Definitively surpassing the Game Boy's oddball Mario launch title, 1992's Six Golden Coins proved that Nintendo's portable could deliver a console worthy experience. While matching the previous year's SNES-powered classic Super Mario World was near impossible, Super Mario Land 2 succeeded at weaving the most whimsical adventure to date. In another slightly lonely Mario mission, the comforts of familiar allies are missing, few familiar enemies return, and Wario is introduced as the main nemesis, stealing Mario's castle and appearing more gigantic and monstrous than the loveable deviant depicted thereafter.
Set on Mario's personal island, you may tackle 6 zones, each possessing a lovingly designed sub-map, in any order you wish. Recycling graphical data less often than other Marios, most levels retain a strong individuality even as they serve their overarching theme. The Macro Zone has a minute-sized Mario burrowing through ant-filled gardens, making his way up through a giant house, then crossing an attic ruled by a nasty rodent. In the horror themed Pumpkin Zone, stages get even wilder. An ancient Japanese graveyard features Yokai such as the Karakasa and Hitosume. Inside a flickering haunted mansion, the rather gruesome Friday The 13th inspired enemies are great fun, despite being rather out of place. You'll even venture outer space, where gravity is altered, stars are no longer helpful and Tatanga awaits his revenge. Above all else, Mario Land 2 excels in how strongly it commits to its strange locales.
While sparser in quantity, the 32 stages feel quite large, forcing a more deliberate pacing to cope with the zoomed-in perspective. A handful of secret stages pay homage to the NES Marios with faster gameplay and throwback level layouts. Besides the returning fire flower, grabbing a carrot produces a Bunny hat which allows Mario to slowly glide downwards, through it's not nearly as fun, or exploitable, as the leaf or cape. The gameplay's most glaring error is the precise collision detection required during head-hopping boss battles; as off-center pounces easily dish damage to Mario. A game over means losing the hard-earned golden coins required to storm your castle, though the assortment of bonus games should allow most players to easily maintain sufficient lives.
The sprites are quite astonishing compared to the rudimentary graphics of the Game Boy's debut, at times practically mirroring the detail and expressiveness of Super Mario World, minus the color. The playful soundtrack was one of the first projects by the highly capable Kazumi Totaka, often reutilizing the main motif with a clever versatility that eludes dullness or repetition.
A huge system seller in 1992, Six Golden Coins is still worth experiencing to this day. While the pure playability trails many other entries and the slower pacing will not please everyone, its bold creativity remains distinguishable after decades. Super Mario Land 2 feels like the game Nintendo intended to launch the Game Boy, but wasn't quite prepared to deliver in 1989. Of course, Wario likely took all the credit for himself. No wonder he's been so greedy ever since.
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