"Obey Wario! Destroy Mario!" The sequel to
Super Mario Land, this is the first game to feature
The Rival, Wario, and one of the few times Wario is an outright
Big Bad instead of just being extremely greedy.
The plot is that Wario took over Mario's kingdom while Mario was away in the first game, and taken over the land's castle. Mario needs to find the eponymous six golden coins to get into the castle and stop Wario.
Whereas
Super Mario Land was essentially a handheld version of the original 1985
Super Mario Bros, the sequel took most of its cues from
Super Mario Bros 3 and
Super Mario World instead, including a nonlinear world map and a new, gravity-defying powerup (Bunny Ears). This game swapped the small sprites of the previous game, and had much more detailed graphics (although still smaller than
NES sprites due to the
Game Boy's smaller resolution), and is to date considered one of the best games on the original grey-brick
Game Boy out there.
Provides Examples of:
- Batman Can Breathe In Space: Even though this usually applies when Mario goes into space, it's averted here; he dons a space helmet in Space Zone.
- Big Bad: Wario.
- The Man Behind the Man: He seems to have been this to Tatanga from the first game, especially considering that Tatanga reappears as the boss of Space Zone.
- Big Boo's Haunt: Pumpkin Zone.
- Breakout Character: Wario turned out to be so popular that he received not one, but two game series. He has also starred in some other games.
- Built With Lego/Mythology Gag/Writing Around Trademarks: The final level of the Mario Zone is built out of Nintendo's long-forgotten knockoff brand of LEGO bricks, called N&B blocks
, from back when the Big N was a toy company. The mark "N&B" appears on one of the blocks. - Bubbly Clouds: The final level of Tree Zone. Also the hidden bonus level in Macro Zone.
- Continuing Is Painful: Mario has to collect all six Golden Coins again if he loses his last life.
- Cranium Ride: Since Heavy Zed is just a big, harmless owl, this is the only way Mario can interact with him, as he isn't an enemy.
- Demoted To Dragon: Tatanga returns from the first game, only to show up as the boss of the Space Zone
- Ear Wings: The bunny ears, although for slowing descent instead of flying.
- Easter Egg: Kazumi Totaka composed the soundtrack, so naturally his trademark tune plays somewhere. In this game, on the Game Over screen, after three minutes, his song will start to play.
- Easy Mode Mockery: This game has an easy mode that the player can choose by pressing Select on the file-selection screen. Playing easy mode will cause the words "EASY MODE" to appear before entering a level. Other than that however, there's no penalty for using the easy mode; stages will still count as being completed, and there are no changes to the ending sequence.
- Eternal Engine: Mario Zone.
- Everything's Even Worse With Sharks: They appear in Turtle Zone, and Mario can't defeat them without a star.
- Evil Counterpart: Wario, to the extent of having every form Mario has.
- Expy: The Unibōs, who look exactly like Gordos.
- Floating in a Bubble: Mario can do this in an underwater stage.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: In the Mario Zone, there is a level which seems to take place inside Mario's crotch. The level is literally full of balls - the platforms are balls, there's balls in the background, and there are monsters that shoot balls.
- Goomba Stomp: It's a Mario game, what do you expect? Just don't try it on the ghost Goombas in Pumpkin Zone, because like Boos and unlike regular Goombas they avert this trope.
- Hornet Hole: One level in Tree Zone takes place in a beehive.
- Lost Woods: Tree Zone.
- MacGuffin: The six golden coins.
- Macro Zone: The Trope Namer.
- Opening the Sandbox: After the tutorial level is finished, the six zones do not have to be done in any specific order, and there is no requirement to do all of the zone's levels at once, so players can complete a couple levels in one zone and decide to do another, for example.
- Palmtree Panic: The hidden bonus level in the Turtle Zone.
- Plot Coupon: The titular six golden coins.
- Recurring Riff: The "Athletic" theme has its tune remixed and played in many other levels, even in the file select and game over screens.
- Ribcage Stomach: The whale in Turtle Zone.
- Sequential Boss: Wario has three phases: Normal, Bunny Ears, and Fireball.
- Shout Out: The Spooky Masks in Pumpkin Zone (which can be Goomba Stomped) walk around wearing hockey masks that have knives stuck in the foreheads.
- Space Is An Ocean: Space Zone.
- Space Zone: The Trope Namer.
- Super Not Drowning Skills: This game's manual actually justifies it by saying that when Mario goes into the water he becomes Aqua Mario.
- Theme And Variations Soundtrack
- Three Little Pigs: The boss(es) of the Mario Zone.
- Under the Sea: Turtle Zone.
- Wicked Witch: The boss of Pumpkin Zone.
- Womb Level: The final level of Turtle Zone, which takes place inside a whale.
- Youkai: A few of the Pumpkin Zone enemies are based on them.
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