OH! DAISY! Let’s Play Super Mario Land

The tasteful backgrounds are especially impressive considering how many other GB platformers don't even bother with backgrounds at all, or worse, use overly-complex background sprites that actually interfere with gameplay. SML's backgrounds employ juuuust enough detail to add a nice visual flair and reinforce a level's sense of place without confusing the player.

I dont know if it was intentional but I appreciate that the very minimalistic background hills still have eyes.

Daisy Daisy, fitting well with Mario Mario.

TH13 - Ten Desires introduced the doofy Yoshika Miyako, though she's more preoccupied with feasting upon loose desires than reviving until she's called up to defend her wicked Xiān owner. As the plot is about introducing representatives of more mainland-influence Daoism to the Japanese setting through Shījiě xiān intrigue, it works well enough.

Unless they got married - then she'd be Daisy Mario.

Unless she decided to go by Daisy Daisy-Mario.

I remember that I knew there was a plane level, but seeing it here, I don't remember it clearly.

Thank you Beowulf for showing it off.

Even to this day I'm impressed at the way they set up the end-of-level challenges, although I remember being annoyed that some of them actually stared kinda far back in the stage.

I also remember beating this on summer vacation at my grandma's apartment. A final-stage shooter section did NOT mesh up with my NES skills at the time (I was too much of a spaz to ever dodge bullets consistently), so it took a lot longer than I was expecting.

Daisy Mario nee Daisy

For some reason this is making me imagine Mario singing Uptown Girl by Billy Joel.

So, I mentioned I was going to talk a little more about the Game Boy comics, right?


The main character of the series’ four issues was the antihero Herman Smirch, a weak-willed nebbish easily hypnotized by Tatanga and his minions.


In each issue, Herman would open a portal using a Game Boy, and various minions of Tatanga would come through, ready to get on with the latest plot to conquer the world.


Fortunately for the world, there was an urban legend going around that you could counter this: If you say Tatanga’s evil black cloud, you needed to grab your Game Boy and start maneuvering through any world that had the two doors at the exit. World 2-1 was generally considered the easiest to pull off the trick.


If you did it right, there would be a third, middle door.


And Mario would come to help you!


Now, clearly, this was just made up for the comic, right?


In the interests of science, I decided to give it a shot.


Turns out, it actually works!


Aaaaand now I have to go help Mario defeat Tatanga. D’oh.

Next time: Something else!

Wow, as if wild pre-internet playground rumors about Nintendo games weren't bad enough already! Also the line "two doors...no, three!" is some pretty amazing dialogue. Wouldn't you immediately notice it...?

Still wouldn't be the weirdest usage of the song.

Okay, so, here's the plan: I want to declare this LP "finished, at least for now" in that I've shown all of the SML content that I have. I'm leaving open the possibility of continuing the series, but my April is looking increasingly insane, so I don't know when that will be.

So for now, thanks for reading!

Oh wow, those Game Boy comics take me back. Though one storyline has two teenage New Yorkers battling Tatanga... in the World Trade Center's Windows Of The World.

Yuuuuup.