The other day I found myself with no more games to write about. I like to always have about three in my backlog just in case I get in the middle of a lengthy game and have nothing new to write about. Well, I've been playing Dragon Warrior 4 here lately, and it's taking even longer than I anticipated. It's taking me so long that I completely ran out of games. Luckily I've been saving my Game Boy for just this situation. If you ever want to beat a bunch of games quickly, just get out your trusty ol' Game Boy. This is especially true in the early days of the system where games were usually just dumbed down versions of regular console games. It appears that the system was expected to be played by little kids riding home with their parents. As such, they didn't want the games to last more than a half hour. Unfortunately, I don't have that many Game Boy games, so I won't be able to fall back on it for very long. I guess I'll just have to get to work and play through some real games.
The first one I played through was Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins. I don't have the original Mario Land, but I have played through it. I have to say that the sequel is a vast improvement. It's also one of the strangest Mario games out there. At first I thought that it was some less popular Japanese game that they changed into a Mario game, but as it turns out it is a real Mario game, but it wasn't created by Shigeru Miyamoto. I guess this only makes this a sort of real Mario game, but at least the effort is there.
After the straight ahead gameplay of the first Mario Land, I was very happy to see a world map on this one. The game is split up into six worlds each containing a golden coin. Once you get all six coins the door to the castle opens up and you reach the final level. This game is still about one-third the length of Mario 3, but it is still pretty long for an early Game Boy game. Also, unlike Mario 3 it has a save feature. They finally got that one right. Anyway, the basic gameplay will seem quite familiar, but there are some quirks to this game that make it unusual.
First of all, the items are slightly different. Instead of 1-up mushrooms you get hearts for extra lives. I know that this seems like a small thing, but in the world of gaming it's like turing the tri-force into a square. I'm guessing this is because it was hard to distinguish between mushrooms when there weren't any colors. Also, if Mario gets a carrot in this one he sprouts bunny ears out of his head and can fly. Just like a real bunny. Okay, so I don't know why Mario was always using non-flying animals to fly back in those days. I guess this is more plausible than a raccoon, but only slightly. This is the only game with the bunny ears, and although that's not too much of a loss they were kind of cool. It was more of a hover than a flight, so this led to some interesting situations.
Also, you don't get an extra life when you get 100 coins. This is probably the biggest departure in this game. Instead you save up your coins and play bonus games with them. Well, it's actually just a slot machine that sometimes gives you a bunch of lives. You'll need to save up those extra lives too, because if you get a game over you have to go fight the bosses and get back the 6 coins again. This is the one annoying thing about this game. Luckily, it's not too hard to get a bunch of lives.
The most significant thing about this game is that it's the first appearance of Wario. It's sort of a humble debut for a character that would appear alongside Mario in about a hundred games and become an icon in his own right. Wario is a straight up villain in this game who seems to be getting power from his hat. He has really weird eyes and almost looks like a puppet. Wario was much better after he became more of an anti-hero and star of his own games. I know he knocked koopa troopa out of Mario Kart, but if it had to be anybody I'm glad it was Wario.
I'm surprised about how many words I was able to come up with about this game. It's a fun old game, but nothing to get too worked up about. It's pretty easy overall, but the last level is hard so that makes up for it a little. It seems like anytime I get into a Game Boy mood I will play a couple rounds of this one before moving on to Pokemon. It sold very well when it came out, but it's a somewhat forgotten game today. I love that the world's most famous game character still has some dusty old corners to explore.
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