Super Mario Land

Super Mario Land is a game for the Game Boy released as a launch title in 1989 and later for the Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console in 2011. Unlike preceding platform games of the Mario series, the game takes place in Sarasaland rather than the Mushroom Kingdom. Super Mario Land also introduced the character Princess Daisy, this game's damsel in distress. An evil alien named Tatanga is the main villain, and most enemies in the game are not related to creatures found in earlier Mario games. Unlike the Super Mario Bros. games, Super Mario Land was not developed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo's EAD division but by Nintendo R&D1, with Gunpei Yokoi as guiding producer.

The game is the first (and shortest) of the three Super Mario Land games, its sequels being Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (which is the first installment in the Wario series). They were originally excluded from the main Super Mario series, but were included alongside the more traditional games for the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.

Story from the Instruction Booklet
"Once upon a time, there was a peaceful world called Sarasaland. In this world there were 4 kingdoms named Birabuto, Muda, Easton and Chai. One day, the skies of Sarasaland were suddenly covered by a huge black cloud. From a crack in this cloud, the unknown space monster Tatanga emerged to try to conquer Sarasaland. Tatanga hypnotized the people of all the kingdoms so that he could control them in any way he liked. In this way he took over Sarasaland. Now, he wants to marry Princess Daisy of Sarasaland and make her his queen. Mario came to know of these events, and he has started on a journey to the Chai Kingdom where Princess Daisy is held captive, in order to restore peace to Sarasaland. Can Mario defeat Tatanga, release people from his interstellar hypnosis, and rescue Princess Daisy? It's all up to you and Mario's skill. Go for it Mario!" In order to save Daisy, Mario made his way through all of the four worlds, defeating the enemies that lurked there. The journey was difficult, as Mario had never seen these creatures before, but he eventually managed to defeat Tatanga's four lieutenants, King Totomesu, Dragonzamasu, Hiyoihoi, and Biokinton. However, after beating Biokinton, Mario had to battle Tatanga in his heavily armed ship, the Pagosu. After a tough battle, Mario defeated Tatanga, and rescued Daisy. Tatanga managed to escape with his life, but Daisy still thanks Mario, and the two ride off together in a Sky Pop.

It is revealed in the sequel, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, that Wario used the events in this game to take over Mario's castle. Tatanga is seen with a Golden Coin, presumably working under Wario.

Description from the Nintendo eShop
"''Ancient ruins, giant crabs, Koopa Troopas, flying stone heads, and hungry sharks await you in this rerelease of the 1989 Game Boy™ game. In the beautiful kingdom of Sarasaland, a mysterious alien has appeared and hypnotized the inhabitants while kidnapping Princess Daisy™ for himself! Travel over land, in the air, and underwater as Mario™ runs, jumps, and bounces his way to fortune and glory on his mission to save Princess Daisy and restore peace! Ancient ruins, tempestuous waters, and brand new challenges await!"

Gameplay
Super Mario Land is very much similar to previous Mario platformer games. The allows the player to jump, while the  is the action command, and will make Mario run faster. The controls where Mario walks or runs. Also the player can pause anytime with the. Jumping on an enemy will defeat it, and the player will earn points for doing so. When Mario is Superball Mario, or if he is driving the Marine Pop or Sky Pop, the will fire out projectiles at Mario's enemies. All the Bosses, except for Biokinton and Tatanga, can either be beaten by physical attack, or by jumping on a switch behind the Boss. Collecting 100 coins will gain Mario an extra life, and if he manages to earn 100,000 points (Done by defeating enemies, as mentioned above), he will gain an extra continue. This is in case he loses all of his lives. Mario is vulnerable in his small size, but when he gets a Mushroom, he will grow slightly in size, and is now able to take damage without losing a life. However, if he does get hit in this state, he will turn back into normal Mario. If Mario collects a Flower, he will become Superball Mario, and will be able to shoot Superballs at his enemies. If Mario happens to find the rare item, the Starman, he will become invincible, and be able to defeat any enemy just by touching it. The effects wear off over time, however. At the end of every level, the player has a choice of two exits. The bottom exit, which takes Mario to the next stage, or the top exit, which takes him to a Bonus Stage first. If Mario reaches the top exit (which is usually a difficult task), the Bonus Stage will allow him to earn a Flower, 1 extra life, 2 extra lives, or 3 extra lives.

