Game:

Super Mario Bros. (1985)

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Or it could be a football... but it definitely has huge fangs!
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(don't worry, this world is nearly over with, and these obtuse and obscure references can stop)

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Also, what's the deal with playing a Super Game Boy game WITHOUT the parts that ostensibly make it "Super" and not just "Game Boy"?

To see this in all its bordered glory:
   • [Super Game Boy] Donkey Kong -- #3. Geomet...  

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While I'm being up-front about my failings... apparently I managed to get the capture a bit off in the audio department. Specifically the timing.

Alas, my ages-old foe. All the way back to my FIRST upload series of the NES Castlevania to more recent adventures with Advance Wars Re-Boot-Camp (and the original Advance Wars!)... I will always find a way to incur the wrath of this technical devil.

As with the more recent incidence, it's not EXTREMELY notable per se... but it DOES get progressively worse and distracting over time.

This game is mercifully slow-paced and contemplative as it is, so the effect is... I want to say relatively minimal. I still want to acknowledge and non-apologize for not scrapping the whole project immediately over it.

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Big City

I don't really feel the need to dig deep into these stages at the moment, because they're pretty strongly coded with the good ol' design sense of ye olde Nintendo, much as the opening formation of World 1-1 essentially teaches you 90% of what it takes to play Super Mario Bros.

In that spirit, the more imminently important bits of information are the carefully strung-along constant influx of new game mechanics that will gradually begin to interact and coalesce into a richer tapestry of true full-on puzzle platformer complexity.

To wit: we are introduced to... um... THESE... thingies! Little "powerup" icons in the form of double-headed horizontal and vertical lines. Not line segments or even rays, but honest-to-goodness LINES! ... ... ...no one?

Like the geometric LINES they truly are, they represent an infinitely-expansive linear asset: platforms for the horizontal and ladders for the vertical. You can use these to navigate entirely new bespoke paths through the stage! ...but only for a limited time!

When the increasingly urgent-sounding jingle ends and the effect is dispelled, it's important to note that there are some unspoken caveats to this process:

You can reset the effect's timer by picking up another of these linear aids.

Platforms and ladders will dissolve in real time when their effect ends, starting from the point of origin and expanding outward from there. (In the same, but opposite, fashion as they were generated, in fact!)

All of these icons will regenerate when the effect ends. This allows you to try again and again, in case you messed up somewhere along the way during the process of using them. Puzzle!

You may have noticed that THIS rendition of Mario is quite the one-hit wonder. No, not his acrobatics, I mean in his durability! Nearly anything hostile or hazardous in the environment will terminate the poor plumber and/or carpenter in a single hit!

The curious exception is when he's carrying something (most frequently the stage's exit key), which will most often simply bowl him over temporarily and cause him to drop what he was holding. (Beware, anything once he and his load are parted may once more prove imminently fatal!)

The most ever-present of these hazards is humble gravity. Something the demos of the late-breaking "Part 0" of this series shows off, elegantly or otherwise, is the fact that a fall from excessive heights will cause him to collapse into a comically helpless heap on the floor. This flexes your survival rate from such things to about twice as far a fall as the original arcade Jumpman would find crushingly fatal.

There are limits, however, and falling from TOO great a height will cause him to fall on his head and expire in somewhat less comical slapstick. I mean... it was always there in the way Jumpman expressed the end of his short life in the arcade, we're just playing up the angle faithfully.

You can tell when this is happening, because Mario's apparently floaty descent will be accompanied by animation of him losing control of his descent and finding his poor noggin in extreme peril. Perhaps even time enough for the five stages of grief before impact?

You can actually turn certain less extreme cases of the non-fatal form of harmful fall into a chance for Mario to demonstrate his acrobatic tumbling skills (not seen in the demos!) by tucking and rolling to preserve his ambulatory agency, instead of said aforementioned crumpled heap state... but it definitely won't save you if you're well on your way to landing on your head. (Try not to do that!)

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Every four stages culminates in a showdown with DK. The finale of each themed "world" is generally an actual battle to bonk the simian with handy local fixtures!

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