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nanostylex7's Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
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| [February 20, 2008 07:20:49 PM]
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Gamelog Entry #4 (2nd Session)
Gameplay
In my second hour play through of Super Mario Galaxy (SMG), I was sucked further into the fun and zany galaxies the game had to offer. There is much variety in the levels and with the addition of costumes, I was happy. (There were costumes in my first session, but I didn't mention them until now.) The costumes in each level are crazy and have more variety than the different hats in Super Mario 64. On one level, you could be flying around and buzzing like a bee and on the next, you could be jumping around while wrapped in a giant spring.
Something else not mentioned in my first session is the inclusion of boss battles. Though relativley easy, they're always fun to beat and are very interesting as well. What made the game even better is that the levels increased in difficulty and the presence of comet-stars made exploring each level more worthwhile.
What I liked a lot about this game is that it actually tells you which levels hidden stars are located in (provided you collected the stars in that galaxy already). This made collecting stars substantially easier to collect. Overall, this play through has made me want to collect every star in the game. Yeah, it's that fun.
Design
Well when it comes to level design, SMG does not falter, even for a second. i never found myself frustrated with this game at all (in terms of level design, not difficulty). I enjoyed exploring every planet and playing with the physics of them as well. This leads into another important element of level design I found fun and interesting: planet gravity. I can't tell you how much fun I had jumping off the sides of platforms only to be launched off and pulled down to the bottom of the platform. This was entertainment on its own, though the controls made the experience a little disorientating.
Gravity aside, the levels were very varied from lava worlds to haunted houses to deadly desersts. What I loved most, is that each level provides some new mechanic to employ whether it be controlling the abilities of new costumes (ghost costume is my favorite) or learning how to use shells in water, I felt as though things never got old and boring, ever.
The better times of this game came when I had a partner with a second Wii remote. This made the game substantially easier as I did all the main actions and my partner just watched my back. Of course, we would always mess with each other, leading to some bad jumps and a lot of deaths. Still, it made the experience more enjoyable, social, and fun.
Something I favored in this game as opposed to Super Mario 64, is that every star you find requires you to take a different path to get to it. This made the game feel more fresh, instead of having you go through the same level again to get a different star. One thing I haven't mentioned is the better features: star bits. These surve as the games monetary system and also serves as ammo as well. Star bits can be collected by walking to them or, even better, collecting them with the on screen star I mentioned in my first section. (They can also be collected by player 2's star.) The on screen star is also a cursor to show where you can fire star bits, preferably at enemies. But they are also required to feed hungy Lumites you encounter, which in turn, transform into galaxies for you to visit.
All in all, Super Mario Galaxy is a fantastic game. It excels in level design and playability, resulting in one of the greatest games of all time. It's a hall of famer for sure.
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| [February 20, 2008 04:38:18 PM]
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Gamelog Entry #4 (1st session)
Summary
Super Mario Galaxy is an extraordinary platformer for the Wii console and the most recent sequel in the series. In SMG (Super Mario Galaxy), you play as Mario and your goal is to save the princess from the evil clutches of Bowser. The setting for this game, though, takes place in space and you must explore many colorful galaxies and planets in search of power stars that will take you to further galaxies to explore.
Gameplay
This was quite an amazing play through of SMG and I am thoroughly impressed with what I experienced. The story starts off with the same plot, though (but hey, I guessed they just used what worked). You start off in a festival of some sort, which ends up with the princess being nabbed by the evil Bowser and you soon find yourself on some strange planet in space chasing bunnies. But this is where the real game starts.
The colorful shades used on each planet in the varied galaxies gives it a sense of overwhelming fun and the musical score attached to it only makes it that much more fun. The character models this time around are much more colorful and though there is very little dialogue (very little), the characters do have great facial expressions, which gives them a more life-like appearance. One of the things I find a little annoying though, is that there isn’t much of a story to this game, as it follows the whole save the princess theme. The game does give you a little background in the form of chapters in a book that can be accessed at any time by going to the library (in the game, not in real life).
SMG makes excellent use of the Wii control, mostly in the form of mini games that you’ll encounter in the game. These range from twisting the Wii remote to control the direction when you surf or holding it upright and tilting to roll a ball along a dangerous obstacle course. All of these make the game even more fun to play, though it does take some time to get used to. The Wii motion sensing function also serves as the main attack function for Mario, as a quick wag of the remote makes him spin adding extra fun to the game as you must also use this function to traverse the many planets in each galaxy.
What really caught my eye was the fact that this game could be played co-op, in a sense. When an extra Wii remote is plugged in, a second player appears as the form of an extra star on the screen (you already have a star for single player, but more on that in the second log). While player 2 can’t control the direction of Mario, they can force him to jump and even spin, which can help inadequate players or, if you have a jerk for player 2, they can really mess you up. But other than that, player 2 also has the function to collect star bits and stop enemies in there path, which is tremendously helpful when player 1 is distracted with the actions at hand. This makes interaction with people around you even greater as you must communicate with your comrade on collecting items and strategies for getting through levels. And every minute of it is a rip roaring good time.
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nanostylex7's Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Wednesday 20 February, 2008
GameLog closed on: Thursday 28 February, 2008 |
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