Super Mario Galaxy

[Nxs]

‘Itsa me, Mario!’ …again!

For over 25 years the gaming masses have fallen in love with our favorite plumber and his brother, along with the princess that always seems to get kidnapped. Mario first appeared in Donkey Kong in 1981 (yes that long ago!) and was a huge success in Super Mario Brothers for the NES. This guy has seen more action than every action star put together over the past 20 years! This year he is back in his new game: Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii (which will now be known as SMG). Is SMG to be another successful incarnation of the series? Read on fanboys, 'Read on!'

Graphically SMG doesn't fall short of expectations, but it is not leaps and bounds over what we have seen on the GameCube either. Of course, it really doesn't need to be as it is a Mario game after all. The graphics might be a little more crisp and colorful but nothing major. No one will pop the game in and say "damn, that is some great graphics there!", but they suffice. If there was something wrong with the graphics I would point it out but, there isn't. There is pretty much nothing there that will make you stop and ask why are the graphics so bad but at the same time nothing will make you stop and say "Wow, Maybe the Wii could play Crysis!".

I am not going to lie here, but I don't really pay attention to the sound in a game unless something really stands out and since nothing really did, we can sum up the sound really quick! If you have ever played a Super Mario game, you know what to expect. If you haven't, you should be shot! If you are too young, stop reading this and go play one! As always though there is no real speech in the game to speak of. You would think in this day and age we could stop reading thought bubbles and have something to listen to instead! That is my only complaint.

Ahhhh… now it is time to review the gameplay. The part of any review I focus on the most! Why? If you don't know the answer, go away! When you first start SMG, you are walking to see Princess Peach collecting ‘star bits’ (I will cover what these do later!) and talking to the toadstool people along the way. Soon enough though, Bowser intervenes, kidnapping the Princess, her castle and taking you along the way! Now you are ready to start your journey to save the princess… yet again!

The first thing I am going to cover is the controls cause let's face it, it is on the Wii and this is a big thing. You need both the Wiimote and the attachment to play. The nunchuck part is what controls Mario’s movement. The Wiimote houses the buttons for firing the star bits, pause, checking your mail, and the all important jump button. Using the stick on the nunchuck controls Mario’s movement, which unfortunately, can be a pain in the ass sometimes. However one of the buttons on the nunchuck will reset the camera to the default position behind Mario, which is nice as the camera positioning can be a bitch! To be quite honest the Wiimote does nothing really exceptional aside from housing the buttons that can’t fit on the nunchuck. One of the good things about it is the B button shoots your star bits. Essentially the controls work like something from a FPS, i.e. Move with the nunchuck, shoot with the Wiimote, which is simple enough and can be picked up with a few hour of practice.

Back to gameplay! After your initial run in with Bowser, you will meet some lady that explains what you need to do. She tells you that the princess is being held captive in the center of the universe, which you can't get to yet! So, your job is to collect stars to activate observatories that are able to teleport you to other galaxies with the possibility that you can finally reach the galaxy that Princess and Bowser are in. At this point, you will see where you are going to spend most of your time. It is a little space station where you get to every observatory you need to get to. Sure, there are other things there as well, such as a little star that shows you your galaxy maps, receive your mail, and you can find extra dudes in the same spot every time you come back there. At first you have a limited amount of galaxies open to you, but as you collect more stars and grand stars, you open more galaxies. All the galaxies have a number on them so you will know exactly how many you need to get there. If you are like me, you will go through every one of them! This inevitably opens up galaxies further away and you can skip to them. I have never done it but, you can!

We shall hit the ‘star bits’ now. Along your ‘Galaxian’ journey, you will find star bits! These are multi-colored pieces of stars that resemble the nastier end of a mace! For every 50 star bits you collect gets you will be rewarded an extra man. The star bits can also be used as ammunition to shoot at your enemies and other things. When you shoot them at some enemies it will render them dizzy and you can go forth and kill them! When you kill an enemy this way, you will be rewarded with three more star bits. You will also be able to use the spin move by shaking the Wiimote back and forth to kill them (This also results in three star bits). However, if you jump on them to kill, you will get a coin. This will replenish your life so, keep that in mind! The Wiimote is useful for this as it aims (Although my calibration seems to be off a little bit!) and the Wiimote will grab the star bits for you so you don't have to walk to get every one, which is very helpful! Not only do the star bits gain you extra lives and help to kill enemies, but they are also useful for opening up new galaxies and purchasing extra lives or extending your life by three!. ‘Life by three?’ I hear you cry!, ‘What on Earth are you talking about man?’ Yes that is right, I forgot to mention that you have a pie life of three. Meaning that if you get hit more than three times, Mario will die! It is essentially a health bar, built up and decreased in small increments. I am sure you now what I mean. The extension gives you double and as long as you keep your life pie at four or above, you get to keep your six life pie. Well at least until you leave the galaxy that is.

