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Cambdoranononononono's Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
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| [January 25, 2008 09:02:41 PM]
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GAMEPLAY
One thing I’ve started to notice is that the fairly basic premise – Mario collecting stars and rescuing Peach from Bowser – allows me to focus more on my usual 100% completion goal. I’m more willing to spend time finding every available star at a given point when I’m not really anticipating the next scene.
The extra challenge types are a bit hit-and-miss for me. I enjoy playing as a bee, but not having to roll a ball around using the Wiimote. I guess this is because the former provides an alternate, and often more useful, set of abilities, while the latter mostly just gives me a new way to die. The bee suit also has the added virtue of appearing to be a shout-out to Mario’s animal-themed powerups from SMB3.
DESIGN
The levels are surprisingly linear for a game that appears to make strong use of all dimensions. In galaxies that require you to travel from planet to planet, you are usually only given one option as to where to go next at any time. Most other paths that appear available tend to either lead to a minor powerup and a dead end or, on one occasion per galaxy, a hidden star. The good side of this is that most of the individual missions in a galaxy place you in a completely different part area, so you aren’t just doing minor variations on the same thing in each mission.
One of the more significant issues is the camera. It very frequently does not respond to player input, and while it is usually positioned satisfactorily, it will occasionally do things like point in the opposite direction of where the player is trying to go. The game often does not even allow first-person views, which can be a pain when trying to explore. Since the player is almost guaranteed to be stationary when using first person, it seems like allowing first person most of the time wouldn’t be particularly difficult.
The entire game is essentially a series of small challenges, which means the rewards (i.e. stars) are provided with high frequency. This gives a good incentive to keep playing from moment to moment; the next star never seems that far away. The missions themselves often use numerous small challenges, like getting off the current planet, to keep the pace moving even more quickly.
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| [January 25, 2008 07:56:59 PM]
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SUMMARY
Super Mario Galaxy is a 3-D platforming game that focuses on collecting stars from various areas (called galaxies in this game) primarily through exploration, boss battles, and navigating Mario through hazardous landscapes. Most of said navigation is done through running and jumping, with occasional missions involving things like swimming or riding rays. As the player collects more stars, more galaxies are unlocked, eventually allowing the player to access a final galaxy that marks the end of the game’s story.
GAMEPLAY
The game has been fun for me so far; I’m pretty fond of collection games, even if concept isn’t terribly original. While I played the game for a fair amount of time, I’m still not particularly far in it and therefore haven’t reached anything frustrating, though I could see things like platforming over constant bottomless pits becoming challenging later in the game. Most of the bosses so far have had pretty simple attack patterns, though it was at least kind of interesting leading Bullet Bills around on the one major boss.
A few of the elements felt a little strange for me, mostly because of incorrect, unconscious expectations I had about the gameplay. In particular, I was a bit more careless about taking damage because I was used to being able to take five hits, as in the previous two 3-D Mario games, instead of the three hits given in this one.
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Cambdoranononononono's Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 22 January, 2008
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