I have to give some due props to the crew behind this next video, Dante’s Inferno w/ Mario, brought to us by the good folks at Newgrounds.

Indeed, they took on a REALLY ambitious project, and I’m just sad to say that it really didn’t work out that well.  Basically, it’s the really, REALLY distilled story of Dante’s Inferno as presented by Mario and Toad from the Super Mario Brothers series.  Toad plays Virgil in this one, while Mario fills in on Dante.

The major problem with this is that it’s advertised as a funny retelling of the story, and it is, in a way.  It’s not very funny, sadly, and it doesn’t cover anywhere near the entirety of the original, so it sort of fails on that level too.  Of course, when you discover that this was done as a school project, you have to be a lot more forgiving, but still–it’s not a whole lot of fun to watch, and it’ll never make a substitute for the original.

But as a concept, it’s a real winner–even if the presentation is much, much less than it might have been.