The Sadly Forgotten Mario Series

mario's known for being a plumber but he's had numerous other jobs like doctor soldier and rapper [Music] in 1992 british dj simon harris made a super mario hip-hop song filled with sound effects and music ripped straight from mario games he got uk rapper einstein to do the rap vocals going under the name mc mario they even got permission from shigeru miyamoto the creator of mario the song ended up becoming a hit in the uk making it to number eight on the uk singles chart the song was so good nintendo even asked harris to make a full album so what was the name of the song that became such a big hit you're probably asking well take it away mcmario all this just goes to show you how popular super mario land was at the time critically it did well too with game reviewers but this begs the question for a game that was so favored back in the early 90s why is it that no one talks about this game anymore even nintendo barely mentions this game this game and its sequel despite being platformers like the rest of the super mario bros games weren't even considered to be mainline mario games until the 30th anniversary of the super mario bros series so i figured we'd go back and explore the mario series that it seems the world has forgotten super mario land was developed by nintendo r d1 the team responsible for classics like donkey kong metroid and kid icarus it was a launch title for the game boy which was also developed by nintendo rnd1 so these guys knew a little something something about making games for the system the masterminds behind super mario land were directors to toru okada and producer gunpei yokoi noticed how i didn't mention miyamoto and that's because miyamoto had no involvement in this game making this the first super mario game without his presence and that's probably why this game is so weird this game doesn't take place in the mushroom kingdom instead mario visits the far off nation of sarasaland where you have to save princess daisy from the mysterious space alien tatonga speaking of daisy the promotional materials surrounding this game really played up the romance between mario and daisy like this commercial challenge the mysteries and terrors of ancient egypt to give mario a happy ending and make your world a better place and also the rap album i mentioned earlier there's actually a song where daisy comes in and spits a couple bars [Music] mario's bae is definitely princess peach nowadays but back in the day mario was a little bit of a pimp peach daisy pauline lady i guess they just couldn't resist that honker of a nose huh fight well enough about mario's love life this game is weird there's no luigi no peach no bowser no toad no yoshi no goombas no koopas no koopa kids no flag poles no castles no fire followers no one up shrooms but what this game does have are super balls what instead of fire flowers this game has super ball flowers which give mario the ability to shoot these bouncy balls that can ricochet off solid surfaces and hurt enemies now i love the fire flower but this is such a cool power up you can pull off some sick trick shots with this thing and the projectiles can even collect coins for you the super bowl flower holds an interesting record too it has the record for the power up with the longest amount of time between appearances the only other time this power-up appeared was in super mario maker 2 30 years later at least for the japanese super mario land release the american release of super mario was a bit later in july of 1989 while mario maker 2 was in june of 2019 so for us westerners the pain of not being able to see mario's big bouncy super bowls was a little less intense speaking of power-ups the star man is in this game too but if you listen closely the invincibility jingle is a little bit different than what you're used to [Music] yeah this game is weird so weird that it completely changes the gameplay style in two levels the second and final world boss levels are shoot-em-ups instead of traditional mario platforming levels one is in a submarine and the other is in a fighter plane it was actually planned in the original super mario brothers for mario to fly in a rocket or a cloud it was also planned for mario to have a gun anyway gun violence in a children's game aside super mario land seems like a dumping ground for a ton of old and strange ideas that could never work in a regular mario game koopas whose shells explode clouds that try to kill you and chinese zombies why are chinese hopping zombies in this game you might ask well it's because super mario land's worlds are all based on real world locations the first world is the birobuto kingdom based on ancient egypt the second world the muda kingdom is based on the british island territory bermuda the third world the eastern kingdom is based on easter island and the final world the chai kingdom is based on ancient china i love how unique these level themes are this whole game is just filled with so much personality and color despite being in you know so i've rambled on and on about how cool and original and interesting this game is but who cares i know what you guys really want to know is the game good yeah it's alright it's not the best mario game but it still is a fun ride the biggest complaints most people have are the physics and the game's length mario's physics feel off he goes from zero to a hundred real quick in most mario games it takes time for mario to gain speed his jump is also really stiff here not allowing for much control in the air especially if you jump while moving as for the game's length there are only 12 levels in this game the game is incredibly short i beat it in under an hour now personally i don't mind a quicker run time i actually prefer my game short and sweet developers tend to pad games out with filler content to make it feel like you're getting your money's worth when in reality it hurts the overall enjoyment factor though who knows maybe if i bought this game back in 1989 for full price i'd probably feel some type of way too so i