This time around, I get my hands on a game I never got to play as a kid. The sequel to my very first Game Boy game, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Time to find out if I missed out on the fun back then and if the game holds up today as a retro classic without the added nostalgia?
So as I stated in the intro I have absolutely no nostalgia for this title. To me, back then it looked too different from the first Super Mario Land. It looked like a cropped and zoomed-in version of the first one, and I eventually never got my hands on it to feel how it played, so this sequel fell into oblivion. Fast forward to today, when a colleague of mine said he had some Game Boy games for me that I could check out. I noticed his cartridge exterior was damaged (melted), and I was afraid to ruin the connectors of my Game Boy and Analogue Pocket, so I did what I had to do… Sacrifice another game’s cartridge to “Frankenstein” the SML2 internals into a clean and straight cartridge shell. I’m so sorry, Asterix & Obelix from Infogrames… I’ll make it up with another backlog review, I guess.
First things first… still no title screen music. Which isn’t weird since the first one didn’t have that either, but still noticeable by Nintendo’s standards. I’m still waiting to experience which Super Mario handheld game started the title music era? After the title screen, we’re greeted by something new that the first one lacked: a save file menu with not one but three slots, or better, three Super Mario tubes. These act as save files. I chose to keep my colleague’s childhood save file as it was and even backed it up on the Analogue Pocket so if he ever feels his midlife crisis and wants to get back into his old games I can give it back as it was with his own childhood save file if needed. Once we enter the game, the premise is clear. Mario’s castle is taken over by Wario (Yes, this is his debut), and you’ll have to find 6 golden coins to open the door to your own castle. I hope Wario is paying the mortgage meanwhile. It’s the first handheld overworld, and one thing is certain: this game was a giant leap forward compared to the first Super Mario Land. Visually, you already feel the Nintendo magic way more than the first title.
Jumping into the first level makes a strong impression. This is not the inertia-ridden Super Mario Land. This is the typical Super Mario inertia we’ve known from the past in Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World and it’s a completely different feel than SML1. Mario feels lighter again and jumping around is much more fun this time around. I still had to get used to the very cropped-in look of the game, but I got used to it quite fast. It felt more like the modern Mario games already. Enemies are also more recognisable and feel more Nintendo this time around. One thing I noticed is that the game itself is way more forgiving, and in some regards the game is easier once you get the hang of the momentum that SML1 lacked.
And that’s also noticeable in the level design. The game wants you to explore more vertically and pushes you to explore the skies by adding the Magic Carrot, which allows Mario to hover by spamming the A button. Sometimes you find coinbags higher up too that you’ll be able to exchange for extra lives in the overworld or other series of “gashapon” mechanics or games. I got 20 extra lives, for example, and that’s way more than you’ll ever need. The game is fun, and the bosses you’ll have to fight can be tricky if you’re not powered up or missed a mushroom before you take them on. But they are easy to beat by jumping on them 3 times. Also, the Magic Carrot is an easy way to skip an entire level by just hovering over all the enemies and pitfalls. I tried not to do that, but sometimes it’s just the way the levels were designed, and you just do that without thinking it through.
The coins are scattered around 6 worlds + the castle and the worlds all have their own theme. Halloween, space, or even micro where you fight ants are just a few of the more fun ones. The one in space had a level where you couldn’t just fly over it as it was full of “evil” stars that killed you on contact. I would’ve liked to see some of those elements in earlier levels to stop players from hovering all over it. Only once inside the castle I had to resort to my extra lives. The final boss fight with Wario is fun but fairly easy, but the road to him through the castle was more challenging.
I was a bit reluctant at first since Super Mario Land 2 was the game I didn’t feel like playing as a child. But I’m glad I did. It shows the graphical leap from SML1 on the same Game Boy, and it introduced how Mario’s momentum should feel on the handheld. The game was way easier and for me it almost felt “shorter” because of that, while it has more to see in its different worlds than SML1.
Nevertheless, it’s a great classic Game Boy game, and I’m glad I finally played it after all these years.
7,5/10
Tested on DMG Game Boy, Analogue Pocket & Nintendo NSO on Switch 2