Mario Collection: 5 lesser-known gems we’d love to see remastered

If Nintendo is working on a Mario Collection, here are five games we want to see.

Nintendo has been dropping a lot of hints that they’re working towards remastering many of the old Mario games and possibly even dropping them in a collection. It’s something I’m honestly stunned they haven’t done already.

Now, it’s a safe bet we know what’s going to be on there. There’s going to be Super Mario Bros 3. There’s going to be Super Mario World. There’s going to be Hotel Mario (okay, maybe not that one).

But here are five games from the Marioverse that are probably NOT going to be in the remastered collection and it’s an absolute shame because these deserve a lot of love. We’re going to do this in chronological order from the earliest release date to most recent, which means we need to start with…

Super Mario Land (1989)

Originally a launch title for the original Game Boy, Nintendo’s flagship portable brick allowed us to finally play Mario on the go. But for a lot of people, it was not the Mario game we were expecting. Instead of saving Peach from Bowser (which in 1989 was still novel), you were instead heading to Egypt-inspired Sarasaland to save Princess Daisy. Or as I like to call her, the Queen. Seriously, Daisy is the best and shame on y’all for not stanning her.

The gameplay starts off very similarly to what you’d expect from a Mario game. There’s some blocks, some question blocks and a Goomba just ripe for stompin’. But the game takes a weird spin from there.

While Super Mario Land features the signature Mushroom, which allows Mario to grow and take a hit, it doesn’t have the fire flower. Instead, you get the Superball Flower. This bizarre powerup allowed Mario to throw a ball in front of him at a 45-degree angle which would bounce around the stage until it either hit something or left the screen. It felt great when you connected and absolutely ruined your day when you missed and I loved it.

In addition to the strange powerup, there were a lot of other new twists that really made you feel like you were in a new place. Go ahead, stomp on that Koopa. What? It’s shell turned into a bomb and killed you because you were standing too close? Yup. They’ll do that.

Also if you weren’t ready for a Mario game where you had to hop into a jet or submarine and blast your way through enemies, walls, and bosses, strap in because this game has all of that.

I would absolutely love to see Super Mario Land remastered, especially with the legendary soundtrack intact. Maybe even add a bonus option where you can give it the original Gameboy screen’s color scheme. Just please don’t force me to sit under a bright lamp to play it (Kids, ask your parents.)