Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is a platforming game for the Game Boy released as a launch title in 1992 and later for the Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console in 2011. It is the sequel to the more popular Super Mario Land and also marks the debut of Wario. Like its predecessor, it received a Player's Choice and was produced by the late Gunpei Yokoi rather than the Mario series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, who wasn't involved in the development of this game.

Story
The plot, which immediately follows that of the first game, consists of Mario returning to his castle after rescuing Princess Daisy, only to find that it has been taken over by an old enemy, Wario, while Mario was in Sarasaland. The six golden Coins (Mario's keys to the castle) were spread throughout Mario Land, and Mario must retrieve these coins in order to defeat Wario, reclaim his castle, and restore order to Mario Land.

The game begins with a simple "tutorial" level to help the player learn the controls of the game. After this is completed, the player must travel through seven different "zones" containing a series of levels (excluding the Hippo Zone) to collect the coins:
 * The Tree Zone: A large tree infested with giant insects, this zone is guarded by the ferocious bird Radonkel.
 * The Hippo Zone: A small zone, one level in length, that features a Hippo who shoots Bubbles that Mario can use to fly, this zone is the only one that has no boss and the only one that does not yield a golden coin, but it is necessary to get to the Space Zone, which can be accessed by using a Bubble to float to the top exit of this level.
 * The Space Zone: Encompassing the Moon and stars, this zone is guarded by the alien Tatanga, the final boss of the original Super Mario Land, indicating that Wario may actually have orchestrated Daisy's kidnapping.
 * The Macro Zone: A house-like zone that shrinks those who enter it, the Macro Zone is guarded by Ricky the rat.
 * The Pumpkin Zone: Located inside a giant jack o' lantern containing graveyards and haunted houses, this zone is guarded by the witch Sabasa.
 * The Mario Zone: A mechanical version of Mario, this zone is guarded by The Three Little Pigheads.
 * The Turtle Zone: Inside of a giant turtle, this zone is an aquatic environment and is guarded by an Octopus located inside of a Whale.

In addition to the tutorial level, there is also another level that is not part of any "zone" and lies off the path between the Tree Zone and the Hippo Zone. Playing this level is entirely optional, and its completion yields no progression towards completing the game.

With Wario as the antagonist, this is the third Super Mario title to feature a major villain that is not Bowser, the first being Super Mario Bros. 2's Wart, and the second being Super Mario Land's Tatanga.

Overview
Unlike the gameplay of its predecessor, Super Mario Land 2 ' s gameplay more closely resembles that of past Mario series titles. Most notably, this game replaces the Superball Mario with a more traditional Fire Mario and does away with Super Mario Land ' s vehicle levels. The screen can now scroll to the left, allowing Mario to backtrack through levels, and character sprites have significantly increased in size, enabling more focused and fast-paced action as well as a better overall visual quality to the game. The game is one of the first Mario games to have two different difficulty levels. The level can be chosen by picking Mario's size with the button before picking which file to save to.

Like in Super Mario World, the game's locations can be traversed via an overworld map. This gives rise to a few secrets, including "shortcuts," which allow Mario to traverse the map more quickly, and a casino where Mario can gamble his coins to earn more lives. Unlike those of Super Mario World and the earlier Super Mario Bros. games, Super Mario Land 2's worlds do not have to be played linearly without requiring a hidden item or exit, although all worlds must still be cleared. The player can return to the world map from a completed level by pressing to pause and then.

Main Controls
In levels, the allows Mario to jump, while holding the  will make Mario run faster. The controls where Mario walks or runs. The player can pause in a level with the button. Jumping on most enemies will defeat them, as will attacking them with fireballs, a Starman, or hitting them with a Koopa Shell. A Koopa Shell can be picked up by running into it while holding and thrown by letting go, or it can be kicked by walking into it or jumping on top of it.

Super Mario Land 2 continues a tradition established by past games and includes a plethora of level designs. For example, there are water levels through which Mario swims by tapping (Mario can also swim through sap, and movements such as walking and falling are slowed down) and space levels with altered gravity (jump height is increased, as is fall time).

Mario can use Warp Pipes in the same manner as in other games: by holding down on the while standing on top of one, up while jumping up into one above, or left or right for pipes that are horizontal.

Rewards and Setbacks
Getting hit by an enemy or hazard while Mario is in his regular default state, falling to the bottom of the screen or in lava, getting crushed behind the screen in an auto-scrolling level, or getting a time-up kills Mario, making him lose a life and taking him out of the level and back to the map. If Mario loses all of his lives, he will also lose all of the Golden Coins he has collected and will have to fight their guardians once again, but he does not have to replay the other levels in their worlds to get there. 1-Ups are represented as hearts as opposed to Green Mushrooms in this game.

Each level has a checkpoint, which is a bell hanging from a block. If Mario rings the bell, he starts the level from this location should he lose a life.

The exits of regular levels are marked "goal" and consist of a door in the wall and a bell hanging from a post above it. If Mario enters the door, the level immediately ends, and he returns to the map and progresses to the next stage marker, but if he hits the bell first, he gets to play a bonus game which can reward him with power-ups or more lives.

