Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

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Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Super Mario Land 2 Logo.png
Logo of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Original title ス ー パ ー マ リ オ ラ ン ド 2 6 つ の 金 貨
transcription Sūpā Mario Rando Tsū Muttsu no Kinka
Studio Nintendo Research & Development 1
Publisher Nintendo
Senior Developer
composer Kazumi Totaka
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 JapanJapanOctober 21, 1992 November 2, 1992 January 28, 1993
North AmericaNorth America
EuropeEurope
platform Game Boy
genre Jump 'n' run
Game mode Single player
medium Game module with 4 Mbit
Age rating
USK released from 0
PEGI recommended from 3 years

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins ( Jap スーパーマリオランド2 6つの金貨 , Hepburn : Supa Mario Rando TSU Muttsu no Kinka ) is one of the Japanese video game maker Nintendo developed and published platformers Run - video game for the Game Boy . It is the sequel to Super Mario Land . In Japan , the game was released on October 21, 1992. On November 2, 1992, it went on sale in North America and on January 28, 1993 in Europe .

The player takes on the role of Super Mario in Super Mario Land 2 , who wants to recapture the castle that his opponent Wario has taken. The game builds on the game principle of its predecessor and expands it with innovations from Super Mario World . Due to the hardware, the game offers black and white graphics.

Like its predecessor, Super Mario Land 2 does not come from the Nintendo department behind the other main parts of the Super Mario series. Instead, the R & D1 department was responsible for developing the game.

Super Mario Land 2 sold about eleven million times worldwide. It received positive reviews both when it was released and retrospectively and is one of the most successful and best-rated Game Boy games. Critics emphasized that the game outperforms its predecessor in all areas. The character Wario, who appeared for the first time in Super Mario Land 2 , became one of the most important characters in the Super Mario series. He is the protagonist of numerous games, including the sequel Wario Land - Super Mario Land 3 . Super Mario Land 2 was re-released as a download title for Nintendo 3DS in 2011 .

Game description

Backstory

When the Italian plumber Mario returns from Sarasaland, where he freed Princess Daisy from the clutches of the alien Tatanga (Events from Super Mario Land ), he discovers that Mario Land has been conquered. The intruder is " Wario , who could actually be Mario's twin brother if he weren't so fat and mean". The two have been competitors since childhood, because Wario was always jealous of the plumber's popularity. After having tried to conquer Mario's castle several times, he took Mario's land during Mario's recent absence, enchanted the residents and invaded the castle. In addition, Wario brought the six golden coins into his possession, with which the castle gate is opened. He hid them in magical places where they are now protected by the enchanted inhabitants of the land. To recapture his castle and save Mario land and its inhabitants, Mario has to track down the six golden coins and drive his doppelganger Wario out of the castle.

technology

The sprite -based graphics of Super Mario Land 2 is due to the hardware in black and white represented and the music and sound effects is 8-bit - Chiptune -pieces. The game module comprises four megabits . An integrated EEPROM chip enables the battery-supported, automatic backup of up to three game states . The game progress is saved with the exception of the number of golden coins received. In the score selection menu , the player can switch from normal to easy difficulty using the Select button.

Gameplay

A game boy; on the left below the screen the control pad, next to it the two red action buttons

The goal of Super Mario Land 2 is the game character Mario through two dimensions shown levels to control. The control pad and the two action buttons on the Game Boy are also used. The screen section scrolls horizontally and vertically. The focus is more on exploring the levels than in previous Super Mario games.

After the player has completed the first introductory level, the freely accessible world map is available to him. This includes six main worlds as well as smaller additional levels. Each of the six worlds contains three to five levels that have to be mastered in a given order. In addition, each world has its own theme that can be found in its name; there is the Turtle (tortoise), Pumpkin (pumpkin), Space (universe), Tree (tree), Macro ( macro ) and the Mario Zone . The player can choose which world he wants to play at any time, as the order of the worlds is not prescribed. At the end of the last level of a world, Mario has to defeat a boss . He then receives one of the six eponymous golden coins. When Mario has all six gold coins, the last world is unlocked, Mario's castle. At the end of the corresponding level, Mario fights against the boss Wario.

