NES classics remade with the Smash level editor

Read on for the videos of our creations as well as a run down of how well old-school platformer design stands up to a good hard smashing.

Donkey Kong

We were itching to give Mario and DK a current gen rematch of their first encounter as soon as we opened up the level editor. Here's how we translated the level design to Brawl. (Incidentally, the NES screeenshot in the editor is just a bit of video trickery on our part. Brawl doesn't come with built-in guides, more's the pity)

And here's how the carnage played out.

How authentic is it?

The level editor let us do a really, really good job on this one. The thin, slanting platforms and ladder items seemed tailor-made for Donkey Kong, and the relative simplicity of the stage design meant that putting it together was very easy. As with all of these custom levels, the tile-based interface of the editor translated very closely to the layout of the original 8-bit graphics, so getting an accurate copy was a breeze.

How does it play in Brawl?

Brilliantly. This is genuinely one of our favourite Brawl levels. The width and height of the stage allow for some really varied, widely spread battles, and the lack of any walls or ceiling means that there's nowhere you can be safe from a fist-based launching when your damage meter hits the danger zone. Using platforms that can be jumped through gives everyone completely free movement around the level and makes every fight fast, kinetic and completely unpredicatable. Just as they should be.