Well what
is there to say? This is the new Mario
game. Not one of those crap Mario third
party games (yes Mario Party, I’m referring to you!), this is a proper Mario
game. The Mario games that are
fantastic, groundbreaking and subsequently piss all over every other game
that’s out there.
If you
don’t know what Mario games I’m talking about by now, you should invest in a
copy of the Ladybird guide to video gaming.
Let’s step
back a little and have a quick chat about the two previous titles in the Mario
franchise, they being Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine.
Super Mario
64 was the first game to feature a 3D Mario, and not only that, was the
greatest 3D platform game of all time.
It didn’t quite succeed in bringing along all of the magic that makes
the 2D Mario games so great and recognisable, but came pretty damn close. Huge worlds, great puzzles, balanced game
play, superb controls and most importantly, a sense of humour.
Super Mario
Sunshine was the follow up to 64. Not
quite as successful and nor ranked as highly, but in my opinion, it is still a
cracking game and didn’t deserve the bad press it got at the time. Sure it was a mistake to give Mario a water
jet backpack, he’s never needed one to defeat Bowser before and so why should
he now? However Sunshine took everything
that was in Mario 64 but injected the only missing from its predecessor,
character. Mario 64 was great; don’t get
me wrong, but the lack of NPC’s made the worlds seem quite empty, it was like
the worlds revolved around the puzzles, rather than the worlds containing
puzzles. Sunshine adds some life, in the
form of the local villagers, the Piantas and Nokis. They may not say much of interest, but at
least they were there!
Super Mario
Galaxy…So five years in the making, has it been worth it?
Super Mario Galaxy mixes both 64 and Sunshine together to
create, in my opinion, the best Mario game ever, and worthy of its ranking of
the second best game of all time.
The first
thing that struck me as unusual with Galaxy was the lack of demo. Normally after loading a game I don’t dive
into it straight away but watch the demo footage that plays. But with Galaxy, there isn’t one. I can only assume that Nintendo wanted that
game to be spoiler free from the onset, and why not I say?
Better
start talking about Galaxy, or else, this wouldn’t be a review of said game
would it?
If you
don’t know already, Bowser has taken Peach again (you know, if I didn’t know
better, I’d think Peach is deliberately getting snatched by Bowser), this time
during the middle of a special Asteroidy Star festival. Not only has Bowser got Mario’s bit of
crumpet, but Bowser’s minion, Magikoopa has blasted Mario across to the other
side of the universe, how on Mushroom is Mario meant to get back and rescue
Peach now?
I’ll tell you how he’s gonna do it!
Mario will team up with another blonde lady called Rosalina and her cuddly
space friends, the Luma’s. Now it just
so happens that Rosalina has a big spaceship which is good enough to take Mario
right across the universe again to rescue Peach. What’s the catch I hear you ask, why does
Rosalina want to help Mario out? Well,
fact is that Bowser has also stolen the grand stars that power her ship. So guess who has to go get them in return for the
journey? Yep, Mario! Bet you didn’t see that one coming!
Right
that’s the story out of the way; let us chat about the actual game already.
As you
would expect, there are 120 stars for you and Mario to collect, if you’ve
played either 64 or Sunshine you will already know how this works. You have a central hub in which you can
access all of the galaxies. From here
you can head into a particular world to get your star. Now in the previous games there were a fixed
number of stars to collect per world, along with the collect 8 red coin
gimmicks.
This time
however things are a bit different, some worlds only have one or two stars to
collect whilst others have a lot more.
This makes perfect sense as far as I’m concerned, with Mario Sunshine
the same set tasks in to complete in every world (such as the 8 red coins or
catching shadow Mario) were a bit too samey after you had done it for the 6th
time in succession.
Now the
worlds don’t feel as exhausted, and you just play them for the right amount of
time, as the designers haven’t had to accommodate fixed challenges, the worlds
are much more outlandish this time around.
From giant glass bottles to floating wooden Yoshi heads, no sense of
imagination has gone to waste here.
Mario
himself is more agile too, he’s been working on a brand new spin attack move
which can stun enemies which then makes killing them (killing sounds a bit
strong for a Mario game, but what else can I say?) simple by just running up to
them and kicking them into the Oblivion.
Not only that, but Mario’s wardrobe is much bigger this time around too
and as such, has a vast range of suits to wear; Bees, Springs, Fire, Ice and
more. Now if only he had a James Bond
tuxedo…
I must
mention the coop mode..! Yes, a coop
mode, in Mario!
Basically a second player can join you on screen in the form of an aiming
cursor, he/she can shoot enemies with the star bits you collect, or hold objects
and some even enemies still to give Mario a better chance of getting through a
tricky bit. It does make the game
slightly easier, but, I think not having to play Mario as a solitary event is
such a breakthrough, that it really doesn’t matter about the difficulty. You’ll still find the easy levels easy and
the tough levels tough, just the tough levels wont be quite so tough, ok?
I could go
into even more details about floating through space, swimming with penguins,
rolling on balls and riding giant ray’s, but I will not. There is simply too much to write about and
if I did, well, I would’ve spoilt most of the game for you and that’s no good
is it?
Graphically
this game is top notch, the best on the Wii by far. Super smooth, fluid, bright crisp and
clean. It might not be high def, but it’s
the best of standard def I’ve ever seen!
All your
favourite Mario tunes are here, remixed but still as fresh and listenable as
ever. Having the score played by an
orchestra really suits the space theme, spot on!
Controlling
Mario in this game is a breeze; it just feels as ‘right’ ever. (The swimming is still a bit iffy though, but
that’s a small niggle, it’s no different to how it’s been since Mario 64 and so
I’m used to that by now).
Overall
then – an essential purchase for any Wii owner (unless you only bought it for
Wii sports that is).