While Mario was away rescuing Princess Daisy in Super Mario Land, someone moved into his house. Nintendo Power let the squatter explain in a letter: “I took it upon myself to cast a spell over the population and turn the citizens into mindless zombies. I’ve also moved into the Castle on the hill, so I fear that you’ll have to look for new accommodations.” The letter was signed by Wario, Mario’s new rival, and his first game turned out to be one of the biggest on the Game Boy.
Fast facts
- Developer: Nintendo R&D1, produced by Gunpei Yokoi.
- Directors: Hiroji Kiyotake and Takehiko Hosokawa.
- Released: Japan, October 1992; North America, November 1992; Britain at £24.99.
- Cartridge: 4 megabits with battery-backed saving.
- Structure: six zones, each guarded by a boss holding one of the six Golden Coins, then Wario’s castle.
- New power-up: the carrot, which gives Mario rabbit ears.
- Sequel: Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994), with Wario as the hero.
Mario Land
To get back into his castle Mario has to collect six Golden Coins and set them in its door. Each coin is held by a boss at the end of a zone, and the zones can be reached from a map of Mario Land. Nintendo Power toured them: the Tree Zone, inside a giant tree full of creatures “hypnotized by evil Wario”; a zero-gravity Space Zone where Mario wears an astronaut suit; a sunken ship in the Turtle Zone; the haunted Pumpkin Zone; and the Mario Zone, a giant Mario machine built “to honor the leader of the land”, which he climbs by its gears. Nintendo Magazine System was struck by the bosses, which “range from an over-grown rat to the three little pigs (who even live in houses made out of straw, bricks, and sticks)”, and by a stage spent exploring “the inside of Mario’s trousers”.
There are new ways to get around. A carrot turns Mario into a rabbit whose ears let him float and glide, and Nintendo Power’s reviewers liked flapping them “to send him flying over dangerous obstacles”. A large hippo blows bubbles that carry him upwards. Bells along each stage mark a restart point, and coins can be spent on a slot machine that pays out power-ups and extra lives.
Bigger Mario
The first Super Mario Land had kept its sprites small so that, as Retro Gamer put it, players could see danger coming on the 160 by 144 pixel screen. The sequel went the other way. “The Mario sprite and the enemy characters are much larger,” Nintendo Magazine System reported, “and the variety is excellent.” Nintendo Power explained where the room came from: at 4 megabits the cartridge was the largest yet made for the Game Boy, enough for “almost twice as many levels as the previous Mario Game Boy game” and bigger character graphics.
The battery save had a side effect. Nintendo Magazine System called it “the best quality Gameboy title yet. Its only problem is that it’s far too easy”. Because progress was saved even with the power off, the reviewer argued, a player could keep trying a stage until it fell, and someone who had finished the first game would be through this one “within a few hours”. N-Force agreed that the save made “completing Mario’s latest adventure a doddle”. American players did not mind: Nintendo Power’s readers voted it the best Game Boy game of 1992.
Wario
The new villain came from the game’s director. In an interview printed in Nintendo’s official guidebook in 1992, Hiroji Kiyotake described Wario as “the Bluto to Mario’s Popeye”, and explained the name: “Since he was a ‘warui’ (bad) guy, he should be Wario. And we had the idea to flip the M upside down.” So Wario wears a W on his cap. Wireframe later called him “consciously designed as Mario’s dark mirror image”.
He did not stay a villain for long. In Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994), as Germany’s Club Nintendo put it (in translation), “this wicked, wicked fellow from Super Mario Land 2” returned as the main character, treasure-hunting on a pirate island across 40 stages to raise money for a castle of his own.
Sources
- Nintendo Power issue 42, November 1992, pp. 52–57: feature (Mario’s return from Sarasaland; Wario’s letter; the Fire Flower and the feathered cap; the astronaut suit; the Carrot and Rabbit Ears; the six zones; the slot machine; the Mario Zone) and p. 104, Now Playing review (Bunny ears). Issue 43, December 1992, pp. 44–55: the Pumpkin Zone and “Wario Castle”.
- Nintendo Power issue 44, January 1993, p. 121: the 4-megabit cartridge, “almost twice as many levels”, the Magic Carrot, Wario. Issue 48, May 1993, pp. 38–41: Nintendo Power Awards for 1992, Game Boy category.
- Nintendo Magazine System (UK) issue 2, November 1992, pp. 72–75: review (£24.99; larger sprites; the bosses; the bells and bonus rooms; the save game; “far too easy”).
- N-Force issue 8, February 1993, p. 32: review (the battery back-up makes the game “a doddle”).
- Hiroji Kiyotake, Takehiko Hosokawa and others, interview in the official Super Mario Land 2 guidebook (Nintendo, 1992), translated by Shmuplations as “Super Mario Land 2 – 1992 Developer Interview” (web, secondary): directors’ credits; Wario as “the Bluto to Mario’s Popeye”; the name and the upside-down M. https://shmuplations.com/supermarioland2/
- Wireframe issue 69, December 2022, pp. 96–97: Super Mario Land and its sequels; Wario “consciously designed as Mario’s dark mirror image”; both sequels produced by Yokoi and R&D1.
- Retro Gamer issue 32, 2006: the first game’s small sprites on the 160 by 144 pixel screen (see Super Mario Land).
- Club Nintendo (Germany), volume 6 issue 3, June 1994, p. 23: Wario Land (Super Mario Land 3), Wario from Super Mario Land 2 as the main character, 40 stages, battery save.
- Wikipedia, “Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins” (web, secondary): Japanese release on 21 October 1992 and American on 2 November 1992; directors Kiyotake and Hosokawa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Land_2:_6_Golden_Coins