Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins GAMEBOY

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, released in 1992, largely abandoned the first game’s Sarasaland detour and pulled the series back toward the mainline Mario formula — while introducing a character who’d go on to headline his own franchise. Wario, Mario’s first real antagonist rival, appears here as the villain who’s taken over Mario’s castle in his absence, setting the entire plot in motion.

Structurally, it breaks from a straight linear world map: the six golden coins that give the game its name can be collected in almost any order, across six themed zones (space, a giant tree, a pumpkin-headed haunted zone, and others) that the player can tackle non-sequentially, an unusually open structure for a Game Boy platformer at the time.

It’s also notable as Mario’s first appearance with a raccoon-tail-style power-up on the Game Boy, and for ending directly with the boss fight against Wario that sets up his own spin-off series the following year.