Rather than spending time exploding the OP in The Official Super Mario Galaxy Thread I created a new thread which I will put all the impressions into the OP making it nice and organized.
Note: I want long impressions, not 3 lines, 3 paragraphs minumum
SPOILERS MAY BE IN SOME IMPRESSIONS
HIGHLIGHT AT YOUR OWN RISK
Demo Impressions:
Fkusumot-
MY OFFICIAL GAMESPOT 1-HOUR REVIEW
by Frank Kusumoto
I got to play SMG today at the Gamespot for an hour. Started from the beginning with a new save file. I noticed another save file that had 35 stars and 8 hours playtime. Somebody was hitting it hard.
The cutscene opened, the music welled up, I smiled. Bombs are dropping everywhere and I'm trying to do side jumps, triple jumps, wall drumps, butt stomps, you know, all the good stuff. I'm trying to do the waggle attack but it's not working. Maybe the controller is broken. After I've made the re acquaintance of my old moveset (and it fits like a perfectly tailored sheep-skin condom). I'm off to see what's up with the princess.
Well, hopefully you've seen the movie. Mario gets blasted by a Lakitu and thrown back to the world. Mario make friends with some star children who take him to their Queen... Rosalina! Now Peach has some competition in the "Would you do her" contest. Rosalina tells you to go fetch stars so she can power up her ride and get up off this place. This also takes from Bowser the power that is keeping him and his fleet in the catbird seat.
So I ran around. Flipped and smacked koopa's. Gathered stars. Pushed some buttons in a puzzle. Smacked a boss silly. But mostly just running around like a five year old kid in Willy Wonka's field of dreams going "yahooo, yahooo, yahhooooo!" I kept getting interrupted by a little star who wanted me to do something, head on over somewhere.
Turns out there were lots of his little buddies trapped on little asteroids barely a kilometre away and could I be so kind as to help free them. So off I go and in traditional heroic fashion I free the little star being and I get a STAR! And there's 120 more where that came from.
Controls are flawless, design is genius. The pacing is boom, boom. boom. Right on track. It's like playing a 2d platformer in 3d. I've read that you can go back and explore but if you're just trying to get to the princess before Bowser does dainty and dastardy things with a pudenda... leading to the ultimate dirty deed. You just feel obligated to push and pull and fling headlong into each new challenge.
That was my one hour and it was brilliant. I spent time looking at the screens and taking in the ambiance, the colors, the lighting, looking at all the choices and seeing how they came together. Just as important is the music and it makes claim to the mood and the space and covers it in tones that enhance the beautiful polished feeling that everything in the game has. Bravo Art Department!
Miyamoto says he wants to constantly surprise the gamer and this is the truest expression in a game that has been realized. Unfortunately there are men, between the age of 15 - 37, who have no wonder. These people will not find this game amusing. The only hope for them is that someday they learn to smile and enjoy something for what it is and appreciate something that is giving to the world instead of attempting to take it.
I've got SMG on pre-order and now I can rest easier with that little fix. And... when I was down at the Gamestop I bought GH3 and ZACK AND W!K!, so I have a couple other things to keep me busy.
The End. Oh yeah, 10/10
Retail Game Impressions:
The Gamer Re-Born, Siren-
A Gamer Re-Born due to Mario
Below is a story of a gamer. A gamer born and bread with Mario. Three days ago I got my hands on a final build of Super Mario Galaxy only to feel re-born. I feel like I haven't really known what fun was for all too long and finally found what I had been craving.
To give a little history on myself, I am a long time gamer. I grew up on the Tandy and Commadore64. Eventually progressed to the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and then the NES. Shortly thereafter the SNES, PC, and Genesis. All the way onto the current generation. Along the way my tastes have grown to include games in pretty much every genre imaginable. I am not your typical gamer who sticks with what he knows, instead I go out of my way to try new experiences, even if I might not like the game.
That being said, the two genres that have not really gone back to in recent years are platformers (in the most pure sense) and puzzle adventures in the vein of King's Quest. The latter is primarily because they do not exist these days, for all intents and purposes. The genre has died off entirely and no one seems in a hurry to resurrect it.
The former, the pure platformer, did not die off. Instead, it devolved into nothing more than run-of-the-mill action shooters with some really crappy puzzles and jumping.
