Mario Galaxy (Wii) – Game Review

“its’s me, Mario!”

Those three iconic words begun one of the finest games of the 20th century. It seems old now, Mario and the N64, but think of all the goo dthings it brought to gaming. Mario 64 was, in my opinion,one of the best platformers ever. It had 120 stars, which prooved quite hard to collect, clever level design, and various other features that are now gaming history.

Of cousre its sequel was not so hot, super mrio sunshine. Now, I have nothing against the game, of course it was slightly different in design but it was still a solid enough game. Many people dont regard Sunshine as 64’s true sequel. Well finally, mario has a game good enough to be deemed sequel, to the original.

So does this mean galaxy is the same as 64? Most certainly not! Of course it does slightly resemble the good old game, but this is an exellent new game, retaining the core elements, that made 64 so good,and adding in new ones that make galaxy really that mcuh better. The graphics are the best on the wii to date, the soundtrack is incredible, the whole scale of the game is amazing, and guess what? No loading times! This really is the ultimate platform game, or as ultimate as we are going to get for a long time.

Graphics

As i mentioned before, the graphics in this are the best on the wii. Now a lot of people think that the wii is only capable of last gen, PS2 graphics, but the only reason for that is that so many PS2 games have been shoved on the wii, with little more than motion sening added. Those games were designed for the PS2, with PS2 hardware in mind, however galaxy has been designed with the Wii in mind. This game would not be possible on any other console, and you need to play it to experience it. Of course it isn’t HD, but its finally graohics the Wii can be proud of, well done Nintendo!

Music

The music in this game is truly brreathtaking, its how it should have been in Zelda. Orchestated, and nicely composed, it really adds the to atmosphere of the game, that is needed to create the feeling of going into space. There are some classic tunes, remixed a bit, as well as some new ones, all are equally memorable. There are also certain places where you hit a block, or grab a ? coin, and a trail of music notes comes out. You follow it and as you do it plays a classic mario song, which is a neat little touch.

Not only is the music brilliant but the sounds are also very good. You have the generic mario “Wahoo”, “hah” and “oomph” as well as the screams of joy he yells as he shoots through space like a comet. Voice acting is kept to a minimum, Sometimes a character may say “help” or “please” or something like that, but there isnt much voice acting. If there was, i think the game would be too cinematic, and people may get bored.

Gameplay

Again, very solid, very nice, easy for a begginer, but gets harder towards the end. You have 120 stars to collect again, 5 different domes, each with 5 different galaxies, each with six stars to collect, as well as the bonus dome and the bonus levels. THe bonus levels are really fun, and clever at the same time. They may seem like apointless distraction, after all, you can complete story mode without them, but if you do, you are missing out. For example, there is one where you hop on a ball, and have to roll it to the end of a course, like monkey ball. You hold the controller like a joystick and move like that. There are mantaray surfing levels, buble levels, and even a couple of levels where matter itself dissapears when it hasnt got a spotlight on it.

One thing I will say though, is that overall, this is an easy game. Im not saying you are going to whizz through it in a couple of hours, although I have heard someone played it for a day solidly and completed it, but it is rather easy. Sometimes, you may be stuck , “what do i do next?”, or the’re may be a bit you cant quite react to in time, or a boss that is a bit too hard, but generally, its easy. Of course, I have been playing games since when I was about 4, so I may be a bit biased.

Controls

Ver good, just like the rest of the game. It uses the remote, without over using it, and you havethe controls simple enough for anyone to use. It may be a bit confusing when you are upside down on a planet, but youi get used to it. Jumping is done with A, wheras shooting star bits is done with B. A is also used for latching onto blue stars and interacting with other things on screen, but mainly jumping. You control Mario with the analouge stick, change the view with the D-pad, and spin by shaking the remote. So as you can see, you dont need to be jumping around smashing windows with this game.

You also have the option of having someone else to help you collect star bits, shoot/freeze enimies, or poimt things out, but the second player never really feels like they are playing, they are just a cursor.

Summary

Best graphics on Wii, Best gameplay on Wii, Best Music on Wii, and most fun platormer on any console. Did i mention in won game of the year on both Yahoo.com and IGN.com? Just because its mario does not mean it is babyish. Just because its Wii, dosent mean you have to look like an idiot playing it. If you liked mario 64, this is a must have. If you like any mario, sonic, or other platform game, then you’ll like this. The only reason you may not like this is that you are a sad little kid who sits in their room denying the exsisntance of good Wii games. They do exsist you know!

9.9/10 Almost perfect

Zelda Phantom Hourglass (DS)- Game review

Well Ive played it, and completed it, and absolutely LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!! Its a great game in every aspect, except for the length. Its all over too quick!!! The storyline is thick, the graphics are lush, the sailing works, and the controls work!

