Happy New Year! After my deep dive into Punch-Out, I wanted to take a step back and do something a little less intense. The Super Mario Land games are some of my favorites. I was surprised that there aren't too many videos talking about the games, so I guess that's where I come in. Hope you enjoy!
They also had to make the cartridge more complex and expensive (more rom, on-board ram and battery) so it came with a cost they probably couldn't afford in SML1
i really like sml1 basic graphics . it gives the game a unique character . i actually had the original gameboy and game at launch . we still were blown away . coming from printed lcd fixed graphics like game and watch this was unbelievable
My dad suprised my with Super Mario Land 2 on Easter sunday when I was about 7. I didn't even ask for it and I had never received a gift on easter and never did again, he just felt like being a nice guy. I instantly loved the game and still play the rom on my phone sometimes. Thanks old man, I'll never forget the little things you did just to make me smile. RIP.
I remember back in 2002, I tried to sell a lot of my things to buy a PS2 (that's another story, it was hard to get that console). So after a year and a half, it stopped working, something about the laser. Though my dad took me to some stores to see if they could repair it, it was not possible. So I kept playing my PS1 (which luckily no one bought when I was raising money for my PS2). OK, so one day, without expecting it, just like you, my father came home with a Nintendo Gamecube. He left it on the table of the kitchen for some days, without telling me anything. Perhaps he wanted me to be curious. And finally after three days he told me it was for me, because he knew how hard it was for me to buy that PS2 (I only owned one game). It had two games: Luigi's Mansion and Waverace bluestorm. It became one of my favorite consoles and still played it. I will always remember that. I know it was hard for him too to buy that gamecube.
Yeah it is great. But the rivalry between Mario and Wario is basically the rivalry between R&D4 (EAD) and R&D1. Mario is the mascot of Nintendo and represented R&D4 and Wario was the mascot of R&D1.
No one can underutilize a franchise's assets quite like a video game company. Otherwise Diddy Kong Racing 6 would have come out a month ago. Instead you get Palworld (deservedly) eating Game Freaks lunch.
Wario Land is such a fantastic game, I can remember grinding it to get every possible treasure as a kid, and laughing when the genie sold me the entire MOON
I owed both Land 2 and 3, and honestly I had more fun with the latter. The exploration part of Warioland profided many secrets and re-playability. I also remember it having A LOT more levels.
@@steefwildenbeest1987 oh I remember that! I first breezed through Wario Land thinking it was more like Mario Land 2, getting the tree stump made start a new game and go back and meticulously explore every nook and cranny of every level. Guess my completionist attitude began there.
Warioland 2 was very lackluster. The character was invincible and you couldn't die unless you jumped down a hole. It was like playing with a cheat code.
@@tdestroyer4780 ??? the entire game is built around wario being invincible and it plays a key role in many puzzles. and even then wl2 is a damn hard game at times
Mario has actively been collecting coins for years. I imagine that's how he could afford that castle. He's also allegedly one of the biggest shroom dealers in the country.
A) game theory almost never have solid evidence or get to much evidence for a simple solution. B) mario coins are worth way more than $1.50. Just look at the prices for items in odyssey. When was the last time you spent 2000 dollars on underwear.
I remember in Elementary school I allowed a friend to play Wario Land on my Gameboy and he accidentally deleted the save file. I got really upset and cried, especially because I was at the end-game where I was building up the castle. I didn't give up though. I forced my way back thru it, and got the best castle, and ever since, I've saved all my games in save slot two or higher.
Oof! I did something similar... my friend had marionlnd 2, and let me play it on the playground. I deleted his game saves without realizing it (mario can turn into a bomb and then go down the pipe containing the game save to erase it, I didnt know thats what would happen). Needless to say, my friend was annoyed! I'm so sorry!!!!!
That happened to me with me lending out DBZ: Buu's Fury to a friend from then. He accidentally turned the game off _while_ it was saving...I was then like, all defeated "...I guess you can keep the game, now..." Not long after I did want it back, but that didn't pan out.
It did get some call backs to enemies, like the easter island heads.... but yeah. But I don't really see how you thought Odyssey would connect to the mario land games.
Super Mario Land 2 is still one of my favorite Mario games! And I never noticed the N&B blocks! Great video as always, Norm! Love the blend of history and game analysis.
One of my earliest moments of pride in gaming was beating Super Mario Land as a kid and relishing in the credits song. It took me months to beat it. And then as an adult I bought it on the 3DS eShop and beat it in like 45 minutes and shattered that memory.
