The Anatomy of Super Mario VII: A shocking turn of events

Donkey Kong Jr.‘s repetition of its predecessor’s beats continues here. Where its second level resembles Donkey Kong‘s third stage, the third level here somewhat evokes Donkey Kong‘s second stage.   Which is to say, it’s the low point of the game. The problem with this screen is similar to the one with the cement factory: […]

The Anatomy of Super Mario VI: Gradations

Everyone’s really angry right now about game systems they’ve never played, huh? That’s lame. Let’s do something different and get all salty about one that’s been around for a few decades instead. I’ll say this for the second level of Donkey Kong Jr.: It does a much better job of being a second level than […]

The Anatomy of Super Mario V: Junior league

After Donkey Kong exploded into what was the single biggest of success to that day for Nintendo, a company more than 80 years old at that point, a sequel became inevitable. Nintendo didn’t really know how video game sequels are supposed to work in those days, though, so they went about making a follow-up in […]