The very first portable Mario. Four exotic kingdoms (Birabuto, Muda, Easton, Chai), Daisy to rescue from Tatanga, platform levels and submarine/plane shoot stages. Shorter and more arcade than a console Mario, with Hirokazu Tanaka's unforgettable OST. A historical Game Boy pillar. Essential.
Your verdict
Category
Platformer1 player3+
Description
First Mario on Game Boy with the plumber rescuing Princess Daisy from the mysterious Tatanga across four exotic kingdoms. Published by Nintendo, released in 1989 in Europe and North America. Four themed kingdoms including China and Egypt, playable submarine and airplane, classic mushrooms and stars.
Super Mario Land review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
The kingdom visited is not that of the main series, and the artwork makes that clear: pyramids and sphinxes, Easter Island statues, stone temples, a deliberate change of scene that would never return. The sprites are far smaller than the series norm, a choice that frees space for those settings and gives the game the look of a miniature.
Full of whimsy, Hirokazu Tanaka's compositions give the very first portable Mario a unique musical personality, exotic and bouncing. The Birabuto theme and the final march have stayed etched in memory. This chiptune inventiveness, joyful and offbeat, is the whole charm of this pioneering adventure.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
The very first portable Mario launches an offbeat universe: submarines, flying saucers and exotic scenery upend habits from the opening jumps. The pace is brisk, the levels short and snappy, the handling immediate. A touch strange, terribly endearing, this pioneer keeps the raw charm of the console's earliest days.
Game Boy launch title outside Japan, designed by Gunpei Yokoi's R&D1 rather than Miyamoto's EAD, which gives it a stylistically singular Mario flavour, with sphinxes, UFOs and submarine Daisy in place of the usual castle script. The earliest worldwide printings, before Player's Choice branding, can be told by the cover and remain the target piece for Mario collectors hoping to isolate the first edition from a global volume north of eighteen million units.
A cult cover
Mario, at the controls of his little plane, zips over a backdrop of pyramids and sphinxes in a burst of bright colors that announces a brand-new playground. The cartoon illustration, a world away from the Mushroom Kingdom, intrigues at once and sets Sarasaland's exotic tone. Bubbly and joyful, it made the first Game Boy owners dream.
Is Super Mario Land still worth playing in 2026?
The very first portable Mario, Super Mario Land takes the road less travelled: the exotic kingdoms of Birabuto, Muda, Easton and Chai, Princess Daisy, Tatanga as the boss and even submarine and plane shooting stages. Shorter, more arcade-driven and rougher than a console Mario, the episode stands out for its offbeat identity and Hirokazu Tanaka's score, among the catchiest on the Game Boy. The stiff jump and brief length do not erase the charm, and its historical weight is huge. A Mario oddity still worth running through today.
