YMMV / Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Level 2 of Mario Zone is likely meant to be in the belly of a giant mechanical Mario, but on the map is set approximately in the crotch area. It's full of... balls. Big, bright balls, spiked balls, bears riding balls. Balls. Makes you wonder just how "accidental" it really is, as opposed to a deliberate innuendo.
  • In the first level of Space Zone, there is mound of rocks that resembles a certain rude hand gesture...
• Awesome Music: As expected per series tradition. Kazumi Totaka strikes gold in this game, delivering some of the best chiptune music you'll ever hear from a Game Boy speaker.
  • The "Athletic" (Overworld) theme, a super upbeat and fun standard level song that perfectly sets the tone for the entire game.
  • "Seashore", which is an extremely catchy Salsa variant of the overworld theme.
  • Star Maze is one of the funkiest songs in the game.
  • Wario's Castle. A sinister theme that fits the last level like a glove.
• Bizarro Episode: Like Super Mario Land before it, this game was produced by Gunpei Yokoi instead of Shigeru Miyamoto. As a result, it's completely different from what people are used to seeing in a Mario game. The usual recurring characters (Luigi, Peach, Bowser, etc.) aren't seen or mentioned, there's no princess to rescue, and it doesn't even take place in the Mushroom Kingdom. Instead, it takes place on an island Mario owns called "Mario Land", where he must deal with his Evil Counterpart, Wario, who brainwashed Mario Land's inhabitants and commandeered Mario's castle (yes, Mario has his own castle in this) while Mario was dealing with Tatanga in Sarasaland. Mario can eat a "Super Carrot" that gives him rabbit ears that give him the power to float in midair; he gains a feather in his cap when he gets a Fire Flower; the Invincibility theme that plays when you get a Star sounds nothing like the one modern players are used to; and you get extra lives by collecting hearts instead of 1-Up Mushrooms. It's not until 31 years later when Super Mario Bros. Wonder released, does a mainline game in the franchise have such surreal enough imagery and visuals to surpass it.
• Demonic Spiders: Those Wario heads in the final level. They are incredibly annoying to fight and cannot be skipped. The final boss is just up ahead, and you do not want to lose your preferred power-up before you face him. Unfortunately these things bounce all over the place, making them very difficult to predict, and they take two hits each to kill. Worse yet, they have an invincibility frame of their own - one mis-timed jump, and it's unavoidable damage. You cannot be blamed for using the 100-enemy-star trick to defeat them. On the flip side, you can kill them in one hit without need for a star with a well-timed spin jump.
• Difficulty Spike: Wario's Castle is far and away the most difficult level in the game, as well as the longest, and it contains no checkpoints.
• Even Better Sequel: While Super Mario Land was considered a very solid portable translation of the series, it picked up some criticism for its short length, simplistic graphics, and occasionally finicky controls. This game improves on its predecessor in terms of controls, length, complexity, and graphics, as well as introducing Wario, and is considered by some to be up there with Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros., and Super Mario Bros. Wonder as one of the best pure 2D Super Mario games.
• Fridge Brilliance The Carrot powerup is all about air maneuverability, so of course you can't spin-jump with it: despite being tall, Bunny Mario is too lightweight for it.
• Game-Breaker: The Bunny Ears allow Mario to fly over nearly every hazard, mix this with correctly used Button Mashing and it becomes even more overpowered where Mario barely loses altitude when you spam the jump button rapidly.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Space Zone. See Super Mario Galaxy. Its moon level is even more hilarious in light of Super Mario Odyssey, which has its final world set on the moon. As if that's not enough, it is accessed through the Hippo level, not unlike the Wonder Flower effect in Super Mario Bros. Wonder's Cosmic Hoppos.
  • A secret level in Turtle Zone has blocks and coins arranged to spell out "WARIO LAND 2"^note Although you can break two blocks and make two invisible blocks appear to change it to "MARIO LAND 2". Six years after this game, there actually was a Wario Land 2.
  • In the "Files" screen, you have the option to erase your file by turning into a Bob-omb with a Mario mustache and everything. Kinda looks familiar to Super Mario Odyssey. Though funnily enough, Bob-ombs don't even appear in Odyssey.
  • The Bunny Ears power-up looks identical to The Broodals, wedding planner rabbits hired by Bowser in Odyssey.
  • Though it serves a different purpose, this wouldn't be the last game to have a bell with eyes.
  • Rabbit ears facilitating flight would be an aspect of a character introduced many years later in the Sonic the Hedgehog series (Cream the Rabbit).
  • One level of Mario Zone is built out of N&B Blocks, a Lego-like toy made to compete with said company. Years later, an official Lego Mario set would be announced.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Obey Wario, DESTROY MARIO!!!" It proved so popular in its initial airing that the commercial for Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 used the same "hypnotized by Wario" premise even though hypnosis doesn't feature in that game. Hudson Soft used the same premise when advertising Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!.
  • On the Japanese side for the ads, "Ore Dayo! Wario Dayo!!" (roughly "It's-a me, Wario!") became one, being used to introduce Wario in the ads for every game he stars in, with some variant of it such as "Ore Dayo! Wario Dayo!! Geemu Dayo!!!" or "Oresama Dayo! Wario-sama Dayo!!".
• Most Wonderful Sound: The distinct 'BOING!' whenever Mario stomps on a boss enemy. Tatanga has his own unique variant of it.
• Newer Than They Think: While games like Super Mario World did experiment with non-linearity beforehand through the secret exits, this is the first Mario game to have a more non-linear structure where you can choose which world you want to go to as opposed to going in a linear order, before Super Mario 64 expanded on it and made it even more open-ended.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: One of the easiest Mario games out there, thanks to copious power-ups and extra lives, the game-breaking Bunny Ears allowing the player to fly over most hazards, the ability to exit a previously-beaten level at any time (and keep anything you acquired), the non-linear structure leaving the game without any real difficulty curve, and bottomless pits being less common than in most other games in the series.
• That One Attack: Wario ground pounds very often and the shockwave stun-locks you, leaving Mario open to attack.
• That One Boss:
  • The Three Little Pigheads. They each take three hits to defeat, and each one has harder attack patterns than the last, making it frustrating to both hit them and avoid their attacks in return.
  • The octopus, Pako, who is fought in a cramped underwater room, and who constantly sends out smaller octopuses that are invincible and tough to avoid.
  • Tatanga's speedy movement, difficult-to-avoid projectiles, and wonky hitboxes put him right behind Wario as the hardest boss.
• That One Level:
  • Star Maze. Those stars are going to kill you many, many times. It doesn't help that it comes immediately before the fight against Tatanga, either, though you're at least given a checkpoint.
  • While it's expected that a final level would be difficult, Wario/Mario's castle can be absolutely brutal. While the rest of the game (barring Space Zone) is relatively easy, the castle is a difficulty spike that can be very jarring for first time players. Combine pools of acid/lava, swinging spiked balls, spiked traps, and several jumps that require almost-pixel-perfect placement, and you've got a tough level. And no checkpoints either. On the plus side, the Bunny Ears power-up makes the stage much easier to manage, provided the player is able to keep hold of it.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The game is a massive step up from its predecessor graphics wise, as it contains very detailed expressive sprites and backgrounds that are nearly on par with the 16-bit Super Mario World, which is an incredibly impressive feat for an 8-bit Game Boy game.

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