4/5 ★ – MegaBlastoise's review of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.

Platform Played: GameBoy Date Reviewed: Apr. 14, 2023 Rating: 8.5/10 After the success of GameBoy, Nintendo decided to make a sequel to Super Mario Land. Although this time, Mario Land 2 would not only have Miyamoto's direct involvement, but also be modeled after the big game at the time: Super Mario World. Released in 1992, it was seen as a massive improvement over Mario Land 1 and was recently re-released on NSO. Believe it or not, Mario Land 2 was my first Mario game as well as the first video game I beat without assistance from a family member. So with my nostalgia bias aside, is this a good game? Graphically, while Mario Land 1 was based on Mario 1, Mario Land 2 takes a lot from Mario World, right down to the sprites and animations. Obviously the level design and tropes are different from Mario World, but at times this game feels like "portable Mario World" (not that that's a bad thing). The music is incredibly catchy and is one of my favorite Mario soundtracks ever. It's honestly a shame this OST doesn't get remixed as much as other Mario pieces (in fact, the only time this game was referenced was in Paper Mario Sticker Star with the boombox playing the Star Maze theme). The gameplay was heavily reworked from Mario Land 1 and now feels like an actual Mario game. This game has the Spin Jump, as well as 2 power-ups in the form of the traditional Fire Flower as a new power-up in the Carrot, which acts as the Tanooki Leaf from Mario 3. There's also secret exits which may lead to either new levels or different paths to the bosses. Mario Land 2 has 6 main worlds that can be completed in any order you want. These worlds include Tree Zone, Macro Zone, Space Zone, Mario Zone, Pumpkin Zone, and Turtle Zone. The bizarre running physics from Mario Land 1 were removed and now act like your standard 2D platformer. So, what ARE the 6 Golden Coins and why would Mario want them? Well, his castle was ransacked by Wario and has sealed the front gate, with the only way to open the door is by using these coins. This game does have significance, in that this was the game to introduce Wario, originally as a villain played straight but eventually as a prick who wants money and gnaws on garlic. In fact, Mario Land would eventually turn into Wario Land from the 3rd Land game onward. Overall, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is an extremely good handheld game that I poured an unhealthy amount of hours into as a small child. The game has been made available through NSO, so I recommend playing this game for yourself if you have that service.