Here's a couple more reviews which I posted on my old GameFAQs account. Note that since I'm posted them here as they were (for posterity's sake), they're not exactly the most polished reviews I could have written.
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Posted on 24th June 2016
One of the best platformers Nintendo has ever released and that's saying a lot!In many ways, the Wii was a landmark console in gaming. While motion controls had been done before, such as on the PS2 with the surprisingly excellent EyeToy, none did it quite as well as the Wii’s motion controls. Even in smaller cramped areas, they were precise, fluid, and really made you feel like part of the game like never before. Instead of just hitting buttons, and moving a control stick or rocking a D-Pad back and forth, you could actually swing Link’s sword, physically punch someone in a boxing match, or aim a bow and fire arrows at some enemies like you were actually there.
But not only where the controls great, the games were too. Twilight Princess, World Of Goo, Xenoblade Chronicles, Resident Evil 4, Rayman Origins, Metroid Prime Trilogy, and so much more (NOTE 2018-11-14: I've only played 1 or 2 of the games listed here, but I put them here 'cause I heard they were good. Oops). However, one of the most well known series that came out on the Wii was the Super Mario Galaxy Duology. Considered to be one of the best Mario series’ of all time, Super Mario Galaxy (or SMG) changed gaming forever and showed how a 3D platformer was meant to be done, just like Super Mario 64 did on the Nintendo 64 all those years ago. I’m going to be taking a look at SMG2 and see if it still holds up today.
THE STORY:
So, you play as Mario (No! Really?) and you have been invited by Princess Peach to the castle where she will give you…cake? OK, good enough for me. On your way there, however, you run into a Luma. These are little star creatures, and this one becomes friends with Mario! Now you have the ability to spin with a shake of the Wiimote! But, when you get to the castle, Bowser has captured the princess and he is HUGE! Bigger than the castle in fact! Bowser then flies off with Princess Peach to somewhere far off in the universe. Now, it’s up to you to rescue the princess and save the galaxy, or world, or something! But, this time, you’re not being helped by Rosalina. Instead, you’re being helped by a Luma called Lubba and his crew, who are also lumas, aboard the newly christened Starship Mario, which once was a starship/planetoid hybrid thing but is now the shape of your head. Because reasons.
Now, unfortunately, the story is the weakest part of the game. That’s not to say it’s bad, but compared to the rest of the game, and even the first SMG, it’s not particularly interesting. In fact, it’s like we’ve gone back to the basic “princess in trouble, go rescue her” story from the original Super Mario Bros., but that game had the excuse that it was on the NES, and back then, games didn’t need an overly compelling story, just compelling gameplay. Here, however, it feels like a retread of the first Super Mario Galaxy, or in this case, a worse rendition of it.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some good things in the story. Like I said before, we do get the lovable Lubba, who’s a big cute purple luma, who looks really huggable. In fact, the more I think about it, we NEED a Lubba plushie if there isn’t one already. Also, Starship Mario is pretty cool, and the characters that will come and go on your journey are pretty fun as well. So overall the story isn’t TOO bad, but something a bit new and different is unfortunately lacking here. But, again, don’t misunderstand; the story isn’t TERRIBLE, it’s just not all that good. The GAMEPLAY on the other hand is an entirely different story.
THE GAMEPLAY:
Never in my life had I played a game like Super Mario Galaxy 2. But, to be perfectly honest, my brother and I played SMG2 before the first SMG. Because of this, I blame us playing it first for me being so biased towards SMG2. But can you really blame me for that when the gameplay in SMG2 is so damn good?
What SMG2 does best is taking what’s old and making it new. The jumping, the sliding, the platforming itself, it’s all the same. But it’s slightly tweaked and improved. And by slightly, I mean, MASSIVELY. Imagine if someone took Super Mario 64 and cranked it up to 11. Not just that, but everything SMG did, SMG2 does better. Except the story. (But we’re talking about the gameplay, aren’t we?)
Speaking of Super Mario 64, the gameplay is very much the same here. Collect a whole lot of stars to stop Bowser from doing evil things and, on the side, rescuing a beautiful princess. On it’s own, it sounds dumb and cliched, but what SMG2 does best, is surprising you with how deep it’s gameplay can be. It’s not a matter of getting to the end of the level. It’s a matter of using your wits to grab the star and it’s a moment of sweet, sweet victory when Mario is about to fall to his death, but you manage to spin up into the air just at the right moment to grab the star.
