[Wii] Super Mario Galaxy

[Kazu]

I agree with Jason. Amy got me the DS version because she knew how much I loved the original, and I was pretty disappointed with the game when I played it. It just doesn't give you the slightly haunting feeling of the empty castle with the paintings, which is my favorite part of the original. Having Mario by himself, jumping into paintings that lead into magical realms, with the added bonus of some amazing gameplay and revolutionary controls, is what makes the original a work of art. It touched on the very idea of why so many people play these games and watch films in the first place: to escape their loneliness through these magical portals (I cite Super Mario 64 as the design inspiration for the Copper homepage), and then to be fully immersed in the fantasy. Playing as Yoshi on the DS version reminds the player that there are other people in this fantasy world, because he's a side character. It's not the same as playing a lone Mario. I recently got the game on the Wii virtual console, and while the graphics are pretty dated, the game still holds up because of the mood and sound. With the DS, neither of those things are in the game any more.

Aside from that, Super Mario Galaxy is phenomenal. If you have a Wii, you must have this game. It doesn't give me the same magical feeling that Super Mario 64 once did (Shadow of the Colossus is one of the few games in recent memory that did), but what it does well it does extremely well (especially anything to do with gravity).

By the way, hey Jason! Welcome to the Flight Forums.

[nateomedia]

My wife and I finally pulled Galaxy off the shelf on Christmas -- we've had the game for a while, but no time to play it. What a beautiful and fun game! It took a us a couple of levels to get used to the 3D aspects -- especially gravity (walking upside-down, etc.) -- but the game does a good job of keeping the frustration level down. The level difficulty ramps up pretty gradually as you progress. Well, until you hit that candy conveyor belt galaxy.

Letting a second player grab star bits and stop monsters is a nice touch too. My wife and I switch off playing Mario, so it's nice to still be able to help out while the other one plays the game.

The pace of the game and the rate at which new levels are presented is nice too. Rather than getting tired with certain galaxies, I've almost felt like the game kind of rushes you out of levels a little too fast. It's hard to get tired of a game that keeps giving you new worlds to explore though.

[Stick]

A little update.. I did get galaxy as an early christmas gift, and holy crap, it was a wondrous adventure. This is the second mario game i've ever finished, the first being the original Mario Bros. for the NES, and let me tell you, playing galaxy gave me the same nostalgic feelings I had when I first played mario when my parents got my brother and I our NES when I was 5 years old. It was THAT good an experience. The game's boss battles were a tad easier apparently than I thought, but I totally loved the experience. I finished it, and i'm currently going through the rest of the remaining levels picking up whatever stars I didn't get the first time through.