Had I owned this back in the day, it mightve seemed more fun, but playing it today out of curiosity, it's not really much of a great entry in the Mario series.
The problem probably lies within it being created by the guy who designed the gameboy and the Metroid series. It just doesn't play or really look the way a Mario game should be. It has worse sprites than the NES here and you can really see and feel the difference between this and its Nintendo made sequel.
I've already mentioned the sprites don't look right. Even in larger mushroom form, the Mario brothers just look weird. Like small bodies and large heads. It is interesting tho that it's added a plane and submarine in certain levels, giving a new type of experience in a Mario game, however there are far better versions of that type of game out there.
Something also interesting is it introduces Daisy to rescue, instead of Princess Peach. The character then went on to appear in the Movie flop of 1993, leaving the impression for many fans that Daisy is Luigis girlfriend, tho I don't think that's ever been officially confirmed in the games series.
I found too many things rather annoying about this game, not just the sprites, but the mechanics of the game. Quite often it's annoying to position Mario/Luigi right to enter pipes, but worse is when trying to land on a platform and either slipping through the edge and dying or sliding off completely. Really annoying that.
It's a pretty short game too, I think it was only 4 worlds? 4 stages each? I'm not sure, but very short for a Mario game, even a Gameboy one.
Being 2023, I played a coloured version of the game, which did improve it a bit from the original black and white/green. However it still has all the cons and in my opinion one of the least favourable Mario games of them all.
I'd recommend Mario Land 2, but not this one. Not to any casual gamers anyway, if you're a Mario buff or just curious to play it, yeah, go for it. But if you've never played it, you're not missing out on a must-try experience here. There are much better Mario games out there actually created by the original Mario makers.