Hard mode
After beating the main game, the Mushroom icon on the title screen changes to Mario's head. A game begun from this has additional enemies spread throughout the levels, though no further changes occur. Beating the "Mario head" game unlocks a level select.

As the game has no battery backup, the title screen reverts to the standard version on switching the Game Boy off, resetting the game or the batteries running out.

Enemies
About 30 different kinds of enemies appear in Super Mario Land. Most of them are exclusively found in a certain kingdom. The only recurring enemies of previous Mario titles are the Piranha Plant, which goes under its Japanese name Pakkun Flower, and possibly the Roto-Disc, due to the presence of a very similar enemy not named in the manual. A few creatures are related to enemies of earlier Mario games, but most of them are unique to Super Mario Land. Notably, their English names are generally very similar or identical to the Japanese names, with the only exception being Kumo, which is not the case for other localizations of Super Mario platformers.

Common Enemies

 * Goombo (originally known as "Chibibo")
 * Bombshell Koopa (originally known as "Nokobon")
 * Piranha Plant (originally known as "Pakkun Flower")
 * Bullet Biff (originally known as "Gira")

Birabuto Kingdom Enemies

 * Bunbun
 * Fly
 * Gao
 * King Totomesu (Boss)

Muda Kingdom Enemies

 * Honen
 * Mekabon
 * Yurarin Boo
 * Torion
 * Yurarin
 * Gunion
 * Dragonzamasu (Boss)
 * Tamao (Boss)

Easton Kingdom Enemies

 * Tokotoko
 * Batadon
 * Ganchan
 * Suu
 * Kumo
 * Hiyoihoi (Boss)

Chai Kingdom Enemies

 * Pionpi
 * Pompon Flower
 * An enemy similar in appearance and behavior to a Roto-Disc
 * Nyololin
 * Chicken
 * Chikako
 * Roketon
 * Pipe Fist (unofficial name)
 * Biokinton (Boss)
 * Tatanga (Boss)

Sales
The game received great sales, being the third best selling portable Mario game and best selling Game Boy game with over 18.17 million sales, only being surpassed by New Super Mario Bros. and Mario Kart DS.

Staff
The game was developed by Nintendo R&D 1 rather than by Nintendo EAD, making it the first Super Mario platformer to not be developed by EAD. Gunpei Yokoi acted as the producer and future R&D manager Satoru Okada was the director. Hirokazu Tanaka handled the sound effects and soundtrack.

Development
Super Mario Land was initially set to be the pack-in game for the Game Boy. However, Henk Rogers of Bullet-Proof Software managed to convince NOA president Minoru Arakawa that Tetris would have wider appeal.

References in later games

 * WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!: The microgame Grow Wario Grow features Mario's sprite and background graphics from the game.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl: The Dungeon music of this game also appears as one of the randomly-collectible CD music for the underground version of Mushroomy Kingdom, as well as The Subspace Emissary's The Path to the Ruins (underground portion), The Ruins and parts of The Great Maze which are based on The Ruins.
 * Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games: A medley of the game's music was featured as one of the songs in Figure Skating Singles.
 * Mario Kart 8: In the Water Park's submarine building, there is a sign which says that submarines were first used in 1989, which references the Marine Pop sections and the game's release date.

Trivia

 * This is the first Super Mario title not to feature Luigi, Princess Peach, or Toad, and the second Super Mario title not to feature Bowser or the Mushroom Kingdom.
 * The back of the package and the Nintendo eShop description for the game state that Koopa Troopas appear, when in fact, only Bombshell Koopas appear.
 * This is the only game where Princess Daisy plays a damsel-in-distress role, with all of her subsequent appearances being in various spin-off titles.