Note: I’ve recently learned that there have been updated versions of this homebrew released with graphical and control fixes, along with improved features closer to the Game Boy original Super Mario Land. Latest and last version of this is v1.5.

So I came across this little homebrew completely by accident, a SNES homebrew version of the Gameboy classic Super Mario Land. I had never played SML before or had a giant brick Gameboy save for playing emulators back in the day or borrowing a friend’s (I think that’s how I finished the og Link’s Awakening and Pokemon Red). Finding the rom, I fired it up on my phone emulator and had a blast with it! This project was originally a homebrew of SML as a Christmas gift for the anonymous programmer’s friends. Of course this being 2019 the rom got dumped online and can easily be flashed to a cart, or played on your favorite SNES emulator. I recommend Retroarch, Snes9x or Bsnes.

You can find more information about this amazing project and its history and videos at the below articles. More information can be found here:
RetroRGB Article
NintendoLife Article
Archive.org Download v1.5

So the question is, how does it play?

Just like the original SML, The superball replaces the Fire Flowers in SML, but you still get the superball from Fire Flowers. The superball bounces off walls and ricochets a few times before disappearing. So you can’t just walk up to something and hit it, you gotta jump since they travel on a diagonal motion. So sometimes you gotta figure out how to get the superball to ricochet off the walls properly to hit an enemy in an enclosed area. The graphics in this homebrew are gorgeous and look like something between Donkey Kong Country and New SMB for the WiiU, and the backgrounds are very detailed especially in the Egyptian pyramid levels.  These graphics are DS levels of quality! The bonus game between levels was included too! The play control and gameplay are much improved in the v1.2 of this homebrew.

In the original version of this homebrew, the play control can be janky at times, resulting in missing jumps or getting hit by enemies, or even accidentally wall jumping/sliding which take time to get used to. The controls feel like they want to be a Mario game, but it’s not polished enough like a true Mario title. It feels more raw like playing Mega Man 1 after you’ve played the more polished MM 2-6 titles. The difficulty for the bosses was turned up also, so you would find yourself dying a lot due to something unexpected. The music are remixes of the normal various level music from Super Mario Land, which you may find yourself whistling to yourself once it gets stuck in your head. The wall jump and slide does take getting used to, but there’s a number of spots where you want to use it or need it in coin rooms and to save yourself from falling into pits!

After playing the v1.5 for awhile, and then recently finishing it in one run on-stream (which surprised me!), I have to say these improvements are terrific! The play control is tighter, though I still kinda hate the wall slide and wall jump aspect. Music is the same, and Mario doesn’t yell YAHOO every single time he jumps. The boss fights seem easier too, more down to that of the Game Boy title from my understanding. Now I can really up my review and stars of this fun little project. I highly recommend this to any Mario fan looking for something new. I do want to play the original SML on-stream sometime. This homebrew is highly recommended. v1.5 fixed a lot of the control issues and some other bugs too!

I GAVE NEW SUPER MARIO LAND SNES HOMEBREW 4.5 OUT OF 5 STARS

GAMEPLAY VIDEO:

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