Thursday 24 April, 2008

As a child of the mid-eighties the first video game that I ever played was Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is from that moment that I became hooked on Nintendo’s Mario video game series. I went from Super Mario Bros to Super Mario Bros 2 (which was somewhat disappointing) to Super Mario Bros 3 (redeemed the redeemed the series after Super Mario Bros 2) to Super Mario Land (on Super Nintendo) to Super Mario 64. It was after Super Mario 64, a game that I thoroughly enjoyed, that my life became very busy with high school and high school football that I stopped playing the Mario games. However, after a nearly eight year break from Mario games I picked up Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii and started to play, again. Super Mario Galaxy like all the other games in the Mario series is a mix between the platform, fantasy, action, and adventure genres. The goal of the game is for the player, as Mario, to once again rescue Princess Peach from Mario nemesis Bowser; however, unlike the other Mario games which have the same basic goal, this time Mario is in other space and must find stars and return them to the Comet Observatory. To accomplish this goal, Super Mario Galaxy uses both descriptive and evaluative play.

Super Mario Galaxy accomplishes it goal of having the player, as Mario, save Princess Peach from Bowser though descriptive play allowing Mario to wonder through multiple three dimensional worlds and galaxies, fight enemies, and complete challenges in search of stars which allow the play to progress through the game to get to Princess Peach. To do this the player must use all the functions of the Wii remote and nun chuck. The player uses the analog joystick on the nun chuck to move Mario through the worlds, “A” to jump, the pointer function to collect star bits, “B” to shoot star bits, and the motion sensor function to spin. By using all the functions of the Wii remote the player is thus able to move Mario through the beautifully designed world where Mario due to the lack of gravity can walk upside down and jump higher than ever. In this descriptive level of play when Mario spins and hits his enemies or an object the enemy get hurt or the object breaks.

Super Mario Galaxy also accomplishes it goal of having the player, as Mario, save Princess Peach from Bowser though evaluative play because the player must make strategic choices on how he is going to defeat his enemies, collect stars, collect star bits, and use Mario’s special mushroom and powers in order to beat the game. This is evident in how Mario must figure out a strategic way to be each of his enemies. For example, in order to beet the boss of the first galaxy the player, as Mario, must figure out that he must lead the Mario seeking bullets into the machines Power Star power supply in order to free the Power Star. The game is also has integration because once you accomplish a task and receive a star the world changes to a new challenge so that the world can be played again to collect other starts.

In conclusion, Super Mario Galaxy uses both descriptive and evaluative play to take the player on an action packed fantasy adventure to save Princess Peach from Bowser. As a long time fan of Nintendo’s Mario Serious I am thoroughly enjoying this game and I am once again hooked. I see many long nights in my near future as I continue to explore and hopefully beat this game.

the player must make strategic choices on how he is going to defeat his enemies

I'm not so sure about that. In your opinion, are the choices really strategic if there is only one "correct" way to defeat an enemy/boss? Sure, you have to figure out what to do, but there is only one thing to do.