History VideoGame / SuperMarioLand

** The English manual is more or less a direct translation of the Japanese, with enemy names transliterated rather than being [[DubNameChange renamed in localization]], as is the norm for this series. Even when a localization convention exists, it is ignored: thus, Piranha Plants go by "Pakkun Flower" (their Japanese name) in this game, and enemies that are obviously intended to be subspecies of normal ''Mario'' enemies (i.e. ''Gira'' for ''Kira'' or Bullet Bill, or ''Nokobon''[[note]]Which can also be read as "Nokobomb".[[/note]] for ''Nokonoko'' or Koopa Troopa) wind up with names that are completely incomprehensible to English-speaking fans. Granted, none of this comes up in the game itself, but the manual ''is'' meant to be a companion piece to the game.

But I've got to rescue Daisy (let's go!)''

-->-- The opening lyrics to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2nF92mu8X0 the song based on this game,]] performed by '''Ambassadors of Funk'''

->''Welcome, and enter the center\\
Of my Super Mario adventure\\
My girl is trapped on the other side of town\\
So I'm movin' in leaps and bounds\\
Folks around my way think I'm strange\\
But there's a villain to blame\\
Even my ma, she thinks I'm crazy\\

* NoPronunciationGuide: This being a Game Boy game from 1989, there are of course, no voices. As a result, a number of people wouldn't know that "Muda Kingdom" isn't supposed be pronounced "Mooda", but rather, "Myuda" (as in "Bermuda").

Released on the then-debuting UsefulNotes/GameBoy, ''Super Mario Land'' marks the famed plumber's first handheld adventure in the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' history, and fifth overall. Along with ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'', it was one of the original launch titles for the system, released in 1989. In this game, Mario travels through Sarasaland to rescue Princess Daisy from the alien invader Tatanga. To do so, he also has to liberate the inner kingdoms as they have been overtaken by the villain.

Other differences from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'':

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} Join Mario in a world of strange creatures!]][[note]]And when we say strange, we ''[[OddballInTheSeries mean it]]''.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} Join Mario in a world of strange creatures]]![[note]]And when we say strange, we ''[[OddballInTheSeries mean it]]''.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} Join Mario in a world of strange creatures]][[note]]And when we say strange, we ''[[OddballInTheSeries mean it]]''.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} Join Mario in a world of strange creatures]][[note]]And when we say strange, we ''[[BizarroEpisode mean it]]''.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} Join Mario in a world of strange creatures]][[note]]And when we say strange, we [[BizarroEpisode mean it]].]]

[[caption-width-right:350: So if Mario's [[WalkOnWater walking on water]], does that mean he's [[Music/TheBeatles bigger than Jesus]]? [[note]] His apparent ability to tri-locate can mean any number of things.[[/note]]]]

* OddballInTheSeries: The game plays like a traditional Mario platformer, but throws out all sense of familiarity after that. And yes: to say that the game stands out as weird in a series starring an Italian plumber who eats magical mushrooms and flings fireballs at turtle monsters is certainly a mouthful, but it's ''true''. It doesn't take place in the Mushroom Kingdom, but in an entirely new kingdom called Sarasaland, the kingdoms are all based off real world locations instead of the traditional ''Mario'' biomes, there are two ShootEmUp sections, most of the enemies are brand new and exclusive to this game, you don't fight Bowser, but a new villain called Tatanga and instead of rescuing Peach, you are instead rescuing the SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute, Princess Daisy, and characters like Toad and Luigi are entirely absent (which is rather ironic in hindsight given that Daisy would get ShipTease with the latter in later appearances). Even the Star theme is completely different, as instead of Koji Kondo's traditional theme, it is instead based off of StandardSnippet/TheCancanSong. The game's weirdness is largely due to the game being a BTeamSequel developed by Nintendo [=R&D1=] as opposed to ''Mario'''s usual developers at Nintendo EAD, on top of having no involvement from series mastermind Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto. [[invoked]]

