Dear gentle reader, You probably don't know that I have been living overseas in the African country of Kenya for the past 10 months. I suffered a serious illness and was required by my physician to stay with my family for as long as necessary. During that time I was able to play some amazing games. One of the games that immediately comes to mind is Super Mario Bros. 3. There are so many good things about this little 8-bit masterpiece that I don't even know where to begin. First of all, It's Mario! The King of FUN! I'm trying to think analytically about what makes this games so good. For one thing, the level designs are a pure stroke of genius and are surprisingly memorable (most notably the super-sized koopa troopas and goombas). Each level is genuinely unique and well crafted offering plenty of eye candy as well as versatility. Secondly, the music is as good as 8-bit music can get. I'm not going to say it is "mind-blowing" incredible, because there were other game soundtracks of the same era which offered greater and more impressive tunes (Y's Book I & II comes to mind). Plus, I do miss the original Super Mario Bros. theme which has become a compositional classic among devoted pianist, guitarist, and other musicians (just check it out on YouTube). Third is gameplay. My brother has recently founded several 2D games using a freeware program called Gamemaker which he found off the internet. I haven't experimented around with it myself, but I've watched him create a space shooter, fighter, and a turn-based strategy game. This exposure has helped me appreciate just how much work went into making the "in-flight" mechanics of the Super Mario Bros. games. How they were able to create such ultra-precise controls while Mario maneuvers in the air is astounding to me (if you need an impression of what the mechanics would be without it, just play Bionic Commando for the NES. When you fall, you fall straight down... no aiming your landings) Finally, as if playing single player isn't enough entertainment for you, I found myself even more engaged into the game when I was competing for lives with my brother. I was surprised by the strategy elements that appear in the game when selecting which levels you were going to play knowing that if you died the clearance of that level would be erased. Even with both of us playing we found the game to be extremely challenging and at times down right frustrating, but at least we were sharing the frustrations together (and that is what true brothers are for)...

Dear gentle reader, I humbly request your patients as this is my first time to be involved with any kind of blog. My goal for this blog is recount my experience in trying to beat Gamespot's "Greatest Games of All Time" list. I was hoping to right a review for each game as I beat them, but I'll have to first advance to Level 3 on my Gamespot status. So until then, I will be using this blog as a chance for my gentle readers to share in my quest.