One of the ways that I know my brain is in engaged in a slow, synaptic erosion towards a state of oatmeal-like gruel is by my ever worsening skills at video games that ruled my world as a child. I used to pwn Super Mario Bros., back in the NES days. I could win that game on one life (yeah, so I used warp zones…I was still pretty damn good!). Now, sitting in a rank puddle of urine and feces, sweating, swearing and screaming at my television, I’m lucky to get to level 5.

Yesterday, I was reading about how the little-known and rarely seen original Japanese sequel to Super Mario 1, “SÅ«pā Mario Burazāzu 2″ a.k.a. “Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels” had been made available for the Wii’s virtual console. The article I was reading had a lot to say about how much more difficult and maddening this release is and how the creator might very possibly have been in a deep depression that led to his making a release that is a total fuck-off-and-die-trying type of game for all those budding Mario fans out there in the mid 80’s. I decided that I must have it.

As soon as I got home, I ponied up the 600 Wii points ($6) and downloaded it. I can safely say that “Lost Levels” is one fucking ass-rape of a hard game. I couldn’t even complete the first world, though I will keep spanking away at it.

On a similar Nintendo note, while I was browsing the Wii Shop Channel. I nabbed Super Mario Bros. 3, a game I’d completely forgotten about. I spent many, many a completely drugged-to-the-gills evening playing that game in high school. I loved it and now I own it again and can resume blowing away whole nights zoning to it—minus the hallucinations and eventual vomiting. The Wii is the greatest thing ever.

I bought Super Paper Mario for my much loved Wii about two weeks ago and I’ve fast become addicted to it. A short while ago, I posted how I had rediscovered the original Super Mario Bros. using the Wii’s virtual console. To pair it against the latest installment in the Mario franchise, it’s great to see how they’ve kept many elements that made the first game so much fun while expanding on it without losing focus and quality. I especially like how you turn the Wii remote sideways (making it a super hi-tech version of the original NES controller) in order to play the game.

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