Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love rentals.

I’d like to admit up front that my feelings about the Mario series in general these days could best be described as “contempt”. Since New Super Mario Bros. (DS), I think the series has been pretty stagnant, relying too much on rehashing and nostalgia. Now I’m a fan of nostalgia, but I don’t think interesting things are happening in mainstream Mario. Interesting things are certainly happening in the RPGs and some other spinoffs - I’m a big fan of the Paper Mario series - but I resent Nintendo for showering Mario with so much attention, to the detriment of their other IPs and especially the Mario series spinoffs (DK, Yoshi and Wario).

Having said that, I’d heard too much praise of Mario Galaxy to pass on it. I feel sorry for 3D platformers, they’ve kind of died out after the 64 era and I loved the games in that era. Not Super Mario 64 specifically, I feel that Rare’s games were a vast improvement on that formula so I didn’t care much for it. But hey, Mario’s apparently still doing it while Rare isn’t. That’s a topic for another post however.

When I decided I needed to try Galaxy, I looked around and many shops are still charging almost full retail for the damn thing. All too common with Nintendo’s A titles. I did find the Player’s Choice reprint or whatever online (from the UK) for a fraction of the price, however. I wasn’t completely sold though, so I bit the bullet and rented it. Game rentals are very expensive most of the time, and often short, but when they’re a few years old they apparently become weeklies and the price drops. So I have been playing it to a deadline.

First point: I find it addictive. Perhaps it’s the mission structure, and the fact that they are not too hard or long. Or it could be the fact that I have to return it after a week. I generally like to complete (as opposed to finish) games that I own, because I might as well if I’ve paid for it. I obviously won’t have time with this one, but I don’t feel the need to buy it after playing it for almost a week. So this is why I’ve come to accept rentals. As a result I’ve decided that I don’t need to buy it after all, I’d just overhyped it in my head.

But I’m getting ahead of myself (I often do). I’ll say that Galaxy is fun to play. My wife joined in for a little while as the P2 cursor. Not a great multiplayer mode, I must say, P2 just shoots things and collects star bits. But the single player is solid. Despite the years in between, it seems firmly grounded on the structure of SM64. I never played Sunshine, but I get the impression it had a much more developed world. Galaxy then heads back in the opposite direction, Galaxy 2 even more so from what I’ve heard. Chaotic worlds with no thematic cohesion, sometimes even within a “galaxy”. No plot to speak of. Forgettable characters. Maybe it’s the fact that I was raised on Rare and expect well-built worlds married to good gameplay. A lot of the time Nintendo, and particularly Mario games, are about gameplay first, second and third, and to hell with whatever else makes a game. This frustrates me. On reflection I am annoyed. Of course, while I am playing I just switch off I suppose and have fun.

This is an issue of competing game design philosophies, I feel. Like I said, the game is fun while you play, but there is little to make you think about it while not playing. But there is no reason why a game cannot be fun in this way, but also include other compelling aspects. The medium is not just an endorphin delivery mechanism. Anyway, high horse time over. I think I have to get my big ideas out before I can go into more detail.

So detail. Characters. Mario is boring as ever. And as my wife said, he looks shiny. It’s weird. A lot of promo renders have this problem too, they don’t look real. But yeah, boring. I want to play as Luigi, but you have to finish the game first or something and I don’t have time. I’m glad he has a significant part in the game, though. And his first appearance is in a haunted mansion, which is nice. It’s amusing how he gets lost and just gives up and says “Bro, help me!”. The toads are a nice addition, the concept of them journeying to space to help you, then popping up in various worlds is very cool. I just wish the Red Toad had a blue jacket. The strategy guide says that he is “the” Toad, but I really want Nintendo to give characters more individuality and continuity. He should say to you, “Hey Mario, space is pretty weird huh. Even weirder than that time we went to Subcon. I wonder what happened to Wart anyway…” Peach is just as much a non-entity as always. Not worth commenting on, really.

Which brings us to the most significant addition to Mario “continuity”. Considering she’s been in a few sports games since, Rosalina could be considered quasi-important. I thought from all the fanart that she would have, you know, a character. But she’s just a Peach clone with emo hair, and literally all game the only thing she’s said to me is “Get more stars, then we can rescue Peach.” It’s true I haven’t read the storybook yet, but for goodness sake, develop your characters during gameplay. She could not exist and the game itself would be no different, Polari could say useless things to you as well as being the map guy. And she looks way too much like Peach! It doesn’t make sense! Needless to say, I was disappointed, as I was expecting some depth and story to this game and character and it just didn’t happen.

The game, however is pretty fun, as I’ve said. From the persepctive of strictly the jumping and collecting, it is pleasingly similar to SM64 with the locations themselves being even wackier and often building on established series archetypes. The powerups are a bit weird (spring mushroom? seriously?) and not very fun, but the controls are nice. There are two big problems, though. The camera angles and movement can become very disorienting on the smaller or strangely shaped planetoids. And the game is way too linear. Again, this may be the Rare fan in me talking, but SM64’s worlds were also very open, while this feels very restrictive. I suppose it could be seen as a way of applying 2D level flow to a 3D game, and it is nice and easy to just pick a mission and play through it, but it felt a little off.

I’m going to purposefully finish now so i don’t just talk forever, so closing comments. Galaxy is a fun game, but not a satisfying game. I hope I’ve made clear exactly why, but I am glad that I didn’t pay for this game. I am glad though that I got a chance to play it and experience it. I feel that in some ways it’s an interesting extension of the 3D Mario forumla, but in other ways it has not advanced anywhere near enough. I guess my expectations were high. I’d recommend it, but not at the full price most stores are selling it for. Chances are one of your friends own it, if you haven’t played it, borrow it and have a go.

Wife’s comment: It made me dizzy, so I couldn’t watch it.