Blend Lab

I realize that I may be a little late getting jumping on this bandwagon, but I managed to snag a copy of Super Mario Galaxy over the holidays and thought I would bestow upon you all my humble thoughts. This won’t be an in-depth exploration of the game (that’s already been done elsewhere), I’ll just let you know my initial impressions:

• Gut-wrenching
  Many moons ago, I recall an evening when my buddy just about lost his lunch as a result of repeated aerial tumbles, rolls, and flips while playing Crimson Sky. I wouldn’t say that Mario Galaxy had the same effect on me, but I did need to pause the game a few times during the first few levels to get my bearings – however after my initial orientation the twists, turns, and gravity effects were delightful.

• Delightfully playful graphics
  With most of the Mario titles, the grapics are bright and playful, cartoony, but still imaginative and original – Mario Galaxy is no different. Eye candy abounds, from engorged Lumas full of star bits to the introductory flights to each planet the game is great aesthetically, they really pulled the most out of the Wii.

• Expected, yet unexpected
  I’m quick to admit that I’m by no means a video game junkie. To be honest the last Mario game that I played with any sort of dedication was Super Mario 3, back in the early 90’s. The brilliance of Mario Galaxy is that I was able to pick it up immediately, all the old gaming mechanisms that had been ingrained into my teenage brain were still relevant and everything new was intuitive enough (in a Mario-esque way) that I could pick it up almost immediately.

• Outstanding score
  Whether deepening my sorrow or highteniong my anticipation, I’m always affected by a soundtrack. I distinctly remember the first time a game’s soundtrack affected me directly. I was playing Call of Duty 4 and was pinned down defending a location from countless enemies… I was getting frustrated, and kind of upset, this area was tough. Two of my men had been hit, my health was low, and I was quickly running out of ammo… I had lasted longer than previous attempts, but the outlook was grim. Suddenly a mournful, but slightly hopeful music began to play… It felt like that moment in the movie where, tears streaming down his face, our war-ravaged hero rises from the ruble and streaks into the melee furiously firing his weapon… enemies dropping like flies. It was stupendous.

  Although, I can’t say that the score in Mario Galaxy is quite as emotive as what I’ve mentioned above (at least so far), but without the wonderful score Mario Galaxy has, it would be a lesser game. From bright and playful to menacing and dark the soundtrack is definitely the icing on the cake mood-wise for this game. There are also numerous little details that make the game that much more auditorily enriching (is that a word?)… Mini-games that play songs as you run over colorful pieces, Lumas that giggle and chirp when you feed them star-bits, even the ‘galaxy-map’ has a multi-tonal interface. These little details, when combined with the overall score really help to deepen your immersion in the game.

So if you’ve got the means, and a little bit of time, I would highly recommend taking the old Italian plummer out for a quick romp… Well… Yeah… You know what I mean.