Thursday, August 04, 2005
So how about that Super Mario Land?
A lot of the gaming nostalgia evoked by that Best Games Evar post is centered around the Game Boy. While I probably didn't appreciate it at the time, my Game Boy was probably one of the finest platforms I've ever owned. Between the Tetris and Mario addiction (more on Super Mario Land in a bit), cementing my love/hate relationship with Japanese-style console RPGs (curse you Final Fantasy Legend for being so hard!) and feeding my interest in portable gaming (I've had more portable game systems than I have all others put together), that grey box probably holds more than its fair share of fond memories. It's no surprise that the first emulator I got going on my PSP was the RIN GB/GBC program, fascimilizing (it's a word now) both the greyscale and glorious colour versions of Nintendo's classic handheld. Super Mario Land was the second game I got for my Game Boy (the first being Tetris, coming in the box and all), and I gave it another go around on the weekend.
Boy is it weird.
Ok, sure. Mario is pretty darn weird already. Imagine telling an ignorant friend about italian plumbers running through colourful worlds populated by walking cacti, winged turtles and malevolent mushroom people. Try describing jumping on or over all these things while headbutting floating boxes that dispense mushrooms to make you "bigger", flowers that let you throw fire, and leaves that dress you up as a raccoon. (Yes, I am aware that there is a reason for this and that the strangeness is rooted in the Japanese/English culture gap. It's still bizarre.) Your friend would think your coffee had been spiked with mescaline. Mario is already pretty psychedelic, no question about that. What makes Super Mario Land strange is that it is totally unconventional when compared to Mario's other games.
First, the setting is different. Gone are the familiar rounded-rectangles and gently sloping green fields. Instead, a vaguely Egyptian motif dominates the first world (I don't know how they fit worlds inside a single land, but they do), with pyramids and sand dunes in the background. Rather than your standard black and grey castle, the boss level takes place in the inside of some Pharoah-esque tomb, complete with hieroglyphics. Moving on to the next world, Mario starts the level next to the UFO I assume he came out of (classic '50s compact flying saucer, kind of like the new VW Beetle). The world itself has a marine look about it, while the second boss level (ie. World 2-3) simply changes genres altogether. Apparantly Mario has a submarine, and zooming along underwater, he fires torpedoes at enemies and dodges incoming fire from octopi. I don't know of any other Mario game with a shooting element like this, but there you go. Finally, we have the third world, which marks the end of my knowledge of the game. (I got way farther, back when I was eight, but haven't done so much now.) This zone is an Easter Island theme, complete with the stone heads and a jungle cave for a boss level. Toto, we're not in the Mushroom Kingdom anymore.
The enemies are different as well. Mario fights Goombas and Koopas and Thwomps and Shy Guys and Bob-ombs and Boos and Piranha Plants. (I don't know who was smoking what when these names were coined, but that's beside the point.) The Goombas (the little mushroom dudes) are still present. So are the Koopas (the turtle guys), but when you jump on them they leave not shells to kick, but bombs that explode on you if you stick around too long. The rest of the bestiary is brand new. There are dragonfly-type bugs that throw spears at you. There are sphinxes that breathe fire. The man-eating plants that live in the pipes are still there, but they have a more angular appearance, unlike the rounded, lipped things from other titles. In the second world, the dead fish, fire-breathing seahorse and robot demographics are all well-accounted for. That's right, in Mario Land, you vanquish squat robots whose heads detach and fly at you. Meanwhile in World Three, we have stone tikis with wings, jogging boulders with flailing arms and spiders. Are there spiders in the other Marios? In short, these are not the same Mario baddies that you once knew.
Next, turn the sound up. Sound familiar? Thought not. Nowhere do you hear the familiar refrain of the Mario theme (you know, doop doop doop doo-doo-doo-doop doo do do doop do doop doo do do doo!). Instead, the strains of something very similar float to your ears, which easily recall the style and rhythms of the Mario theme, but totally do their own thing. The dungeon theme is nowhere to be found. And the Star theme? (That's the high-energy "invincible" music.) It's also gone, replaced with... wait for it: the Can-Can. Yes, Mario becomes totally unstoppable, and then flaunts this new power to the same music that Vaudeville showgirls high-kicked to.
