Showing posts with label Nintendo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nintendo. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Metroid: Other M Review for the Wii
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Style Savvy Review for Nintendo DS
I HAD to give this game a shot! With such high review scores and recommendations, I was pretty enticed to try out this fashion game. And besides that, I was already interested when I found out that it was a fashion game that didn't play down to it's audience. It treats you like a person, not a generic 8 year-old girl that likes Barbie dolls. So here's what I got out of my experience:
= Try this on for size! - Here's the barebones of Style Savvy: Look at your customer's personality and clothing style and try to match it. That's it! Unfortunately, it didn't really work for me. I don't think anyone really knows that I secretly love women's clothes. I also have no better way of wording that sentence either at the moment! I mean it in the sense that I love the way women look in different fashions. It seems so much more fun than what guys tend to have going on. I looked forward to playing since I think that I may have a good eye for what goes with what to make an attractive outfit. I wanted to have my own store and sell styles that I liked. That's what any fashion store would do, right? You don't go to Hot Topic to find stuff you'd see at Abercrombie and Fitch (Their clothes don't breathe worth a damn by the way). Unfortunately, that's not what you get with Style Savvy and it was a bit disappointing.
You get your own store and you get to choose what kind of fashions it sells, what the front of the store looks like, and even the music of your shop! None of this seems to factor into what kind of customers you get. I ran a boho-chic shop (Think indie, earthy wear) and I kept getting teenyboppers and elite class women. I went out of my way to make sure the game recognized what kind of clothes I wanted to sell but it just wouldn't give me the right customers.
+ Maybe this is more you? - There is a bit more depth to the game than I've seen with a couple of other fashion-oriented games, not that I've played any though. There's a bit too much to go through and they'd all get small explanations anyway so lets just shoot right through what else Style Savvy offers.
+ That is, like, so you! - Playing dress-up with your character is extremely varied, deep, and my favorite part of the entire game. There are so many styles when it came to the eyes, hair, lips, clothes, highlights, eyeshadow, you really get to make your character exactly how you want! While it's not on the same lines of customization available in a game like ModRacers on the PS3, it's comparable to Little Big Planet's sackboy creation tools. A GREAT feature in a game such as this!
= Try this on for size! - Here's the barebones of Style Savvy: Look at your customer's personality and clothing style and try to match it. That's it! Unfortunately, it didn't really work for me. I don't think anyone really knows that I secretly love women's clothes. I also have no better way of wording that sentence either at the moment! I mean it in the sense that I love the way women look in different fashions. It seems so much more fun than what guys tend to have going on. I looked forward to playing since I think that I may have a good eye for what goes with what to make an attractive outfit. I wanted to have my own store and sell styles that I liked. That's what any fashion store would do, right? You don't go to Hot Topic to find stuff you'd see at Abercrombie and Fitch (Their clothes don't breathe worth a damn by the way). Unfortunately, that's not what you get with Style Savvy and it was a bit disappointing.
You get your own store and you get to choose what kind of fashions it sells, what the front of the store looks like, and even the music of your shop! None of this seems to factor into what kind of customers you get. I ran a boho-chic shop (Think indie, earthy wear) and I kept getting teenyboppers and elite class women. I went out of my way to make sure the game recognized what kind of clothes I wanted to sell but it just wouldn't give me the right customers.
+ Maybe this is more you? - There is a bit more depth to the game than I've seen with a couple of other fashion-oriented games, not that I've played any though. There's a bit too much to go through and they'd all get small explanations anyway so lets just shoot right through what else Style Savvy offers.
- Hard Sells - Just because someone wants what they asked for doesn't mean you have to give it to them. Sometimes someone just wanted a prissy mini-skirt but you just don't have it. Offer them something else that might compliment they're current attire or personality and you might rope them in to try something new.
- Fashion Shows - You can enter into fashion shows to win premium clothing pieces and gain recognition for your store. They're incredibly easy to win though, I can't say that I felt like my competitors were even trying.
- Guest Designer - A company can hire you to design a piece with one of their own stylists but the only thing you can do is change two colors of specific designs on the clothes. Kind of a missed opportunity right there because how cool would it be is you could really just make your own designs?
