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behayes2's Mario Galaxy (Wii)
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| [October 5, 2009 09:22:19 PM]
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Game Entry #1
SUMMARY
In Super Mario Galaxy, the player takes on another adventure with Mario to save Princess Peach. Bowser just can’t leave the poor girl alone. Mario must collect stars to continue to the next level. As usual, the player must interact with a 3-D platform game atmosphere by finding ways to navigate through the world and defeat enemies.
So far, it sounds like every other Mario gaming experience, but there’s a twist. Bowser has upped his game to taking over the galaxy, and Mario must find his way through multiple worlds to save it. The new physics engine is what makes this game unique from its predecessors. Each planetary body has its own gravitational field that will allow the player to run upside down and sideways, avoid falling into black holes, and experience worlds that only the genius Shigeru Miyamoto could create.
GAMEPLAY
Super Mario Galaxy did a fantastic job of pulling me right in. The game began in Mushroom Kingdom, setting the player up for yet another Super Mario adventure with Toad, Princess Peach, and, of course, Bowser and Bowser Jr. flying in on a fleet of airships. The beginning cinematic was absolutely amazing and set the player up for a galactic adventure of epic proportions.
Despite the nostalgic beginning and overall premise of collecting stars to advance to different stages (like Mario 64), this game quickly defined itself as a phenomenal and unique gameplay experience. The first time I sat down and played, I walked away several hours later with a number of power stars under my belt. Every planet was its own puzzle and every character was well designed with bright colors and animations. This game was a spectacular visual experience that keeps players from ever suspecting the game was limited to a 480p resolution. The artistic qualities are not only limited to graphics. The game’s soundtrack absolutely blew me away. Each song was an orchestral piece that fit perfectly into Mario’s adventures.
The general story of this game is very similar to previous Mario games, except that you are introduced to a new character Rosalina who resides on the Comet Observatory. The observatory is basically Mario's base of operations, and the place where Mario returns to after collecting stars in other galaxies. The story line can be laughable at times, and doesn’t really make a lot of sense. This is to be expected considering that it uses the standard Mario storyline (which never made sense to begin with) but with an attempt to provide a background story to the Luma race and the galaxy in general. The conversation with my first “Hungry Luma” caused me to wonder if I had eaten anything funky in the past couple of hours. Here’s the quote: “If you feed me a bunch of Star Bits, I’ll burst with snacky happiness and then transform! Snackadee...Snackaday...SNACK-A-DIDDLY-DOO!!!” I then proceeded to fire star bits into this hungry guy until he was stuffed and transformed into a planet. If you are the kind of person who is bothered by nonsensical events, an enormous amount of destruction to scientific theories of the universe, and conversations like the one I had with the Hungry Luma, then this game is not for you. For everyone else who can take things like this with a smile or a shrug, definitely give this game a shot.
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| [October 5, 2009 08:48:24 PM]
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Gamelog entry #2:
GAMEPLAY
I really enjoyed this session, because I spent more time playing around and exploring the game mechanics rather than trying to complete as many levels as possible. I even tried out the “multiplayer” option, if you can even call it that. I can see how it could be helpful in certain areas where you keep failing to get Mario to jump high enough. Aside from that small benefit, it was more of a nuisance than anything else. My friends, despite their good intentions (or not so good, I’m not completely convinced), were a lot more likely to throw me off of the planet, into an enemy, waste my star bits, or place me back at the beginning of the level than they were to actually help. Switching the controller after every star, or after five deaths, is a far better compromise when playing with someone else. The little two on the box should be replaced with a one and a half.
This time around, I made a point to focus on the core gameplay. Before, I was stunned by the beauty of the game world and was a little too happy to be playing a great addition to the Mario series. Determined to be a critic, I tried my best to make the camera go crazy and was well on my way to making myself dizzy when I discovered why the camera is set so far back. In Mario 64, the camera was in a closer, over the shoulder perspective, but in Mario Galaxy, the camera is zoomed out, to the point that I was a little irritated with it. I’m assuming the reason for this is due to the fact that players are going to need the camera to constantly be changing in different directions as Mario leaps into space and travels to the bottom of one plant from the top of another. Imagine if the camera was set over the player’s shoulder. I wouldn’t have to try to make myself dizzy, I would be sick. The slight irritation of having to squint on occasion is definitely worth not feeling like Mario as he jumps from one planet to another over a black hole. I would much rather make him do it and watch, thank you.
DESIGN
Mario Galaxy’s physics engine continues to astonish me. I wish they recorded the programmer’s faces as the designers proposed what they were supposed to create. The initial task would have sounded daunting, but they definitely pulled it off. At the time of Mario Galaxy’s creation, there was absolutely no other game like it, and there still isn’t. The premise sounds the same, the levels still progress linearly, but the physics design was so innovative that this game may as well be heralded as the best platformer of all time.
What makes this game great isn’t limited to the physics engine. The qualities of a great platformer include enjoyable gameplay, spectacular visuals, a soundtrack that never gets old and suits the game’s genre, and huge amount replay ability. Mario Galaxy definitely polishes off each one of these requirements. Collecting 60 stars can complete the game, but by collecting 120, you can replay the game as Luigi. The greatest thing about Luigi is that he isn’t just a Mario clone, but changes the gameplay in that he jumps a little higher and slides a little bit more.
The controls are well suited for the changing perspective. It was the first time that I played a game where holding the joystick up didn’t necessarily mean my character would travel up. Depending on where the character is located in the world, pushing up on the joy stick can mean that the character is going to travel sideways, down, etc. The designers did a great job in making this be a logical progression to shift in any given direction, but did initially take some getting used to. Also, there was absolutely no lag, and load times between levels were minimal. Mario does have the ability to obtain objects that allow him to change form, a useful and old technique by Nintendo. Some new suits make an appearance and successfully added new challenges to gameplay.
My main critique is with the linear level design. Solve the puzzle on planet A, use the warp star to travel to asteroid B and solve the puzzle there, and finish with a boss fight. This time old formula has been used and reused. Some sort of level progression that gives the player multiple ways to get to the end boss battle would have been better choice. If you can’t solve a given puzzle the one way that you had to, you were stuck until you either gave up or had an epiphany. This game was rarely frustrating and was surprisingly challenging, but I could see an eight-year-old version of myself getting stuck and upset in multiple levels. Games where the player’s choices influence and even change the gameworld are becoming more popular and this isn’t just a coincidence. Player’s crave this kind of interactivity and would have made an already great game even more amazing.
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behayes2's Mario Galaxy (Wii)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 1 October, 2009
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