Moving right along.
I actually did manage to write some thoughts down for Super Mario Brothers but haven’t finalized it yet. I made the mistake of not organizing said thoughts too well but it’s better than nothing. Hopefully I can find the time to get through it soon, if not, it’s definitely coming out in June or something.
Merlee’s Mansion definitely took a step towards an interesting level design because it’s not so much a traditional dungeon than it is an actual dungeon. The set-up is that you break some property belonging to the mansion and have to pay Mimi back in rubies. You start toiling in the ruby mines and working for a living until you pay back the worth of the vase you broke. Of course, the speed in which you make rubies is wholly inefficient and the game tries to trick you into thinking by elevating your workstation, you can pay off you debt faster. Clearly, you’re not expected to actually pay back the debt earnestly and you have to find your way through the mansion to cheat the system. It was a very novel and hilarious idea that I really liked the first time through.
Lair of the Idle 