Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

A few years back, I had a bit of nostalgic fun and played through some of the earlier entries in Nintendo's iconic and beloved 'Super Mario' franchise, intent on reliving childhood thrills. And I had a bit of an odd revelation regarding the first entry in the spin-off hand-held franchise "Super Mario Land"... That being that the original game basically just didn't hold up all that well. Don't get me wrong. It was solid enough and provided about twenty minutes of reasonably entertaining gameplay. But it didn't have all that much variety and suffered clunky hit detection, in addition to lacking some of the classic iconography that defined the series up until that point. It wasn't a bad game... but rather a troubled one.

But where that game fell short, it's sequel "Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins" more than made up. And I'm happy to report that despite coming out well over twenty years ago, this is one Mario game that's well worth revisiting over and over again! It's well structured and well paced with improved graphics and gameplay, and also significantly truer to the franchise than its immediate predecessor. And in my humble opinion, it's the definitive Gameboy-era Mario.

While Mario is away, a new nemesis called Wario, a sort-of evil version of the heroic plumber, takes over the castle at the heart of the magical Mushroom Kingdom and seals it shut, making entry impossible. Taking a cue from the 16-bit 1990 release "Super Mario World", the game follows Mario as he travels around an over-world map to six different "levels", each comprised of several stages to conquer. And only be conquering the six areas and attaining six magical golden coins, one of which is concealed within each level, will Mario be able to enter the castle and face off against this new threat.

As I mentioned above, the game is very much an attempt at emulating the style and structure of the home-console release "Super Mario World." And I do think for the most part, it succeeds. While it was never going to be quite as big or quite as pretty a game, "Super Mario Land 2" does an admirable job at closely approximating the concepts first introduced in "World", and even expanding on them slightly. It has a great variety of locales to explore, including levels based around Space, the Halloween holiday, Water and even a giant mechanical clockwork version of Mario himself. And this helps the game retain a freshness that I found lacking in the previous title. It also has some nice fan- service and call-backs to previous games, helping it feel more in- line with the franchise at large. And I definitely appreciated the fact that the game has a save feature, because on top of all that- it's also quite a bit longer than the last game!

In terms of gameplay, this is classic Mario in every way, and it thankfully even fixes some of the issues with control and hit detection that plagued the first entry in the "Mario Land" series as well! Everything is tight and concise and well-programmed, and the game flows beautifully in virtually every stage. I also found that on the whole, the level design, while linear, is very well-accomplished and there are plenty of secrets to look for through the six levels that add a lot of replay-value. In addition, the game gets a major aesthetic face-lift in terms of graphics and sound. Despite being limited by the Gameboy's black-and-white screen, character and enemy sprites are larger and more detailed, and the backgrounds are a lot more lush this time, which is a big plus. I also really loved the music and sound effects, which hearken back a lot more to the original trilogy of games seen on the NES.

All-in-all, "Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins" is just fantastic. It takes the classic formula and reworks it perfectly for an on-the- go experience, and improves over the first entry in virtually every capacity. While it might not be the best Mario game in terms of the franchise, this is easily the definitive Gameboy-era Mario, and it's up there with the best of the best. And so, I give it a perfect 10 out of 10! If you haven't played it, it's definitely one to check out!

This Was Surprisingly Bad Because Not Only They Lack Peach, Daisy, Yoshi Or Other Characters, But The Music Is Garbage, The Graphics Are So CHEAP And LAZY To All The Mario Fans Hated It With The Burning Passion, Don't Even Get Me Started On The Final Battle With Wario, Why? Because There's No Bowser Boss Fight But I Thought He Was Going To Be In This One But No, Wario Takes His Place Instead And It Makes NO SENSE At All Of Mario History That Was The Most Terrible Game Of 1993 For The Nintendo Gameboy And It's Even Worse Than The First Game From 1989 & It Sucks So Badly And I Give This 0/10.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is one of those rare sequels that doesn't just improve on the original-it redefines what a handheld Mario game can be. Where the first Super Mario Land felt like a quirky side project, 6 Golden Coins feels like the real deal: a full, feature-rich Mario adventure squeezed impressively into the Game Boy's limited hardware.

Chapter 1: Bigger, Bolder, Better

The jump in quality from the first game is enormous. Mario controls tighter, sprites are larger and more expressive, and the world is far more imaginative. Gone are the oddball enemies and vehicle levels-this time, it's a sprawling, nonlinear quest filled with personality. The overworld map lets you choose the order of the themed zones, a freedom rarely seen in Mario games at the time.

Chapter 2: Creative Level Design

Each of the six zones (Tree, Space, Pumpkin, Turtle, Mario, and Macro) is packed with clever level design and distinct visuals, especially impressive given the Game Boy's monochrome screen. The game constantly throws new ideas at you-gravity shifts, underwater mazes, and Halloween-themed enemies-without ever losing cohesion. The power-ups are simple but effective, especially the bunny ears, which allow for slow gliding and precision platforming.

Chapter 3: Wario's Debut and a Memorable Finish

This was the game that introduced Wario, and his presence adds a real narrative drive to the adventure. You're reclaiming your castle from a greedy imposter, and the final level-Wario's fortress-is one of the most challenging and memorable stages in any Mario platformer. It adds just enough story without getting in the way.

Final Thoughts

It may be overlooked due to its handheld roots, but Super Mario Land 2 is easily one of the best 2D Mario games of its era. Smart design, charm to spare, and a surprising amount of content for a Game Boy title.

9/10 - A Game Boy masterpiece. Big ideas, great execution, and a must-play for any Mario fan.

Mario Land 2 is decent at it's worst and pretty okay at it's best. I have really no strong feelings about this game at all. I played it... That's about it.

Choosing to up the graphical quality from the first game while impressive, isn't that great. Having more detailed sprites causes the game to be very zoomed in and claustrophobic but at the very least it's designed with those limitations in mind.

I never really died due to an off screen enemy or obstacle and you can scroll the screen up or down manually. Mario's movement does feels sluggish and imprecise compared to every home-console game in the series though.

The one thing I will give to this game is the fun setting and unique worlds. There's a world themed around being tiny, one themed around Halloween and one themed around space etc. The variety in enemies and level design due to this is pretty great.

So yeah the game doesn't leave much of an impression and after beating it I just wanted to go play Mario 3 or World. It's definitely decent enough but very low compared to other Mario's.

This was a good game. The story was original and so were many of the levels and bad guys. The game is not very hard at all though, so the lack of challenge kind of takes away the fun. The hardest part is beating Wario and that is the most fun. Not as fun as the original Super Mario Land, but it still gives some enjoyment.