Super Mario Land

Super Mario Land is an installment in the Super Mario series, originally released as a launch title for the Game Boy in 1989 and later rereleased for the Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console in 2011, making it the first handheld title in the series. Unlike previous installments, the game takes place in Sarasaland rather than the Mushroom Kingdom, in addition to introducing Princess Daisy, a new character serving as the damsel-in-distress in place of Princess Peach. Tatanga, an evil alien, serves as both the main antagonist and final boss, while many enemies found in this game seem unrelated to creatures in earlier games. Unlike the previous 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.

This game is the first - as well as the shortest, consisting of only twelve levels - of the three Super Mario Land games, its sequels being Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, which marks the first appearance of Wario, and Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, which is also the first installment in the Wario Land 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., and the history page from the Mario Portal and "The official home for Mario" websites.

Story
The following text is taken directly 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 Princess Daisy and the inhabitants of Sarasaland from Tatanga, Mario must make his way through all of the four kingdoms, defeating the enemies within. The four kingdoms are led by the Sphinx King Totomesu, sea dragon Dragonzamasu, moai Hiyoihoi, and cloud Biokinton. Each entity serves as the boss of its respective kingdom. After the first three bosses are defeated, Mario rescues who he believes is Daisy, only to be revealed as an enemy in disguise.

After defeating Biokinton, Mario boards his plane, the Sky Pop, to battle Tatanga himself in his heavily armed ship, the Pagosu. After defeating Tatanga, Mario rescues Daisy and the two ride off together in a spaceship.

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 guards a Golden Coin, presumably working under Wario.

Overview
Super Mario Land is very similar to previous Mario platformer games. The allows the player to jump, while the  is the action command, allowing Mario to run faster. The controls where Mario walks or runs. The player may also pause at anytime with. Jumping on an enemy usually defeats it and earns the player points. When Mario is Superball Mario, or if he is driving the Marine Pop or Sky Pop, the fires out projectiles at Mario's enemies.

Most of the bosses can either be beaten via physical attack, or by jumping on a switch behind the boss. Collecting one hundred coins earns Mario an extra life, and if he manages to earn 100,000 points by defeating enemies, he gains an extra continue to use in the event all lives are lost.

Mario is vulnerable as Small Mario, but when he gets a Super Mushroom, he grows slightly in size and is then able to take damage without losing a life. However, if he is hit in this state, he turns back into his small state. If Mario collects a Superball Flower, he becomes Superball Mario, and is able to shoot Superballs at his enemies. If Mario happens to find a Star, he becomes invincible, and is able to defeat any enemy just by touching it. These effects are temporary, lasting a short time.

At the end of every non-boss level, the player reaches a Goal tower with two entrances. The lower entrance takes Mario directly to the next stage, while the upper entrance sends him to a Bonus Game for the chance to win either a flower or a maximum of three extra lives.

After beating the main game, the Mushroom icon on the title screen changes to Mario's head. This allows the player to play through the game once more, with additional enemies spread throughout the levels, though no further changes occur to increase the difficulty. Beating the "Mario head" game unlocks a level select. As the game has no battery backup, the title screen reverts to the standard version upon switching the Game Boy off, resetting the game, or the batteries running out.

Game Boy

 * Jump
 * Run; throw Superball (as Superball Mario)
 * Move
 * Pause

Nintendo 3DS

 * Jump
 * Run; throw Superball (as Superball Mario)
 * Move
 * Pause

Items
This game features a small variety of items, a mix of both new and classic ones. The 1 UP Heart and Superball Flower both debuted in this game.

Enemies
Around thirty different types of enemies appear in Super Mario Land. Some are found throughout multiple kingdoms, though most are exclusive to a certain kingdom. The only recurring enemy of previous Mario titles is the Piranha Plant, which goes under its Japanese name, Pakkun Flower. A few creatures seem to be closely related to enemies of earlier Mario games, though 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
The following enemies and obstacles appear throughout several different courses.

Birabuto Kingdom
The following enemies and boss are found only in the Birabuto Kingdom.

Muda Kingdom
The following enemies and boss are found only in the Muda Kingdom.

Easton Kingdom
The following enemies and boss are found only in the Easton Kingdom.

Chai Kingdom
The following enemies and bosses are found only in the Chai Kingdom.

