Super Mario Galaxy!

Finally, Mario for the Wii has finally been released. This The storyline starts off very quickly. As you approach Princess Peach’s castle, Bowser shows up and takes her, as well as her castle, off into space. Like every other Mario game, it’s up to you to save her.

The graphics in this game are stunning. Due to the lighting, everything seems shiny and rubbery. The graphics are also very smooth and of course cartoonish. I never played Super Mario Sunshine, but I think it’s safe to say that this is the best looking Mario game yet. The music is great. Not only are there new songs in the soundtrack, but a lot of old tunes have been rehashed and integrated into the game.

The gameplay is some of the most unique gameplay that has been seen in a while. You shoot from planet to planet, and the some of the planets are only a few seconds walking distance to get around. Since the gravity of these planets keeps you from falling off, you can get disoriented traveling around. You will sometimes be running sideways or even upside down trying to solve puzzles. The physics engine of the game is extremely well designed with planet gravity as well as the pulling and pushing of Mario through certain worlds. The controls are extremely simple and easy to pick up. They really use the Wiimote well. As for difficulty, the game hasn’t been too bad yet. There was one level that really started to grind on my nerves, but so far, the levels have been pretty moderate. Nintendo really is pushing more towards the casual gamer group.

The characters of this game are extremely cute. Aside from Mario, there are also the Toads and the Lumas (star creatures). For some reason, I just really enjoy the Lumas.

I’m kind of curious as to why Peach speaks perfectly good English, but when Bowser speaks, it is completely unintelligible.

Soul Calibur 3

After enjoying the second installment of the Soul Calibur series, I decided to try out the third. I have always considered Soul Calibur the perfect fighting game, and it seems that number three still delivers.

The storyline is relatively the same for all the games: heroes and villains alike are searching for the Soul Edge to either use it for power or destroy it for that reason. However, since it’s a fighting game, the story pretty much consists of fighting everyone to reach the final goal (and boss). Soul Calibur tries to diversify the storyline by adding in plot between fights. While this does keep the storyline interesting, I often find myself just skipping through the text to continue to the next fight.

The graphics, as always, are stunning. Character’s movements are fluid and incredibly realistic. They really used motion actors well for the fighting animations. The physics for the most part seem realistic. I really enjoy the uniqueness of each character’s fighting style. Also, the Japanese voice acting really adds to the intensity of the combat. In my opinion, the English voice acting is mediocre and feels extremely out of place; however, I have always had a bias against English voice actors.

The music is as great as the second game. The epic feeling of fighting for the world’s most powerful weapon is transferred to the player.

Unfortunately, I felt that one of the more obnoxious aspects of this game was the cutscenes. The cutscenes before the second to last boss as well as the last boss were mandatory, and it got pretty boring as you tried to unlock characters. Unlocking characters was also incredibly annoying since you had to travel a certain path without losing once to face the person. Upon getting there without continuing, the unlockable character was almost untouchable, thus, completely wasting all your efforts getting there. Despite this, the game is still incredibly solid and extremely fun to play.

Mario, but Flat

I’m pretty much hooked on this Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door right now. I played the first one on Nintendo 64 and enjoyed it, but the Gamecube version is so much better. The style of art is very unique. Since it’s called Paper Mario, Mario is two dimensional. When you turn around, it’s like flipping a sheet of paper. The game is an RPG with side-scroller worlds and with some three dimensional elements. The overall mood of the game is somewhat silly. The music definitely adds to this tone by staying rather simple. The dialogue is incredibly funny while the storyline is simple. Princess Peach seems to have gone missing while searching for a treasure. While finding this treasure, you also search for the princess, but to open the door to the treasure, you need to recover the seven star crystals. It is a pretty linear storyline that has you searching for these crystals one by one. However, each world that houses a crystal has a different story.

The graphics are very smooth. While the overall graphics are flat, the characters and worlds are very well designed. Entering buildings is also unique; the buildings unfold to reveal what’s inside after entering.

The characters of the games all have their unique abilities. You have to use these abilities to uncover hidden secrets and even to advance through the game. This game is really unique in that it melds together many different aspects of different game genres. It even tries to make the typical turn based RPG battle system more interesting by adding certain tasks to attack. If completed successfully, your attack hits harder.

This game is also incredibly long and has a lot of secrets to unlock. So far I have spent around twelve to thirteen hours and I am still not even halfway through. Nintendo seems to have found the perfect blend of simplicity and fun while also maintaining some depth in gameplay with Paper Mario.

ONWARD TO HYRULE!

I finally got my hands on the much awaited Zelda game for the Wii. Sadly, the only Zelda game I have ever beaten is Link’s Awakening, and even then I used save states. I had gotten decently far into Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and A Link to the Past, but I always lost the motivation after getting that far. So even though I hadn’t beaten the past games, the Twilight Princess called to me. Since the only game I had on the Wii was Brawl, I finally went out and bought Twilight Princess and Mario Galaxy.

