Topic: Let's talk about Super Mario Land 2 VC

We've got a thread for people that owned it back in the day, but the only thing going on there is people saying, "yep. I owned it." So let's talk about this weird little game, shall we?

I've only played a few stages, but here are my observations so far:
1. The game sticks curiously close to the bizzarro physics of Super Mario Land, which are serviceable, but not quite up to the typical Mario Standard, if you ask me. I'm getting used to it, but it's not quite as joyous to play.

2. The music is ridiculously good. I don't know who let the "bah-bah!" travesty that was New Super Mario Bros.' soundtrack happen, but they could stand to take a few cues from this game.

3. The items are charming. Mario gets a little tomahawk with his fire flower? I can flap my fuzzy bunny ears to float? This is far too much cuteness for one man to handle.

4. Level design is far more interesting than the first Super Mario Land. There's actually branching paths in these stages, and I like that most of the enemies are entirely new. It's no fun going into a game where you know exactly how to beat every enemy before you even start the first stage. And ringing a little bell to mark checkpoints makes me happy for some reason. I hope Super Mario 3D Land holds similar surprises.

So far, so good. I'm not overly impressed with it, but I'm not disappointed with it either (as I was with Mega Man). It's an obvious improvement over its predecessor, and I'm excited to see where it takes me.

Found my did you own it topic boring huh? Well anyway as I said in that thread Mario land 2 is awesome!
What else more needs to be said?

@Kid_A

Kazumi Totaka did the score for Super Mario Land 2. He also did the Animal Crossing games, Pikmin 2, and Luigi's Mansion.

New Super Mario Bros. score was done by Koji Kondo, who composed the original themes for most of the Mario and Zelda games, including the original Super Mario Bros., A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, both Mario Galaxy games, and the upcoming Skyward Sword. He's a g.

Kondo did the StarFox theme too.

This game has definitely aged well. I put in a couple of hours into the original cartridge last year, but unfortunately the internal battery died on me. For that reason, I plan on picking this one up.

Yeah it's still got that old time Mario charm of the early days.
Just like how all the 2-D Mario games have aged so well.
If super Mario world and Mario 3 had a baby you'd get this.
Except no Yoshi and a bunny suit instead of Racoon or Frog Mario.
It's nice to know all those who were too young to experience this can now see how great it is.

I'm aware of who Koji Kondo is. I did not realize that he did the soundtrack for New Super Mario Bros. That's pretty shocking. I'm typically a big fan of his work.

@ Kid_A
I didn't find anything wrong with the music in New super Mario bros.
Sounds like Mario music to me. Koji Kondo is like the John Williams of videogame music!

I have the original cartridge, but here are my opinions:

1. The game is mildly reminiscent of Super Mario World (graphics, overworld, etc), but with its own original charm
2. It's semi-linear in that you don't have an order to go in, but each world has its own set of stages
3. I don't like how you lose coins every time you get a game over. I don't want to beat a boss more than once.
4. The music is fantastic. I'd love to see it in a future SSB game.
5. When played on a GBA, the colors are done well

I had never played it till today (never had a Gameboy as a kid) so now having played both the first and second as an adult — and without any sort of nostalgia-tinted glasses toward either — I think I like the first one better. SML2 sort of plays like a fan-made sequel to SMW to me — it's glitchy, floaty, the levels are short and unmemorable, the bosses are silly (I mean the Three Little Pigs?? Really??). It's not a bad game by any means, but I just don't consider it "one of Mario's best" or even his best on the Gameboy in my opinion. The first one had the challenge, the great level design, the memorable music, the interesting enemies and locations, etc. Again, this is just a matter of opinion and I'm just stating mine, but I was hoping for a little more from 6 Golden Coins since it's such a beloved title. I'll probably end up rating it 3 out of 5 stars later on in its ratings section of the eshop.