And given the way the aesthetics carried over from WL4 to WarioWare, the WarioWare series is arguably a continuation or spinoff of the Mario Land series. :D
I played wario land so much i maxed out the money counter at the end of the game. Tons of replay value to go back and get more treasure. One of the best games ever
@@topsdaily_productions Wario himself has a distinctly different style (jumping on enemies usually knocks them out, so you can pick them up; your standard attack is a bodycheck), but the game overall very much feels like a Super Mario game (three-tier power/health with little Wario, big Wario, and three special powers; plus overall design philosophy of enemies and levels). Sadly Wario Land 2-4 don't; they're puzzle platformers with certain traps etc. changing the shape and physical properties of Wario's body instead of power-up items and no classic Mario health/life system, Wario instead losing collected coins in WL2-3 and more conventional (Zelda-esque) hearts in WL4. Most egregiously, though, after SML3:WL1 had literally by far the best island map in any Mario game (or any other platformer, period), they dropped that completely and went with a completely flavorless string of boxes (which they already did in Wario Land for the Virtual Boy, but that at least got WL1 gameplay).
I really should expand on why the island map is the best. After all, it's one of the reasons why I love the game so very much. For starters, every region has its own feel, but the food theme of Kitchen Island really helps to unify it unlike the disjointed chain of worlds in most Mario games. But the really important part is how during your linear progression (a handful of secret levels and a whole secret region aside) you a couple of times affect major geographical features on the island, leading to a changed (flooded/drained) design in several levels of not only the same region, but also the respective previous one, opening ways to new secrets - and, again, making the whole map feel actually connected. The only two issues I have with the game are that a) some of the bosses are a bit too easy - especially the second one, who seems like a big threat until you realize that you can insta-kill him thanks to the "arena" of your confrontation and that b) you can't open the secret treasure chests with one of your power-ups (the dragon hat) as it replaces your bodycheck attack with a flamer attack. (The bull hat is just a stronger version of the standard big Wario (and what your basic hat power-up gets upgraded to when you aren't little), and the jet hat adds a short horizontal jet flight boost to your basic bodycheck.
Makes sense that he can afford it. I mean, he collects hundreds of gold coins as big as his own body per game. He must be a quintillionaire by now. Luigi doesn't get the same chances, since he's always player 2.
Or, hear me out, Daisy is just player 2 and they rescue Mario. Daisy aint no damsel in distress like Peach, she just had a bad run in with FUCKING ALIENS once.
Congratulations on all your success Norm. You were one of the first people I ever discovered on RU-vid and I always been a big fan of your work. It was so cool to finally meet you at Classic Game Expo in Vegas a few years back.
I won a Game Boy the day it was released - with all release-day games. I didn't even own an NES at the time - only an Intellivision. So while I had played Super Mario Bros at friends' houses, SML was my first Mario game of my own, that I could play whenever I wanted. I only ever bought one other game for that Game Boy - Castlevania Adventure. Those two were the only games I really played beyond the first couple weeks. Ironically, I ended up "upgrading" to a Sega Game Gear a couple years later - and sold off my Game Boy games, expecting that it was going to die quickly with the introduction of the color handhelds. Oh, how wrong I was. I gave the Game Boy itself plus Tetris to my sister, who was just entering college at the time. Many MANY years later, she gave it back to me, and I still have it to this day. When she gave it back, the first thing I did was hunt down a copy of SML.
The Game Gear was a great little system in its own right but...hoo-boy, that battery life made it so impractical during long car rides. :/ Same goes for the Lynx.
@@Jayce_Alexander And the TurboExpress, by far the best of the batch. Game Boy is and has always been the handheld king, though. It's not just the battery life or whatever... It's really about the high quality games it had. Link's Awakening (DX)? Holy shit. Still IMHO the best Zelda game, followed by ALttP.
Yeah, all of these series ya'll mentioned are more underrated. I sort of meant series within the umbrella of the Mario Series. I should have been more specific. There are a TON of 1st-party Nintendo games that are very underrated.
Don't get me wrong though I still have crazy nostalgia for the first one. It was one of the first games I ever remember playing. And the music is classic. So all told I probably like 1 a little more but they're both probably top 5 all time for me.
