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Saturday 26 January, 2008
Gameplay
I enjoyed this game far more in my first gameplay than in my second. There were just a few little nit picks that kept annoying me. The camera angles shifted way too much. The view was hardly ever set to the direction Mario was looking. The angles were helpful but made it too complicated to for. After a while I got dizzy and decided to stop for a while.
I felt that the overall story needed a deeper storyline. I think that maybe having Bowser say something or appear at every door would have been a good addition to keep me going for the main goal. The variety in the gameworlds was amazing and kept me going. Passing one level was motivation enough to keep on going.
The controls I felt were very limiting and didnt allow for much freedom. I wanted to see more of the things from old Mario games incorporated in this game. As Mario, I felt pretty lonely in this huge castle. It could have been good to have Luigi or Yoshi appear in some of the gameworld.
An awesome thing about this Mario game was the fact that you could get hit about 5 times without dieing. It is not like other Mario games in which one hit = your death. You were able to keep on going and were allowed to revive your health.
Design
I had some difficulties with some parts of the design. As I mentioned before, one major problem I had with this game was the angles in which the camera tilted. In some respects it dose seem like a good thing. It allowed for a greater sense of 3D images. But the changes in the camera angles came at very inopportune times. And the change in angles forced you into switching your control direction in order to avoid not falling off stage.
I also did not like that it did not provide any map for the player. The house was way too big to not include a map. This on the other hand allowed for more interest in the actual design of the house. It made it seem as if you were in the house looking around and remembering your footsteps from the entrance.
A great thing about this game was the liveliness of the colors. All of the colors were bright. This set a cartoonist tone that any Mario game needs. The music was very complementary to the gameworld design and different challenges you were met with.
The design in relation to space was very interesting. The entrances to each miniworlds mane the actual gameworld seem much bigger than it actually was. The edges in the game were designed in such a way that you interacted with some of them. For example, some were designed as quicksand that allowed you some time to escape. In the Bowser world you could fall in the fire and not be killed. Landing in the fire meant jumping higher with a bruised butt and maybe landing back on the platform from which you fell.
The conflicts of the game were very well designed but lacked a connection to the overall storyline of the game. The mini challenges had their own objectives and different set of rules. This created a good sense of accomplishment in every game. It allowed you to be able to stop the game if you needed to, and return to the game in good spirits. Overall it was an awesome game and good connection to the player.
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