Lastly, the powerups are different. As in the first Mario title, there are only three. There's the mushroom that enlarges, only it looks smaller, non-spotted and basically unlike the mushrooms you expect. The 1-up is no longer a mushroom, but a heart, although I conjecture that this is because a green mushroom and a red mushroom look the same on a black and white screen. Finally, there's the flower that lets you shoot fire, only in this game fire means bowling balls. Yeah, you become not Fire Flower Mario, but Superball Mario, throwing ball bearings that bounce and that can grab coins for you. Let that silly fire flower top that! The bouncing is important because the game only lets you have one shot on screen at a time. This is probably a technical limitation, but because of the bouncing, it can mean you wait for a little while before reloading. Matters of life and death, people!
Now maybe I'm being too harsh. This was, after all, 1989, well before Mario had settled into his now-sacred mythos. He was barely even a franchise! And despite all these differences, the game is still Mario: you run and jump through a series of worlds in your efforts to save the princess. Jumping on the heads of most enemies will either vanquish them or damage them. Some pipes can be entered to reveal hidden areas. At the end of each level is a chance to win bonus lives and extra points. The main character is a fat man in overalls who doubles in size upon eating mushrooms. He may be globetrotting somewhat, but this is still Mario. Sort of.
The fact remains that nearly everything about the game, above and beyond core game elements, is different. It is so prevalent, in fact, that if I didn't see the Nintendo on the title screen, I would think that it came from a bootleg videogame joint, an imitation Mario posing as the geniune article. In all likelyhood however, I think the reason that it seems this way is because the Game Boy had no colour. The reason you can tell what level you're on in Super Mario Bros. was largely due to the colour scheme. When translated to the monochrome, this had to be fixed, and so the substitute was to change form instead. Hence, we have all the different themes and sprites.
Don't let me end on the note that this isn't a good game. For Mario's handheld debut (at least in the form we know him best--DK Game & Watch doesn't count), Super Mario Land is a pretty decent showing, and behind all the wonkiness it hits all the nails that made the first Super Mario Bros. so much fun. If you have a PSP, I highly encourage getting this one going. ¶ 6:23 p.m.
A lot of the gaming nostalgia evoked by that Best Games Evar post is centered around the Game Boy. While I probably didn't appreciate it at the time, my Game Boy was probably one of the finest platforms I've ever owned. Between the Tetris and Mario addiction (more on Super Mario Land in a bit), cementing my love/hate relationship with Japanese-style console RPGs (curse you Final Fantasy Legend for being so hard!) and feeding my interest in portable gaming (I've had more portable game systems than I have all others put together), that grey box probably holds more than its fair share of fond memories. It's no surprise that the first emulator I got going on my PSP was the RIN GB/GBC program, fascimilizing (it's a word now) both the greyscale and glorious colour versions of Nintendo's classic handheld. Super Mario Land was the second game I got for my Game Boy (the first being Tetris, coming in the box and all), and I gave it another go around on the weekend.
Boy is it weird.
Ok, sure. Mario is pretty darn weird already. Imagine telling an ignorant friend about italian plumbers running through colourful worlds populated by walking cacti, winged turtles and malevolent mushroom people. Try describing jumping on or over all these things while headbutting floating boxes that dispense mushrooms to make you "bigger", flowers that let you throw fire, and leaves that dress you up as a raccoon. (Yes, I am aware that there is a reason for this and that the strangeness is rooted in the Japanese/English culture gap. It's still bizarre.) Your friend would think your coffee had been spiked with mescaline. Mario is already pretty psychedelic, no question about that. What makes Super Mario Land strange is that it is totally unconventional when compared to Mario's other games.
First, the setting is different. Gone are the familiar rounded-rectangles and gently sloping green fields. Instead, a vaguely Egyptian motif dominates the first world (I don't know how they fit worlds inside a single land, but they do), with pyramids and sand dunes in the background. Rather than your standard black and grey castle, the boss level takes place in the inside of some Pharoah-esque tomb, complete with hieroglyphics. Moving on to the next world, Mario starts the level next to the UFO I assume he came out of (classic '50s compact flying saucer, kind of like the new VW Beetle). The world itself has a marine look about it, while the second boss level (ie. World 2-3) simply changes genres altogether. Apparantly Mario has a submarine, and zooming along underwater, he fires torpedoes at enemies and dodges incoming fire from octopi. I don't know of any other Mario game with a shooting element like this, but there you go. Finally, we have the third world, which marks the end of my knowledge of the game. (I got way farther, back when I was eight, but haven't done so much now.) This zone is an Easter Island theme, complete with the stone heads and a jungle cave for a boss level. Toto, we're not in the Mushroom Kingdom anymore.
