So when Nintendo apparently decided to remove the DKC trilogy from the Wii Shop (WHYWHYWHY, they answered my emails with weaselly non-answers)(at least we got warning in this country, unlike USA), I bought them before they disappeared. Good decision. Especially for 2 and 3, the ones I actually owned on the SNES, my muscles practically remember the moves for every level. I have had very little trouble getting through anything so far. And it’s just so fun doing that, running through again like a boss.
Anyway I don’t know how much I can say about this game. It’s one of my favourites of all time, a common stance for many gamers. I can make lots of comparisons, how it’s so much better than DKC1 in lots of ways, how there is no comparison between it and the comparatively bland Super Mario World, how it and Yoshi’s Island took different branches that are both excellent.
I don’t need to say too much though. This game is so very special to me, and I mean ideally its quality will come through to anyone who picks it up, but my eyes are so heavily tinted towards it. I just don’t feel I can say much meaningful commentary, you know?
So as I played this game, it all came flooding back. I remembered where every secret was. I slightly misremembered the instant 75 Kremkoins cheat so had to look it up (I used it to open the Lost World so I didn’t have to get all the bonuses- hey I know I can do it!). The physics and mechanics just feel so right. My absolute familiarity with this game makes it feel like the epitome of videogames. Since I know it so well, it seems like the best because it feels right.
Some levels of course are still just hard. Bramble Blast, Screech’s Sprint and Animal Antics all spring to mind as ones I died many times on in this playthrough. When I did play this as a child, there were levels I’d avoid as they were hard or less fun (the two haunted forest levels also come to mind). On the other hand, Rattle Battle, Rickety Race, Castle Crush, these are all levels I loved to replay many times, so I know them the best. And yes, I got to Krocodile Kore both as a child and now.
In fact, I managed to beat the secret final boss on my first time, as Diddy, without getting hit! I am so proud of that. :D
So let’s talk about the non-mechanics things about this game that make it great. The atmosphere is utterly wonderful, each new environment is vibrant, iconic, and yet tense and moody. The music is, oh, so good. The character designs are full of personality and charm, and the mostly-consistent pirate theme of the Kremling Krew makes for a cohesive collective identity for your foes. Especially good are the returning enemies with updated costumes.
Also, the bosses are leaps and bounds ahead of the original (both designs and the battles themselves). Speaking of comparisons, I think Rare were brave to turn the tables and put Donkey Kong - THE Donkey Kong, mind you - as the kidnapped victim you need to rescue. This meant he was not playable, and not even seen until the end of the game. This apparently was the source of some controversy, at the time and later from idiots, especially at major gaming publications. I didn’t mind about that in the slightest (still don’t).
Diddy is just so much more relateable for a kid. Dixie too, although obviously she’s a girl and I’m a boy. But I loved both of them. For many years Diddy was my ultimate Video Game Hero (that’s the subplot of this game by the way, him proving himself).
Anyway it’s probably this game that started my love of the DKU, Nintendo, and even videogames in general. Pure platforming gold, with heart. I give it a flablillion bananas out of 10. Emulate it now! It’s less immoral than ever! Oh and the GBA remake is good too, although the overly bright colours, chirpified soundtrack and smaller screen make it a diminshed experience (and the new minigames are not good), but the extra collectibles added that extra element for me to make it worthwhile to play (the map screens are also new, but uglier)(oh and there’s one extra boss).
Mallow the Nimbus prince who thinks he’s a tadpole from Super Mario RPG, and Perry the magical talking parasol from Super Princess Peach. It is my sincere belief that the two are the SAME PERSON!
The first thing that tipped me off was their similar colour schemes. Mainly a creamy/yellow colour with a blue edging (blue in Mallow’s pants). Mallow has reddish shoes and curl, and Perry has a reddish handle. Their mouth and eyes also look totally the same.
The second discovery was their similar backstories. Mallow was lost from his true home in the clouds as a baby and found by an adoptive grandfather, similar to Dragon Ball’s Goku. I discovered that Perry’s background is similar, that he had no memory and was found by an old guy who took him in. Ok, so Mallow’s grandfather is a frog and Perry’s is shown to be…something…with a beard. If you squint they could be the same guy!
