Mario Bros. (1983)

Platform: NES -- Developer: Nintendo

The collision and controls don't feel great, variously too slippery or too stiff. They become a real hindrance in a platformer emphasizing efficient motion through a set space, but they can be forgiven as “demanding” if the rest of the game works around them.

The game drops the pseudo-maze structure of Donkey Kong and DK Jr. in favor of a "waves of enemies" structure. That could definitely be engaging, even on the limited screen space of the NES, with (1) greater variety of enemies -- by my count there are three different kinds of enemies, five if you're generous and count the icicles you don't have to kill and the fireballs you can't kill -- and (2) any variation at all in the physical environment between "phases." Without either of those things, the "12 phases" are tired by phase 5, to say nothing of looping through them endlessly for a high score.

We're also losing what little narrative push we had with the DK games -- a damsel-in-distress, a kidnapped father -- in favor of two dudes cleaning out crabs and turtles from a sewer. I'm sure there's more in the game booklet, but I'm not going to re-listen to a record because the liner notes write an epic tale.