CONTROLS

When I heard that Phantom Hourglass was going to be touch only, I had my doubts. I thought it was going to be touch, just for the sake of beong touch. But let me tell you it is not that way at all. It works BRILLIANTLY. The DS touchscreen brings something new to the controll scheme, just like the WiiMote did. On the wii you can have precision aiming with the bow, hookshot ect, but with the DS, you can have complete accuracy with ANYTHING.

For example, throwing things. On other games, you could estimate how far you were going to throiw something, and have to do it a few times before you got it, but here, you just tap where you want it. The boomerang and bombchus follow a path you draw and the hookshot can be hooked onto more than one thing. These are just a few examples. Does this make it too easy? Perhaps, maybe that will make it more appealing to less experienced players.

Attacking also works really well, although you dont get quite as involved as you do in Gamecube or Wii. It is more like the old games, where you walk up to the monster, enemy and button bash, (swipe your stylus in this case), there is no locking on. You can still dodge, but you dont feel connected to the enemy. It does work though, but theres going to be no epic battles where you roll under a knights arm then jump over his head and slice his back.

GRAPHICS

I personally, love the cel shaded look. I dont think its better than twightlight princess look, but its no worse either. Its completely different. On the DS it works really well. If you had twighlight style, it would be incredibly pixalated and look rubbish. The characters look good and so do the dungeons and mosters. You can tell what everything is, if its supposed to be a teapot, it will look like a teapot, not a load of pixals.

One thing that is really good is that basically everything is 3d. You wont be seeing sprites used, apart from maybe on maps, or for very insignificant objects such as leaves. The camera angle is 45 degrees, like classic zelda, it dosent follow link. I think this is the only style that truly works on handheld. As far as im concerned, graphics are no problem, best on the DS to date.

GAMEPLAY/STORY

I love the story in this game, having completed it yesterday, I think it is perfect. At the end, it answers many questions, as well and bringing pleanty up, just like the ending of Wind Waker. This is, essentially, a sequel to Wind Waker. Its not really, but the story starts were the last left off, and there are a lot of similar things.

Theres that guy who plays battle ship with you, he’s back with a new “sailing game”. There is a boat in the north-west sea called the “prince of red lions” that look similar to your boat in the previous game. In there is a Guy who claims he is the ultimate hero, and there you can see how many hits you can get before he hits you three times.

Although this is all rather similar, it does feel completly new. You are on a new map, which is split into 4 large sections, and the game is based around a dungeon somewhat near the middle. You have to go back to it after each dungeon to get further until you get to the bottom and fight the games final boss. Going back time and time again does sound a little boring, and sometimes it does seem that. But when you get further in the game you get items that can help you take shortcuts. One of my only problems with the game is the repetativeness of the ocean temple.

Sailing is a big part of this game, its not like Twighlight princess, it follows its predecessor Wind waker. I think sailing works better here, you dont have to stop every 2 minutes to change the direction of the wind. You just draw a route and follow it. This leaves you free to destroy any enemies of jump any obstacles in you path. You can also travel using whirlwind, (later in the game), look for treasure or fish, so there is pleanty to do.

REPLAY VALUE

As I said before, its over really quick. Pokemon is like a drug. Its addictive and you do the same thing over and over. Zelda is like a cake. You eat it and each mouthfull is different, but perfect. But then you finish the cake. Zelda is an awsome game, its constantly keeping you on your toes with its puzzling quests and difficult dungeons. But once you have done it, its over. Of course there are still lots of things to collect, spirit gems, ship parts, fish, but the main story is over so fast. And you dont want to do the same dungeons over and over. There arn’t enough hidden dungeons. There are certainly quite a few cool little islands, like one shaped like a DS, but many of them have few to do on them.

Im not saying this is a bad game, its my favourite of the 20 or so DS games I have on my shelf, but its far from perfect. Of course this is because of the DS’s limitations, but 25 hours compared to 130 on pokemon? Pokemon had pretty basic graphics, and storyline, and… everything. But its all about replay value. Collecting all the pokemon and training them up will take an absolute age, but I still like Zelda better. Its short, but sweet.

MULTIPLAYER

Multiplayer is something completely new to Zelda, it is only 2 players but it is awesome. You have to play as link or 3 phantom knights, and get as many force gems as you can. There are 3 rounds and you are link and the phantoms in each of them. It is fair, and fun, and it works. 3 on 1 dosent sound fair but link moves faster, and has “safe zones” where he is invisible, and the phantoms cant come.