Several attempts are available to the player. He will lose an attempt if Mario falls into an abyss, does not reach the goal in the allotted time, is pinched by a wall in an autoscrolling level, or is fatally injured by an enemy or spikes as little Mario. Then the game sets him back to the beginning of the level or to the control point in the middle of the level, if Mario has reached and activated this before. As soon as all attempts have been used, the game is over (" Game over ") and all Golden Coins obtained are lost. The player can earn bonus attempts in the form of hearts, which are hidden in some levels and which he can also win in luck and mini-games . In addition, in most of the levels there is a more difficult to reach bell above the regular exit. If Mario succeeds in ringing the bell, he will be led to one of two possible mini-games in which the player can receive bonus attempts and power-ups .

The character receives power-ups in the normal course of the game by jumping against special floating blocks. The power-ups present in Super Mario Land 2 include the items Super Mushroom and Fire Flower known from its predecessors . The Super Mushroom transforms Mario into the larger Super Mario , which has an extra hit point . In this state, Mario can get to the fire flower, which transforms him into fire Mario . In the fire state it is possible for Mario to shoot fireballs with which he can defeat opponents and destroy simple blocks. As a Super Mario as well as a Fire Mario, the game character can also carry out a turning attack with which it can destroy the blocks at its feet. In addition, Mario can receive the carrot item , which transforms him into Hasi-Mario and glides slowly to the ground after jumping. Fire and Hasi states grant Mario an additional hit point, so if he is injured he will revert to Super Mario.

Some of the levels in Super Mario Land 2 are set underwater or in space and contain different rules of the game. Mario moves swimming underwater; In addition, he can walk slowly across the ground and - in the fire state - shoot fireballs, which move more slowly here. In the space levels there are special gravity situations and the character can jump or float higher depending on the level. There is also a level in which Mario can enter a bubble and so float through the air. Some levels have a hidden secret exit. If the player enters such a secret exit, he unlocks a bonus level.

development

For the development of Super Mario Land 2 drew Research & Development 1 (R & D1) responsible, the first research and development department of the Japanese video game and game consoles -Herstellers Nintendo . R & D1 had also developed the predecessor Super Mario Land . The department behind all the other Super Mario games, Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD), and its chief producer and series creator Shigeru Miyamoto were not involved in the development of the game. The tasks of the project manager of Super Mario Land 2 were shared by Hiroji Kiyotake and Takehiko Hosokawa . Hosokawa had previously been the graphic designer of [[Metroid # Metroid II - Return of Samus ( Game Boy , 1991) | Metroid II: Return of Samus]] (Game Boy, 1991), while Kiyotake had worked for Nintendo for some time and among others Metroid protagonist Samus was responsible for the design . He created the opponent Wario for Super Mario Land 2 . The department head and Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi was involved as a producer .

Although both games come from the same department, only three people from the 14-person development team of Super Mario Land 2 were also involved in the predecessor. The development manager behind Super Mario Land , Satoru Okada , was also not involved in the second part. Most of the Super Mario Land 2 team , including both project leaders, had previously been involved in the Metroid II , released in late 1991 .

While the predecessor is mainly based on Super Mario Bros. (NES, 1985), Super Mario Land 2 follows the style of Super Mario World ( SNES , 1990). The world map and the associated nonlinearity originate from that game. The secret exits that unlock bonus levels and the twist jump are also taken from Super Mario World . In addition, the transformation to Hasi-Mario is similar to the cape power-up from the SNES series offshoot. The graphic style is also based on Super Mario World .

Super Mario Land 2 contains allusions to the past of the studio R & D1. For example, Tatanga , the final boss from Super Mario Land , appears as the guardian of the Space Zone . There is also a level in the Mario Zone that is based on N&B Block . This is a series of Lego- like toys manufactured by Nintendo , which the forerunner of the R&D1 department invented in the late 1960s.

The computer game music for Super Mario Land 2 was created by Kazumi Totaka . It is only the second video game soundtrack by the composer who was hired by Nintendo in the early 1990s . Totaka brought the Easter Egg "Totaka's Song" named after him into the game . This is a short piece of music hidden in almost every game that Totaka composed for. In Super Mario Land 2 , Totaka's song can be heard after two and a half minutes have passed on the game-over screen.

publication

Nintendo introduced Super Mario Land 2 in June 1992 at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago . At that time it was said that the game should be released around Christmas. In the July issue of the American game magazine Nintendo Power , autumn 1992 is specified as the publication period.

