Monday, December 31, 2007

Review: Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)


Platform: Wii
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EAD Tokyo
Release: November 2007

Super Mario Galaxy is a divine, awe-inspiring title that deserves your attention more than any other release this year.

Every generation there’s always at least one title that shocks you with just how marvelous it is. I was wondering when I’d find that in the next-gen. Sure, there’s been plenty of great releases on all of the current consoles up to now – but none have truly amazed me with their quality. Enter Super Mario Galaxy, a wondrous, highly-imaginative title that shows us that clever level design and spectacular game play are the true reasons to game in the next-gen.


I honestly wasn’t desperately excited to play this one at first. Super Mario Sunshine managed to earn positive reviews as well, but that title failed to truly impress me (with it’s rather derivative game play and somewhat yawn-inducing design). On the Wii, however, it’s a whole new experience.


The Wii controls work beautifully here. Save for one or two special levels where they’re somewhat finicky, they’ll become second-nature within minutes of playing. The camera has always been a major complaint for 3D plat formers, but I have to say, I really didn’t have an issue with it in Galaxy.


With oodles of levels to explore and stars to collect (and a rather swell secret for those skilled gamers who manage to get ‘em all), you’ll definitely feel like you’ve got your money’s worth with Galaxy. The great thing about it is, every planet feels like a whole unique experience – not one minute during this title did I feel bored, and that’s not something you can say very often about a video game. It’s incredible at how imaginative Galaxy is – not only in the visuals (they’re far below the other consoles in terms of raw graphical power, but in terms of overall design, they’re way ahead of many games on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360) but in terms of new power ups, level design, and game play challenge variety.


Difficulty-wise, I’d say Galaxy is just right. It’s easy enough for your little cousin to beat it – but not without retrying some of the more challenging levels over and over again. More games should strive to have this perfect difficulty balance.

Overall, if you haven’t experienced the sensation that is Super Mario Galaxy, you should immediately get off this website, run to your nearest retailer, and purchase a copy. It’s a divine, awe-inspiring title that deserves your attention more than any other release this year. Although that may sound like a rather tall claim, once you immerse yourself into the wonder that is Galaxy you’ll never be able to put the Wii remote down.


Rating: 9.7 (out of 10)


Labels: , , , , ,

5 Comments:

At 12:31 PM, Blogger gnome said...

Ah yes.. a great write-up on a brilliant game and one I've yet to finish... Happy 2008!

 
At 6:13 PM, Blogger The Sports Satirist said...

I played this at a friends house, and I thought it was average. I am not saying that just for the sake of saying it. I really mean it. Maybe I have high standards, but the lack of a plot made this game very uninteresting to me. Personally, I felt like Tools of Destruction is the best platform game of the year.

 
At 8:35 PM, Blogger Ross said...

Thanks for the kind words Gnome! Have a nice New Year!

Funnyman, I personally thought it was amazing, more so than any other game I've played this gen so far. There's a storyline in there somewhere, but I prefer game play to story lines (which is why I'm not huge on many RPG's).

 
At 10:32 PM, Blogger The Sports Satirist said...

Are you sure about that? I didn't see anything that resembled a plot in Galaxy.

 
At 5:36 PM, Blogger fatherkrishna said...

Try as I might I'm just not feeling the Wii at the moment... I thought Umbrella Chronicles would do it, but I've even stalled on that at the moment.

The only game I've completed on the Wii so far is Resident Evil 4, which I loved, but had loved equally on the PS2.

As for Mario, I downloaded mario 64 on the Virtual Console, and I couldn't really get into that... which makes me wonder whether I'll get into Galaxy...

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

©2006 PG Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Image Hosted by ImageShack.us