Terry Cavanagh

“They all cut and the last one kills.”

Atari-esque set of little platformer levels, capturing different mechanics. Notably metatextual: Some (all?) of them seem to reference specific memorable levels from other games, primarily in mechanics rather than visuals.

• The Mario level where you run across the bridge at full speed
• That moment in Chemical Plant Zone (Sonic 2) where you're running out of air but the platforms you use to climb are also slowing you down from reaching the surface.
• The famous MegaMan 2 level where you are falling and have to memorize which way to go.

Other callbacks are more explicit - Pitfall is one of four level “types,” as is Mario water levels. There's a type (with keys and doors) that made me think of Metroid first but then of VVVVVV.

I'm not sure what meaning to read into it, except the explicit memento mori in the (recurring) last level commenting on the waste of our own need to see everything, try every game, even though so many of them reduce down to the same thing (illustrated here by pulling all these examples into the same Atari style and simple mechanics). There's probably another layer about our desperation to find something new in the repetition - and honestly, a little wonder that we sometimes do!