Luigi Land: The Bootleg Invasion

From Mario Fan Games Galaxy Wiki
Luigi Land: The Bootleg Invasion
LuigiLandBootlegInvasion.png
Developer(s) Cap'n Coconuts
Announce Date Unknown
Release Date June 27, 2014
Genre Action
Players 1
Input Standard keyboard
Medium Game Maker
Platform Windows
Status Released
GotMAward.png Luigi Land: The Bootleg Invasion was named Game of the Month in June 2014.


Luigi Land: The Bootleg Invasion is a shoot-em-up minigame made by Cap'n Coconuts for MFGG's second Minigame Competition of 2014, getting third place. Despite not quite winning the competition, it was selected to be the Game of the Month for June 2014.

The latest released version on the mainsite is 1.1. Since the original release, Cap'n Coconuts has added balance fixes and a couple of new features, including a Casual difficulty for players having trouble completing the game.

Gameplay

In a sense, Luigi Land is a spiritual crossover of the Mario and Gradius series, as its power-up progression is similar to that in Gradius games. Luigi must collect Super Flowers to fill a meter which allows him to purchase upgrades for his ship, depending on how many flowers he has. The purchasable upgrades are:

  • Speed Up (1): Increases the Sky Pop's speed. While the game can be completed at minimum speed, additional speed may help the player dodge enemies and projectiles. However, additional speed can make it easier for the player to overcorrect and veer into a solid. This upgrade can be purchased many times per life.
  • Superball (2): Adds Superballs to Luigi's arsenal, fired at 45 degrees downwards. As in Super Mario Land, these ricochet off of solid terrain and can collect coins.
  • Double (3): Changes Luigi's main cannon to a 2-way shot (the second shot being angled at 45 degrees upwards), granting improved coverage. However, it lacks concentrated power unless you fire point-blank.
  • Bullet Bill (4): Changes Luigi's main cannon to a Bullet Bill launcher, intended to have excellent concentrated power. In addition to dealing more damage per shot, the Bullet Bill also accelerates, giving it a superior fire rate at long range compared to the standard or Double shot.
  • Option (5): Summons an attack drone that follows Luigi. The attack drone has all the firepower of the Sky Pop, effectively multiplying its damage.
  • Shield (6): Protects the hull of the Sky Pop, allowing Luigi to take a limited number of hits from projectiles or enemy collisions. The amount of protection granted depends on the difficulty.

The Sky Pop is more fragile than its Super Mario Land version; a direct collision with an enemy, projectile, or surface will result in the instant loss of life. Losing a life results in the loss of all purchased power-ups (though on all difficulties except Ace, you have a chance to catch your options before they drift off of the screen). A loss of life may leave the player significantly underpowered upon respawn, especially on Ace difficulty where there is no chance to recover lost power-ups whatsoever.

Not unlike the Gradius games, Luigi Land is fairly difficult, and those unfamiliar with shoot-em-ups may have trouble completing the game on even Novice difficulty. For this reason, Cap'n Coconuts added a Casual difficulty so that more people might be able to enjoy it.

Plot

Mysterious invaders from an unknown realm have conquered Sarasaland and taken Princess Daisy as their prisoner. Mario, being the princess-saving hero he is, goes off on a quest to save her but is overwhelmed and also taken captive. With the eldest Mario brother missing and the invaders threatening to invade the Mushroom Kingdom, Luigi has Professor E. Gadd upgrade the Sky Pop and takes to the skies.

After flying through the Birabuto kingdom and destroying everything in his path, Luigi encounters Super Boy, a character from a series of bootleg MSX and Sega Master System games developed by Zemina. Super Boy states in amusingly broken English that Sarasaland is now "contraband conquered territory" and "under the command of the US" (them, not the United States), to Luigi's confusion. After gloating, Super Boy jumped into his fighter plane and engaged Luigi in combat. Despite the plane's larger size and the apparent ability to fire walls of Banzai Bills while offscreen, Luigi prevailed and shot down the ship, presumably killing off Super Boy in the following explosion.

After his victory he finds Princess Daisy, and all seems to be well... but as it was in Super Mario Land, this Daisy is fake. Instead, the fake daisy turns out to be Ulona, a princess from the bootleg game Super Bio Man 4, who not unlike Super Boy speaks in broken English. At this point the game ends with a cliffhanger.

Reception

Luigi Land at this time has only one review, giving it a score of 10. It was awarded third place in the second Minigame Competition of 2014 and was declared the June 2014 Game of the Month.

Luigi Land has received nominations for the 2014 MFGG awards (Best Game Overall, Best Minigame, Most Original Gameplay, Best Story, and Best Use of Site Resources).