Wow, I realized I haven't posted a new blog entry since I got Super Mario Galaxy. And now I'm nearly done with it!
Okay, here's the deal: This is possibly the best Mario game ever made. I am a member of the minority that actually really loved Super Mario Sunshine. My time with it ranks amongst the best video-game-related experiences I've ever had, and to tell you the truth, I thought it was a huge improvement over Super Mario 64. But Galaxy motherfucking blows it out of the god damned water.
It's actually pretty astonishing how amazing Galaxy is, since it's a subtle kind of amazement. There are points when playing it where the realization suddenly strikes you that you're doing things that you've never, ever done in a video game before - crazy, fresh, brilliant new actions - and you didn't even realize it, because those actions are so intuitive and natural. Once you get over the initial bout of motion sickness (and this WILL happen when you're first running around on spherical planets), the game's input and output feels as instinctual as any other Mario game, even though the corresponding in-game actions are completely off the wall.
I'm not going to go into any more detail than that, because I've played through way too much of the game already to properly cover here. But also because these are discoveries you should make yourself. Buy this immediately, and make sure you're able to devote at least two afternoons worth of free time to it right off the bat.
So, what about Metroid? Well, I've broken my biggest Wii rule. Before I bought the Wii, looking at my library of unfinished Gamecube games, I promised myself that on the new console, I'd only start on new games when I'd beaten the previous game. I was REALLY hoping to have Metroid beat before Mario came out, but it just didn't work out that way. And, for the few days prior to Galaxy's release, I was actually considering buying it, but not even unwrapping it until Metroid was done. Of course, once I got home with the game in my hand, that was completely impossible and I dove right in. I am pretty sure I was very close to beating Metroid though (I had just finished the Pirate Homeworld), so here's the plan: "Beat" Mario Galaxy (as in defeat Bowser, which I am 7 stars away from being able to do), go back and beat Metroid, and then go back to find more stars in Mario. Oh yeah, and I gotta fit some Zack & Wiki in there too! Hah, rules were meant to be broken I suppose.
On the DS front, I've been completely ignoring Zelda. In the last update, I said that the annoying repetition of the hourglass temple hadn't gotten to me yet. Well, it's fucking gotten to me now. I really dislike that portion of the game, and at the moment, I'm right in the middle of it. I'm sure once I finish with that and get back to normal Zelda shit, I'll be giddy again, but for now it's just plain annoying. It's a clever idea, and I like that they're tweaking with the same-old-same-old Zelda formula, but I don't much care for the end result.
In lieu of Zelda, I've continued to play a lot of Picross. In fact, I "beat" the game, insomuch as one can claim to beat a game like this. It's sort of like saying you beat an issue of Games magazine. But it was a long, wonderful journey, so I'm counting this as a win and giving it an "I BEAT A GAME" tag. The last "level" of the game was a total blast, with the theme being all of Nintendo's past consoles (even including the ill-fated Virtual Boy)! Hopefully Nintendo keeps the downloadable puzzles coming, because I just can't get enough fucking Picross!
See you next time.
Okay, here's the deal: This is possibly the best Mario game ever made. I am a member of the minority that actually really loved Super Mario Sunshine. My time with it ranks amongst the best video-game-related experiences I've ever had, and to tell you the truth, I thought it was a huge improvement over Super Mario 64. But Galaxy motherfucking blows it out of the god damned water.
It's actually pretty astonishing how amazing Galaxy is, since it's a subtle kind of amazement. There are points when playing it where the realization suddenly strikes you that you're doing things that you've never, ever done in a video game before - crazy, fresh, brilliant new actions - and you didn't even realize it, because those actions are so intuitive and natural. Once you get over the initial bout of motion sickness (and this WILL happen when you're first running around on spherical planets), the game's input and output feels as instinctual as any other Mario game, even though the corresponding in-game actions are completely off the wall.
I'm not going to go into any more detail than that, because I've played through way too much of the game already to properly cover here. But also because these are discoveries you should make yourself. Buy this immediately, and make sure you're able to devote at least two afternoons worth of free time to it right off the bat.
So, what about Metroid? Well, I've broken my biggest Wii rule. Before I bought the Wii, looking at my library of unfinished Gamecube games, I promised myself that on the new console, I'd only start on new games when I'd beaten the previous game. I was REALLY hoping to have Metroid beat before Mario came out, but it just didn't work out that way. And, for the few days prior to Galaxy's release, I was actually considering buying it, but not even unwrapping it until Metroid was done. Of course, once I got home with the game in my hand, that was completely impossible and I dove right in. I am pretty sure I was very close to beating Metroid though (I had just finished the Pirate Homeworld), so here's the plan: "Beat" Mario Galaxy (as in defeat Bowser, which I am 7 stars away from being able to do), go back and beat Metroid, and then go back to find more stars in Mario. Oh yeah, and I gotta fit some Zack & Wiki in there too! Hah, rules were meant to be broken I suppose.
On the DS front, I've been completely ignoring Zelda. In the last update, I said that the annoying repetition of the hourglass temple hadn't gotten to me yet. Well, it's fucking gotten to me now. I really dislike that portion of the game, and at the moment, I'm right in the middle of it. I'm sure once I finish with that and get back to normal Zelda shit, I'll be giddy again, but for now it's just plain annoying. It's a clever idea, and I like that they're tweaking with the same-old-same-old Zelda formula, but I don't much care for the end result.
In lieu of Zelda, I've continued to play a lot of Picross. In fact, I "beat" the game, insomuch as one can claim to beat a game like this. It's sort of like saying you beat an issue of Games magazine. But it was a long, wonderful journey, so I'm counting this as a win and giving it an "I BEAT A GAME" tag. The last "level" of the game was a total blast, with the theme being all of Nintendo's past consoles (even including the ill-fated Virtual Boy)! Hopefully Nintendo keeps the downloadable puzzles coming, because I just can't get enough fucking Picross!
See you next time.
1 comment:
Your almost done Metriod, you can beat it in two sit downs with it (probably even one). I'm glad you said Zack & Wiki is good, I just picked it up on black friday and I'm just waiting to finish Godfather before I start it.
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