@ Mully
Mario Land 2 feels like a fan made sequel?
You do realize of course Miyamoto had nothing to do with the original right?
How are the stages in Mario Land 2 unmemorable? Let's see, Pupkin Zone is halloween themed with cute little hockey mask enemies. Mario Zone is pretty neat since you're inside a giant robot Mario.
There's even a space zone with gravity effects similar to being underwater and cool space ship and alien enemies.
These things are unmemorable to you? Your complaints seem a bit backwards.
It's like you're pretending it's opposite day and saying the opposite of what's true.

Miyamoto had nothing to do with any of the Super Mario/Wario Land games. It's not the areas in SML2 that I find unmemorable, it's the stages contained within the areas. They just give me the same vibe as the fan made Mario games I've watched on YouTube do being that they're short, the enemies contained within them aside from Goombas and Koopas seem out of place (the hockey mask enemies are a prime example), the music's not my favorite and the level designs just aren't fantastic to me. Like I said in my previous post, I'm just tossin my opinion out there. It's not a bad game at all, period. I just like the original SML better.

I guess I like the fact that the original is modeled after SMB: simple asthetically and tough as nails. I also like the oddball Easter Island/ancient Egypt theme the game has, how it managed to take enemies and power ups we already knew and gave them interesting new twists, like the exploding Koopas and the wall-bouncing "super" balls. I also dug the shooter stages a lot in SML and thought they brought something new to the Mario universe. I mean that game has its flaws too, believe me; four worlds is kind of laughable in that that's HALF of what a traditional Mario game has. I dunno. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, I guess.

@ Mully
Well I do also like the original too but my main complaint would be how short it is.
You can beat it in like 15 minutes. Other than that is very good. I've just always prefered the extra length and similarities to Mario 3 and World that the Gameboy sequel has. Plus there's stages with alternate exits leading to bonus levels.
It's just overall a much larger game and I enjoyed it more but it's cool if you prefered the original.

I love it. I'm glad they gave the Super Mario Land games a different feel from the regular SMB games to set it apart from them. It's not as good as Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, but it's still amazing.

I'm more a fan of Mario land 2 than Wario land myself. There's some really frustrating moments in that game and I tend to rely too much on that cheat code where you can get any powerup instantly. Also I could never get quite enough coins once I beat the game for the best ending. Even if I found every treasure I'd come up short.
It's just too easy to use the code instead of repeating stages over and over for enough coins.

Like i said already, Its a 8,5/10 for me. it has everything a portable mario needs, like a lot of powerups, rememberable music but some of the stages feel rushed, short and empty, and the difficulty is way too low, so i don't understand why they included a easy mode. anyway, still very enjoyable!

If you need cheat codes to play Wario Land, one of the easiest Mario games ever created, I have severe doubts it only takes you 15 minutes to beat Super Mario Land.

I agree with Mully, SML2 suffers from uninspired level design and seriously fails to live up to the standard set by the original. Having many dull stages does not make a better game than having a handful of really solid and well-designed ones (Mario Land's stages are generally longer and more involving than SML2's anyway, if "it needs to last a while" is such an incredibly important feature. Both of them are pretty short games).

I just don't get all this talk about Mario land 2 having uninspired level design but whatever.
I guess the Pumpkin, Turtle, Macro and space zones are uninspired.
The fact is Mario land 2 is a longer and an overall more fully fleshed out Mario game.
The original is trying to be more like the first Nes game only more oddball and Mario land 2 is closer to Mario 3 and World.
I always thought the sequels blew away the originals. There's more of everything.
More secrets, Bigger stages, better music and Mario's sprite is more rounded and just looks better.
In the videogame world sequels tend to be improvements on the original. They take what you liked about the first one and expand on it. Honestly though the original Mario land barely seems like it's even related to the sequel.
Both are very different games.

I finished it this morning before my first class. I gotta say I LOVED the last stage; in particular, I loved how much it pissed me off. haha. So tough. If they had applied a bit more of this level of difficulty and fleshed out the stages a bit more, I think I'd have liked it a little better. Still yet though, all negative comments aside, it's a Mario game — has there ever been a Mario platforming game licensed by Nintendo that's been actually bad? No. Do I have other Mario games that I liked better than SML2. Yes.