Review - Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy, 1994)

I'm a big fan of both the absolutely weird Super Mario Land and the more conventional but still plenty wacky Super Mario Land 2. Wario Land, the third game in the series, ditches Mario as its hero in favor of Wario, has some truly goofy enemies, and lets you power up using garlic. While it hits a lot of the same odd notes as the previous Land games, Wario Land is absolutely its own beast.

Review - Super Mario Land 2

Super Mario Land 2 continues its predecessor's tradition of taking a traditional Mario game in a weirder than usual direction. While Mario was off saving Princess Daisy in the previous game, a jerk named Wario came to Mario's private island (complete with its own gigantic, motorized statue), unleashed monsters, broke into his house, and took all his bling. There's no princess to save here, no Bowser to fight; this game's all about evicting Wario from your mansion.

Review - Super Mario Land

Almost all of the Mario Bros platformers are high quality games, but I've got a special fondness for some of the weirder ones. Without a doubt, my favorite Mario game is Super Mario Bros 2 (The good one, not "The Lost Levels") but I place Super Mario Land, which debuted with the Game Boy in 1989, pretty close to the top of my list. It's as well designed as any Mario Bros game but with a special coat of strangeness on top of it.