Both have odd powers: Mallow can use magic to heal and control the weather; Perry also has powers and is transformed into an umbrella. Umbrella, weather, eh? Ok so someone who may or may not be Kamek transformed him against his will but it could well be a wild sort of magic, that’s not unheard of.
The biggest problem is figuring the order of events and timeline. Mallow actually experiences character growth, and goes from grandfather to his original home, becoming a courageous hero in the process. Perry has been separated from his grandfather before the game and has no personal resolution to finding his grandfather. But each are separated from their grandfathers in both games. So how can they be the same?
Well, there’s always the Miyamoto excuse. In an interview he explained that each Mario game is just like a fresh story with no bearing on previous games, all characters are just actors playing out a new scenario. So both Mallow and Perry could be alternate versions of one another; related, but not the same. But that’s a cop out and as fans, we have to explain everything! Or at least a lot of things.
So here’s a wacky theory. Super Princess Peach is a prequel to Super Mario RPG. This does require some small amount of retconning of SMRPG unfortunately, but it’s more interesting than having no inter-game connection or two characters with the same backstory and similar appearance.
Mallow the cloud prince is dropped to earth, falling into Tadpole Pond. He is found by Frogfucius, who raises him as a tadpole. But Mallow is different. He doesn’t feel like a tadpole and he has strange powers that make him feel like an outsider (SMRPG). Kamek and Bowser find the boy, turn him into an umbrella, and take him away. He escapes and, far from home, finds his way into Toadsworth’s hands. He gives the umbrella to Peach (SPP).
Fanon commences here. After the events of SPP, Peach and Mario take Perry to find his grandfather. Unfortunately, Bowser’s clown car is sighted near Toad Town, so Luigi is tasked with helping return Perry while Peach and Mario deal with that (he doesn’t appear much in SMRPG so he can be doing this while other stuff happens). Thus the plot of SMRPG starts with the kidnap of Peach, followed by the arrival of Exor at Bowser’s Castle. Meanwhile in fanon land, Luigi and Perry, now in familiar territory for the little cloud prince, find their way to Tadpole Pond and Frogfucius.
Frogfucius, in his great wisdom, knows a way to reverse the spell on his adopted grandson and Mallow returns to normal. Mario later comes along and Mallow goes with him on his journey (this is the slight retcon as Mallow apparently had never met Mario, although we could say the reason he looked up to him was that he had actually seen him in action previously). Peach also joins the party later, and we have to assume that Mallow also remembers her in a way he didn’t exactly express during SMRPG. They later return to the cloud kingdom and after all is said and done, Mallow accepts his rightful place there as heir.
That actually works a little better than I thought. This also makes Mallow/Perry a pretty important character, as he is semi-playable in two fairly important spinoff adventures (not just spinoff sports games or whatever). I hope I explained that well enough. I’d be happy to indulge in some clarification or speculation, so if anyone has any questions, use the ask thing or disqus comments or something.
I’d like to talk about these two games at once because my backlog is filling up, and I thought a comparison of these was apt. Why?
Well, two of my favourite games growing up were Donkey Kong Country 2 and Yoshi’s Island. Those probably stand out to me the most before we got our 64. These two games, then, are related to these, being the prequel and a sequel/spin-off respectively. Also, I never really played them at the time or at all until recently. The other way I can talk about them together is that they are both ground-breaking platformers that tried new things in the market at the time, but had differing levels of success.
There is a quote from Miyamoto at the time about DKC: “The success of this game proves that people will put up with mediocre gameplay if the graphics are good.” I’m paraphrasing, but the gist is that DKC was being hyped up a lot for its graphics (even though the gameplay and other aspects were great too), and I think old Miyamoto was bitter that it was outselling his project, Yoshi’s Island. I think both games have beautiful visual styles and great gameplay, although they are very different on both counts. Both were, in a way, responses to Super Mario World but they took the 2D platformer concept in very different directions.
I can tell this is going to be long. Bear with me, folks. DKC’s sequel refined further everything that made it great, and is superior in most ways. Yoshi’s Island on the other hand had a sequel the next generation which pushed even further away from the basic SMW style, off the wacky deep end. This is my opinion, of course.