* OddballInTheSeries: The game plays like a traditional Mario platformer, but throws out all sense of familiarity after that. And yes: to say that the game stands out as weird in a series starring an Italian plumber who eats magical mushrooms and flings fireballs at turtle monsters is certainly a mouthful, but it's ''true''. It doesn't take place in the Mushroom Kingdom, but in an entirely new kingdom called Sarasaland, the kingdoms are all based off real world locations instead of the traditional ''Mario'' biomes, there are two ShootEmUp sections, most of the enemies are brand new and exclusive to this game, you don't fight Bowser, but a new villain called Tatanga and instead of rescuing Peach, you are instead rescuing the SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute, Princess Daisy. Even the Star theme is completely different, as instead of Koji Kondo's traditional theme, it is instead based off of StandardSnippet/TheCancanSong. The game's weirdness is largely due to the game being a BTeamSequel developed by Nintendo [=R&D1=] as opposed to ''Mario'''s usual developers at Nintendo EAD, on top of having no involvement from series mastermind Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto. [[invoked]]

* OddballInTheSeries: The game plays like a traditional Mario platformer, but throws out all sense of familiarity after that. And yes: to say that the game stands out as weird in a series starring an Italian plumber who eats magical mushrooms and flings fireballs at turtle monsters is certainly a mouthful, but it's ''true''. It doesn't take place in the Mushroom Kingdom, but in an entirely new kingdom called Sarasaland, the kingdoms are all based off real world locations instead of the traditional ''Mario'' biomes, there are two ShootEmUp sections, most of the enemies are brand new and exclusive to this game, you don't fight Bowser, but a new villain called Tatanga and instead of rescuing Peach, you are instead rescuing the SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute, Princess Daisy. Even the Starman theme is completely different from the norm, as instead of Koji Kondo's traditional theme, it is instead based off of StandardSnippet/TheCancanSong. This is largely due to the game being developed by Nintendo [=R&D1=] as opposed to the series' usual developers at Nintendo EAD, with no involvement from the department or from series creator Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto.

* OddballInTheSeries: The game plays like a traditional Mario platformer, but throws out all sense of familiarity after that, as spoofed in this Brawl in the Family [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/comic/341-smlisweird/ comic]]. And yes: to say that the game stands out as weird in a series starring an Italian plumber who eats magical mushrooms and flings fireballs at turtle monsters is certainly a mouthful, but it's ''true''.

* BattleThemeMusic: For bosses, the music switches to that levels overworld music to an intense boss theme. Tatanga gets his own theme at the end of the game.

* FourElementEnsemble: The variety of locations gives the game an exotic feel that most Mario games don't have. Each of the kingdoms, and the bosses associated with them, can also be associated with one of the classical elements. The Fire kingdom of Birabuto is based on the deserts of Egypt and ruled by the fire-breathing King Totomesu; the Water kingdom of Muda is a series of tropical islands and an underwater stage ruled by the seahorse Dragonzamasu; the Earth kingdom of Easton is a mountainous place filled with rocklike Ganchans and ruled by the Ganchan-throwing Hiyoihoi; and the Air kingdom of Chai is a series of highlands and a flying stage ruled by the mysterious Blokinton, who hides within a large cloud and attacks by hurling flying Chickens at Mario.

* UnwinnableByDesign: In 1-3, there's a triangular arrangement of blocks only Small Mario can get inside. There's a mushroom within you can collect to break two of the blocks open to get out, but if you let it fall down an abyss, you'll have to either fall down the abyss yourself or wait for the timer to run out.

** Tatanga the [[MarsNeedsWomen extra-terrestrial]] is another Mario BigBad who takes inspiration from the series' main antagonist. However, his "Bowser expy" side was mostly used in the ''ComicBook/GameBoy'' comics.

* The [[RecurringRiff otherwise common]] melodies known in the ''Mario'' series are not present in their usual form, and appear as sort of medleys like “Sky Pop”.

* The [[RecurringRiff otherwise common]] melodies known in the ''Mario'' series are not present.

* Instead of fireballs, the flower powerup gives Mario the ability to throw "superballs", {{weaponized ball}}s which bounce off their targets at 90-degree angles. Difficult to use effectively outdoors, but they can be fun when there's a ceiling. It did have the perk of collecting any coins it hit.