|
Friday 22 February, 2008
GAMEPLAY
My second experience with this game, at least since I last played it when I was a kid, was even more crazy, and took me deeper into the strange yet almost sensically insane world of Mario. The world does follow a set of rules that seem ridiculous as compared to our perception of reality, but everything starts to almost make sense in you head as you play. You start to expect the most unlikely things, which makes the experience rich and stimulating.
As I got into the third world of Mario, I entered an underground world that within it contained the stars. I found in one particular secret the portal to the first corner of star world. The star world contained strange levels each of which containing a different color of Yoshi with another power. The first Yoshi I met was blue, but I caught him underwater. One would think his power might have to do with water, but once you get out to other levels with turtles, You realize his power is correlated to the blue colored turtle shell. Whichever color turtle he eats, he grows wings with which you may fly around. Similarly there is a yellow and red Yoshi with powers equivalent to their color in turtle shell; earthquake stomp and fireballs respectively.
With the flying abilities of Blue Yoshi, I was unable to unlock a whole other world within star world called simply "Special." It is just a series of the strangest levels the creators could think of, each named another colloquial term associated with hippies like "Gnarly' and "Tubular." I can honestly say I think this was my favorite part of the game.
Between the levels of Star World are the warp stars at each corner of the star-shaped land mass. At one warp star, I was able to warp directly to Bowsers castle. After several tries, I was able to beat not only the difficult emergent style Castle level but Bowser himself beating the game. It was honestly very satisfying witnessing his defeat by my own hand.
DESIGN
This game is meant to be a visual trip and journey for the player. It takes you through and introduces you to the wacky world of Mario, which from the traditional sense would make no sense, but as you gain experience you realize that there is a method to the madness. You expect the least expected thing because at each moment the creators are trying to inspire a sense of wonder. It is a truly unique experience you can get nowhere else.
This game also seems to have many other implications that are much more ambiguous to the player. If one see the game from the psychadelic perspective it makes an extraordinary amount of sense. Apparently, psychadelic psylocibin mushrooms are used often recreationally in Japan. The reoccuring use of mushrooms in this otherwise nonsensical world suggests that the creators may have been influenced by cultural understandings of mushrooms less understood in the United States. If the game is taken in this light many other correlations make themselves obvious. It almost seems as if the Koopas and Bowser are symbolic of power hungry characters, and Mario takes on the role of hero saving Peach, the innocent virgin princess.
|