Back in the NES days, I thrived on platformers. I played every one I could get my hands on, with the key titles being Mario 1, 2, and 3. I loved them I couldn't get enough of them. The only games that could pull me away was the occassional puzzle game or JRPG. As I moved to the SNES, platformers became increasingly sparse. In place of them I moved onto more and more JRPGs. The SNES really thrived on them, but I did find myself still wanting to play platformers in large part due to the fun of Super Mario World. Unfortunately the ones that did exist in general were crap.
As the PlayStation and N64 released, I found myself getting further away from platformers and console gaming in general. While Mario64 was a great game and really made me content for a while, the generation as a whole felt like a step backware. While I played a few games on each platform, I moved to the PC as my primary gaming system during those years. RTS, Western RPGs and FPS became my new genre's of choice. Around this time, Blizzard announced a new Warcraft game that was going to be like the old King's Quest games, unfortunately this never got released and thus left me with much sorrow.
Still I drove forward. Into the Xbox/Gamecube/PS2 era I found myself back in consoles. I briefly tried a few platformers like Rachet and Clank, Jax and Daxter, and Crash. Unfortunately, all left me with a very sour taste in my mouth. They just were not all that good. They were fun, in their own right, but not enough to keep my attention for more than a couple of hours at best. Mario Sunshine stood out as especially bad. What I had hoped would be Mario64 in a new skin at worst, ended up being much worse than I ever imagined. This was Mario, the one mainstay of the platformer genre. Every single game had always left me wanting more and expecting the best. Instead, it felt like the last bit of my gaming youth had died. It was bad enough dealing with the Sonic games of recent, but to see Mario delivered in such a package was nearly unbearable. I gave my Gamecube away...
As I gave up on platformers, my growth as a gamer did continue. My catalog of games stretches across so far and wide that I can barely describe my tastes. To put it into perspective, I bought the Orange Box just to play Portal. Nothing else. This can all be seen in my gamertag at the end of this editorial.
Eventually the Xbox360 and PS3 came out. Both are decent systems filled with games that I know and love. Even better, they both have a breadth of new franchises that are interesting and lots of fun. On the Xbox360 I found myself briefly addicted to Crackdown. The platforming and associated exploration aspects is one of the reasons I believe I grew to love the game. This generation by far has been the best for me as a gamer. Tons of games and tons of fun all around. But things were about to change.
The Wii sat there on the outside of my little world. It was the successor to the GameCube. At E3 2005, it was less than impressive to me. While interesting and fun in its own right, it just did not have the games in the sense of what I was currently looking for. I figured sometime in 2008 I would pick up one primarily to broaden my gaming experience and become familiar with it as a system and it's unique mechanics.
About 3 days ago, my gaming world changed. Through a friend I managed to get a loaner Wii with a final build of Super Mario Galaxy. I wasn't expecting a whole lot. After playing the game at E3'05 I was less than impressed and was expecting it to have a lot of the usability issues I saw then still intact (like having to circle mario with the star pointer to get him to spin). To my surprise, Nintendo changed that and more.
After about a half hour with the game, I set it down for the first night. Picked up Bladestorm and went romping through France for about 6 hours. Into Saturday I decided to give SMG a more complete shot. I picked up the Wii and started at it. Roughly 5 hours later, I did not want to stop. The game was already showing its power over me. This was pretty much the longest single session of gaming I had played in a long time, including my countless hours on Guitar Hero 2. Sunday was even more intense. I woke up around 10am and just started playing. Around 3pm I managed to take a break for food, only to return right back to the game. This continued well on until about 8pm when I needed food again. I still cannot believe just how much this game has dragged me into it.
What makes SMG so great? What is it about the game that makes me question if I have really had as much fun as I have over the past 10 years of gaming since I first played Mario64? Frankly, its the complete package.
While I am sure Yahtzee over at Zero Punctuation could find something to complain about, I am personally having trouble. Every time I think that they cannot possibly keep it up, I am pleasently surprised. Each new level is designed with such attention to detail, it is unexplainable. Each level is unique and fun. The game feels like a great merger of Mario64 with Mario3. You have costumes like Bee Mario and Ghost Mario that are just a ton of fun to play and just add to the game. Its not like the Water thing from Mario Sunshine, these are actually interesting and fun.
The game combines the great platforming and interesting level design with a very simple but classy story. It does not get into your way, it just kinda sits on the side as yet another thing to enjoy in the larger picture. They even have a cute Story Book set of sequences that help explain the backstory.