@@squidracerX yeah, you saw that a lot with most older consoles as the developers learned how to maximize the hardware. Compare early snes games like pilotwings to later games like donkey Kong country...way better graphics and sound utilization.
Wario Land is so Underrated . It needs a series come back an makeover as well as the other Wario Adventure Games I spent hours with Wario Land on Good Old Game Boy back on the day . Super Mario Land & Super Mario Land 2 6 Golden Coins also Underrated .
I agree completely. SML 2 was awesome, but Wario Land was much more polished imo. When I was a kid, Wario Land sat in my collection right next to Link's Awakening, it's the same tier as far as I'm concerned.
You're trending on RU-vid gaming! Not only am I glad you're getting more recognition, but I'm also SO glad you made a video on the Mario Land games. Super Mario Land 2 might just be the most creative 2D Mario game ever and I hope they take inspiration from it if they make a new 2D Mario.
The first Wario Land was the foundation of my love for Wario. I was about 6 years old when I first played the game (which was already out for years already) and I loved the idea of playing as an anti-hero at the time. I was too young to know or understand how or why Wario was created, but I just loved his character. I remember being so happy when I saw him in color and in 3D animation in MK64. I can truly say Wario is my all time favorite video game character.
I think that I'm basically the opposite of your story. I loved Mario ever since I first started playing his games, and loved going on adventures to save the world and being the mushroom kingdom hero. That's pretty cool though how we are like complete opposites with Mario characters!
SML2 is probably the most underrated, forgotten games in the franchise. Honestly, I enjoyed it more than SMB series! It was sandwiched between the unconventional SML and the Wario series, so it seems to get forgotten.
The game was great but it felt a little short. It definitely is not better than super Mario bros 3 or super Mario world. If I were to rank the first 6 super Mario games in order from best to worst it would be: (Japanese Mario bros 2 doesn’t count) 1. Super Mario bros 3 2. Super Mario world 3. Super Mario land 2 4. Super Mario bros 5. Super Mario bros 2 6. Super Mario land
I grew up playing these with my grandma along with the first mario on the nes.shes had a very long life and today she decided to stop with dyalisis and was moved into hospice. thanks for the memorys dude....
Still one of my favorite Gaming Historian episodes. Perfect blend of game development history, facts about the games themselves, and personal opinions on the games. Plus I just have a huge fondness for the Game Boy, so that might have something to do with it.
The Entire Mario Land Series was really excellent. I had a game boy back in the day, but my parents were pretty poor. I seem to remember not ever getting any new games after the first year or two. Mario Land 2, and later Wario Land, were the two games I had most wanted to play, but never did.
Mario Land 2 and Wario Land 1 are two of my favorite games ever. The world and level designs are incredible and the graphics are very good looking. I love their styles!
God the Super Mario Land games were awesome. Definitely an underrated part of the Mario series, and you bring them a fair bit more attention in this video too. Didn't know about the origin of Mario Land's name or the system limitations influencing the design either. However, I will point out one thing some people may have missed. All the locations in the first game have one thing in common; they're all related to places associated with aliens in folklore and popular culture. Birabuto is based on Egypt (see the association with pyramids and ancient aliens). Bermuda is based on Mu and the Bermuda Triangle, with similar themes. Easton is obviously based on Easter Island, which has had some people assume the Moai were created by aliens and Chai... well it's obviously inspired by China and Japan, but I hear it may be based on the old 'Celestial Kingdom' nickname for the former.
Super mario land 2 is one of my fav games of all time. I played it so much sitting on the couch at my papaws under the lamp so i could see. Found it recently and downloaded it on my 3ds and the memories came flooding back!
@@OtakuUnitedStudio It is possible to enjoy some products of a company while also being critical of said company. That is the only way you can survive under capitalism.
When the first Super Mario Land came to the switch online I actually got pretty choked up just hearing the music. It had been over 30 years, it took me back to sitting in my room with my Gameboy after school when mom was still with us. I probably played through it 4 or 5 times on the first day. My dad, who I now care for was wondering why this basic green and grey was so important to me.
Glad everyone is enjoying the video! So i'm getting quite a lot of comments about my pronunciation of Wario. And honestly...I never really thought about it until now! When I was little, I saw the first three letters (war) and just said it that way. I've heard it said like "WAH-rio" and "WAR-io" in different Nintendo games, but "WAH-rio" does make sense, considering he is the opposite of Mario. Thanks everyone!
