Great Game Stories: The Alien Who Wanted a Queen (Super Mario Land)

Once upon a time, on the smallest of screens, a plumber went somewhere no plumber had gone before. Not to the Mushroom Kingdom, and not to rescue Princess Peach, but to a stranger, sun-baked corner of the world that most travellers had never even heard of. This is the tale the little grey cartridge tells, and it begins with a shadow falling across a peaceful land.

This was the very first Mario adventure you could carry in your pocket, and its fairy tale is dreamier and odder than anything playing on the big television back home. So gather close, and let us begin where every good story does: with a hero, a villain, and a kingdom in trouble.

An alien wanted a queen. He got a plumber in an airplane instead.

The Characters

Our hero is Mario, and the little grey cartridge that carries him is labelled Super Mario Land. He is the same cheerful, coin-loving, ever-jumping fellow you already know, but here he is a stranger far from home, with no brother at his side and no familiar hills to run through. Everything around him is new, and so is the danger.

The one he has come to save is Princess Daisy, the bright and gentle ruler of a realm called Sarasaland. This was Daisy's very first appearance in any story, a brand new princess stepping onto the stage for the first time, and she spends this tale waiting bravely for rescue while a most unwelcome suitor makes his plans.

That suitor is Tatanga, and he is no ordinary villain. He is a mysterious creature from outer space, a spaceman with strange powers who came drifting down from the stars with conquest on his mind. Tatanga cast a spell of hypnosis over the people of Sarasaland, turning gentle creatures into obstacles, and he decided that he would make Princess Daisy his queen whether she wished it or not.

The World

Sarasaland is not one country but four, and each of its kingdoms feels like a different daydream. Mario must cross all four to reach Daisy, and no two of them look alike.

First comes the Birabuto Kingdom, a land of hot sand, ancient pyramids and watchful stone sphinxes. Then the Muda Kingdom, a warm and rolling sea where much of the journey happens beneath the waves. After that rises the Easton Kingdom, a windswept country of enormous carved stone heads standing silent on the plains. And last of all waits the Chai Kingdom, a misty, far-eastern realm of pagodas and drifting clouds, closest of all to the sky where the alien's warship hides.

The Adventure

Mario's road runs through twelve stages, three in each kingdom, thick with coins to gather and blocks to bump. His most delightful trick here is the Superball. Touch the right flower and Mario's throw becomes a bouncing little star that ricochets off floors and walls, striking foes and scooping up coins as it caroms about. It is a small magic, but it makes the whole journey sparkle.

At the end of each kingdom stands a guardian, and the first is King Totomesu, a fire-breathing sphinx with the body of a lion who blocks the way out of Birabuto's great pyramid. Here Mario learns a clever secret that repeats across the land: behind each guardian is a switch, and a brave plumber who leaps clean over the monster and slaps that switch can drop the beast away and open the door without ever winning a fair fight.

In the Muda Kingdom the adventure dives underwater, and Mario climbs into a tiny submarine called the Marine Pop to putter through the deep, firing at the fish and creatures who bar his way. At the bottom waits Dragonzamasu, a strange armoured seahorse who guards the exit with a spiky little helper at his side.

Dragonzamasu - Ruler of the Muda Kingdom

The Easton Kingdom is a place of stone, and its guardian is the mightiest sight yet: Hiyoihoi, a towering creature of living rock who hurls great boulders, the Ganchans, down the path to crush anyone foolish enough to approach. Mario must dodge, dart and keep his nerve among the falling stones.

At last comes the Chai Kingdom, all pagodas and pale cloud, where the final guardian is Biokinton, a grinning face riding a cloud who flings birds at Mario as he runs. Beat Biokinton, and only the open sky remains between Mario and the alien who started all this trouble.

Spoiler Alert: How It Ends

For the final chapter, Mario leaves the ground behind entirely. He climbs into the Sky Pop, a plucky little airplane, and soars up into the skies above Chai to meet Tatanga face to face. The alien fights back from his warship, and the two trade fire across the clouds while Mario weaves between the shots, patient and stubborn.

When at last Tatanga's ship is battered from the sky, the spell over Sarasaland shatters. The four kingdoms wake as if from a bad dream, the hypnotised creatures come to their senses, and there stands Princess Daisy, free at last. She greets her rescuer, the clouds part, and the smallest Mario adventure ends with the whole of Sarasaland safe and at peace. Not bad for a story you could fit in one hand.

If you would like to meet the very cartridge that first carried Mario into your pocket, you can find Super Mario Land waiting quietly in the collection. Come and see it at the Game Boy Museum.