Super Mario Land

• Birabuto Kingdom - The first kingdom, with a desert theme, including stages that take place on top of giant palm trees and inside of pyramids.
• Muda Kingdom - Takes place in water-themed levels, including an underwater stage where Mario pilots a submarine.
• Easton Kingdom - An Easter Island-themed stage, with some underground levels.
• Chai Kingdom - An Asian-themed kingdom, with a final level that takes place in the air.
  

Gameplay

Super Mario Land plays a lot like any other Mario platforming game, you move using the D-pad, hold B to run and hit A to jump, however there are a few distinct differences. Firstly, when Mario grabs a fire flower he will not be transformed into Fire Mario, but rather he will gain the ability to throw "super balls." Super balls bounce off of objects instead of disintegrating like fireballs do. Other than that they're used exactly as Mario uses fireballs.

In this game, for the first time, Mario pilots vehicles. He first climbs into a personal submarine called the Marine Pop, which fires torpedoes. Later, he climbs into his airplane, called the Sky Pop, which also fires missiles and basically controls exactly as the submarie does, only in the air instead of underwater.  During these levels, the screen scrolls automatically, and so obtaining a super mushroom, which makes Mario and his vehicle larger, can sometimes be a disadvantage, as it makes it harder to avoid being trapped behind obstacles as the screen scrolls to the right.
  
Every third level ends with a boss fight, where Mario is challenged to either defeat the boss with fire balls, (or torpedoes/ missiles on the submarine/ airplane levels), or avoid the bosses attacks and run past it to activate the secret switch which instantly defeats the boss. When you fight Biokinton and Tatanga there is no secret switch available for you to hit. All other levels have two exits, one of which is located towards the top of the screen, the other at the bottom. If Mario reaches the higher exit, then he is rewarded with a mini-game, where he can win either a fire flower or up to 3 lives. Collecting 100 coins will earn Mario and extra life and earning 100,000 points will net him an extra continue. It is the only game in the Super Mario Land series that does not offer the option to save.

After you beat the game, you unlock "Hard Mode," where enemies are moved around on the stages to make them more difficult. If you beat the game a second time, then you unlock a "Level Select Mode", and you can choose to replay any of the games 12 levels.

Trivia

• Super Mario Land sold 18.4 million copies, making it one of the best selling games in the Mario Series and a top five highest selling game for the Game Boy.
• It is revealed in Super Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins that Wario was behind the events of the first game setting them up as a distraction, Tatanga makes his only return to date as one of Wario's henchmen.
• It is the first Super Mario title not to feature Peach, Toad or even Luigi.
• It is the only game in the series to feature the Superball power up.
• It is the second game in the Super Mario series not to feature Bowser. (The first was Super Mario Bros. 2)