The enemies are different as well. Mario fights Goombas and Koopas and Thwomps and Shy Guys and Bob-ombs and Boos and Piranha Plants. (I don't know who was smoking what when these names were coined, but that's beside the point.) The Goombas (the little mushroom dudes) are still present. So are the Koopas (the turtle guys), but when you jump on them they leave not shells to kick, but bombs that explode on you if you stick around too long. The rest of the bestiary is brand new. There are dragonfly-type bugs that throw spears at you. There are sphinxes that breathe fire. The man-eating plants that live in the pipes are still there, but they have a more angular appearance, unlike the rounded, lipped things from other titles. In the second world, the dead fish, fire-breathing seahorse and robot demographics are all well-accounted for. That's right, in Mario Land, you vanquish squat robots whose heads detach and fly at you. Meanwhile in World Three, we have stone tikis with wings, jogging boulders with flailing arms and spiders. Are there spiders in the other Marios? In short, these are not the same Mario baddies that you once knew.
Next, turn the sound up. Sound familiar? Thought not. Nowhere do you hear the familiar refrain of the Mario theme (you know, doop doop doop doo-doo-doo-doop doo do do doop do doop doo do do doo!). Instead, the strains of something very similar float to your ears, which easily recall the style and rhythms of the Mario theme, but totally do their own thing. The dungeon theme is nowhere to be found. And the Star theme? (That's the high-energy "invincible" music.) It's also gone, replaced with... wait for it: the Can-Can. Yes, Mario becomes totally unstoppable, and then flaunts this new power to the same music that Vaudeville showgirls high-kicked to.
Lastly, the powerups are different. As in the first Mario title, there are only three. There's the mushroom that enlarges, only it looks smaller, non-spotted and basically unlike the mushrooms you expect. The 1-up is no longer a mushroom, but a heart, although I conjecture that this is because a green mushroom and a red mushroom look the same on a black and white screen. Finally, there's the flower that lets you shoot fire, only in this game fire means bowling balls. Yeah, you become not Fire Flower Mario, but Superball Mario, throwing ball bearings that bounce and that can grab coins for you. Let that silly fire flower top that! The bouncing is important because the game only lets you have one shot on screen at a time. This is probably a technical limitation, but because of the bouncing, it can mean you wait for a little while before reloading. Matters of life and death, people!
Now maybe I'm being too harsh. This was, after all, 1989, well before Mario had settled into his now-sacred mythos. He was barely even a franchise! And despite all these differences, the game is still Mario: you run and jump through a series of worlds in your efforts to save the princess. Jumping on the heads of most enemies will either vanquish them or damage them. Some pipes can be entered to reveal hidden areas. At the end of each level is a chance to win bonus lives and extra points. The main character is a fat man in overalls who doubles in size upon eating mushrooms. He may be globetrotting somewhat, but this is still Mario. Sort of.
The fact remains that nearly everything about the game, above and beyond core game elements, is different. It is so prevalent, in fact, that if I didn't see the Nintendo on the title screen, I would think that it came from a bootleg videogame joint, an imitation Mario posing as the geniune article. In all likelyhood however, I think the reason that it seems this way is because the Game Boy had no colour. The reason you can tell what level you're on in Super Mario Bros. was largely due to the colour scheme. When translated to the monochrome, this had to be fixed, and so the substitute was to change form instead. Hence, we have all the different themes and sprites.
Don't let me end on the note that this isn't a good game. For Mario's handheld debut (at least in the form we know him best--DK Game & Watch doesn't count), Super Mario Land is a pretty decent showing, and behind all the wonkiness it hits all the nails that made the first Super Mario Bros. so much fun. If you have a PSP, I highly encourage getting this one going. ¶ 6:23 p.m.
