Everyone found ways to celebrate the Game Boy's 30th anniversary (we certainly contributed our share) but toruzz's effort certainly went above and beyond.
Nintendo never gave us an updated 'DX' edition of their first Mario outing on the Game Boy, but if it did, it might just look a bit like this.
Sarasaland never looked this vibrant before. Toruzz even put an extra effort into this hack by redesigning sprites for both Mario and Daisy, adding more detail to the originals in the process.
Yet nostalgia is a powerful force and as such, the sprite facelift has been tearing Super Mario Land fans apart. While some applaud the effort, others claim that the disproportion in size of the new Mario sprite ruins the experience.
However, everyone agrees that this is a stellar effort on the colouring side of the hack. It is not like we really need any excuse to fire up Super Mario Land and shoot up Tatanga from time to time, but this is most certainly a really great one.
Would you have bought Super Mario Land DX if Nintendo had released it along with the Game Boy Color? What other Game Boy classics would you love to see get a 'DX' treatment? The comments section is yours to paint.
[source romhacking.net]
Comments 52
No denying it, that does look pretty good. Still, sharing stuff from a romhacking website?
@Kalmaro NintendoLife are okay with doing so. We don’t need tens of posts every time regarding it.
and pretty soon they will be getting a cease and desist
this is old news anyway, i've played this myself.
@Kalmaro They're only sharing the patch file, you'll still need to bring your own ROM, which you can dump yourself legally
That actually looks pretty ugly.
In my spare time I'm working on some emulators(NES/Gameboy) that allow for graphical enhancements, so Mario Bros looks more like Super Mario Maker/NES remix(which added things like gradients and drop shadows). Also individual palettes for every sprite so gameboy games can get recolored.
Not really a fan of changing the sprites though. The new mario sprite makes it look like a different game. The original looked more like a scaled down Super Mario Bros sprite
Still love this game, was playing earlier on my 3ds. Much better than the sequel which everybody raves on about.
The colouring looks good but I'm not really a fan of the new sprite.
Looks good, but the coins look a little off.
They did not give Superball Mario a unique color scheme. Missed opportunity.
Collision detection is totally off, but it looks nice!
Looks good! I will try it!
Looks good, but I'm fine with the original. So much nostalgia in one small cartridge!
Can we buy it physical somewhere like with Supermarioland 2 DX?
Never realised I wanted this until this video. If Nintendo did a proper remake of this I'd be right up for it.
It's nice, but, wow, World 1-3 loses a lot being that bright.
I still got this game and recently play it on my Super Game Boy via Analogue Super Nt. Runs and play really well but I don't like the ricochet fireball in this game. This is one of those games that deeply need a remake alongside the second game.
Sprite is definitely too big
The first level look good, but the rest made me realize part of the charm of the GB games is that you kind of "imagined" your own colors, and the colors chosen for the other levels don't match how I imagined them.
This reminds me of a rom hack I play along time ago..
Don't like the Mario sprite.
Isn't the Mario Sprite from Mario vs Donkey Kong on the GB?
The coloring is nicely done. It would be cool seeing the hack with just the color added, but with the original sprites.
Nice effort, even if some of the collision seems a bit wonky.
I suspect this isn't a "hack" at all, but a chuck of the game recreated entirely in Construct or a similar game engine.
@Pod I can 100% assure this is a hack on the regular Game Boy ROM file.
@Shiryu
Upon checking more of the video, and seeing just how much is in there, I'll have to believe you!
This sounds like a fun time. I've never played the original.
Mario is bigger and nothing else seems to be sprite wise. Uh...
I'd love to see an official enhanced remake of this at some point. I have no nostalgia for the original and first played it on the 3DS VC a few years ago. It's a fairly decent game in its own right and shouldn't really be faulted since it's an early GB game, but...it hasn't aged too well IMO. The sprites are so tiny and the gravity/physics seem pretty off at times. That said, there's a uniqueness to this one that I still like.
Super Mario Land 2 one-ups it in pretty much every way though.
Cease and desist order in three, two, one...
@chiefeagle02 A pretty circulated comment, almost a meme now... But it doesn't apply to a finished make over that has been out for a while. Please think a little before responding.
Super Mario Land 2 DX was a much better job than this. While I understand why they redid the sprites, the finished product just looks off. Would have been better if they had put the Mario Bros Sprite in as that at least fit with all the enemies.
