super mario bros.
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How Princess Peach’s Story Draws On 2000 Years Of Women In Peril
Nintendo’s Princess Peach is the quintessential damsel in distress. She’s such a damsel cliché that she’s more important as a plot device than as an actual character. Whether you know her as Peach or Toadstool, her name doesn’t matter so much as the “Princess” preceding it. Mario’s leading lady is such a damsel cliché that…
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Music Is The Secret Weapon Of Mario Speedrunners
Is there anything so satisfying to watch as a well-played Mario speedrun? What makes an expert run of Super Mario Bros. so eminently watchable, and how do the players master their moves so perfectly? It turns out that the answer to both questions could be “music.”
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I Try To Play Super Mario Bros. 2 Once A Year
I try to play Super Mario Bros. 2 every spring in the US. The game’s bright colours, whimsical level design, and obsession with weeding make it feel right at home around the time of the the vernal equinox, and it’s also one of the easiest to pick up and play. It isn’t as challenging as…
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Super Mario Bros. Speedruns Are One Step Closer To Best Possible Time
Super Mario Bros. speedruns are almost as perfect as humanly possible. The swift sprint through the Mushroom Kingdom has only seen incremental gains over the last few years, with runners besting times by fractions of a second. Runs of the game have become so optimised that it seemed impossible to do any better. Yesterday, a…