In Japan, Nintendo released Super Mario Land 2 on October 21, 1992. The game was released in North America in November 1992 and in Europe in January 1993. In 2000, Nintendo launched new copies of the game under the Nintendo Classics label .

According to the game magazine Famitsu , Super Mario Land 2 sold around 2.6 million times in Japan. Nintendo shipped around eleven million copies of the game worldwide. This makes it one of the best-selling Game Boy games after Pokémon Red and Blue Edition (1996), Tetris (1989), Pokémon Golden and Silver Edition (1999) and its predecessor.

A digital re-release of the game appeared in 2011 as a Virtual Console title (VC) in the eShop for the handheld console Nintendo 3DS . Since September 29, 2011, the game has been available as a paid download in Europe and North America. Super Mario Land 2 appeared in the Japanese eShop on October 12, 2011. While the VC re-release of its predecessor is in third place in the list of the ten most successful 3DS eShop games of 2011 compiled by the market analysis company Forecasting & Analyzing Digital Entertainment, the VC achieved -Version of Super Mario Land 2 no placement.

reception

criticism

Contemporary reviews

In November 1992, the British game magazine Nintendo Magazine System (later Official Nintendo Magazine ) published a review of Super Mario Land 2 . The tester Steve praised the variety, the controls and the scope of the game, but saw the very low level of difficulty as a serious point of criticism. The reviewer Jaz shared this view . He criticized the fact that the save function made the game too simple, so that experienced players would have completed it too quickly. The graphics, sound and gameplay are so successful that Super Mario Land 2 is still interesting after playing through. The magazine sums up that it is the best Game Boy game to date. Due to the low level of difficulty, however, it will not be able to become a timeless classic.

Martin Gaksch from the German video game magazine Power Play reviewed Super Mario Land 2 very positively in early 1993. He called it the best Game Boy game to date after Tetris ; it is much more extensive than other platforming titles for the handheld. Super Mario Land 2 offers long-term motivation even after the plot is over, "the countless game elements" are "perfectly coordinated" and the level design has no flaws. Due to the technical limitations of the Game Boy as well as fewer new ideas and features, the game does not come close to Super Mario Bros. 3 ( NES , 1988) or Super Mario World , criticized Gaksch.

In 1993, the video game journalist Heinrich Stiller gave an “absolute” recommendation to buy Super Mario Land 2 in the German video game magazine Aktueller Software Markt . "With Super Mario Land 2 , Nintendo has again made a big hit: Jump & Run at its finest [sic!]." Compared to the previously published series Super Mario World , the game "of course does not come close to the blaze of colors" due to the hardware, " in terms of joke "but" always keep up.

Republication Reviews

Corbie Dillard described Super Mario Land 2 in the game review for the website Nintendo Life in 2011 as proof that concepts for home console games can also be implemented well on the Game Boy. Nintendo have revised the scope and controls of the game compared to the first Super Mario part. Therefore, the game does not have to hide behind the home console parts of the series. The game's graphics were also highly praised. Dillard wrote that it was much more detailed and, due to its larger representation, easier to see than in the predecessor. The same applies to the game's music, which is varied and always appropriate and is one of the best Game Boy soundtracks.

Lucas M. Thomas wrote in 2011 in the game review for the English-language website IGN that Super Mario Land 2 is particularly recommended for children who are only just getting into the Super Mario series. This is due to the low level of difficulty, which results from the slow pace of movement of the opponents and the seemingly sedate jump control. Official Nintendo Magazine's Chris Scullion praised the game's graphics and sound in 2011; According to him, Super Mario Land 2 is pushing the Game Boy's capabilities to the limit. Series fans should have played it, wrote Scullion.

Christoph Kraus from the German Nintendo monthly magazine N-Zone described Super Mario Land 2 2011 as a “jump & run jewel” due to its size and variety. On the technical side, he complained about drops in the frame rate and the generally not high game speed. On the other hand, he positively emphasized the animations and sprites.

Rating mirror

The GameRankings website , which collects and evaluates ratings for video games, calculated an average rating of 79.56% for Super Mario Land 2 from eight reviews. According to the website, this is the eighth highest rated game available for the Game Boy.