Takedown in 3, 2, 1...
I played the DX version of Super Mario Land 2 and it's great except for an intentional change in the credits. Now only Wario Land is left, the best GB game in my opinion. For the record, I would buy them if Nintendo would make them.
I have to say that you can't fix Mario and leave everything else tiny. Well, you can but...
Sorry, but I finished Super Mario Land a few days ago, and I say, that game aged like a milk-shake that was left for three weeks inside a sauna.
I get that in 1989, the game was groundbreaking, there was nothing like that back then, but the other Mario games aged pretty well, they are still perfectly playable nowadays, that game became obsolete the moment Super Mario Land 2 was released, the problem with Super Mario Land 1 is not even the graphics, it's the gameplay and the controls.
@victordamazio Super Mario Bros. 1 is almost unplayable for me too. :S I don't even mention The Lost Levels...
The controls and physics in Super Mario Bros. 1 are kinda complicated if you got used with the other Mario games, especially 3 and World.
But the physics in Super Mario Land 1 are not a matter of getting used to something and then not being able to get used with another, the physics in Super Mario Land 1 are just bad.
It's just like Sonic 4 Episode 1, the problem is not just being unable to replicate the physics of the Mega Drive games, the physics are just plain bad.
@Danrenfroe2016 he's changing the small mario sprite size. https://twitter.com/toruzz/status/1125481287593205760
lol why are people getting tetchy over this being posted? As if you've never played a ROM in your life...
Anyway, it looks too different to the original with the sprites changed. Looks more like someone tried to make a Mario flash game.
When I first bought the original Gameboy with Super Mario Land, it annoyed me as I thought I was getting a cheap ripoff of a Mario game. A fireball that only bounces once, turtles that explode instead of being able to kick their shell... WTF?? 🤔
But I realized that those were likely changes to suit the limited hardware, and the small sprites were a result of programmers not yet fully knowing how to get the most out of the unit.
The game has its own special charm and still has my favorite Mario soundtrack. I played it for countless hours.
This is definitely a fun project... but for me personally, instead of making the game in full color, I'd much rather see someone attempt to fix all the physics in the game. Everything from the walking, running and stopping... to the jumping, the hit detection, and all the hit boxes with enemies, bricks and question blocks. Its pretty much the main problem in this game in the Mario series. I know its a product of the time and the limitations they were held down by, but id still love to see a remake where someone does a complete overhaul of all that. Would be fun to see. Maybe its time for Nintendo to put out a new Ultimate Super Mario All-stars game that includes all of these 2D Mario games, but each updated to modern day expectations. Each game should get re-worked in the areas it specifically falls short in. Maybe even make it so you can toggle between the new versions and the originals. At least I'd think that would be awesome.
@Link-Hero @Zequio @NintendoFan4Lyf -
Regarding collision detection, which part is the problem? SML always had slightly ‘off’ collision detection, where (for example) your Mario sprite passed through a brick when you jumped off-center to the brick.
The ROM creator would also have to work within the same original tile size for the mario sprites, so they wouldn’t have been able to make the sprites more than a couple pixels bigger, if that.
Lol, bomb turtles, heart 1-ups, lol. I remember feeling the re-shock on SML after being so used to SMB's items and mechanics. And that lovely music... how could I forget. Shame on you Nintendo for not giving this the remaster it deserves. Feel free to stick SML skin into Super Mario Maker and we'll call it even
@Jayofmaya I don't know man. AM2R (the Metroid 2 remake) floated around in various states for a few years before Nintendo gave it the kebosh. AND Pokemon Brown and Prism, both of these ROM hacks.
There has been a Super Mario Land 2 DX for years. You can play as either Mario or Luigi. the game also is in full colour and you can also select an easy mode too.
Ah, reminds me of this old fangame, sadly never progressed past a trailer and a screenshot..
There's a DX version of the 2nd Mario Land game as well, for anyone interested.
@Prizm that is not "slightly" off....
Just look collisions with blocks and marios head... Not only probably plays wrong... It looks bad
@Zequio - Play the original game and see how it compares
@Prizm Mario land may not be the tighter game on the franchise, but it have respetable mechanics.
In this mod, Mario's head overlap blocks almost entirely. In the original its almost pixel accurate.
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