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Super Mario Galaxy for Nintendo WiiBRAND NEW and SEALED Nintendo Wii Game.Note: Can be played on the Nintendo Wii Only.Backed by a 45-day guarantee.ESRB Rating: E -...
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BRAND NEW and SEALED Nintendo Wii Game.Note: Can be played on the Nintendo Wii Only.Backed by a 45-day guarantee.ESRB Rating: E - EveryoneGenre: Action AdventureFeatures: Become Mario as he traverses gravity-bending galaxies traveling in and out of gravitational fields by blasting from planet to planet. Players experience dizzying perspective shifts as they run upside down through wild alien worlds that need to be seen to be believed. Whether you're surfing on a ray across an ocean in the clouds rolling on a ball through a treacherous garden or floating in a bubble over a poisonous swamp there's no limit to the cosmic challenges you'll encounter! Shake it! Controlling Mario is as simple as can be with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Move Mario with the Control Stick and shake the Wii Remote to perform a spin move or cue Ring Stars that launch you to and from planetary objects.
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82 Reviews from Epinions.com
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Super Mario Galaxy Computer Game
Super Mario Galaxy is the Wii equivalent of what Super Mario 64 was for the Nintendo 64 platform and what Super Mario Sunshine was for Nintendo's GameCube console--except that we are in a truly diverse next generation realm where the games are bigger and brighter. Galaxy is no exception--making huge overhauls for the series and boosting it into all familiar territory yet keeping things fresh, original, and reinventing itself with its mechanics. This is one of the many reasons to own a Wii system.
I won't lie and say the story is fantastic because, as we've grown to know over the past twenty years of Mario games, they aren't relevant to anything. All you need to know is that Princess Peach has been captured, again, by the nefarious Bowser and through some tinkering Mario and friends are in space. Bowser is up to his old tricks with many of his bad guy friends in tow to make your gaming career a living hell and through the course of 120 stars to collect and multitudes of planets to play on you get closer to your showdown with Bowser.
If you've never played a Mario game (all two of you), it's fairly and extremely simple. Unlike the past installment that dealt with a water-pack on Mario's back, you're back to the 64-bit controls where you simply run and jump to dodge obstacles and magically make your enemies disappear into coins (which renew your health). There are a few fun power-ups you'll be able to get through most of the game, which give you certain abilities like a bee accessory that makes you able to fly and stick to honeycombs as well as one that turns you into a big coil able to jump to higher places.
The levels have that familiar cartoony drawl to them, but the designers have completely revamped the entire system to the craziest degree. Because this game is set in space, there is no right sense of up and down so many levels explore this concept wholeheartedly. There are still ways to die on each level where if you fall through the floor or miss a jump you'll be sucked into a black hole, but there's a larger emphasis on space and disorientation that makes challenges much harder to complete.
Almost all of the levels in Galaxy will mess with your head and the camera angles make things equally difficult. You'll be jumping off walls into beams that force the gravity downward so you'll have to compensate. Other levels will force you to walk upside down and at treacherous angles or have you beam through these obstacle courses using bubbles or your pointer (long story). It's safe to say that there are many frustrating points in the game where you honestly don't know what's going on, but the trial and error natures of the Mario games help you get through. That said, this game play mechanic really breathed fresh life into the series and I honestly think that the space atmosphere (or lack thereof of gravity) is one of the best ideas in modern platform gaming.
Super Mario Galaxy has a hub similar to previous games in the series on a space station where you travel to different parts of it to access your levels and each level is in a specific galaxy where their planets are available. The planets range from fiery levels with lava aglow to icy cold levels (as we would expect), but they also go beyond expectations and imaginations to planets made of toys and food where we have to trump up a large robot to take him apart and work our way back down it in time (very similar to Shadow of the Colossus). There are also planets with a Super Monkey Ball nature where Mario is on a ball and must trump through these obstacles to get to the end, which I found to be fun, but awfully frustrating at times.