The implementation of gravity and space is also very well done. So well done, in fact, I’ll give it a polite golf clap…10000 times over. Jumping around into launch stars, firing off into the abyss, the different locales you see in every level…it makes my heart soar. The levels themselves are also very different and unique. Not a single level reminds me of the other and each one is cleverly crafted and each one lends itself well to the game’s mechanics. Simply speaking, the gameplay is practically perfect.
Sure, the gameplay in SMG is a lot of fun, but sometimes there would be an unfair death or two because the camera was at a wonky or strange angle, or sometimes the control would feel a bit weird. To me, from my experience, SMG2 took everything that made the first game great and perfected it and polished it just that bit more. But there is something else in this game that’s extremely polished and makes my heart soar. (Geez, I can’t do a segue every time. That would be annoying and repetitive!)
THE MUSIC:
Moving on to the final aspect, at least in my review: the music. Now, this one is the aspect I had the most difficulty placing and here’s why. The music is beautiful; it truly is. One of the best soundtracks in Nintendo or even video game history. But…I think the original SMG might have won me over just a bit more. For me, it works like this. The music is half in half. There are some songs in SMG2’s soundtrack I like more than some songs in SMG’s soundtrack and vice versa. Being someone that can’t decide easily when it comes to these things…I’m just going to say that SMG2’s soundtrack is one of the best video game soundtracks of all time.
Is it better than SMG’s soundtrack? I truly cannot say. For me, in a lot of ways, they are equal, and in a lot of ways, they’re not. So I’m just going to leave it at that. Some of my favourite songs on the soundtrack include: Throwback Galaxy, Freezy Flake Galaxy, Fleet Glide Galaxy, Puzzle Plank Galaxy, Cosmic Cove Galaxy, Starship Mario and so many more that I am so sorry I cannot list here. Do yourself a favour: go on YouTube and find a playlist of the SMG2 OST and have a listen. It truly is symphonic brilliance. And you know what? So is the first SMG’s OST! Listen to that one too.
THE WRAP-UP:
I’ll try and keep this brief, I promise. All in all, SMG2 is simply one of the best games I’ve ever played. Pitch perfect soundtrack, impeccably designed levels, wonderful tight controls and as a package, it’s easily in the running for best Mario game of all time. Who cares if it’s story isn’t the best? That’s not the most important part of a Mario game! (Even though I was making a big deal about it before, cough cough) In any case, SMG2 is one of the best games on the Wii and of all time.
FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10
Super Mario 64
Posted on 15th March 2017
Revolutionary for it's time, dated by today's standardsI think it's fair to say that Super Mario 64, being one of the first N64 games ever, was a huge milestone in the gaming industry. It set the benchmark for how a 3D platformer was meant to be done. That alone is probably one of the most overused statements that has been used to describe this game. Although it is pretty true, the game has sadly become of the most dated games made for the N64. It's a shame, really. People praise this game for what it did, and fair enough. But comparing it to some other platformers of the same era; the Crash Bandicoot trilogy, the Spyro games, Banjo-Kazooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, the game begins to show it's age. Having just beaten the game recently, I think I can give a real honest opinion of why this game is just OK, and nothing more.
GRAPHICS
The graphics. I actually quite like them! Yeah, it's so simple you can practically see the polygons, but there's something oddly charming about their simplicity. Somehow, it feels natural and almost real, like it's some sort of daydream created by a small child within their imagination. I haven't really got much else to say about the graphics except that the game is very colorful and vivid, which gets a big thumbs up from me. Altogether, the graphics, once you look at them in a certain way, haven't really aged all that badly.
MUSIC
As you might have been able to tell, I'm starting out with the positives with this game, and apart from the graphics, I really like the music. It's mostly happy, light and bouncy but also occasionally has a feeling of dread and mystery in some of the stages. It's also very memorable. So much in fact, that I actually have the soundtrack in my music library! Is it on par with say, Super Mario Galaxy 1 or 2? Or Shadow Of The Colossus? Of course not, that's a pretty big leap to make. But there's a lot of great stuff here. The Super Mario 64 Main Theme, Slider, Inside The Castle Walls, Cave Dungeon and so much more. All in all, no complaints here.
