Super Mario Galaxy

Four people said that even after three months, they still read my blog.

I'm quite surprised to tell you the truth. But as such, I will try to post interesting material.

This is the first game review that I've really ever done. I won't be doing your run-of-the-mill reviews, because you can go to GameSpot or similar sites and read reviews on just about anything. So, my reviews will contain the following:

1. What kind of game it is.
2. What I liked.
3. What I disliked.
4. Who I think would like this game.

Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Wii)

The first game that I'm going to review is Super Mario Galaxy. If anyone's played Mario 64, it's very much along those lines. The premise is, that the Princess gets captured again by Bowser, but this time you traverse the universe to save her.

You go to different galaxies and play on different planets to find the stars that are hidden/stashed there. Most planets have three stars that are considered "normal." Then there are hidden stars, as well as "comet" stars, which require you to complete various levels with a stipulation. Some of these are to finish within a certain amount of time, or complete it without getting hurt.

What I liked:

-The depth. Every level wasn't all the same. Unlike Mario 64, not all of the stars are available on the first go around. In other words, you can't get the third star by playing the first level. This added more content to the levels, and made the game more challenging, especially when it came time to find the hidden stars.

- The power-ups. I won't spoil the different power-ups that you can get for Mario, but the first one that you encounter is Bee Mario. You can fly, but only for a certain amount of time, before you start plummeting. But if you get hit with water, you turn back into regular Mario.

- The progressive difficulty. The first few levels could be completed by a five year old. But by the end, I was struggling to complete the final levels. Fortunately, none of them were completely frustrating...the longest that I spent on a level was 30 minutes.

- The "walk away" factor. I'm starting to really enjoy games that you can easily walk away from. And I'm not talking about "addiction" kind of walking away. I mean, if you need to stop playing in 5 minutes, you don't have a problem getting to a save point. Since this game is based on sets of smaller sized levels, it's easy to play 2-3 in 15 minutes, and to go do something else.

- The "neato" factor. When Mario 64 came out, it was amazing to play in 3-D. That was neato. But this takes it to a whole new level. For the most part, those levels were flat. That is, down was down, and up was up. In this game, when you're bounding between planets, gravity is always changing. This makes jumping far more interesting, since you may not go in a straight line. The game is always making new uses of gravity, even to the final showdown with Bowser.

- Little repeat content. The content is very fresh throughout the game. The scenery was always changing, and you didn't feel like you were doing the same thing over and over, even at the end of the game when you need to find 100 purples coins in several different levels. Some you had to hunt for the coins, some were speed levels with a timer, and others were different still. I never felt like I was just grinding away at a repeating experience.

-EDIT: The music! Thank's Bill. I completely neglected to mention the music. So many of the levels use music from older Mario games. There are new themes, but hearing some versions of the old music was really quite great. Trying to remember what game the music was from was enjoyable in and of itself. I can't believe I forgot about the soundtrack - truly a good point.

What I didn't like:

- Vertigo. With the changing in gravity so much, I often experienced dizziness, or just got confused with where I was and where I was going. Sometimes I was flipped upside-down, and up would be towards me, and other times it would be away from me. It depended on the circumstance. Overall this wasn't a huge issue, but it turned some areas into frustrating ones.

- The ending. I beat the game to completion. To beat the game to completion, you need to obviously defeat Bowser. But at that point, you unlock more levels. That was kinda cool, I admit. But then when I beat those levels, it required me to beat Bowser again, without any change. Then, after I'd completed every level in the game, I unlocked Luigi to play with him. I just beat the game, it's a little late to play with Luigi.

- Flight Mario. There was a flight power-up that I unlocked along the way, but you only use it in one level. That was disappointing...I wanted to fly in more levels. Bee Mario just wasn't doing it for me.

- Two player mode. It says that you can play with two players. All the second player can do is pick up star pieces, and fling them at enemies....something the first player can do as well. It was neat at first, but it got old. It's more of a child's thing. If you wanted to play a game with your son or daughter (or in my case, little sister) it's a neat, challenging experience for both parties. My sister enjoyed it. But when I was playing the second player, I was bored as hell.

Who I think would like this game:

Honestly, anyone who's played Mario 64. It's reminiscent of that, but with so much more. The puzzles start out at elementary school level, but they get pretty hard by the end. I actually stopped playing the game after the first two galaxies, because I thought it was boring. But by the time I got to the end of the third galaxy, I couldn't wait to see what challenges lay ahead. The controls were fun and creative, making good use of the Wiimote. I enjoyed beating the game, even if the ending was slightly disappointing.

I'd recommend at least trying the game. The very first level (after the intro) shows you how the gravity and world structure works, and how neat it can be to have levels on round planets, instead of flat surfaces.

(Here would be where most reviews give a rating, but I suck at those, so I'll leave it to your own conclusions from what I said about the game.)


Please give feedback if you thought this was interesting, or if you feel that I left something out. Add your own comments as well.