The graphics were very nice. I was somewhat worried that the realistic graphics would detract from the more cartoonish type feel of Zelda, but it really helped set the mood for the story. The tone of this game seems much darker than the previous games. All of Hyrule has been taken over by the King of Twilight and Princess Zelda has been taken hostage. As Link, you eventually discover your destiny to combat the forces of the Twilight and rid Hyrule from evil. The music also fits to the tone very well. The ever famous Zelda themes are remixed to a more rustic feel.

The Wii controls are hard to get used to, and I feel like they react slow too. Oftentimes I am hit by a monster because I’m still trying to pull out my sword. I also end up wasting a lot of ammunition because I accidentally shoot off my ranged weapons, so there is somewhat of a learning curve for the controls. As for the puzzles, they seem to be a lot easier than in the past games, but I have only done the first two dungeons. Though, embarrassingly, I must admit, I did get stuck within the first five minutes. My fishing skills are terrible.

Everything I’ve played so far has been solid, and the difficulty level seems just right for more casual players. I hope that I can keep up with this game and finally finish a Zelda game legit.

The Witcher

I got The Witcher with my video card. I had no idea what it was about and didn’t really feel like trying it; however, I couldn’t let a free game go to waste. I looked it up, and apparently, it was supposed to have top of the line graphics. What better way was there to test out my new graphics card? The storyline sounded interesting, but I didn’t get far enough to really get into it. The opening sequence really hooked me. The graphics were especially impressive, and the character started being established. However, it ends up being a side story that occurs outside of the main game’s storyline. The music during this sequence really set the atmosphere for the whole cutscene.

Upon getting into the game I was very impressed by the graphics. The detail on the character models was impeccable. The characters skin was rough and armor and weapons gleamed like real metal. The voices of the characters really fit the setting of the game, and the actors did a good job.

One aspect of the game that really interested me was the combat system. The combo system was pretty unique, requiring the player to time their clicks for a three hit combo ending in a stun. The stun then allowed the player to finish off the enemy.

One disappointing part about this game is that it seems there are still bugs, especially with Windows Vista. My friend played about an hour into the game. Upon reaching a loading screen we waited for a long time before realizing the game had frozen. The game did have long loading sequences due to the graphics, so we had no idea that the game had crashed until after waiting a long time. I hope to get a chance to play this game. I need to look online to find the patches required to keep the game from freezing.

BRAWLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

Wow, I’ve been waiting for this game for so long. I’m a big fan of Smash Melee, so I was psyched about Brawl. The graphics of this game are good. They aren’t the best of the generation, but they really show what the Wii is capable of. They are a solid improvement on its predecessor. Stages are extremely well detailed to the point where it distracts many players from the actual fighting. The styles of the menus are also crisp and bright, really adding to the light hearted tone of the game.

The music selection is not only great, but enormous. There is way over 250 songs in the soundtrack. Levels have anywhere between five to ten tracks that can be played. I was skeptical about some of the song selections (mostly slower songs that really don’t add intensity); however the tracks really do work well with the game. The main theme, composed by my favorite game music composer Nobuo Uematsu, is really deep for the lighter Smash atmosphere conveyed in the last two games.

The storyline of the Subspace Emissary is kind of simple, but it’s told in unique way. None of the characters actually speak. Their emotions are revealed through their actions and the storyline is progressed through cutscenes. This also made certain parts of the storyline confusing, since nothing was really explained to the player. There were a couple parts of the game that I thought were cheesy. They tried to make many parts of the story serious, but it was really hard to take these parts seriously with pink Kirby and yellow Pikachu in the ranks of heroes.

As for voice acting, I’m glad they kept Marth in Japanese, but most of the other voice actors make me want to bust a gut because of how poor they are done. Pit and Ike make me cringe when the taunt and pose in victory, but I guess there really much I can do about that.

Despite what people say, I believe this game is excellent with a lot of depth in its gameplay. I prefer to consider Melee and Brawl as two different games due to so many differences between the two games.

Snake!!! SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!

Metal Gear Solid 2 was the first game of the series I played, and, while interesting, I got bored pretty quickly. There was a ton of dialogue and there were only two areas. The storyline did get interesting around the end with the US government conspiracy theory. I decided to give the third game a try to continue the story. To my dismay, the third game is actually a prequel to the other games. Upon finally starting actual gameplay, I immediately did not like it, mostly because it was a lot more difficult than the last game. Enemies are a lot harder to see because you are in the dense forest. This aspect though shows how good the game artwork really is. You really feel immersed in the woods. When I landed, I was already completely lost. However, graphics of this level can only be expected of a Metal Gear Solid title. Also, survival was taken to another level in this game. You also have to hunt for food, which really helps you to realize how dire your situation is. The programmers have also learned from their past mistakes and have improved the camera angles.

The storyline sounds really interesting. It involves a conspiracy theory surrounding the Cold War including the Cuban Missile Crisis. I didn’t get too far into the game. I kept getting gunned down around a bridge. The music definitely adds to the Metal Gear Solid atmosphere (at least the music I was able to experience. The same Snake voice actor returns, and the other voice acting doesn’t make me want to bang my head against a wall.

I hope to finally be able to muster up the time to beat this game. The storylines are very involved and extremely interesting. One thing I may want to do before playing this game is play the first game.