When the Nintendo eShop launched on June 7, it marked the long-awaited arrival of of Virtual Console on a Nintendo handheld. The obvious stand-out was 1990 Game Boy classic Super Mario Land, but how does it stand up against today’s epic, full-3D games and is it worthy of its £3.60 price tag?

There’s every chance younger gamers will have missed the game’s original release, but hopefully they’ll believe me when I say Super Mario Land was an absolute phenomenon. Eight years after its release, it was still the Game Boy game at my primary school — I can remember someone bringing it in for “toy day” and huge queues forming in the classroom.

The game is a platformer in the purest sense: players control Mario as he runs and jumps his way through four kingdoms, attempting to rescue Princess Daisy from an alien named Tatanga. Like in modern Mario titles, enemies can be defeated by jumping on their heads and there are Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Starman power-ups to make the game easier.

Environments are surprisingly varied considering the Game Boy’s monochromatic graphics, and there are even levels where Mario pilots an aeroplane and submarine. They’re short, but they help liven up a game that can feel slow-paced at times.

One of the original game’s biggest problems was its lack of a save feature, something the Virtual Console version fixes with its restore points feature. Touching the bottom screen or pressing X at any point allows you to save or load your game, and reset the cartridge if you want to start from the beginning. Closing the software also saves your progress, although it doesn’t affect your restore point.

Let’s face it: Super Mario Land is definitely showing its age. And thanks to various app stores you could easily find a longer, better-looking game for less than Nintendo’s asking for. But it’s one of those rare platformers that’s just good fun — it’s varied without being overwhelming, challenging without being frustrating, and you’d be a fool to overlook it completely.

The Verdict

3 ¾ – Good

Super Mario land is very grey and very short, so it’s hard to justify giving it a higher rating. But whether you missed the game in the 90s or, like me, have fond memories of it, £3.60 seems like a reasonable price for some unadulterated retro-gaming bliss.