get why people might not care so much for this one but this game did get a sequel super mario land 2 6 golden coins so let's see if this one is any good it's awesome mario land 2 was released in 1992 three years after the first game and not too long after the american release of super mario world and this game has a number of things in common with mario world mario's sprite is very similar to the one in world the spin jump is here there's a world map too this game feels kind of like a portable mario world in fact for the simplified chinese version of the game the title of this game is not super mario land 2 but instead it is mario world second episode not only does this game feel like mario world it feels well more like a mario game in general they even took out the super bowl flower and gave us the fire flower back albeit with a slightly different look due to the gameboy's color limitations we did get a new power up the carrot which turns mario into a bunny version of himself but it's very similar to the raccoon leaf from mario 3 although admittedly this one is a lot better as you can float for insanely long if you mash the a button this return to form was surprising considering the first mario lane was so different and originally the game was supposed to be even more different from your traditional mario game in fact it was so different that the first draft of the game was turned down because it was too different from a regular mario game so the team decided to scale it back and bring it a little closer to home but here's the thing i lied this game is very different from super mario world and traditional mario games in general you just gotta look beyond the surface and peel back the layers a little bit example one this game has no princesses mario doesn't save anyone you see this game is a direct sequel to the original super mario land which in and of itself is a really novel idea mario games are notoriously pretty loose when it comes to stories after defeating the magic alien guy to tonga and rescuing daisy mario decides to take a trip back to his private island oh you didn't know he had that yeah well i guess when you have 17 different jobs you probably have a pretty fat bank account and you want to know what his island is called mario land it all comes full circle folks i guess mario lives in that dingy shack in the mario rpgs to keep a low profile can't have the local toads begging for handouts but upon returning he realizes that his castle because yeah he has a castle too has been taken over by his arch rival wario because yeah apparently he has an arch rival now too there's actually a nintendo power comic called mario vs wario that goes into the backstory of mario and wario's rivalry wario managed to take over mario's entire island while mario was off saving sarasaland in the original super mario land and considering tatanga actually returns in this game too as a boss it's very likely wario was the mastermind behind the events of the first game too that's a really cool piece of world building there mario must go to the six different worlds in mario land and recover these six magical coins to allow him access to his castle where he can fight wario and win back his land the devs for this game thought that since mario's always rescuing someone else it would be nice for mario to truly do something for himself for once and man i really like that not only is the goal of this game very different so is the world itself mario games are usually fairly linear in stage progression you go from one world to the next and occasionally you might have a branching path or a place to get items however mario land 2 is somewhat open world while progression in each world is linear for the most part you can tackle any world in any order you want i love this approach as it allows for the freedom for you to play how you want and it helps that all of the game's worlds are awesome the six worlds in this game are tree zone turtle zone space zone macro zone pumpkin zone and mario zone some of these zones have really unique themes like the pumpkin zone which is an entire world based on horror icons like vampires japanese yokai goats and even jason voorhees my favorite world though has to be the mario zone which is an entire world taking place within a huge mario robot there's even a level in mario's um and if we go inside the level they knew what they were doing when they made this level background even the enemies shoot balls and they've got these cute little guys balancing on these bouncy balls okay who brought in their 12 year old son to design this level the mario series has had this stigma for a while where it never tries anything new especially in the early 2010s at the height of the new super mario bros era many of the worlds used in these games have the exact same themes and gimmicks as previous games we knew we were getting a grass level we knew we were getting a desert level and ice lovable etc etc but mario land 2 really gave us some creative concepts you know how mario galaxy is known for being in space and having low gravity yeah this game already did that you know how mario 3d world had that cool dojo level yeah this game had a dojo section before that even the more basic world concepts did things to make each level stand out and be different take the turtle zone for example it seems like your basic water world and the first level is just that a typical beach level you know it's just a little warm up to get your feet wet but the second level takes place in an abandoned submarine then the third level gets even crazier since it takes place inside of a whale's mouth you have to avoid their gnarly looking sharp teeth and use the gunk in its mouth to float over obstacles it's such a cool idea and the sense of progression in these stages is great like in the mario zone you start in mario's feet and then slowly move your way up through his body until the last level inside of his brain which is filled with legos for some reason this game also has some secret exits so exploration is encouraged as well