It wasn't made by Miyamoto's team but by R&D1, Gunpei Yokoi's group, and that creative distance shows: space-themed zones, a giant whale, a Mario hidden inside a tree, and oversized sprites that ditched the miniature scale of the first Land. It included battery-backed saving, a portable luxury for its time. Its villain debuts an empire here: Wario arrived to stay, taking over the castle and eventually the whole series.
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