Nintendo have a way of delivering more out of their hardware than what is first thought possible. Take the original, salad green screen, Game Boy hand held for instance. While Tetris was pretty good looking and true to other versions (it better be, it was just blocks), Super Mario Land was quite different versus the Nintendo NES versions. Six Golden Coins improved on the original hand held game in more ways than I can count. Nintendo have a knack for this.

Super Mario Land 2 was unique

Super Mario Land 2 – Six Golden Coins doesn’t feature Bowser as the main antagonist. Instead we are introduced to a new enemy, Wario.  Wario is quite the jerk too. While Bowser kept stealing Mario’s girlfriend, Wario has stolen Mario’s freaking castle and his money. What a greedy troll.

A sequel with familiar enemies

In this sequel to Super Mario Land fans will encounter some familiar enemies while battling all new ones. The Goomba, for instance, makes a return – so do the turtle enemies. Graphically there is no problem telling this is a Mario game.

Super Mario Land 2 pushed the hardware, hard

Nintendo pushed the Game Boy hard with Super Mario Land 2 – Six Golden Coins. The action is still 2D side scrolling run and jump as the screen scrolls. There is also an overhead map, similar to Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo. Of course, big baddies at key points throughout which if planned right might be avoided.

Keeping nostalgia alive and well

There are a few classic power-ups that are available here while there is one brand new power-up. The Magic Carrot power-up gives Mario a rabbit getup that allows higher jumps. Successive jumps can gain height by holding the button down. Also, the Magic Carrot power-up allows you to “float” Mario down gently by hitting the jump button repeatedly. This is similar to the feather power-up in Super Mario World.

Super Mario Land 2 – Six Golden Coins is one of the finer, more graphical, Nintendo Game Boy games and deserves to be in your collection. Head over to eBay or Amazon and grab a copy and just enjoy it because Nintendo doesn’t make them like this anymore. We are big fans of Super Mario and if you are, check out some of the other cool things Nintendo’s mascot has been up to.

Carl Williams

It is time gaming journalism takes its rightful place as proper sources and not fanboys giving free advertising. If you wish to support writers like Carl please use the links below. https://www.paypal.me/WCW https://www.patreon.com/CarlWilliams