Revision
Later printings of the game featured alterations to the soundtrack and fixed the screen wraparound glitch of the original release. Unusually for a Virtual Console version, the 3DS release of Super Mario Land is based on the original version rather than the 1.1 revision.

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

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.

Nintendo eShop description
"''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!"
 * North American version

Mario’s acclaimed Game Boy debut brings the plucky plumber to new territory: Sarasaland, where the evil space monster Tatanga has hypnotised the people and kidnapped Princess Daisy!
 * European version

While the gameplay will be at first familiar, with the winning blend of platforming and power-ups, Super Mario Land is unique for introducing vehicles for Mario to ride: the Sky Pop aeroplane and Marine Pop submarine.

You’ll need all your skills on land, in the sea and through the air, to traverse the four diverse kingdoms of Sarasaland in your quest to defeat the dastardly Tatanga and rescue Daisy.

Soundtrack
To tie in with the game's Japanese release, an original soundtrack for the game was published in that region by Nippon Columbia, featuring arrangements of ten of Tanaka's compositions by Ikuro Fugiwara, and performed by the "Mario Freaks Orchestra."

Reception
Super Mario Land received mostly positive reviews. The difficulty, the length of the game, the price, and the overall gameplay experience were among the most discussed aspects of the game.

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

Pre-release and unused content
The theme that played when climbing ladders lasted much longer, over five seconds longer than necessary.

A tile reserved for a Hidden Block existed in 3-3, though was ultimately unused, rendering it futile.

Various jingles, including the death and goal themes, originally had less detailed audio, with no background tracks.

Several enemies and platforms were misplaced in certain levels, indicating developmental oversight. For instance, a Bombshell Koopa is placed right above a pit in 3-2, and can only be spotted if quick enough.

References to other games

 * Super Mario Bros./Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels: World 1-3, and to a lesser extent World 3-3, have a similar design to the Castle levels; in the former, the boss fight against King Totomesu is even similar to the boss fights against Bowser in that game.

References in later games

 * Tetris: Some sound effects such as the pause sound effect are reused in the Game Boy version of this game.
 * Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins: This game is a direct sequel to Super Mario Land. According to the instruction manual, Wario took over Mario's castle while he was at Sarasaland.
 * Super Mario Bros. Deluxe: In the Calendar feature, Super Mario Land ' s Japanese release date - April 21, 1989 - is marked by default with the message "A Peaceful Day".
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee: One of Peach's alternate costumes is based on Daisy's classic design.
 * WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!: The microgame Grow Wario Grow features Mario's sprite and background graphics from Super Mario Land.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl: A remix of the Easton Kingdom's theme appears as one of the randomly-collectible music CDs for the World 1-2 version of Mushroomy Kingdom, as well as The Subspace Emissary's The Path to the Ruins (underground segment), The Ruins, and the parts of The Great Maze which are based on those two stages.
 * Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games: A medley of Super Mario Land music was featured as one of the songs in Figure Skating Pairs.
 * New Super Mario Bros.: One of the methods for defeating Bowser and his skeletal self involves pressing a switch near the end of the bridge, like in Super Mario Land.
 * Super Mario 3D Land: Like above, the method for defeating Bowser, his mimics, and his skeletal self involves pressing a switch, like in Super Mario Land.
 * 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 release year of Super Mario Land.
 * Super Mario Maker: The Sky Pop appears as a Costume Mario costume, unlocked by completing the "Southwest Air Adventure" Event Course. All of the costume's sound effects and fanfares are taken from Super Mario Land. Pressing up plays the sound for collecting a coin.
 * Paper Mario: Color Splash: A remixed version of the Super Mario Land credits theme is present in this game in the Roshambo Temples.
 * Super Mario Run: The Remix 10 song contains a portion of the Dungeon theme.
 * WarioWare Gold: This game contains a microgame based off of Super Mario Land, which involves Mario throwing Superballs at enemies.
 * Super Mario Maker 2: The Superball Flower is an obtainable power-up for the Super Mario Bros. style. Using it replaces the stage music with a remix of the Super Mario Land Ground Theme, and the "level clear" and "lose a life" themes with their Super Mario Land counterparts.

Trivia

 * 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. It also mentions "giant crabs," despite no crabs appearing in the game.
 * Super Mario Land is notable for its inclusion of unique and different sound effects compared to the traditional Super Mario titles.