Gaming Historian Wait, it’s pronounced Wah-rio?! I always thought it sounded like that in some games because of an Italian accent or something, I’ve always pronounced it the way you pronounced it in the video. I guess that makes sense though, so the “a” in Wario is pronounced the same way as the “a” in Mario. Huh, I guess you learn new things every day. Well regardless, great video as always!
I dunno, I still pronounce it like "war-io", as in "war, what is it good for?". A bad guy with War in his name is pretty fitting when you think about it.
All three games are amazing in different ways. The first was amazingly clever in how it worked around the Game Boy's limitations to create a satisfying Mario experience, the second was amazingly ambitious in trying to be a worthy successor to Super Mario World and holding nothing back, and the third was amazingly impressive in having graphics and sound that was great in its own right and not just by Game Boy standards.
Agreed on SML1&2. And Wario Land is one of the three must-play games on the original Gameboy alongside Link's Awakening and Donkey Kong (not to be confused with Donkey Kong Land, which is fine, but ... overambitious).
@@twincast2005 Wario Land feels just perfect, minus Wario feeling a bit slow. Wasn't into Link's Awakening that much, mostly cause i liked the concept but hated its execution of the gimmick.
@@GiordanDiodato Gimmick? Link's Awakening has particular themes, but I can't think of anything that I'd particularly call a gimmick beyond "Look how much we can put into a Game Boy cartridge!" Do you mean the Oracle of Ages/Seasons dilogy?
@@twincast2005 its gimmick was basically allowing you to use stuff beyond the sword and shield on both the A and B buttons. It's an annoying gimmick. I haven't tried the remake, though I might one day. Granted every Zelda game has had its gimmick. Zelda II was a sidescrolling pseudo-Metroidvania, A Link to the Past had the travel between the Light and Dark worlds, Ocarina of Time had the various ocarina music pieces, Majora's Mask had... well, the masks, Wind Waker had the baton, Twilight Princess had Wolf Link, Skyward Sword had motion controls, A Link Between Worlds allows you to become a walking painting, and Breath of the Wild has the really big world to explore as well as the handheld device (that I can't remember the name of for the life of me)
"...I got a tree stump..." I remember getting a tent. lolz I do have many fond memories of these games though. Lots of love. Makes me wanna play them again.
I played through Wario Land multiple times on the same save and ended up with different endings, all I did was go back to previous stages and re-collected coins and found the treasures I missed.
Warioland, is possibly my all time favourite Game Boy game. It was so advanced at the time, and it was so exciting to hunt down treasure and coins for a different ending. . . and this was long before I had access to anything even close to a guide. And I think that made these games so much more than what games like this is today.
The one thing that never gets properly represented when using GameBoy emulator footage is the ghosting/blur you got playing on the original handheld. In Super Mario Land, Mario would look like a blurred out blob when he would jump. It was annoying at the time, but has since become part of it's charm and nostalgia. It's an often forgotten part of the games history.
Most decent GameBoy emulators have an option for frame mixing, which accurately reproduces the screen blur; but for some reason virtually nobody uses it when uploading videos.
One of these days, Nintendo needs to re-imagine/remaster Mario Land 1 2 and Wario Land with the same visuals as Super Mario World Deluxe. And then add some special features, (similar to that rom hacker) like adding Luigi as a playable character in Mario Land 1 and 2, or even have Waluigi be unlockable in Wario Land. It would be nostalgic for people that grew up on the SML games, but still feel super fresh; especially for newcomers who never had the chance to experience playing them. Maybe that's a tall order to ask, but who knows? It would be a fantastic way to re-introduce these games to a new generation, if there's enough of a demand for them.
I disagree. I think there are a few too many remakes going around nowadays. The Super mario Land games were highly specialized for the Gameboy so pretty much all the code is useless. They would have to make those games completely from scratch.
Ugh, hell no, they ruined super mario world deluxe with those hideous new super mario bros style graphics, they make it look like a generic, dime a dozen platformer. The classic mario games had awesome, timeless pixel art, if they wanna do it right they should just update the classic sprites to modern resolutions and not rape the classics with that soulless cgi looking shit.
SamuraiJo1 The Super Mario Maker games have essentially laid the groundwork for such an endeavor, with physics, enemies and other disparate elements harmonized between multiple graphical styles. In fact, with the conclusion of the (monochrome!) Super Ball Flower and SML music, it feels like they could easily make it happen whenever they wanted to.
