{"id":500,"date":"2012-01-09T17:56:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T17:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=500"},"modified":"2012-01-09T17:59:44","modified_gmt":"2012-01-09T17:59:44","slug":"super-mario-land-2-6-golden-coins-game-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=500","title":{"rendered":"Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mario-thon 2012 was a great success!\u00a0 Well…\u00a0 somewhat.<\/p>\n

My friends\u00a0Robot Cousin,<\/a> Zom-Ben<\/a> and I got together over the weekend\u00a0to sit down and\u00a0play the original Super Mario Bros. <\/em>games for NES.\u00a0 No ROM’s, no cheats, no warps; just a full-on assault on every stage in\u00a0the three games we grew up playing more than any others.<\/p>\n

The idea looked great on paper, but we quickly found out that this wouldn’t be a stroll in the park.\u00a0 We had our keesters handed to us on a silver platter by SMB1<\/em>, giving up\u00a0at World\u00a08 before deciding we should probably move on to a new game due to time constraints.\u00a0 SMB2 <\/em>was kind enough to grant us\u00a0plenty of slot game\u00a0cherries (and 5UP’s)\u00a0to finish the game, and the evening wore on too late for us to give SMB3<\/em> an honest shot.<\/p>\n

Mario-thon\u00a0will happen again.\u00a0 We will prevail.\u00a0 I also believe we should look into hooking up a Super Game Boy to play the following series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

1992 - Game Boy (Nintendo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Where Super Mario Land <\/em>felt an awful lot like Super Mario Bros.<\/em>, Super Mario Land 2<\/em> is a tremendous upgrade that ranks right up there with my favourite Mario <\/em>games of all time.\u00a0 Gone are the oddities from the original’s Sarasaland setting, replaced by a more familiar re-imagining of the Mushroom Kingdom.\u00a0 Evil Twin Wario, a new character they made a huge deal about at\u00a0release time, has taken over the Kingdom (re-dubbed Mario Land) while the famous plumber was out\u00a0and about in Sarasaland.\u00a0 Mario can tackle each world in any order he wants before tackling Wario’s Castle, giving the game a Mega Man<\/em>-ish vibe.\u00a0 It’s bloody brilliant!<\/p>\n

I seem to be going back to Christmas memories a fair amount lately, but that’s more or less just coincidence…\u00a0 for this game, I’m not sure if I recieved it shortly after it came out for the Christmas of ’92, or if it was later.\u00a0 Either way, here’s the most vivid memory I have.<\/p>\n

For Christmas of ’93,\u00a0I had asked for a Sega Game Gear, and I was convinced I was getting one.\u00a0 There were boxes under the Christmas tree that seemed to be the right size, so I\u00a0sized up boxes under the tree\u00a0to determine which one it\u00a0could be.\u00a0\u00a0I needed to know, because by the time\u00a0Christmas Eve rolled around, I wanted my one present opened that night to be the Game Gear.<\/p>\n

By December 24th, I evidently couldn’t contain my excitement.<\/p>\n

After going to church that night, the plan was to go socializing with some family friends.\u00a0 Once there, I’d be able to open my “preview gift”.\u00a0 Needing to make sure the gift I chose was the Game Gear, I started making a small tear in the side of the gift I thought it would be.\u00a0 I had to be subtle, and I couldn’t make much noise doing it, but I would have to make a very tiny re-sealable flap, just so that it wouldn’t be obvious I was peeking.<\/p>\n

Once I was satisfied with what little I saw of the box – it looked like some kind of bulky gaming device – I grabbed it, and headed to church.<\/p>\n

I never enjoyed Christmas Eve mass that much.\u00a0 Not only did I always find going to church excruciatingly boring (sitting, standing, sitting, standing…\u00a0 for 45 minutes), but doing it on the eve of the most exciting day of the year was downright painful<\/em>.\u00a0 I mean, all the other Sundays I was made to go, I knew there were games, sometimes rented <\/em>(!!!) games at home waiting to be played.\u00a0 But Christmas Eve, it was like saying “OK, well, we know you’re excited, and you’d probably rather go to bed and let tomorrow morning get here sooner…\u00a0 but hold that thought.\u00a0 You need to go do something you hate, first.”<\/p>\n

Anyhow, church seemed to take forever that night, but it eventually ended.\u00a0 I sat in the back seat of the car on the way to our friends’ place, and I continued to try and peek behind that ripped flap on the gift wrapping.\u00a0 I couldn’t see anything anyway, and I even leaned over to try and get the moonlight to shine on it.\u00a0 There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the moon was ridiculously bright.\u00a0 Not quite bright enough, however.\u00a0 I would have to just grin and bear it until my folks said I could open my present.<\/p>\n

The time finally came, and I got to open my brand new…\u00a0 Game Genie for Game Boy.\u00a0 Ah…\u00a0 no wonder my mom told me to bring my Game Boy to kill time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Complete with a storage space on the back of the unit for the miniscule code book...<\/p><\/div>\n

I was far from disappointed, so I popped in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins<\/em> and attempted to make my way through Wario’s Castle…\u00a0 I’d made it there a few times before, but never all the way through it.\u00a0 The Game Genie changed that, however.<\/p>\n