The other thing star bits do is open a single galaxy from what is best described as a ‘special pink anomaly’ that you will meet throughout the game, which rewards you only once it has been fed. If you feed the star a certain amount of star bits a new galaxy will be spawned! The same little pink bastage will also sell you things in certain levels as well as move comets for you. I know I have not got into the comet thing yet, so we shall do that now.

There are some comets that circle galaxies that have different effects. Some make the enemies speed up and some take you to a race. The pink star that eats way too much will move these comets from one galaxy to another for you, but only if you feed him enough star bits. This can be good or bad thing as the anomaly will not put it where you want it to go most of the time! Nevertheless, if you want to finish the game, completing everything, you will need to do this!

The gameplay is really just the same thing over and over. Fly to a new galaxy, do what you need to do to get the star, leave and return! Sure the galaxies are fun but, they are small. It is not like some of the more recent Mario games where it is basically an open world. You are transported, many a time, to a small place to grab a star then leave. That is really the one thing that bugs me about SMG. Once you get a star, you leave right then and there. No more exploring and you can't get two or three stars in one go. The galaxies themselves are rather small too! Sure, you can explore and as in every other Mario game there are secrets, but SMG doesn't seem to be quite the same in that respect. Continuing the trend of previous titles, there are also some rather unique upgrades to Mario that will help you solve the games many puzzles. New upgrades such as the freezing flower that allow you to freeze the water you walk on and there is a bee suit, with the obvious effects! There is also a new double-jump method which is activated by quickly shaking the Wiimote to make Mario spin and thus allowing him to reach slightly higher.

So that is essentially the entire game mechanics explained. You simply spend most of your time bouncing from one planet or galaxy to the next. The planets are not that big and usually aside from what you are there to do, there is not much more to see. I really do like the game, but I just thought it would be so much more!

Here is my conclusion: SMG is a fun game, it really is. I played non-stop for three days and enjoyed it immensely. It has lots to do in the little space you get to play on. The new things like shooting star bits are great and exploring new planets/galaxies is great, but the constant revisiting of the same areas over and over is extremely monotonous and kills the enjoyment factor after a while! Strangely the controls are not as good as they should be and you would at least think Nintendo would get it right for this title! Trying to move the little Italian bastage around can be a right pain in the ass upside down! As it is called Galaxy, I was taken back by the fact that the jump was not higher, especially considering you are supposed to be in space! You would think when you jump; you would go higher due to the lack of gravity, but there is no such luck here!

As in my last review, here are a few things I think would have made this game better:

• The worlds should have been bigger! Really they are way too small.
• For the love of God, next time ask if the player wants to leave the level, because bouncing back and fourth to the same place time and again ass and i takes too much time!
• Controls could have been better as well as the camera! I swear, the camera has an attitude! I don't know why it thinks the wall is so interesting or why I would want to try and jump when the camera is zoomed out so damn far! Sometimes it is just not that easy controlling Mario when he is upside down!
• Let me skip the fooking cut scenes! Not everyone cares about these, no matter how pretty and what part of the story they tell!


Score:

Graphics/sound: 8
Gameplay: 8
Overall: 8

SMG isn't bad, it just should have been better!

[Gazz]

The Nintendo fanboys are going to kill you for giving this game a grade that's below 95 :dennis: If you put this review on the frontpage and it gets admitted to gamerankings and such this site will be overflowing with 13 year olds.

Wait a second, 13 year olds? You are doing GM2 a favour by bringing in his favourite age group of boys :P

[Nxs]

I didnt write it for the front page so, I am safe

[Lionman363]

Thats one of the best reviews I viewed in a long time,nice work! :thumbup:

[Nxs]

Thanks

[GMtm]

A nice and honest review of what I thought was a mediocre effort by Nintendo. However I think the graphics are quite bloody good for a Wii title.

Good work chap! :thumbup:

[homes500]

that was first class review 10/10 incredible your an expert at reviews :thumbup: