Wikipedia:Peer review/Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels/archive1

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

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I've listed this article for peer review because I'm trying to get the article up to GA and make a Super Mario GT. It's been three years since the last GAN, and I would like to know where needs to be improved to get it to GA (or FA if you want to say that instead) and would be happy to get a good review.

Thanks, Darrman (talk) 08:45, 25 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by Melchoir

I'm not active at GA, but I think this article is very close to GA quality already!

Some general thoughts:

The lead section should be a summary of the body of the article, but it currently mentions some things that aren't repeated. In particular, "confusion amongst fans" and "intended to challenge players" could be expanded upon in the body.
The Gameplay section is a good listing of details, but it should start with a high-level overview before diving in. Something like "This game is very similar to Mario 1, with minor innovations and a higher difficulty." Also, if possible without getting into original research, something should be said about differences in level design that contribute to the difficulty, not just the new game mechanics. For example, are there larger pits that are harder to jump across than in the first game?
The reuse of music was a little confusing on a first read. The Gameplay section says "Aside from improved sound quality, the background music and sound effects are reused entirely from the previous game (except for sounds added for Mario or Luigi skidding and the wind blowing)." When I read that, I got the impression that there was no new music in the game. Then the Development section says "The game largely re-used the musical pieces from its predecessor, though there were also new compositions, such as the ending theme". I had to go back and re-read both sentences before I noticed the difference. Maybe in the first sentence, remove "entirely", and in the second sentence, replace the vague "largely" with something more specific?
In Development, Nintendo of America is talked about as if it were a person with thoughts and emotions. It sounds strange, and it makes me wonder if we can be more specific. If possible, it might be better to talk about the actions of individual executives.
I added a couple citation-needed templates for paragraphs in the Re-releases section. Also, please double-check that every date listed in the infobox is backed up by a citation somewhere.

I don't think the article is comprehensive enough for FA. This is always tricky to judge, since we're limited to whatever information has already been published, and I'm not familiar with the literature. Anyway, here are some ideas:

The article should describe the development calendar. When did development begin, were there any milestones before release such as press demos or public betas, etc.
Was the higher level of difficulty an accident, or an intentional design? More insight into the design in general would be good. Are there any interviews with Miyamoto that would shed light?
There's only one review, by IGN. For such a popular game, I would expect to see more reviews.
The Japanese version of the article doesn't have references, but you could use it to get ideas. I see that it describes a TV commercial, which might be worth a mention. (I don't speak Japanese; I'm just using Google Translate.) You might want to skim all of the other languages to see if there's anything else that we're missing in enwiki.

Potential sources:

The developer of Super Meat Boy cites Lost Levels as part of a tradition of games that bring out your inner masochist[1]
This book seems to have something to say:[2]
This magazine seems to talk about the difficulty, but with Google's limited preview it's hard to tell:[3]
Try "1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die"
Like its predecessor, Lost Levels is NP-Hard:[4]
"An interesting counter example of a game that was developed to reverse some of the learned conventions is Mario Brothers The Lost Levels (Suellentrop, 2007). This game did not gain much…"[5]

By the way, if anyone here would like to return the favor, I have an open peer review at Wikipedia:Peer review/Parity of zero/archive1. :) Cheers, Melchoir (talk) 23:50, 8 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I have 1001, Darrman, if you'd like a ref from the book. czar · · 09:16, 20 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]