- Customize The Store - You get to choose the looks, the sounds, and the styles of your store as well as making your own mannequin displays, creating advertisement flyers, and declaring sales.
- Magazine Features - At times, you can be interviewed for a magazine article where you can show them one outfit and two additional pieces of clothing to show off. I didn't get interviewed more than once and customers were constantly asking for what was featured in the article when I could no longer acquire them.
- Seasonal Outfits - The styles that you can buy actually change around the year.
- Interact With Other Store Owners - You can connect to the internet to obtain exclusive fashion items and receive flyers from other players to shop at their stores. For a game like this, this specific feature is genius to me.
- Sorry, I wanted leather, not pleather - For all that it does to vary the gameplay, there's just so much that it fails to fully deliver on which sucks because there's so much potential! The more you play it, the more you begin to see that the whole game is just based on giving clothes to picky NPC's. I expected more from Style Savvy.
- The Fashion Police have arrived - I wanted self-expression. I wanted to dress up women and I wanted to influence the styles of my new customers that were looking for something different or to change the perspectives of those who think certain clothes and colors can't mix. It wasn't here. I mean, it is but it follows a method that takes creativity and passion to a more mechanical level. Don't mix brands even if the clothes go together, don't work with customers who don't want what you have, it's the design of a game with the goal of attaining a win with no reward at the finish line. Animal Crossing is a good example of what this game should have been with it's surprise events, constantly changing cast, and rewards out the wazoo.
+ That is, like, so you! - Playing dress-up with your character is extremely varied, deep, and my favorite part of the entire game. There are so many styles when it came to the eyes, hair, lips, clothes, highlights, eyeshadow, you really get to make your character exactly how you want! While it's not on the same lines of customization available in a game like ModRacers on the PS3, it's comparable to Little Big Planet's sackboy creation tools. A GREAT feature in a game such as this!
- I had no idea - They don't really help you in this game at all. If you have zero fashion sense, you're gonna have to figure it out for yourself because the game rarely ever clearly recognizes what you did right or wrong. There's no indicator for what goes together either except for brand names, colors, and common sense. I was asked to prepare an outfit for the customer many times and a bunch of them were flat out rejected. I have 7-9 items in that outfit and it could be literally one thing that makes the customer flat-out disgusted and she won't tell you what it is. To me, the outfit made complete, perfect sense but it didn't work according to the game's logic and it didn't care to illustrate why that was.
Also, be sure to get a hold of the booklet because there were a few things that are immensely helpful to your success that are just never brought to your attention, things like expanding your inventory and gaining the ability to declare sales.
Also, be sure to get a hold of the booklet because there were a few things that are immensely helpful to your success that are just never brought to your attention, things like expanding your inventory and gaining the ability to declare sales.
Story and Presentation
+ Made in Japan - You can tell from the aesthetics that it came from Japan. In fact, I believe this game was brought over to the states after becoming such a huge success overseas. It works really well for the game actually. It's got some aesthetics in common with the popular Bratz dolls and the design brings a lot of life to the game making everything feel happy and upbeat! While it might put off some potential buyers that aren't into things they shallowly cast off as "anime crap" I can't think of a better look for Style Savvy.
= Oh. Em. Gee. He JUST looked at me! *scream* - As you start to branch off into your own store and strive to become the best stylist internationally, you are basically being pimped by a dude named Dominic who is oh-too-cute! He pays for your store and helps you finance things as you go along. Your co-worker won't stop gabbing about how cute he is though and sometimes it can get annoying but it never really bothered me. That's about all the story there is though.
Sound
- You missed a beat... - The soundtrack is horrendous. I dunno how many people it's likely to affect but it's looping began to aggravate me. Past that, there's nothing good to hear or anything that adds to the experience really so I suggest turning the volume down. All the way.
Graphics
= Not so Haute Couture... - It ain't pushin' any limits but it does what it needs to to serve the style they're goin' for.
Should you buy it?