GAMEPLAY
All right, this is the part I'm a bit torn on. Firstly, some of the stage designs I really like, in regards to how they look. Bob-omb Battlefield, Hazy Maze Cave and Whomp's Fortress are just a few of the really good ones, in terms of their design at least. A lot of the gameplay elements are also very enjoyable. Picking up a star will never not be exhilarating. However, there are a combination of issues that add up to the game just being OK. Firstly, the controls. Jesus, the controls. I mean, where do I start? Well, to begin with, I think the left stick to actually control Mario is way too sensitive. Ridiculously so, in fact. So many times have I died just because Mario runs a bit too fast or he clips off the edge of a cliff and falls to his death. Speaking of which, I've noticed that, with alarmingly regularity, I would fly off the edge of a platform from Mario's controls being too sensitive or the platform being too narrow. To put it in perspective, just being on a moving platform in this game is a terrifying experience.
In addition to this, I'm sure all who have played the game will agree with me when I say that the long jump can be incredibly finicky at times. This is because the same button inputs, just with different timings, also do a ground pound. True, this is the same for other future Mario games, but here, the controls have still got a long way to go before they work as they should. Also grabbing Bowser's tail (or trying to grab Bowser's tail) in the boss stages would often result in me doing a slide kick as, like the ground pound/long jump dilemma, the same button inputs are also used for grabbing and punching. This would lead to a moment of anger as instead of grabbing him, I would fly past Bowser, sliding on my face. Another problem with the controls is the camera. I'm sorry, but this camera is pretty unforgivable. I can't even count the amount of times the following has occurred to me: trying to swing the camera around but having it get stuck for no good reason, having the camera obscure something that hits me due to the awkward angle the camera is facing, falling into a pit or off an edge that I had no idea was there. The list can go on and on and on. And fair enough, I'm sure some of these deaths were my fault (I'm certainly not an AMAZING gamer by any means) but I sincerely doubt that all of them were my fault. A lot of times it felt like I was fighting the controller more than the game itself. If you are going to play this game, do yourself a favour and hit R then hit the down C-Button. It'll give you better control of the camera, as well as much better camera angles.
The combination of the controls, the camera and occasionally the unfair rubbish the game kept throwing at me made the game a slog to get through by the tail end of the experience. Granted, I did feel extremely satisfied when I finished off Bowser in the final stage and saw the final cutscene and credits, but I think that was more relief than satisfaction. The game also has very strange difficulty spikes. Sometimes on some of the later stages, a star is really easy to get but other times, it's just near impossible without dying several times over. You can also get lost on many of these stages, running around in circles with your only guide being whatever the star was named after which you can see when you enter a stage or when you hit the pause button. In games, I think there is a big difference between holding the player's hands with millions of tutorials and hints and giving that same player practically no directions whatsoever. The game falls squarely in the 'practically no sense of direction' camp. If you are going to get all 120 stars in the game, then you'd either spend hours knowing the ins and outs of every stage, getting lucky and happening upon a star by accident or following a guide online. I certainly didn't get all the stars. I got the minimum of 70 needed to access the final stage, got the credits and Mario thanking me for playing his game and that was it for me. Thank god, I didn't go to the effort of getting all the stars as the reward is kinda crap considering the hell you would go through to get it. You just get Yoshi on top of Peach's castle, a thank you from the SM64 team, a few 1-UPs and that's it. You would expect to get something really cool, like defeating Shigeru Miyamoto himself in a boss fight a la that John Romero easter egg in Doom II.
SUMMARY
Overall, I did enjoy my time with Super Mario 64. It's graphics and music are charming and vivid, but the gameplay can be absolutely abysmal at times, making it a chore to get through once you reach the game's end. If you are playing this game for the first time and you aren't intimately aware of all the N64 controller's nuances, you probably aren't going to have an incredible time. However, I still somewhat recommend it, at least just so you can see what all the fuss is about. Revolutionary? Hell yes. One of the best games of all time? Hell no. If this is what people call the pinnacle of 3D platforming, then I wouldn't wish the most terrible platformer on my worst enemies.
RATING: 6/10
EDIT 2018-11-19: I have a few qualms with this SM64 review, mostly to do with the fact that the majority of my complaints came from the controls. The reason why they were so bad for me is because the first time I played through this game, I used a keyboard (yes, yes, I know, emulation is the devil or whatever, boo hiss and so forth etc. etc.). With a bit of extra consideration and that the game is obviously WAY better with an actual controller, the game gets around a 7 or 8 out of 10, a strong 7 or a weak 8 - somewhere around there. As a side-note, I just wanted to add that the SM64 ROM hacking community is making amazing stuff right now. Seriously, it's some of the most impressive ROM hacking work I've ever seen up until this point. Anyway, that's my piece (for now), but I'm considering doing a Re-Review of this game (or at least, updating a few of my original complaints or criticisms with another edit).
Comments
Post a Comment