My first experience of Mario came from one of the less traditional angles – we never had retro Nintendo home consoles; but we did have a Game Boy, thus my formative years were based around a staple diet of the Super Mario Land series.

We still think of those titles as a bit ‘weird’, and it’s true that some of the gameplay elements weren’t seen outside of the Game Boy iterations. In Super Mario Land, fireballs ricochet like bouncy balls, and can be used to collect coins. Koopa Troopers explode upon death. The standard stages are quite idiosyncratic, occasionally hardcore affairs, punctuated by fast-paced, vehicle-based shooting levels.

Super Mario Land 2 is visually more in-line with more familiar Mario adventures, but shades of individuality remain – Bunny Mario has the floating powers you’re used to from Super Mario Bros. 3’s Racoon Mario, and the visual cue of Fire Mario is a feather on his cap. But whilst the game’s setting was a bit more fantastical than other games (one world has you travelling through a gigantic toy Mario) some little touches were strangely prophetic. Floating in a giant bubble, balancing on top of a ball, and traversing through space were all memorable parts of 2007’s Super Mario Galaxy – but all those things were in Super Mario Land 2!

What do you think of Super Mario Land?  Let us know in the My Mario Memories thread in our forum or using the comments section below.