The game is challenging all the way through. As an experienced gamer, the new game mechanics still take a bit of time to learn, but the game does a great job of giving you the time to do so. Just about the time you really get a feel for something, you also unlock a bonus level to really test your skills. From the very first one, Rocky Road, as a gamer I was left in awe. It wasn't hard because it was "cheap" in the ways it tried to kill me. It was hard because it was actually a well designed level. This continues on with each additional new bonus level.
As it sits, I have 59 of the 120 stars in the game. All located without any help of a strategy guide or online FAQ. Exploring the game's levels is a large part of the fun and excitement. Every time you turn a new corner or find a new secret, it just fills you with warmth and joy. I almost feel like a kid again while playing this game.
At the end of the day, this is the game that is going to make me buy a Wii. As it is, I already picked up an SD card to keep my save game to transfer to my own Wii.
The only question I am left with is, can this continue. Will I be playing another platformer this great in another 3 years or another 10+ years? While I hope for the former, I unfortunately expect the later.
In the meantime, I will enjoy the approximate 30 - 40 hours of play on SMG. (Note: HUGE SPOILER!!!!)I will likely also enjoy the bonus 30 - 40 hours playing through as Luigi.
For I am a Gamer Re-Born due to Mario
Ameratsu-
Gameplay
Think how you felt when you first played mario 64. now imagine playing that again but with even more amazing worlds, a simple & effective control scheme and gravity which adds much more than you think to this game.
Graphics
Amazing attention to detail. Every little bit is done so well and overall it is stunning considering what other developers are doing. Everything from the water to the characters is well executed.
Overall
I'm very impressed by this game. It takes all the stuff that was good about mario 64, introduces some great new elements, and takes elements from other games to make an outstanding experience. I own a ps2 and ps3 and I can honestly say this is the first Wii game i've played that made me go "wow". The presentation is absolutely top notch.
A couple of my friends asked me what is was like, and the best way to describe it imo is super mario 64 on mushrooms. sometimes while playing you get the idea that they just locked a bunch of developers in a room with a bunch of drugs and told them to make a new mario game, and that this is the final product.
The game controls very well, but it seems that the motion controls don't really add anything major to this game. Is that to say they are bad? Absolutely not, but it seems like one of those games that would be just as fun & accessable with a "traditional" controller. Not complaining, just pointing that out.
Finally, i think it is important to mention that i put beating ratchet & clank on hold to play this. After seeing previews i just had to play it. Now that I have, i can say it is very very fun and wii players everywhere are in for a spectacular game. But you likely already knew that.
SleepWaking-
I already got 40 stars, what really is amazing is the levels and how creative they are. In each galaxy you have 6 levels and always 2 of them are special levels where you can only get 1 star (like that waterway where he is surfing over a flooting waterstream). Each normal level has 3 stars and almost always (or always) you can 'buy' (with those stars you can collect with pointing your wii-mote) an additional way to get a star (an new little planet or somehing else crazy) and there are also special stars where you have to finish the level in a very fast time or enemy's move faster so it's harder.
The amount off end-bosses is really a great thing. In each galaxy you got a real end-boss (such as bowser or that mechanical thing you see in the movie's), but almost in each of the normal levels you have to fight to other level bosses (like the baby piranaplant), they are all extremely fun (but not really hard).
The graphics are really good, water is beautifull (nintendo always makes it beautifull), the characters are awesome, bowser and some of the end-bosses look really good. and flags look absolutly stunning too (yes they really deserve to be mentioned).
Controls is where the game really shines, everthing just feels so great, the spin attack, collecting those little coloured stars, throwing stuff, and the power-ups (bee mario feels far better then I would have ever anticipated).
Story is not really special but still better then in sunshine, what I like is the why you collect stars, afcours to save peach, but to do that you need to power up your base of operations and it's just really good done.
The music in this game is just phenomenal, a lot of old songs return (remix and original) and a lot of cool new ones too, almost all orchestrated.
Overall it's just gaming awesomeness.
Oh and for the people who are afraid it's too easy, it can be a really difficult at times, not really becouse of enemy's though, it's the levels who will sometimes make it hard for you. With those special stars though even enemy's can be very hard and the real chalange in the game is to get all of these.
If you want more credible impressions go to the The Official Super Mario Galaxy Reivew Thread and find out the professional's impressions.
Kimi wa ne tashika ni ano toki watashi no soba ni ita
Itsudatte itsudatte itsudatte
Sugu yoko de waratteita
Nakushitemo torimodosu kimi wo
I will never leave you
