Super Mario Galaxy Review
The Wii was a Father’s Day present many months ago. Since then I had waited patiently for Super Mario Galaxy to come out. Really really really patiently…. really.. Why? Well if you have played Super Mario 64, you know you were looking for a true sequel and Galaxy fits that bill.
The usual story applies, Bowser has kidnapped the Princess and it is up to Mario to rescue her :). It may feel a bit stale but why mess with a formula that works! The twist here is that Mario has to travel to different galaxies to save the Princess. In Mario 64, the Castle was the portal to all the different worlds, in Galaxy a space station acts as a portal to the different galaxies.
The basic "moves" you saw in Mario 64 are back. The triple jump, wall jump, reverse jump and butt thump are here and use with ease on the Wii controllers. The nunchuck controller analog stick is used to steer Mario and perform the butt thump. The remote is used to jump and perform a spin maneuver. The control scheme is very familiar to me coming from N64 and in no time at all you will feel at home using the Wii controls. In not so many words, Galaxy gets high marks for its control scheme.
Though the graphics are not as realistic as what you would find on the PC; Galaxy has its own style that I love. However, for all the color and art this game employs, it does have its share of technical effects. I am only 6 stars in and I have seen a few examples of this merit. What really caught my eye was the Queen Bee’s fuzz and the King Kaliente boss fight.
Nintendo touts the Wii as a "fun" console. Galaxy takes this monicher and runs with it. There are two points I need to stress. Number one, each world is unique and as such you will never suffer from boring old repetitive game play. Nothing would suck the wind out of this game quicker then having to grind for stars like you would have to grind for experience points in WOW. Secondly, this game is fun :). You are constantly finding new and different things to do with Mario. At one point you may end up a bee and in the next breath you are finding out you get butt thump blocks.
The cons? Outside the camera angle not always being perfect I can’t really think of one so far. Well, that is my unofficial review of Super Mario Galaxy. I had a blast this weekend playing it and look forward to taking in the entire game and replaying it as Luigi :).
Does anyone else think the Wii GUI could be applied to a Media Center UI? TV Channel, DVD Channel, Music Channel anyone?