So I guess the main thing I took away from these playthroughs is that sometimes you have to try new things, and sometimes they don’t work. DKC had a few mechanics that are dropped completely in the sequel, as they were awkward or not useful. That just may be my DKC2 familiarity talking, but I feel that the designers learned a lot from DKC to make the second one a much better game. Segue to YS, which introduces a buttload of things done differently to YI, and ends up even more awkward than DKC in comparison to my childhood favourites.
They are opposite ends. That’s not to say either is bad, they just frustrate me a lot more, especially when I can see what they’ve done wrong.
To give a bit more detail, there’s a lot to love in DKC. The atmosphere, the personality, the controls feel good. My main complaints are with the hit detection, the pointless bonuses, and the badly flow-breaking animal bonus levels. These are minor though, and the reason I tend to overlook it is I prefer the sequels, the new heights they reached, how they played with the formula, plus they have more internal consistency with each other than either has with DKC1. Each installment has its own different atmosphere that gives them unique feelings, which is a great thing and more than you can say for the Mario series (ok, no more cheap potshots). The music and backgrounds play a big part in this.
YS has less to recommend it on face value. It’s a little slow and wonky, the controls are a little weird and there are also a few hit detection issues here. Also, unlike its predecessor YI the music is less memorable and tends to reuse arrangements of the main theme for most areas (in this way it resembles YI’s true DS sequel). I find this boring, personally. The aesthetic is both overly cute but also a very interesting crafty style, with newspaper, cardboard, felt, etc backgrounds like Little Big Planet but low-res.
Unlike the more precise YI, the platforming and egg-throwing is more forgiving or loose, although if you miss a jump I found it very hard to recover. The game is quite short but it is built for multiple playthroughs, with each of the 6 worlds having 4 possible levels with one being played each go through. This gives it a lot of variety, and each run will be different. The structure is also unique, mostly left-to-right or down-to-up but some more complex structures with branching paths and the level ends when you eat 30 fruit, not reach a certain point or anything.
Speaking of structure, I guess I didn’t structure this review so well but I saw some commonality there. Basically I regard both these games as lesser installments in series that I adore, and therefore worth playing on the strength of their brethren alone. But I was pleased with each when I actually got to playing them, and with YS I appreciate its radically different style. I can look past DKC’s faults to see the germ of the great series it spawned, but its more abstract features that carry through are fantastic. I just think it’s popularly overrated. YS on the other hand is slightly underrated.
The Yoshi and DK series as wholes are way too big to include any of here, so maybe one day they’ll get the proper MiloScat treatment. I’m glad I’ve now experienced these as they’re so important and influential to the overall series, DKC in its design and music and YS in its contribution of sound effects to all subsequent Yoshi material, and the aesthetic that was adapted in many Mario sports games. But now I want to play the actual games I grew up with, so I’m gonna do that. Toodles.
Haven’t been here in a while, I’ve had other things on. My brother’s wedding, and I was reading comics instead of playing games (they were game-related comics, though—I’ll post about that later), and yesterday I marathonned the first half of Dark Harvest. The “big 3” Slendervlogs, which I follow, are kind of in a lull so I decided to expand my horizons. Plus the Marble Operator discussion podcast is starting to cover the series so I watched it. Had to figure out the order things came out in from the two or three Youtube channels, two blogs, two Twitter feeds. Par for the course in a SlendARG, really, and most of them are active for only a short time anyway. Unfortunately, unlike EverymanHYBRID, there isn’t a well-maintained wiki with a handy timeline. And I’m kinda off Unfiction at the moment, so i did the legwork myself. Anyway, how about some games!
Yoshi’s Island was a huge game of my childhood, very high in my estimation of gaming joy. I have a lot to say about the series consequently, but I’m aware of post length getting ridiculous so I will save some content for two extra posts later: words about redesigns and character interpretations, and an overview of the Yoshi series as a whole. For now, let’s talk about YIDS!
Since I found out about this game, naturally I’ve been interested. Similar to how Jungle Climber interested me, it was another developer making a latter-day sequel to a series I love on a handheld. But unlike Jungle Climber, a lot of what I read about YIDS was quite negative. Words like “romhack” and “awful soundtrack” got tossed around, which quite put me off. In the end I decided screw it, I’m going to play this game and love it anyway, it’s the only unambiguous sequel to the great original. And I did!