Collecting 100 coins does not immediately reward Mario with an extra life like it does in other titles, but it does allow the player to play a roulette-type game in the hill between Mario’s Castle and the tutorial level for a chance to earn lives. Mario can hold up to 999 coins.

There is no "score" in the traditional sense that Mario gets in this game for defeating enemies or completing the level with extra time, but he does have an enemy counter for each enemy he defeats, and defeating one hundred enemies will cause a Starman to fall down to Mario.

Power-Ups
The Super Mushroom grows Mario into Super Mario, which allows Mario to take a hit without dying (reverting him to regular Mario) and gives him the ability to break Brick Blocks by jumping underneath them, like in previous titles, but it also allows him to perform a Spin Jump to break Brick Blocks beneath him by pressing down on the in midair, a technique taken from Super Mario World. Super Mario can destroy Koopas, Koopa Shells and some multiple-hit enemies by landing on them with it, but other than that, the Spin Jump does not have quite the same effect that it does in Super Mario World, but it will function the same way as a normal jump when Mario lands on other enemies or hazards with it.

The Fire Flower performs its usual ability, allowing Mario to shoot fireballs by hitting  that bounce along the ground as a weapon, but Mario can now also use them to break a special kind of block as well. Fire Mario is recognizable by a single feather in the front of his cap in this game instead of a change in color, perhaps due to the Game Boy's limitations.

The introduction of the new Carrot transforms Mario into Rabbit Mario. This gives him the ability to flap his rabbit ears and hover by tapping the button, giving him the ability to stay in the air longer and cross or maneuver around obstacles and hazards with greater ease.

The Starman turns Mario invincible, protecting him from harm, but instead of the power-up moving like it does in other titles, it will stay still on the ? Block. The fifth enemy killed while invincible and every enemy afterwards until Mario reverts to normal gives Mario an extra life.

Common enemies

 * Goomba
 * Paragoomba
 * Koopa Troopa
 * Piranha Plant
 * Cheep-Cheep
 * Blurp
 * Venus Fire Trap
 * Fishbone

Tree Zone

 * Bopping Toady
 * Battle Beetle
 * Grubby
 * Noko Bombette
 * Bē
 * Skeleton Bee
 * Bee Larva
 * Bee'zerk
 * Cowfish
 * Dragonfly
 * Drill Mole
 * Egghead
 * Fat Bee
 * Spikey
 * Sparrow

Macro Zone

 * Ant
 * Bazooka Ant
 * Miner Ant
 * Spiky Ant

Pumpkin Zone

 * Boo
 * Cyclops
 * Draculad
 * Haunted Lantern
 * Spooky Mask
 * Terekuribo
 * Umbrelloid
 * Pick
 * Broom

Mario Zone

 * Cannon Pig
 * Jumping Jack
 * Screwer
 * Tamanoripū
 * Tin Soldier
 * Bullet Bill

Turtle Zone

 * Fly Fish
 * Goomdiver
 * Gordo
 * Joe
 * Spiny Cheep-Cheep

Space Zone

 * Mini Ship
 * Spiky Slug
 * Star Twirler

Wario's Castle

 * Wario Mask

Bosses

 * Radonkel
 * Ricky
 * Sabasa
 * Three Little Pigheads
 * Octopus
 * Tatanga
 * Wario

Sequels & Prequels
After the introduction of Wario (who quickly became popular) the Super Mario Land series shifted its attention to him. The next game, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, featured Wario as the protagonist, with Mario only making a minor cameo at the very end of the game. The next game in the series was simply titled Wario Land II, thus making Wario Land the final entry in the Super Mario Land series.

Although this game marked the first appearance of Wario, dialogue in the instruction booklet suggested that Wario was an old enemy of Mario who was jealous of his fame and fortune. In the comic book inspired by this game, Mario Vs. Wario, Wario was said to have been one of Mario's friends when they were both children. However, because of the numerous indignities Mario (unknowingly) forced Wario to suffer, Wario swore revenge on him (which led to the events of both Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins).

References to Other Games

 * Super Mario Land – A prequel of this game. It is also revealed that Wario stole Mario's castle during Mario's rescue of Princess Daisy. Tatanga is seen working for him in Space Zone implying a connection between the two.
 * Super Mario World – Many enemies in this game return here. Also the spin jump returns.

References in Later Games

 * Wario World – The castle shown on the title graphic bears a striking resemblance to Mario's castle.

Trivia

 * There is an easy way to avoid losing all the player's golden coins even if the player loses all of their lives. Simply reset or turn off the game before the "Game Over" screen appears, and the player will restart the game right before they enter the level in which the player lost their last life.
 * If the player loses a life in a level they have already completed, it is possible to exit the level by pressing +  (even when the death animation is playing) without losing any lives.
 * On the File Select screen, if the player is deleting a file, Mario will transform into Bomb Mario.
 * The music for this game was done by Kazumi Totaka. If the player waits on the Game Over screen for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, Totaka's Song will play.
 * This is the first Mario game to feature a stage with an outer space setting.