Not only that, but it has single card play, multi card play, and WIFI play! And you can unlock special awards for certain things, such as thrashing the other player and getting a perfect score, or picking up all items that apear. This brings extra replay value in and also extra fun.

SUMMARY

I think Zelda is an awesome game. Get it. You dont have a DS? Buy one. Its a great game with pleanty of puzzling and will give you at least 20 hours. The downside is that it is so good that you will probably do that 20 hours within a week. Because of this lack of enough replay value, it isn’t a perfect game. But I score it…

9.7 / 10 A must have game

Smash bros weekly update 22nd-26th October

King Dedede? Having not played a Kirby game before, I dont know much about him. He looks like he is the Bowser of dreamland. In brawl, He will be very much like Bowser was in melee. He is going to be slow and heavy, but extremely powerful. His special moves also look amazing! I wouldn’t want to be defenseless against this giant bird!

Also this week, the return of target smash! This one looks a lot better though. If you played smash bros for the 64 or gamecube, you will know that each character only had one target smash level. Well this time, each character has 5 smash levels, ecah getting progressively harder. They are also including Items to make it easier. If you were one of those perfect freaks on the old games, trying to shave off milliseconds from your high score, then you’re covered as well. You can now send your scores via wifi, and even record replays then send them. This should add some well needed competative spirit to the target smash.

Whats one of the most useless functions on the DS? Pictochat. An instant messaging program you can only use when you’re in talking distance of the person you’re messaging. Hopefully it will be improved for brawl. Pictochat, is now a Smash Bros Level. Its going to be mad, with things being drawn for you to stand on and when fire is drawn it burns you. It should be interesting.

There is also this funny little video about DK and Diddy K.

WATCH IT

Smash bros weekly update 15-19th october

Not as exciting as last week, but theres still some pretty cool stuff. For example, the stage “new pork city” has been announced. This looks like its going to be a great level.

The director has said that It will huge, even more so than the temple on the last game (is that possible?), so theres pleanty of room for brawling.

Also this week, they have announced the return of the sandbag competiton. You know the one, pelt sandbag as fast, far and hard as you can? But it gets better. You can now play Home run contest : Single player, Multiplayer, Co-oprativ, and Wifi. HOW COOL IS THAT?

The other updates included, meowth as a pokeball item, A new assist trophy called little mac and peaches final smash.

Release of Zelda

Well today is the 19th of october. Does it mean anything to you? No?

I shall tell you. Today was the release of Zelda for the DS, in europe. Let me tell you, after just one hour of playing, I know it is an amazing game! From the start you can tell this game has on of the best visuals on the DS to date. Better than Final Fantasy III.

Its retained its cell shaded graphics from Wind Waker, which personally, I think is a good thing. It already is looking good, Im into the first proper cave, after meeting some wierdo who thinks he’s really tough. Ive sailed the sea a bit and I think it works magnificently. I fyour worried about the controls, dont be. They work fine. Your hand may get in the way sometimes, but rarely.

I played it multiplayer with my brother, download and play, and we both loved it. You have a choice of 10 levels, and the gameplay of it works great. You both get a chance to be on both sides and with three rounds, theres pleanty of room for stratagy.

If you like zelda games then I would reccomend, although you may want to wait until I’ve played throuh it and written the review. I know what I will be doing this haalf term holiday.

Smash bros weekly update 8-12th october

Well I dont know if you care, but super smash bros is coming out for the Wii and it is going to be great! The director of the game, Masahiro Sakurai, writes a new thing about the game every weekday which keeps fans hooked. I will write a weekly summary each saturday saying whats new. The link to the website is here.

This week has been very exciting with the addition of the third party character everybody had been waiting for. Yes, Sonic has finally joined brawl.

His main advantage is speed, as most people would have guessed, and he has quite a few cool special moves. Yes he has his spin, which is on all games but he has many moves that are from sonic battle (gba). Sonic will definately be interesting and it may mean that Tails or Knuckles will join soon! To see him in action, click here

Those who enjoyed Ashleys theme from warioware touched (ds), well its back, and completely jazzed up!

ASHLEYS THEME

There has been a video released showing the progress so far. Its short but sweet and you will have to watch it a few times before you will see everything. It is HERE

The return of the snapshots! But now you dont have to go into special brawl. You can take a snapshot at any time just by pressing PAUSE. You can save it to the wii or an SD card, and best of all… YOU CAN SEND THEM WIFI!

There are pleanty more updates to come, with the release date being pushed fowards to 10th of Feb in America, so keep looking!

First post!

Well I decided to make a blog because I was bored on a Friday night. Yes thats right, bored on a Friday night. I dont have much of a life. I will post my animations on here are just anything else i care to.