The original game was made by Nintendo EAD, the main first-party studio with many sub-divisions. I guess they were too busy with NintenFerrets or New Super Mario Bros 15 or something,(NOTE I wasn’t too far off, the team that previously made Touch&Go on the DS now make NSMB and the only director for YI not now a General-type Manager is Hideki Konno, who heads the Nintendogs & Mario Kart team) so it was outsourced to Artoon, who have previously been caretakers of Yoshi with a tilt-based thing on the GBA. I’ve played Universal Gravitation (or Topsy-Turvy as you might know it), and since I was expecting a spinoff and not the second coming of Island, I though it was ok. It’s a bit odd but I just like any little thing in a great series.
The Yoshi series is one of those B-list series that gets shipped around to lots of different developers. Fans of series like DK, Wario, Star Fox, Metroid, F-Zero, etc can be very bitter and resentful towards Mario and Zelda who get rampant sex parties thrown for them by Nintendo every other week, while they get shared between teams or developers and shifted around like a semi-popular show on a commercial network. Artoon (who also made the pretty bad Blinx the Time Sweeper) are competent enough I suppose, but I feel their games lack polish. They put a fair bit of fanservice in YIDS, but also added their own things that are weird or jarring. Some say they mishandled the development of this game. I think it could have been done better, but I’m just happy it exists really. I guess I’m just a few steps away from abandoning real games and only playing fangames and truly good romhacks. :-p
So the main difference between the original and this sequel is the baby-swapping mechanic. This is a cool idea, which allows the Mario continuity to become even more twisted and impossible, especially when you add that adult Bowser travels back in time, and Kamek may or may not have. But it also allows each baby to give different abilities to Yoshi. It’s cool and you use each one often, but like many things here it could have used some work. Some of the abilities are underused, like DK’s shoulder-barge. Peach only has one advantage that is context-dependent, and her eggs are worse, so she seems nerfed compared to the others. Wario is also very situational, but his specific sections are interesting, puzzly bits. Baby Bowser is just bad. His fire breath is annoying to use and is made redundant by placing fire pots in a level you can eat. The three heavier babies also make your jump worse, so there is a trade-off for their advantages and often Mario is just the go-to pick for many levels (but DK’s mixture of abilities make him very useful too). But switching can’t be done in a map screen and if you’re in a harder level where there is no stork drop-off for a while, or they are few and far between, it can get very frustrating. You have to go back to World 1, play through an easy level and finish with the baby you want.
There are only 5 worlds compared to the original’s 6, but there are 2 extra levels per world. The original had a sceret level in each world, and the Advance remake also added an extra level per world, so this is a slightly shorter game. But I didn’t mind about that really. What I minded was the removal of all inventory power-ups. They were cool, and they were an extra help if levels got tough, especially for some quick stars before the end. YIDS is overall a much easier game, I blazed through with tons of lives. However, near the end the difficulty spikes in a few stages, and the extra levels are especially brutal, made more so by the lack of items to use. Getting 100% on all levels is also very tricky, but I think that is no different to the original. I enjoy the challenge of the secret levels though, and they are optional, but I don’t know if I will 100% them. There are also extra collectibles in the form of big coins for specific babies to find, one per stage, which was good. I also liked the museum feature where you can run through and view all the baddies you’ve egged in their natural habitat.
Let’s say something about the graphics & sound. I’ve looked at spritesheets for this game so I believe when people say that Artoon blatantly ripped many sprites from other (Yoshi) games. Koopas and others from YI, Yoshi’s sprites are from Touch&Go, adult Bowser is from their Universal Gravitation. And their new enemies and elements for this game look out of place often, with different styles and even differently done outlines! It adds up to make for a quite inconsistent presentation. After a while you get over it though, you just have to accept it and try not to dream too much about what could have been. Say what you like about Yoshi’s Story (I will play it soon), but its visual style was internally consistent. The sound design for this game was also just, just bad. At first I minded the new “hup” “yow”, etc sound effects of Yoshi’s voice. But that’s just because he didn’t have that in the first YI, and he’s consistently used them since YS, so that’s fine. But the music is the truly awful part. Boring tunes, short loops, massively overused main musical riff. Have some variety! The main theme is ok, they used it in Brawl and it’s not too bad, but it gets old real fast. I would have preferred if this game just ripped the whole soundtrack from the original. I normally play handheld games with the sound turned off anyway, so I guess I didn’t have to endure it.