As you go to each planet you have a list of challenges to complete ranging from defeating the big boss of the planet or collecting various star bits or just making it to the end of the obstacle sections, but every now and again special comets will be in your planet's orbit and you must complete a challenge it brings. These comets' challenges range from having to beat the boss with one bit of life to timed challenges and even races with your cosmic self. To put it bluntly, there's nothing short of objectives to complete and because of the vast array of levels, if you get stuck you can easily go off to another galaxy and goof off until you build your courage to face it again.
That said, the difficulty is a little hokey. Some points of the game were frustratingly hard (especially the optional challenges, of course, which you don't need to complete to beat the game), but others were ridiculously easy. You'll go from levels in the same galaxy where your palms will sweat a storm only to breeze through another. The bosses are all fairly easy as well and surprisingly enough they aren't very good. The boss battles are very similar to each other and most of them have too similar of weaknesses and there are even some that you repeat. I found this to be mightily disappointing, but it doesn't break how enjoyable the game is by any means.
The art design and graphics are notably beautiful, but then again: what would you expect? The Wii chugs the graphics smoothly without any slow down and the space segments and level designs are smartly handled and flawlessly executed. Replaying through levels to complete different challenges was not a hard task because it really made you appreciate how well-designed the game was and how much they tinkered with the Mario tried-and-true sensibilities.
The amount of imagination that went into each and every level is astounding and some things will definitely catch you off guard. The sound design is another returning facet with many reprises of the wonderful Mario tunes we've grown up with, but they are orchestrated on a grander scale with a large breath of fun and excitement. It won't fail, however, to make you p*ssed when you keep dying.
I know this game is sooo 2007, but it's been a constant in my Wii collection--standing above some of the other games I have and I take good pride in my completion of it. I'm definitely going to play through it again because of the gorgeous and interesting levels and I had a stellar amount of fun with the whole experience. When I bought this game I was told there was a multiplayer element to it, but I was disappointed when it only came down to collecting little star bits (which are like currency in the game) for the other player to do.
While this is helpful and a little fun to do when you're playing with someone else and waiting for your turn to play, I feel like a multiplayer experience could have been a powerful asset to the game. Who knows if Super Mario Galaxy 2 will incorporate something? All I know is that the first game in hopefully a long line of Galaxy games is a fantastic experience that you truly need to play to believe. This could be harder for younger players, but I think that if you've played a Mario game before you'll know exactly what to do and it's definitely tailored to the gamer who can think outside the box. Well done, Nintendo, well done.
© Jason Haskins, 2010
Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube)
Mario's First Wii Outing is Out of This World!
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Pros: Tried and true game mixed with an entirely different aesthetic, terrific sound and art design
Cons: Can be extremely disorienting at times, weird difficulty, some boss flukes
The Bottom Line:
Galaxy is still pretty pricey years after its inception, but there's a reason for it and it's well worth for forty to fifty bucks.
Super Mario Galaxy is the Wii equivalent of what Super Mario 64 was for the Nintendo 64 platform and what Super Mario Sunshine was for Nintendo's GameCube console--except that we are in a truly diverse next generation realm where the games are bigger and brighter. Galaxy is no exception--making huge overhauls for the series and boosting it into all familiar territory yet keeping things fresh, original, and reinventing itself with its mechanics. This is one of the many reasons to own a Wii system.
I won't lie and say the story is fantastic because, as we've grown to know over the past twenty years of Mario games, they aren't relevant to anything. All you need to know is that Princess Peach has been captured, again, by the nefarious Bowser and through some tinkering Mario and friends are in space. Bowser is up to his old tricks with many of his bad guy friends in tow to make your gaming career a living hell and through the course of 120 stars to collect and multitudes of planets to play on you get closer to your showdown with Bowser.
If you've never played a Mario game (all two of you), it's fairly and extremely simple. Unlike the past installment that dealt with a water-pack on Mario's back, you're back to the 64-bit controls where you simply run and jump to dodge obstacles and magically make your enemies disappear into coins (which renew your health). There are a few fun power-ups you'll be able to get through most of the game, which give you certain abilities like a bee accessory that makes you able to fly and stick to honeycombs as well as one that turns you into a big coil able to jump to higher places.
