Fireballs could now bounce off walls and surfaces, collecting coins in its wake. Not only did Super Mario Land go global and shed the Mushroom Kingdom attire, but the items and mechanics which remained were subversively tweaked and altered. Princess Daisy has since been recognized in series cannon, playing a recurring role in the Mario sports and Mario Kart series. Super Mario Land drove momentum for new and diverse enemies sets which could, at least for their respective titles, take a prominent role in the main cast. In relocating Mario outside of his stomping ground, R&D1 also replaced franchise staples: Bowser with Tatanga, Princess Peach with Princess Daisy and all familiar enemies – minus goombas – for stage-specific variants. Chocolate Island in Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island in Super Mario World 2 and Isle Delfino in Super Mario Sunshine are good examples. This was Super Mario Land‘s core conceit, and although no game in the series has since replicated world culture, Super Mario Landpaved the way for environments far removed from the realm and influence of the Mushroom Kingdom. Sarasaland was divided into 4 parts: an Egyptian-themed environment, an alien water world, ancient Aztec ruins and a Japanese oriental garden whose final act was set amongst the clouds. Perhaps in a move to justify the “land” part of its title, Super Mario Landwas no longer set in the Mushroom Kingdom, but Sarasaland. Prior to, and even since Super Mario Land‘s release in 1990, no other Mario title has modeled itself on real world cultures. The design sensibilities and the innovations which evolved from the early Game Boy games Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins would find themselves not only canonized into franchise lore, but also playing a wide-reaching role in further developments of the series. Knowing this, R&D1, a technically-minded internal studio at Nintendo (now absorbed into Nintendo Software Planning & Development), used the newly released Game Boy as a way to expand the company’s most famous property: Mario. The handheld platforms are inexpensive to develop for and widely regarded as second-tier products to their console counterparts, making them the ideal haven for experimentation. Portable game development has always acted as a test bed for experimental ideas. R&D1: Deconstructing the Mario franchise on the Game Boy August 1st, 2010
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