Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins

Platform: Game Boy
Developer: Who do you think?
Released: 1992 (1993 for Europe)

I’m sure you’re all familiar with the Super Mario Bros/Super Mario World games, which have been remade and re-released so many times that it’s not even funny. However, not every Mario game is lucky enough to be re-released every generation, and Super Mario Land 2 is one such game. While its predecessor, Super Mario Land, was a pretty good game in its own right, SML2 is definitely the pinnacle of Mario’s handheld adventures.

The story goes that Mario, after his adventure in Sarasaland (the setting of the first game), has returned to find that his castle has been taken over by some no-good punk. The castle has been magically sealed off, and it’s up to Mario to recover the six golden coins which are used to break the seal, enter the castle, and ensure that ‘the thief is in another castle’, if you get my drift.

The most unique thing about this game is the completely non-linear structure. There are six different zones- Tree Zone (self-explanatory), Space Zone (15 years before Super Mario Galaxy!), Turtle Zone (underwater), Macro Zone (a giant house), Pumpkin Zone (Halloween themed) and Mario Zone (a giant moving statue of Mario, filled with cogs and gears and such)- and they’re all unlocked from the very beginning. Mario’s island acts as a hub world, and you can play the zones in any order you wish. Want to leave a zone half-done and come back to it later after trying another zone? You can do that. Each zone contained a series of standard levels, secret levels, branching pathways a la Super Mario World, and a boss who would surrender one of the six coins after being defeated.

As you can see, Super Mario Land 2 features most of what you'd expect from a Mario title

The gameplay was your standard Mario fare, with mushrooms, fire flowers, stars, coins, pipes, goombas, koopas and so on. There were also some ideas taken from Super Mario World, such as the spin jump ability and the power-up system (that is, regular Mario can turn straight into Fire Mario, and getting hit as Fire Mario would turn you back into Super Mario instead of shrinking you instantly). Rather than being a poor man’s knockoff of the console games however, SML2 managed to add some very cool ideas of its own. Firstly, one of the power-ups was a carrot that gave you rabbit ears, which allowed you to jump higher and hover through the air (like the raccoon tail without the flight ability). Secondly, the game had certain blocks that could only be destroyed by throwing fireballs at them, which hasn’t featured in any other Mario game as far as I can remember. Thirdly, the island featured a ‘bonus cave’ where you could gamble away coins on a slot machine to try and win items or 1-ups, which is probably the first appearance of ‘mild gambling references’ in a Mario game. Fourthly, the game kept track of the number of enemies you’d defeated, with an item being the reward every time you reached 100 kills. Finally, the game featured a stage known as the Hippo Zone (which had to be completed to reach the Space Zone) where you could fly freely through the air in a bubble, which remains one of my favourite stages in any Mario game ever. Also, remember that stage in New Super Mario Bros Wii where there were bubbles floating in the air and you could swim through them and jump between them? This game did it first, but with tree sap instead of bubbles.

However, the game’s greatest legacy by far was the new character it introduced to the Mario universe. Remember that no-good punk I was telling you about earlier? Turns out his name was Wario. Yep, Wario made his videogame debut as the final boss in Super Mario Land 2. The story goes that Wario, a long-time rival of Mario, wanted his own castle and decided that the best way to achieve this was to steal one off Mario. Wario would eventually fulfill his dream in “Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3”, where he used the treasure and money gathered throughout the game to purchase a castle of his own. This theme of gathering treasure and money would carry over to all of Wario’s other games, with the only reason being that ‘he’s greedy, so deal with it’. But in truth, the real reason why Wario is so money-hungry is because he’s saving up for a new castle. Or maybe he’s still paying off his first one. Either way, he’s got his reasons.

Wario's debut in all it's glory

Funnily enough, Wario Land spawned three excellent sequels on various Game Boys, while the Super Mario Land series died with this game. Mario would go on to star in a bunch of spin-offs (Mario vs Donkey Kong), remakes (the Super Mario Advance series), and Virtual Boy games that no-one cared about (Mario Clash), but it would take 14 years for Mario to return in a traditional 2D platformer that was exclusive to a handheld console (New Super Mario Bros on DS). Various sources claim that SML2 reviewed and sold really well, so why they ended the series here is anyone’s guess.

In any case, Super Mario Land 2 is an enjoyable Mario game. The non-linear structure makes it one of the most unique ones ever, and it’s topped off with an excellent soundtrack and graphics that are still good by today’s standards. If you’re a fan of 2D Mario games, there’s no reason not to play this one… if you can find a working copy, that is.