The levels have that familiar cartoony drawl to them, but the designers have completely revamped the entire system to the craziest degree. Because this game is set in space, there is no right sense of up and down so many levels explore this concept wholeheartedly. There are still ways to die on each level where if you fall through the floor or miss a jump you'll be sucked into a black hole, but there's a larger emphasis on space and disorientation that makes challenges much harder to complete.
Almost all of the levels in Galaxy will mess with your head and the camera angles make things equally difficult. You'll be jumping off walls into beams that force the gravity downward so you'll have to compensate. Other levels will force you to walk upside down and at treacherous angles or have you beam through these obstacle courses using bubbles or your pointer (long story). It's safe to say that there are many frustrating points in the game where you honestly don't know what's going on, but the trial and error natures of the Mario games help you get through. That said, this game play mechanic really breathed fresh life into the series and I honestly think that the space atmosphere (or lack thereof of gravity) is one of the best ideas in modern platform gaming.
Super Mario Galaxy has a hub similar to previous games in the series on a space station where you travel to different parts of it to access your levels and each level is in a specific galaxy where their planets are available. The planets range from fiery levels with lava aglow to icy cold levels (as we would expect), but they also go beyond expectations and imaginations to planets made of toys and food where we have to trump up a large robot to take him apart and work our way back down it in time (very similar to Shadow of the Colossus). There are also planets with a Super Monkey Ball nature where Mario is on a ball and must trump through these obstacles to get to the end, which I found to be fun, but awfully frustrating at times.
As you go to each planet you have a list of challenges to complete ranging from defeating the big boss of the planet or collecting various star bits or just making it to the end of the obstacle sections, but every now and again special comets will be in your planet's orbit and you must complete a challenge it brings. These comets' challenges range from having to beat the boss with one bit of life to timed challenges and even races with your cosmic self. To put it bluntly, there's nothing short of objectives to complete and because of the vast array of levels, if you get stuck you can easily go off to another galaxy and goof off until you build your courage to face it again.
That said, the difficulty is a little hokey. Some points of the game were frustratingly hard (especially the optional challenges, of course, which you don't need to complete to beat the game), but others were ridiculously easy. You'll go from levels in the same galaxy where your palms will sweat a storm only to breeze through another. The bosses are all fairly easy as well and surprisingly enough they aren't very good. The boss battles are very similar to each other and most of them have too similar of weaknesses and there are even some that you repeat. I found this to be mightily disappointing, but it doesn't break how enjoyable the game is by any means.
The art design and graphics are notably beautiful, but then again: what would you expect? The Wii chugs the graphics smoothly without any slow down and the space segments and level designs are smartly handled and flawlessly executed. Replaying through levels to complete different challenges was not a hard task because it really made you appreciate how well-designed the game was and how much they tinkered with the Mario tried-and-true sensibilities.
The amount of imagination that went into each and every level is astounding and some things will definitely catch you off guard. The sound design is another returning facet with many reprises of the wonderful Mario tunes we've grown up with, but they are orchestrated on a grander scale with a large breath of fun and excitement. It won't fail, however, to make you p*ssed when you keep dying.
I know this game is sooo 2007, but it's been a constant in my Wii collection--standing above some of the other games I have and I take good pride in my completion of it. I'm definitely going to play through it again because of the gorgeous and interesting levels and I had a stellar amount of fun with the whole experience. When I bought this game I was told there was a multiplayer element to it, but I was disappointed when it only came down to collecting little star bits (which are like currency in the game) for the other player to do.
While this is helpful and a little fun to do when you're playing with someone else and waiting for your turn to play, I feel like a multiplayer experience could have been a powerful asset to the game. Who knows if Super Mario Galaxy 2 will incorporate something? All I know is that the first game in hopefully a long line of Galaxy games is a fantastic experience that you truly need to play to believe. This could be harder for younger players, but I think that if you've played a Mario game before you'll know exactly what to do and it's definitely tailored to the gamer who can think outside the box. Well done, Nintendo, well done.
© Jason Haskins, 2010
Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube)
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