FYI: The moon zone boss is the alien guy you fight at the end of Marioland! My family started in video games by winning a domino's pizza contest and won a game boy and this game.

It's worth mentioning that gameboy screens, when new, weren't just two shades of chartreuse. The materials that made up the LCD screens have broken down over time. When new, they were actually much more contrasty. The "blacks" were a much darker, less neon-y blackish green. Yes, they still turned to blurry mush when you moved, but they were surprisingly crisp when the screen was still, and with a decent contrast.

Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Hellllllll Yes! I absolutely loved SML2. Wario was such a genius idea, and I loved the commercial growing up. We didn't really have guides readily available like that back then, so i felt really proud finding all the secrets myself. Fave world is Macro or Mario. Nintendo playing coy w/ the Balls level in Mario one.

As a kid, we were too poor to have an NES (or later an SNES) but my parents did save for a Gameboy. This was my only Mario game growing up. I adore this game to this day.

This was _such_ a huge step up from SML1

Heck yeah it is. I replayed it last year and it holds up!

I played the hell out of this game when I was a kid. I'd get the tree world music stuck in my head all the time. Seeing the color ROM hack makes me want to go back and play it. Great review, Drunk.

Owned this as a kid. Man the nostalgia kicking in watching this footage. Don't know how many times i played through this game back then. My parents worked late so i spent alot of time waiting around for them to finish work, but i always had my gameboy with me which kept me entertained for hours.

Gameboy games be referred to as “companion pieces” is an absolutely perfect way of describing them 👍🏻

Oh man, I miss those days. Playing games like this on a handheld even with a terrible looking spinach screen was mind blowing as a kid. The Game Boy is nostalgic as hell and I hope and pray that Nintendo will bring the original Game Boy and the Game Boy Advance to Nintendo switch online, fingers crossed.

I can’t even begin to describe how livid I was when Nintendo did that montage of every main series Mario game at the end of the 35th anniversary direct, and they completely skipped over this one as if it never existed.

This was one of my favorite Game Boy games! It was such a huge improvement over the original Mario Land! It was one of the most unique, yet fun Mario games. The Mario Land 2 DX patch is definitely well worth it as well! The added color and Luigi mode make it a great way to revisit it! The game is also really easy, except once you get to Wario's Castle which is a _huge_ difficulty spike!

This is probably the most underrated Mario game imo. The soundtrack absolutely slaps (The credits roll music is my favorite tune from the game), the platforming is tight, lots of secrets to find, cool enemies, and you can do everything in whatever order you want. Also this series spawned the Wario Land spinoff series that came into its own and made Wario a household name.

I was just playing this game yesterday! I got it at a rummage sale a year ago for like 25 cents, alongside Pokémon Pinball and Donkey Kong Land 2

I love this game. Right up there with Kirby's Dreamland, this was one of my all time favorites, not just on Gameboy, but on any console. I love everything Halloween, so it was awesome having the witch boss. And this game's soundtrack is a seriously underrated gem.

You know it’s going to be a good day when SD posts a fresh video in the morning.

I played the every inch of this game when I was a young child. The nostalgia blast this video brought me was intense.

I think the only ding I can give it is Mario's jump momentum. You can't move that freely in the air if you decide to. Other than that, the game has aged really well considering its 30 years old. Yeah, it makes us "old", but time marches on and we still have cool stuff like this with which we can share our experiences.

Saw this on my recommendation time line and I'll answer the question. Yes! This is one of the top 3 best 2d Mario games ever and it's a crime that Nintendo hasn't put it out on switch/OLED/lite via NSO or as part of a combo package either way i love this game i replayed it on emulators on tablets and on my phone and it's just a joy to play.

Super Mario Land 2 is awesome. What a classic, I love this game. I'd go so far as to say I like it more than SMB3. Love the soundtrack is well, easily one of my favorites from Totaka. So yes.

The final castle leading up to wario in this game is actually pretty hard. Took me a long time actually beat it.

I played and finished this game last year, and I really liked it! It's a wildly imaginative game for such limited hardware that I was left impressed throughout the whole game. I mean, you get to have mario explore a mechanical Mario! Wish they brought back this series, this second entry is a good reason for why they should. Great game.

This is a trick question. The answer is always yes.

Having just played through this game again as a 31 year old I can’t disagree with how highly you rate the DX ROM hack that brings it into full colour. I played it on my flat screen TV and it felt like my childhood experience of playing it, only rejuvenated. 10/10 Mario game.