The following table provides an overview of the ratings for Super Mario Land 2 . The “Version” column shows whether the original Game Boy version or the VC re-release was rated for the 3DS.

Magazine / website Rating date version
Current software market 10/12  Feb. 1993 GB
Cubed3 8/10 Dec. 19, 2011 3DS
IGN 9/10 29 Sep 2011 3DS
Nintendo Life 9/10 Sep 30 2011 3DS
Nintendo Magazine System 87/100  Nov 1992 GB
Nintendo Online 9/10 0Apr 3, 2012 3DS
N zone 9/10  Nov 2011 3DS
Official Nintendo Magazine 92% 29 Sep 2011 3DS
Power play 89%  Jan. 1993 GB
Total 1-  Sep 1994 GB
Wii magazine 93%  Nov 2011 3DS

Awards and leaderboards

Power Play named Super Mario Land 2 the best handheld game of 1992. Nintendo Power also awarded the game as the best title published for a handheld in 1992. It received further awards from Nintendo Power in the categories Graphics and Sound (graphics and sound), Theme and Fun (fun) and Play Control (controls), each as the best Game Boy game of 1992.

The English-language magazine Game Informer placed Super Mario Land 2 in 1998 at number 5 of the 25 best Game Boy games of all time. In a new edition of that list from 2011, the title rose to fourth place. In 2008, Nintendo Power published a leaderboard in which Super Mario Land 2 ranks 7th out of the top 20 Game Boy games. Official Nintendo Magazine ranked the game 44th among the 100 best Nintendo games across all consoles in 2009.

Classification in the context of the Super Mario series

The plot of Super Mario Land 2 is a direct continuation of the events from the predecessor. This is unique within the Super Mario series. In addition, the game is differentiated from many other games in the series in that neither the villain Bowser nor Princess Peach or another kidnapped princess appear.

Together with its predecessor, Super Mario Land 2 is rather isolated in the context of the Super Mario series. There are hardly any references to either title in later series offshoots and, in contrast to all other early Super Mario games, Nintendo has not released any remakes of either. It wasn't until more than a decade after Super Mario Land 2 that a Super Mario game for a handheld appeared again , namely New Super Mario Bros. ( DS , 2006). For Nintendo Life, however, Super Mario Land 2 fits nicely into the context of the series given the quality of the game. This is due to the fact that the game eliminates the limitations and deficiencies of the predecessor, partly due to the weak Game Boy hardware. However, due to technical deficiencies, the title does not come from the usual developer of the series, wrote the website Nintendo-Online in 2014.

The Eurogamer editor Chris Schilling interpreted the new character Wario 2014 as a manifestation of the dissatisfaction of the development department R & D1 with the fact that they have to develop games around a character that they had not invented themselves. This is also indicated by Wario's name, which is a combination of Mario and 悪 い , warui , the Japanese word for evil .

successor

Emblem of the character Wario, who became the protagonist of the successor after her debut in Super Mario Land 2 .

In early 1994, the successor to Super Mario Land 2 appeared for the Game Boy under the title Wario Land - Super Mario Land 3 . This game is also a jump 'n' run that R & D1 developed. In this game Wario takes the lead role. The atmosphere of the game is more whimsical than that of Super Mario Land 2 ; the gameplay is slower and relies less on action.

From this game the Wario Land series emerged, which is different from the Super Mario series. The WarioWare games also followed . The character Wario also appears as a minor character in numerous spin-offs such as Mario Kart - or Super Smash Bros. -Line up.