No, at least, not for yourself anyway (that is if you're the stereotypical, hardened gamer that desires complicated mechanics). But I would advise any and all gamers to not hesitate whatsoever in getting this game for any girl you know that is into the whole fashion scene or loves dress-up. I'd say the perfect age for this game would be in the 12 and up area. And if you're looking to get a girl into gaming at all, I'd be inclined to say that they might learn a thing or two through Style Savvy that someone else might learn through an action game or an rpg. I may actually write up an article on that sometime, we'll see. Otherwise, a rent could definitely not hurt if you've ever been interested in something along these lines. I did enjoy my time with the game as a whole for the most part.
Style Savvy was developed by syn Sophia and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. Played for 12+ hours and got my store "Neptune*" up to a three-star store rating.
= Oh. Em. Gee. He JUST looked at me! *scream* - As you start to branch off into your own store and strive to become the best stylist internationally, you are basically being pimped by a dude named Dominic who is oh-too-cute! He pays for your store and helps you finance things as you go along. Your co-worker won't stop gabbing about how cute he is though and sometimes it can get annoying but it never really bothered me. That's about all the story there is though.
Sound
- You missed a beat... - The soundtrack is horrendous. I dunno how many people it's likely to affect but it's looping began to aggravate me. Past that, there's nothing good to hear or anything that adds to the experience really so I suggest turning the volume down. All the way.
Graphics
= Not so Haute Couture... - It ain't pushin' any limits but it does what it needs to to serve the style they're goin' for.
Should you buy it?
No, at least, not for yourself anyway (that is if you're the stereotypical, hardened gamer that desires complicated mechanics). But I would advise any and all gamers to not hesitate whatsoever in getting this game for any girl you know that is into the whole fashion scene or loves dress-up. I'd say the perfect age for this game would be in the 12 and up area. And if you're looking to get a girl into gaming at all, I'd be inclined to say that they might learn a thing or two through Style Savvy that someone else might learn through an action game or an rpg. I may actually write up an article on that sometime, we'll see. Otherwise, a rent could definitely not hurt if you've ever been interested in something along these lines. I did enjoy my time with the game as a whole for the most part.
Style Savvy was developed by syn Sophia and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. Played for 12+ hours and got my store "Neptune*" up to a three-star store rating.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Super Mario Galaxy 2 Review for Wii
I'm probably going to go down in flames for this one. "So first you write an article about how Sonic games aren't bad and now you bash Mario? What a ******* fanboy...." I don't really care. Think what you want. Not liking Super Mario Galaxy 2 just reminds me that I'm not a gamer working the gears of the gaming industry or blindly following the herd. Anyway, It released a couple of weeks ago and I was finally able to give it a shot. Let me also preface this review by stating I didn't really enjoy the first one either. It just doesn't get my goat. If there was ever a series of games to get me completely raged out within the first level, it's 3D Mario games. You'll find out why since the same applies to this latest addition. I know I've already stated that I didn't like the game but you should at least know why.
Gameplay
- Jump for imprecision - I cannot stand the way Mario controls. I tend to have great reflexes and timing when it comes to games (or at least think I do) and Mario goes out of his way to ruin everything I try to do. At times he responds to my commands with cat-like reflexes and then he'll feel like a tank a second later. I don't get it! All the dude does is jump! It's all he's ever done! Why is he so bad at it? I guess my problem with it is that there's no flow to be found and you all know how important flow is to me when it comes to platformers. Somehow Mario just translates into some kind of mess filled with deliberation.
Crouch + Jump = High-jump Back-flip. Running Start + Crouch + Jump = Super Long Jump. The "equations" I've just laid before you piss me off about this game. Let's say I'm doing a series of forward jumps and I see that I really need that back-flip to come out asap. Well, I'm not going to get it. The second I need to do it, he'll do a long jump instead because he still has momentum from the previous jumps. Unfortunately I can't even begin crouching before I hit the ground since Mario slides forever when crouched with momentum and if I jump during that slide, I get a long jump. I have to deliberately make Mario stop moving before I can back-flip. I really don't want to do that. The platform I want to be on is now moving away from me and if I don't get on it, I'll have to wait forever for it to come back.
