds and that you could take anywhere. What more could you want? It stands up to the solid formula, but like everygame in existance, it has it's own amounts of flaws.
The ups of this game is the game itself. The original formula returns in all it's glory. You can walk, run, jump, throw stuff and adding new stuff like driving submarines and flying airplanes. It's impressive considering it's on a less capable handheld. The levels are expertly designed in every way. The enemies each have their own differences and ways to be defeated. Super Mario Land also adds new enemies to the Mario world. The boss levels are very well designed. They each have a different way to be beaten, unlike it's predecesor Super Mario Bros. In all the gameplay it's a delight to behold.
The visual part of the game holds up preety well, too. The graphics are top notch, sometimes you even feel like your playing the NES game, even if it's not in color. You can diffierence all the sprites and locations. Every enviroment looks different and unique, each with a theme. The first world looks like it's set in Egypt-like plain. The second world is set in a futuristic mountainius region. The third world looks like it's all set on Easter Island, and so on an so forth. The sound also doesn't dissopoint. The sound is all digitized. The songs are as catchy as what you'll expect from a Mario title. In all, it's exellent.
Of course, a game this good has to have a downside. For one, you still can't save your game progress. After Nintendo's own Legend of Zelda included a revolutionary save add-on, where you could play until you wanted to, turn the power-off, and come back and play where you left off. This is something we needed with Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3. This one does not have it, neither. Another flaw is it's game lenght. It only has 4 worlds (as opposed to 8 in the first Mario Bros.). It's quite short, but it fixes the problem of a save feature. Also the game engine controls may be a little clumsy when you are trying to get to the top of the end castle.
Even with it's flaws and difficulties, it's a Mario game. That enough makes it the best Game Boy game to date, and one of the greatest games of the year.