#51: Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nintendo, NES, 1988/1991)

As lovely as it is as a way of perceiving Super Mario Bros. 3, it is of course a video game, not a stage show. It can do things that break that model completely, and that’s where it gets even better. This is the game with Giant Land, a joyously whimsical twist where a constant, reliable variable (size) gets thrown out the window. It’s the game where the setting of World 5 only becomes clear half way through when you reach a level that climbs up and up until you go through a pipe upwards still further and emerge in a whole new world map, up in the clouds.