Super Mario Land

Super Mario Land is the first portable game in the Mario series, as well as that time Mario cheated on Princess Peach with Daisy.

Unused Graphics#

Sprites#

This sprite, which is reminiscent of the one used for Fiery Mario shooting fireballs in Super Mario Bros., is unused as the game will not change Mario's sprite when he shoots the ball projectile.

Here the sprite used in Super Mario Bros. for comparison.

Tiles#

On the title screen, this graphic tile for the top left corner of the sign is unused. The game uses an identical tile but with a bolt on it. See the screenshot on the right for reference.

This unused tile appears in the tile set used for world 1. It isn't known what this was going to be used for.

On world 1-3, the game uses black outline tiles for the brick walls, but only for the ceiling and left and right walls. The ground isn't given outline tiles since the graphic tile for the brick wall is already outlined at the top. The above tile is unused as a result. There doesn't exist a bottom-right corner outline tile, nor a cornerless ground outline tile.

This unused tile appears in the tileset for world 2 and looks related to the wall graphics used in world 1-3.

Another unused tile from world 2's tileset. Due to it being aligned close to the UFO's graphics, it might be related to the UFO's beam (at the beginning of world 2-1 and 2-2).

Yet another unused tile from world 2's tileset. It isn't known what this was going to be used for.

There are unused graphics for a right-facing pipe, present in each world's tileset.

These unused tiles are also present in the graphics in each world. It isn't known what they were going to be used for.

These symbols are not used throughout the entire game.

Unused Objects#

Unused Power-Up#

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There is what appears to be a level skip item that was cut from the game. It uses the same sprite as a falling platform and starts out still-standing with ID 4C. When Mario is on it, it changes to 4D and moves up 13 blocks. Then it changes to 4E, making it move to the right at two pixels per frame, essentially allowing the player to skip the rest of the level.

Other Unused Objects#

In addition to the above, the game never spawns object ID 26. It isn't known what this ID might have been used for.

Misplaced Objects#

A Nokobon/Bombshell Koopa is placed right above a pit in World 3-2. If you're quick enough, you can just barely see it as it falls to its doom.

Falling platforms inside the ground.

Unused Hidden Blocks#

Please elaborate. Having more detail is always a good thing.

The game reserves a tile in these two places in World 3-3 for a hidden block, but it cannot be triggered by normal means.

Unused Music#

The ladder-climbing track for the bonus game runs almost 8 seconds, but only the first 2 are heard normally. This may suggest the track once had a different purpose.

To listen to the full track, edit address $DFE8 to 0x0A or use the below Game Genie code to play the track in World 1-1:

Revisional Differences#

Audio#

All of the music was remixed in Rev 1 to change the way that the soundtrack utilized the Game Boy's stereo sound support, among other changes.

The death jingle had a noise percussion track added...

...As did the goal fanfare.

The autoscroller theme had its percussion changed from alternating between both channels to staying in the center of the soundstage.

Almost unnoticeable, in some tracks the first percussion sound was moved from the center to the right channel:

Sarasaland#

Cave#

Credits#

Popping was removed from some tracks, particularly noticeable in the intro of the Chai Kingdom theme and the track that plays when you rescue Daisy at the end of the game:

Chai Kingdom#

Oh Daisy#

Audio IDs#

Rev 0 will accept invalid audio IDs and attempt to play (glitched) soundtracks. Rev 1 doesn't play invalid IDs at all.

Screen Wraparound Glitch#

In Rev 0, there is a glitch that allows Mario to wrap around the screen on autoscrolling levels by holding Left while he is getting pushed offscreen. This was fixed in Rev 1.

References#