I got this for Christmas in 1992. Probably the most excited I've ever been about a new game release: FINALLY this felt like we were getting a proper Mario game on the GB. And it didn't disappoint at all. I loved all the little secrets. I loved the overworld map which felt similar to Super Mario World, but still unique enough to make it stand out. I loved that it actually uses traditional Super Mario Bros enemies like Koopas, while also introducing new ones unique to this game. SML1 always felt a little like it could have been a reskin of just about any other platformer, with a Mario sprite put in, and even the controls for example didn't feel quite up to Mario standards. But this really felt like a proper, full fledged Mario game, that still had an identity all its own.

SML2 is a good game but it has one big problem: it's floaty and slow as hell, probably because Mario's sprite now takes up so much room on the screen. In the video you seem to not care for SML1 much but this is one thing it definitely has going for it over the sequel, it plays snappy and fast, exactly because Mario is tiny so you can see a lot of what's ahead. I only had SML2 as a kid myself but I grew to appreciate the first game a lot more later. They're both impressive in their own way but SML1 is better suited to the hardware and kind of plays better.

I didn't remember much about about the game off-hand, but I remembered how much I played and loved the game at the time. Up there with Link's Awakening as my most played Game Boy games. :D

I knew nothing of this game, so I learned a ton, thanks for the awesome video!

SML2 gave us Wario and Mario World inspired sprites in a compact Grey Brick format. Love it.

SML2 was incredibly fun and had a mysteriousness to it all its own. The GB had good games even early on, but the release of this and Link's Awakening were peak for the system IMO. Of course, someone several years younger than me might say Pokemon R/B was the best game to ever come out for the GB. It's insane the longevity it had. What an incredible system.

This game is a real gem on the Gameboy, and one of my personal favorites in the Mario series. But as you rightfully pointed out, it's also a master class in how to squeeze the most out of a piece of hardware!

Dude, remember playing this game when i was like 5 years on the back row of the car of my parents, i found this game so good at the time, I realized how good it was later on when I noticed that 90% of original gameboy library is mediocre. Good memories

OMG nostalgia has caught me hard with this one. Loved this game as a kid!

This was the first Gameboy game I ever owned. Bringing back some serious nostalgia for me!

Definitely an all-time great from the OG handheld era. I was always intrigued by the need to find Magical Coins. Not sure why, it was just an idea I always thought was cool.

I've always loved the fact that Mario Land 2's music is just one theme arranged in various styles to fit the mood of each level

Total length of video: 335 secs. Total length of "SNES Drunk": 3 secs. .9% of the video was spent listening to "SNES Drunk".

This game was so fun. Whiled away lots of Saturdays on this one. Great level design and fantastic music. Love it.

Loved this as a kid. Every zone had a secret level - except Mario Zone for some reason which wasted so many evenings trying to find something that didn’t exist. Remember kids, we had no internet then to look it up - it was word of mouth or find it yourself.

I'm so happy you have finally reviewed this one. I think it is a blast of a Mario game, with so many original ideas that should have been featured in subsequent ones. The overworld and the stage themes are beyond the classic "forest, fire, snow, water" worlds. And I think Super Mario Land 1 still stands as a real fun playthrough too, even though it's a simpler game. But hey, simple is not a bad thing if done correctly. 6 Golden Coins should have been rereleased in some Mario collection though

You know it's a good day when SNESDrunk uploads SML2 is really creative, prime example of limitation breeds creativity.

Oh my i love playing the game an hearing the soundtrack is so smart the way of using the same motive for almost everything! A must if you like Mario, breathe or living in this universe XD

This game deserves SO much more love. There’s just so many great things about it - fun art style, cute new enemies, interesting story, Wario, great music, and the coolest credits glitch/shortcut I have ever seen. I hope with its addition to the Switch GameBoy app that more people will discover it (or at least that Nintendo will respect it a little more going forward)

What I love about this game is that they really went creative with the black and white colored screen and went with an old cartoon asthetic with the music and rubber hose styled enemies. It really shows how different it was from other Mario games. Extremely creative.

Nice! I had no idea this game had so much going for it

This was one of my favorites as a kid on the gameboy. It really showed that good games could really happen on the system. And it still holds up to this day.

This was my childhood growing up. We did own an SNES with Super Mario All Stars and Super Mario World, but since my family are travelers and dragged me along wherever they went, having Super Mario Land 2 on Game Boy was the game I probably played the most. It has all the modern Super Mario conventions that hold today.

