Everyone knows how to play the original Super Mario Bros. Go from left to right, jump over the gaps, stomp on some goombas, and reach the flag at the end of the level. But one question remains: Why?
That’s what Luigi wants to know in Ennuigi,a small and funny browser game created by independent developer Josh Millard.
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As Millard explains in the game’s description, he wanted to look critically at the universe of Super Mario Bros., seeing as how the game lacks explicit narrative that explains what the hell is going on.
“Who are these strange men?” He asks. “What motivates them? By what right do they wreak the havoc they do on this strange place? What do they feel about where they are and what they’re doing?”
Luigi ruminates about all of this and the very nature of existence like an angsty teenager who just finished writing a book report about Albert Camus’ The Stranger.
Image: Ennuigi
It’s great gag, but not as fun to play as the original Super Mario Bros. You can walk to the left or right, press up to ruminate, and press down to smoke.
As he notes in one of his better musings, about the frustrating fact that the princess is always in another castle:
“Another castle. Always another castle. And yet we always ask, ‘where is the princess’ and never think to ask whence these castles.”
Makes you think.
You can play Ennuigi for free here.