literature

  • Sabine Scholz, Benjamin Spinrath: Super Mario Encyclopedia - The First 30 Years 1985-2015. Tokyopop, Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-8420-3653-6 , pp. 72-81.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Tobias Schmitz: Inside Nintendo 38: Super Mario Land turns 25! (Part 2). In: Nintendo-Online. April 20, 2014, accessed March 25, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b Official Japanese homepage for the game. In: Nintendo. Retrieved March 18, 2015 (Japanese).
  3. ↑ a b Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy) Release Info. In: MobyGames. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins . In: Nintendo Magazine System . November 1992, p. 72–75 ( digitized from Out-of-Print Archive [accessed on March 23, 2015]).
  5. ↑ a b c Heinrich Stiller: The Plumber Strikes Back . In: Current software market . February 1993, p. 136 ( digitized from Kultboy [accessed on March 18, 2015]).
  6. ↑ Nintendo: Story . In: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins Instruction Booklet . 1992, p. 3 f .
  7. ↑ a b c d Martin Gaksch : Super Mario Land 2 . In: Power Play . January 1993, p. 168 ( digitized from Kultpower Archive [accessed on March 18, 2015]).
  8. ↑ a b c d Travis Fahs: IGN Presents the History of Game Boy. In: IGN. July 27, 2009, accessed March 23, 2015 .
  9. ↑ a b c d Corbie Dillard: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy) Review. In: Nintendo Life. September 30, 2011, accessed March 18, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Tobias Schmitz: Inside Nintendo 29: Two special Nintendo composers. In: Nintendo-Online. December 14, 2013, accessed March 26, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Martin Gaksch: Magic Mario . In: Power Play . August 1992 ( digitized from Unseen64 [accessed on March 18, 2015]).
  12. ↑ Pak Watch . In: Nintendo Power . July 1992, p. 112 .
  13. ↑ Game Box Shot: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GameBoy Nintendo Classics) (EU, 2000). In: GameFAQs. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
  14. ↑ William Audureau: The History of Mario - 1981-1991: The rise of an icon, from myths to reality . Pix'n Love Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-2-918272-23-6 , pp. 349 f . (French: L'histoire de Mario . Translated by Olivier Braillon).
  15. ↑ Official German-language microsite for the game. In: Nintendo. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Official English-language microsite for the game. In: Nintendo. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Official Japanese microsite for the game. In: Nintendo. Retrieved March 18, 2015 (Japanese).
  18. ↑ FADE provides 2011 eShop sales estimates. (No longer available online.) In: Nintendo Everything. February 14, 2012, formerly in the original ; accessed on March 27, 2015 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / nintendoeverything.com  
  19. ↑ a b Lucas M. Thomas: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins Review. In: IGN. September 29, 2011, accessed March 18, 2015 .
  20. ↑ a b Chris Scullion: Super Mario Land 2: Could Mario Land 2 be the best 3DS eShop game so far? (No longer available online.) In: Official Nintendo Magazine. September 29, 2011, archived from the original on October 1, 2011 ; accessed on March 18, 2015 .
  21. ↑ a b Christoph Kraus: Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins . In: N zone . November 2011, p. 72 .
  22. ↑ Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins Reviews. In: GameRankings. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
  23. ↑ Shane Jury: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy) Review. In: Cubed3. December 19, 2011, accessed March 18, 2015 .
  24. ↑ Alexander S .: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins Review. In: Nintendo-Online. April 3, 2012, accessed March 18, 2015 .
  25. ↑ Total !, 09/1994
  26. ↑ Stefan Schröder: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins . In: Wii Magazine . No. 7 , 2011, p. 61 .
  27. ↑ The Games of 1992 . In: Power Play . February 1993, p. 119 ( digitized version in the Internet Archive [accessed on March 18, 2015]).
  28. ↑ Nintendo Power Awards '92 The Nesters . In: Nintendo Power . May 1993, p. 36-39 .
  29. ↑ The Top 25 Game Boy Games of All-Time . In: Game Informer . March 1998, p. 16 f . , Accessed via Ben Reeves: The 25 Best Game Boy Games Of All Time. In: Game Informer. June 24, 2011, accessed March 18, 2015 .
  30. ↑ Ben Reeves: The 25 Best Game Boy Games Of All Time. In: Game Informer. June 24, 2011, accessed March 18, 2015 .
  31. ↑ Nintendo Power lists the top 20 games for 8 Nintendo systems. In: Nintendo Everything. July 1, 2008, accessed March 18, 2015 .
  32. ↑ Thomas East: 100 Greatest Nintendo Games - The Complete List. (No longer available online.) In: Official Nintendo Magazine. March 3, 2009, archived from the original on October 10, 2014 ; accessed on March 18, 2015 .
  33. ↑ Chris Schilling: Super Mario Land retrospective. In: Eurogamer. April 27, 2014, accessed March 20, 2015 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on June 8, 2015 .