A game I really enjoyed playing with friends in middle school was Super Mario Bros, a memory that was sparked by the reading. The game used combinations of loops and arcs on different levels to create the narrative arc of Mario and his friends chasing Bowser and his accomplices across the universe to go rescue Princess Peach. Each level started with smaller skill loops that combined together to larger skills, like the running skill combination with the jumping skill used to run and jump over a cliff. On each level, the skill combinations got progressively harder, and each level had a narrative theme that pushed the story forward. The players started in the green and happy Mario-esque world, defeated Bowser’s accomplice there, and then chased them to the next desert world with new challenges and required skills. These narrative arcs at each level followed the same structure but pushed the story forward until the final level, where the players defeat Bowser and rescue Princess Peach.