You just hit the nail Snesdrunk, this game was amazing, it was the most spectacular experience on a handheld back then, only surpassed by Link's Awakening later (at least for me). It's true that Miyamoto wasn't involved in this game, but it had the great Gunpei Yokoi as producer. Thank you for bringing this awesome video, it brings tons of good memories.

Speaking of Atari Lynx, how about reviewing some games? Blue thunder and Gates of Zendocon are some of the great games I'd love to see your take on.

You should check out Mercenary Force for the GB

Damn this is some nostalgia overload.., it’s early 90’s. Im in my PJ’s, it’s Friday night so no school tomorrow… I can smell the carpet and wood paneling in the living room with low yellow lighting at 8pm. Parents are watching god only knows what on TV (I don’t care everyone’s old) and im just playing Mario on my game boy, life is SOOO good.

This is the kind of creative innovation the Mario series needs a good dose of again. Super Mario Land 2 was so great in part because everything was fresh, new, and unexpected, but still designed to feel like a Mario game.

As a Game Boy enthusiast, I can say this is one of the best gb titles ever, but nobody should play this. YOU have to play the DX ROM hack. It improves the game and makes one of the best gb titles better in every way. YOU CAN PLAY AS LUIGI!

2:15 Serious writers should learn from this man Absolutely killed it

Being someone who doesnt usually play or like Mario games i absolutely love this one. Is right there with New Super Mario Bros DS, Mario Kart DS and the original Super Mario Bros on NES as their favorites in the franchise.

SML2 and SMW on GBA were my childhood. This will forever be one of my all time favorite 2D Mario games as well as Mario games in general.

This was one of the first videogames I played as a child. I could not believe how a "full game" could be played on a handheld. The various versions of the main theme are stuck in my head to this day.

I remember being in a Target as a wee lad and asking the clerk if I should get this game or a odd mario spin off game. Not sure where that clerk is now, but he made a happy impact on my childhood for recommending me SML2

3:00 Wario is tough but compared to the gauntlet you need to face to get to him it almost seems like a relief. Wario's castle is brutal!

I unfortunately had forgotten this version of Mario existed so thanks for the blast from the past! This game certainly helped make going to my sister’s softball tournaments more tolerable when I was a kid.

Pure nostalgia, sitting in the shed that passed for a common room at my school, pouring with rain outside, smashing through this incredible game. The graphics blew my mind at the time, and THAT soundtrack!

SML2 was my first game on gameboy that I got alongside DKL2 and then Pokémon later that year. This made SML2 the first Mario game I ever owned myself and it is everything you say it is. Still love it to this day and was finally able to “100%” it as an adult. My poor motor skills as a kid had me always dying against the witch and the octopus boss and I couldn’t remember the pattern on the moon well enough to get it. Thanks for sharing with us, and I hope you have a good rest of your day too. Ours is a little better for your hard work 🙂

That KTMA reference at 3:15 is an *unbelievably* deep cut

Thanks for the upload, Drunk! Went and gave the DX version a shot, and I'm floored by how well the color conversion is handled. One nitpick about the hack, the koopas are green, but behave like red koopas in that they don't walk off ledges. Hmmm...

Got this game along with my original Gameboy for my birthday in summer of 93... Loved it. I'd already played it at my friends house and could name all the damn bosses (yes, my 9-year-old brain was OBSESSIVE about such details).

This game rules, although it is super easy compared to any of the mainline series. The sounds & music are outstanding, and still live rent-free in my memory 29 years after first hearing them

Loved my recent playthrough a couple of years ago. It's still a blast, a great way to relax for the weekend ^^

Man i remember like it was yesterday: The full Game Boy Pack with Tetris, or the standard one plus whatever an extra game costed. The (agonizing) dilemma: on one hand, better bang for my (limited) buck, on the other, I got to choose what game I got (with the knowledge that I wouldn´t get another one for a while). So... Super Mario Land 2. Never regretted it. Wait, it has a color hack?! Checking it out now. This kind of tidbits are one of my favourite thing about your videos. Thanks for making the rest of my day great! Hope yours is as well. Cheers!

I still remember the ad campaign for this game with Wario having "swirly hypnotic eyes" trying to hypnotize us, the viewer, into buying the game. I remember him saying "Obey me Wario, I am your master!" I'm sure the ad is on KZfaq somewhere

I've never had a SNES growing up (we had Sega genesis as a home console), but I had a Gameboy and this was the Mario game of my childhood. Back in the days I had no idea that story should have Bowser and Peach involved:)

The DX Color romhack patch. I replayed Super Mario Land 2 in color. Very refreshing after 20 years since I last played it. That last Level/Castle is still tough as nails.