Ok, stream of consciousness time. Bosses were pretty good, a lot of gimmicks were underused, interesting level archetypes and combinations, some very cool twists on level design and some pretty boring or confusing levels. I liked the cutscenes and the fact that certain babies joined and left, so you don’t have to play all levels with Baby Bowser on rotation. General gameplay was just like the original, big plus for my nostalgic bones. Many returning enemies, new ones were kinda weird, but the return of those Klaptrap-type guys from DK Jr that aren’t Klaptraps. Museum was cool but not well explained (need to throw egg at enemy for them to appear there). Each baby had their time to shine, and were made to feel useful, except maybe Bowser. But Peach should have had at least one more thing to recommend her. General plot a bit off and confusing, but an interesting addition to Mario canon with the concept of the Star Children. Yoshi series should get away from Bowser as the bad guy so much. Nice length and good replayability. End-of-level bonus games not as interesting with only lives on the line, no items. Also in-level minigames not as good as original and nothing at stake there as far as I can tell. Two-screen mechanic interesting and cool, levels were generally designed around it too so that’s a plus.
All in all though, I liked YIDS. If nothing else it reminds you why the Yoshi series is so great and makes you want to play the original again. But it has its own charms and benefits too, which in some ways make it unique to the original and worth playing, such as the babies and the dual-screen. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten to Yoshi’s Story yet so I can’t compare it. But I had a lot of fun, and I’m still going improving my scores and unlocking extra levels so I’d recommend it for anyone who’s played the original. If not, play that one (SOMEHOW—it’s not available on any download service so you have my permission to emulate either version for now). In fact, you could emulate this one too as (aside from no touchscreen or microphone use) there is zero chance of reprints, there is no DS download service and Nintendo (and Artoon) makes no money from second-hand sales. I am still not entirely convinced that anyone gets data from second-hand sales either. I bought this second-hand because it’s a complex game, which is easier to play on the proper hardware, and I enjoy things better on the real console, especially for handhelds. But anyway I shouldn’t talk about this so much. Fun game, but hey I say that about pretty much all the games I play. Also I’m a Yoshi fan.
Wife’s comments: My paragraphs are too long, it makes my reviews hard to read. Erm.
Recently I had kind of a bad time for about a week and a half. I sometimes have anxiety attacks or feelings of inadequacy that go through stages. I guess it happens to lots of people. Fortunately, I have things that can help me out in these times. Faith, loved ones, and video games.
So for that reason and general tiredness, I didn’t play much games for a little while. But this weekend I jumped right into some stuff with a vengeance. I played through a few worlds of Little Big Planet 2 (still on loan), but mostly this weekend was Pikmin. I clocked half the game in one day.
So previously, my bro (hi bro) had bought me Pikmin 2 a few birthdays ago. Great present, as was Donkey Kong Country Returns from my other bro the previous Christmas. Both of these came at a time when I wasn’t super interested in video games at that stage, and they along with some other notables (SSBB and Okami) brought me right back in, to the point where I’ve been in the thick of gaming culture since. So I’ve completed Pikmin 2, I think. But importantly, I’d played a lot of it and developed skills.
That was a necessary preface because I thought Pikmin 1 was quite easy. I think going about it the other way around would be a really great experience, as Pikmin 2 (although not one of the sequel games that picks up near the top of the difficulty curve of the previous, and assumes the previous as a prerequisite) builds on a lot of the concepts developed in 1. Playing them in order would also give you a good introduction to the world and characters, particularly Olimar. His introspective musings on his situation and the things he encounters are truly one of the highlights of both games. More on that later.
So it was easy. I sort of expected that I would find it so, so I was very supportive of my wife having a go. She played through the first few days, maybe a week I guess in game until it got to the point that it was too hard and stressful. I don’t blame her, the Forest Navel was quite hard compared to later stages, it might have been better swapped with the spring. And the final level was just a puzzle-type thing, I would have liked to see more areas like that actually.
