What Super Mario Bros. embodies is the spirit of a game winding down. Much as I consider Super Mario Bros. 3 the greatest game of all time, I would have to point to Super Mario Bros. as the Official Videogame of Judgment Day. When it all comes down to the end, all that will be left is Super Mario Bros.
I consider the entire eighth world -- and the skill it takes to beat it, and beat it skillfully -- part of this game's ending, its winding-down phase. It is the end of one game, and the beginning of videogames. Forget anything that came before it: Super Mario Bros.'s eighth world, with the increasingly genre-busting nature of its stages -- a broken staircase at the end of 8-1, 8-3's castles in the background, 8-4's inclusion of a water pit stage in a maze of stone and lava -- is The Videogame. At the end of the day, this is what it all comes back to: colored sprites against a black background; white bricks; man versus dragon; princess.
More in link. Having never beaten Super Mario Brothers, I say that Roger's description of the 8th world is incredibly spot on. No other platformer emphisizes skill and determination quite like Super Mario Brothers.
No comments:
Post a Comment