I remember buying this game, with my own money, the same week it launched. It blew my mind how much it resembled Super Mario World (Not SMB3) and had the ability to save, like the SNES counterpart. This and Metroid 2 were what made the Gameboy feel like a legitimate game console rather than just a car ride time waster.

This is one of my favorite games of all time. I played the absolute hell out of it on my original Game Boy in the mid 90’s. Seriously some of my favorite childhood memories. 1,000%.

Great reminder on this one and I LOVE that you mentioned the early MST3K days. I got to work with Joel on the new seasons and he's still the mellow semi mad scientist he was back then.

Of all the mario games we grew up with as a kid, this is probably the one that most of us for one reason or another missed out on. Every mario fan should play it. I just discovered it a few years ago myself.

To me, this game and the original pokemon games just were set apart from basically every other gameboy game in what they could do. The size, the feel, the experience, how well done they were. They truly felt like something you would more expect on the NES, but got em on a platform far less capable. Super Mario Land 2 had flashes of Super Mario World. It was so well done.

The Color/DX hack of SML 2 is amazing! Its freakin gorgeous!

Nice to see you cover something more main stream. The hidden gem stuff is nice but since I didn't have a lot growing up it's cool seeing a review of something all of us had or at least played.

Man, the leap from Mario Land 1 to Mario Land 2 is crazy, I love both games, but 6 Golden Coins is like going from Mario Bros to Mario World or Bros 3 on the SNES even

I absolutely LOVE this game. It was my first Game Boy game, and for a long time my only one, and I never got bored of playing it, over and over again.

I normally don’t go the ROM hack route, but I bought a GBA cart with SML 1&2 in full color and never looked back. They did a great job on both!

This game has so many nostalgia neurons in my brain and seeing the witch fight in particular gave me a rush. I remember sitting playing this game while I waited to get haircuts when I was little. I need to find a gameboy.

4:38 Mario didn't press his luck after that close call lol

Super Mario Land 2 and Metroid 2 lived in my Gameboy growing up. I play through both often still. Nice Clyde cameo

I remember convincing myself that the Robot Mario stage MUST have a secret level seeing as all the other stages had at least one and searching for days as a kid.

This was one of my favorite Game Boy games I owned, right next to Final Fantasy Adventure, Rolan's Quest II and Sword of Hope II. Spent hours playing all these games after school instead of doing homework.

For sure. I still remember that commercial for SML2 with Wario. Grade A marketing.

This was the very first game I ever beat as a kid. Holds a real special place in my heart.

It's amazing how different early gen games and late gen games can be. What developers can do with the same hardware over 5-10 years, through knowhow and trickery. If you bought an Original Gameboy(brickboy) at launch with Tetris and Super Mario Land, 11 years later you could pick up Pokemon Gold/Silver and play on that same hardware.

Oh man, I had this game as a kid. I had completely forgotten about it until I saw this video and it's like I was taken back in time.

Fun fact: the boss of Space Zone is Tatanga, who is- in fact- the final boss of the original Super Mario Land.

I never minded the Game Boy being black and white; it was how painfully slow and blurry the screen was when refreshing pixels. Even as a kid (I was 11 when it released in the US) I thought the screen was unplayable. Now the Game Boy Advance?!?! Oh, sweet SNES in my pocket, how do I love thee!

Lord as soon as you started playing the boss music I could literally hear the boss sound effects I played and beat this game so many times, may have to dig out the gameboy and buy some new batteries for it

Oh, I remember getting this game for the GBC (my family was not in a good position back then so the discount bin was the norm). I remember that I was disappointed but then I played it... I'll just say that I replayed that game even in the GBA, because it was one of my favourites games ever. I haven't played it in 20 years and I recognised all the phases in the video! Great game indeed.

Loved this game as a kid and I absolutely bought the DX ROM hack cartridge and man, the big stupid smile on my face playing that game in gorgeous full color... Good times.

I played through this game for the first time today and not only did I like it more than Super Mario Land 1 but I even liked it more than Super Mario Bros 3. There are very few auto scroll sections and the bosses are more varied than the Koopa kids. I played the DX hack and I highly recommend it.

Man I totally forgot about this game! Crazy that it was on the gameboy. Another great video!

The second exit thing (and the bonuses you can get after) is what actually connects this episode to the first one.

3:17 the left-field reference to 80's MST3K made me spit-take like a cartoon character. I was one of the ones who Kept Circulating the Tapes!

Making Tuesdays and Thursdays great again