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.