mario land is easily one of my favorite locales in a mario game it's open ended but still focused it's bigger than mario land1's world but still a fairly short and sweet game lasting around three hours and the unique levels man they are so cool when people talk about great mario levels no one brings up desert level 5 or ice level 6 they bring up the special levels like the van gogh styled painted swampland from mario u or the super mario kart themed mount mustache from 3d world or the new york inspired celebration of mario's history that is new donk city from odyssey nintendo has proven time and time again that they have the most creative minds in gaming history i just wish they took advantage of that more because they certainly did in this game i haven't really talked much about wario but he is an awesome villain while bowser is mario's nemesis wario is his rival and there's a big difference between the two a nemesis is an antagonist that acts as the big bad evil guy but a rival is a more personal foe that the protagonist has more in common with wario's characterization is very greedy and a lot more goofy especially in the warioware series but in his first appearance he was psycho i am your master destroy my don't fall under wario's evil spell in super mario land 2. just look at the crazy eyes in his sprite man i love it wario was designed by the director of the game hiroji kiyotake who shared directorial and designer duties with takehiko hosokawa wario's relationship to mario was inspired by bluto's relationship to popeye this is funny considering originally miyamoto and nintendo had plans to make a popeye arcade game but it fell through so instead we got donkey kong remember how earlier i said mario lane was the dumping ground for old and strange ideas yeah it runs that deep while i can understand overlooking the first mario land game it was a unique yet flawed game but marland 2 this game definitely deserves more love i'd say this is legitimately one of the best 2d mario games there was one more game in the series wario land super mario land 3 but that one is more of a wario game obviously being the first game in the wario land line that would basically end up taking over the mario land series getting two more games on the game boy and game boy color and several more games after that but eventually that series would die out in favor of the new warioware series that i absolutely adore maybe i'll talk about those games someday but as you can see these games have had a huge impact on the franchise it gave us daisy who was going on to become a popular character even landing a spot on the smash bros roster and ultimate the real world level inspiration is something that mario odyssey would eventually use and correct me if i'm wrong in the comments but i believe mario land 1 is the first ever mario game where we see mario talk mario land 2's biggest contribution to the mario mythos is of course wario and i don't think i need to explain how much of an icon he's become wyo has had more games than peach yoshi and even luigi you know the other guy that makes up the titular super mario bros no not only is this series important to the mario franchise it's important to gaming history like i said mario land 1 was a launch title for the game boy the most iconic handheld game console of all time the handheld that practically started handheld gaming as we know it today back in the late 80s portable consoles were practically non-existent we had the tiger electronics and the game and watch stuff but those were just fun little distractions the game boy was like a home console but on the go if this thing flopped the portable gaming market would have been held back by who knows how long i'm sure eventually someone else would come along maybe today instead of praising the game boy we'd be talking about how revolutionary the atari lynx was so what has me confused is for such an important mario sub series why is it not more appreciated and i think the main reason is nintendo themselves while i will give nintendo credit for recognizing these games in the 30th anniversary they've done little to promote these games case in point in the 30 years it's been since super mario land 2 came out nintendo has re-released these games a total of one time yes just once in 2011 over a decade ago on the nintendo 3ds virtual console you know the service that's gonna be completely unavailable in less than a year if nintendo gave us a mario land all-stars pack or heck even just re-release these games on switch it'd do a lot to preserve these titles and allow more people to appreciate them because as it is now there are very few ways to even play this series and as i've said before on this channel one of the biggest factors of a game's success is accessibility no one is going to like these games if no one can play these games there have been some rumors about the switch getting gba and game boy games on the switch online service so hopefully we get these games on there as for why nintendo has been so reluctant to re-release these games i don't really know maybe it's because the guys who made well all of the other mainline mario games didn't make any of the mario land games these are the only mainline mario games with no involvement from any of the big three of miyamoto takashi tazuka and koji kondo maybe miyamoto and ko don't care too much for these games since well they didn't make them i'm not gonna make any definitive statements maybe these games are just too different from the regular mario games maybe nintendo doesn't think they'll sell well if they release them who knows i just hope these games are remembered and loved i hope you guys enjoyed the video please click the like button it takes less than 5 seconds and it really helps the channel grow 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Channel: kiro talks

Views: 296,356

Keywords: Super Mario Land, Super Mario, Mario, Nintendo, Game Boy, Gameboy, Switch

Id: rQqaYk44ozM

Length: 19min 20sec (1160 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 29 2022