Anyway, I took over at that point, and played a bit more and polished it up in a marathon on Saturday. My impressions were good, but it shows that it was such an early title, and perhaps could have used more content? The execeution was brilliant, though. And even the plot was handled very well, for Nintendo. It’s a fine game, worth buying for the low price it is now, but perhaps not the high initial price. The sequel is leagues better and as I can attest, stands on its own.
I was playing the New Play Control! version, which from what I can tell had loads of improvements, unlike a few games in that series that were apparently simple control updates, or like Jungle Beat which radically changed gameplay (and was apparently the worse for it). Improvements like yellow Pikmin holding bombs when whistled, and throwing them at enemies. Or Pikmin surviving longer on fire. And the day rewind system. Not to mention widescreen support. This is good, and in my opinion that rerelease brand should have lasted much longer. On the other hand, another way to fix things is sequels—in this case, the whistle was better in Pikmin 2, although the first game seemed a little better at handling extracting lots of dudes at once from an Onion.
Now seems like a good time to talk about the Pikmin series as a whole. It’s not just two games, you know. The NPC! versions of both games are greatly improved, as I mentioned (and the US is only just getting 2 that way, without NPC! branding. So slow NOA!). Also, Pikmin 2 has lots of brand name products and other treasures that are different between regions. So there are different iterations of the same 2 games. The 3rd is also on the way for WiiU, and looks great. However, there are 5 other additions to the Pikmin universe that I, as an avid completionist, consider important.
1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This game did a huge service to many Nintendo franchises, by remixing songs, making stages, showing off artwork in stickers (trophies were slightly less impressive, they were only existing renders which led to over-representation of some series), and of course making new, highly-detailed character models for the fighters. Brawl also took some liberties with characters for playability, so Pikmin & Olimar are much larger than they really are, and also Reds & Yellows were granted the ability to produce fire & electricity, instead of just surviving it. On the music side, Pikmin tends to be more atmospheric in that regard so Brawl also included the Japanese pop singles released alongside the two games (and a French version). Incidentally, did you know they also bred a new flower species and named it after Pikmin, as part of the marketing? Oh, and Brawl had an awesome model for Olimar, way more textured and interesting than his model in his own game. I don’t blame Pikmin for that, it’s meant to be zoomed out. But yeah Brawl Olimar looks amazing, and he’s high on the tier list. Thanks Sakurai! He’s my main by the way, but people get annoyed cos he’s too good. ;p
2. The Pikmin 2 e-reader game. Oh, Japan. When will you share your goodies with the rest of us schmoes? The Gameboy Advance add-on that read barcodes off collectable cards was incorporated with the GCN-GBA link cable, but only in Japan. So if you get a lot of different cards and scan them in, you can play levels of 3 different puzzle minigames! Apparently. I’ve only seen 1 shaky YouTube video of this, but it looks kinda cool. Since I love obscure stuff like this, I wish they would release it on the DSi store. *sigh* A fanboy can dream. Worse, e-readers can’t be emulated at this stage as far as I can tell.
3&4. Warioware microgames! 9-volt and 18-volt’s stages are the best part of these games for fans like me. Warioware DIY had a game in the non-Japan version (so I guess we got something they didn’t after all) where you throw a Pikmin onto a rock for nectar. The fun part about this microgame was the pixelated painterly art style, one of the best looking games in DIY. The other is featured in Smooth Moves for the Wii: you control the Empress Bulblax from Pikmin 2, rolling to crush Piks on either side of you. This not only let you control an enemy creature, it established that there exist Pikmin of giant size, almost as big as the Empress herself. Canon? Sure, why not! How either of them got into that cave, though, is beyond me.
5. Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (GCN). Interestingly, hitting a ball in the rough sometimes caused Pikmin to burst out. How did they end up in the Mushroom Kingdom, since Pikmin ostensibly takes place in a future Earth? Iuno, magic? Mario and logic are essentially incompatible. Canon? Eh, maybe.
Well, I’m glad my review of this gem of a game let me splurge out some obscure stuff like that. So I’ll reiterate that it’s worth playing at least one Pikmin game, but if it was only one, go for the sequel. It has more features and content, as well as more fascinating little quotes from Olimar, and some interaction that wasn’t possible with only one stranded character. But I’m glad I’ve played both. If I main Olimar I should know his whole story I guess. Until next time, friends.
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.
