Mario Galaxy...
A Wii only recently came into my possession, and the first game on my “must play” list was Mario Galaxy. This was the first Wii game that got stellar reviews from critics and it looked like a new and interesting take on the 3D Mario 64 style world.
The one worry I had about this game was that I would get dizzy or sick from running around planets while the camera flips around and upside down.
If you haven’t seen this game in action…let me show you the reasoning behind why I was concerned.
Yeah it gets dizzying at points. The first few minutes of playing did nothing to dissuade me from my worries. I had to pause the game and look away to keep my brain from melting and leaking out of my ears. However after about a half hour, it was almost as if my brain had adjusted. I compare it to the first time I played a FPS with a dual stick controller rather than the N64 single stick (Goldeneye style). I spent most of the first 30 to 60 minutes spinning in circles and shooting the ceiling. Over time I improved, and now could never go back to the single stick gameplay.
Well I could certainly go back to gameplay that doesn’t involve planets spinning around and the camera flipping upside down all the time, but it no longer makes me ill, and does add to the experience. It adds to the experience because Nintendo uses the gravity and round worlds in fun ways they couldn’t do before on a flat area. This is exampled in the video above where you can run around the planet to guide a missile to break open a cage on the bottom side. You can also jump from planet to planet, using gravity, which leads to many interesting gravity based puzzles.
Bottom line, if you liked Mario 64, this is the next best Mario game available. It’s the closest a Mario game has come to Mario 64. This is difficult accomplishment since Mario 64 was the first game to show off the capabilities 3D gaming had for video games, but Mario Galaxy comes damn close.
The one worry I had about this game was that I would get dizzy or sick from running around planets while the camera flips around and upside down.
If you haven’t seen this game in action…let me show you the reasoning behind why I was concerned.
Click to viewYeah it gets dizzying at points. The first few minutes of playing did nothing to dissuade me from my worries. I had to pause the game and look away to keep my brain from melting and leaking out of my ears. However after about a half hour, it was almost as if my brain had adjusted. I compare it to the first time I played a FPS with a dual stick controller rather than the N64 single stick (Goldeneye style). I spent most of the first 30 to 60 minutes spinning in circles and shooting the ceiling. Over time I improved, and now could never go back to the single stick gameplay.
Well I could certainly go back to gameplay that doesn’t involve planets spinning around and the camera flipping upside down all the time, but it no longer makes me ill, and does add to the experience. It adds to the experience because Nintendo uses the gravity and round worlds in fun ways they couldn’t do before on a flat area. This is exampled in the video above where you can run around the planet to guide a missile to break open a cage on the bottom side. You can also jump from planet to planet, using gravity, which leads to many interesting gravity based puzzles.
Bottom line, if you liked Mario 64, this is the next best Mario game available. It’s the closest a Mario game has come to Mario 64. This is difficult accomplishment since Mario 64 was the first game to show off the capabilities 3D gaming had for video games, but Mario Galaxy comes damn close.