Super Mario Land 2 & Wario Land were literally my favourite games as a kid... Thanks for the nostalgia trip! (appreciate the effort you/your editor must have put in too for all those clips from the games!)
Personally, I've always thought of "Mario Land" from SML2 to be a theme park. It has different themed zones and you can trade coins you earn for prizes. And like a certain other famous park, it has a huge castle right in the middle.
Fun fact: If you mash the A button as fast as possible you won't lose height. Or, if you have a Nintendo Switch, you can use a third-party turbo controller to keep your thumb from hurting.
I first played my friends copy of Super Mario Land on the school bus, and that was the first time I felt like the GameBoy was a REAL game system. I ended up trading him a set of Sony headphones for the game.
@@VideosbySteve Joey is talking about the kind of color hack SML2 got with Super Mario Land 2 DX, a GameBoy Color version of SML2 which is AWESOME. Look it up on RU-vid. Nothing like the Super GameBoy features available to Wario Land
It'd also be neat to get colorization hacks of VB Wario Land and Wario Land II. Yes, I'm aware that Wario Land II already has an official colorization in the form of the Game Boy Color release, but it's pretty sloppy-looking.
Great video! And I was very pleasantly surprised to hear Totaka's Song at the end of the episode. You didn't have to do that, but you did, and it didn't go unnoticed!
6:27 - I remember beating this game for the first time as a child. I had headphones on at the time and this song was my introduction to the majesty of stereo sound.
The original NSMB on the DS was a great game. New Super Mario Bros 2 and New Super Mario Bros U (+ Luigi U) are still good games, but a new title would be nice.
I've watched this episode a few times. And I love it every time. The music from Mario 2 the only one I was able to own as a child, and still own, I find my self humming from time to time. Well produced episode. Thank you.
The first one was a descent time killer (though it was really short). The second one is a legitimately amazing Mario game that not many people seem to talk about!
These were also some of my favorites on the gameboy. A Mario World -like experience on gameboy blew my young mind ! Always appreciate your in-depth coverage. The perfect companion to my tub of ice cream today to celebrate catching my stride at work. I always preferred Mario, Peach, and Daisy's characters, but maybe I'll get as rich as Wario. Maybe I can even buy a tree stump castle !!
Yeah. Hated that he kept saying War io.. 🙄 He even said waluigi right just before.. Makes no sense.. Its WA luigi and WA rio He even included a video where Wario says his own name and the name of the game Wario land and still he keeps saying fucking war io 🙄
This is where it all began for me. Game Boy, Mario Land 1 and R-Type. 30 years later I just ( 2 weeks ago ) bought a Switch solely to play Mario and Zelda on it, then resell. Gaming, for me, will never pass, I will never grow out of it. All thanks to the first of these games right here and 3 months saving my allowance to be able to buy a GameBoy - my Dad just wanted to see if I could save, he put up the rest. Then, on skiing holiday in Austria, I spotted the Sega Master Gear - black, in color, and you could watch TV on it with an add-on. A boy's dream. I cried for three days when I realized I couldn't have it and my parents wouldn't buy it. Today I count myself lucky that I didn't hop on the Sega train - I got a very much used and outdated NES with some games instead ( the SNES was out by that time ), I thought 'noooooooooo!' and was very disappointed at first. But somewhere among the games was a copy of Mario Bros. 3 - and that should be enough said. So I stuck with Nintendo, preordered a 64 as my first concurrent console (got Wave Race, Shadows of the Empire and Mario as launch titles ) and got to experience Mario 64 when I was around 11 to 12. You can imagine that after that my path was set, I would never be able to stop gaming. After that, normal path for a kid gamer: Playstation when I outgrew the N64, PS2 and finally, as the last upgrade that I stuck with until today, a fine gaming PC. But as an adult with means, now I play what I want. When I wanted to play Bloodborne, I bought a used PS4 and Bloodborne. I got no other games for the system. When I wanted to play Mario again, I bought a Switch with Odyssey and Wonders. It really is a far cry from not getting a Game Gear all those years back. And all of that is traceable back to Super Mario Land on the GameBoy. It's bonkers when you think about it that way.
Your love for the franchise comes through. I was a Genesis kid, so I had no idea this series existed, but they look fun and creative! haha, and I love that (from the very end) you wanted to make the point that: "HEY, WITHOUT THIS OVERLOOKED SERIES, WE WOULDN'T HAVE WALUIGI" which is so valid.