Also, every long jump I didn't want almost certainly throws me to my death. I probably wouldn't die either if Mario actually controlled well. If you begin jumping, make sure Mario is facing the way you want because he will travel in another direction for no gamer. I've jumped off so many edges because of this ****. I'M HOLDING THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!!!! JUMP THAT WAY WHEN YOU TOUCH THE GROUND!!! Ceasing to jump barely works better since Mario can't just change directions. If it's not exactly 180 degrees in the opposite direction (and this counts from the second you begin moving the stick) Mario will want to RUN AROUND to the opposite direction. IS IT TOO MUCH TO JUST TURN AROUND YOU ****!?!? After that, he'll run off the cliff and no matter what I do, he will not grab the ledge because Mario doesn't know how to turn the **** around so I'm dead.
Whine, whine, whine, right? Well it wouldn't be so bad if this **** didn't plague me for the entire game. It was so hard for me to have fun because Mario would seldom ever do what I wanted even though I knew full-well that he was capable of executing it.
- Turning the world on it's head - Ok, when you make a game that has gameplay dealing with playing upside down, choose a control scheme and stick to it. It felt like the damned control scheme changed every thirty seconds when I had to go upside down. Sometimes it wouldn't react to my controls at all. I could rotate the control stick in every which way and Mario will still travel forward like a mindless, glitched-out zombie. Sometimes he just stands still! Look, either design the controls to work a certain way after you move past a point or design the camera to follow Mario around IN A WAY THAT MAKES SENSE.
- The camera sucks - Dear God, it just does. Inquiry: What advantage, visually, do I have when the camera is zoomed in, pointing straight at the ground? Answer: None. Part of what adds to the imprecision of the platforming is that the camera works like a new college student that believes he can make every shot into an artsy-fartsy one. Seriously. It does not help me when the camera thinks any angle will do and that I'm perfectly capable of compensating my movements with every change of the angle. I could if Mario controlled that way but seeing as how he's really a tank that's set in moving down a straight line, it doesn't work. It doesn't work! And to add on top of that, you can't control the camera almost at all. And even when you can, the second you move it'll move to it's own preferred angle.
- This is harder? - I read a few reviews and seen a few previews and the line I see the most is that since we already played the first Mario Galaxy, it gives Nintendo room to make the levels more difficult and boy, are they hard. LIARS!!!! YOU'RE ALL ****ING LIARS!!! If I didn't know better I'd say it's easier but that's only because the levels are so short. It's really not difficult at all. In fact, it lacks so much difficulty that it's boring. I could not wait to be done with the game. I wanted to stop playing it everyday I started playing it. Out of 5 worlds with around 5-7 galaxies each world and 100+ stars, the game didn't even start getting fun or inventive until the fifth world which is around 74 stars in the game. I'm not really sensing a hard or difficult game here.
- HOW DO I STOP THIS THING?! - The new rock mushroom that turns Mario into a rolling boulder sucks. There's no way to control the speed or even stop the thing unless you hit a solid object. The thing is just badly executed. This is just one more thing that contributed to my deaths.
= What a rush! - After a while, the game starts picking up and the fun begins, after a while meaning within the last fifth of the game. After that, all the levels start gaining a flow, begin experimenting with ideas, and become challenging. It was really enough to make me smile from ear to ear. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot of it and it comes way too late.
+ No glitches - If I had to say one good thing about the game I guess it would be that there are no game-breaking glitches. At least none that I ran into.
- Bosses suck - Incredibly simple and weak bosses. They die way too quickly and are much too easy to go up against. I also hate realizing that the majority of creatures Mario fights don't even have a beef with him. He just destroys them. At least it's understandable why Kratos kills most things.
Story and Presentation
= What do you expect from the story? - It's basically non-existent like it normally is in Mario games. Go save Peach. Peach is saved. The End. Considering it's Mario, it doesn't really need more than that either.
+ What do you expect from the presentation? - It's a Mario game. Nintendo normally pulls all the stops to make sure the game is polished and visually inviting. It feels just like you're used to a Mario game feeling like.
+ Lubba - I can't find a good picture but just imagine Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy being replaced by McDonald's purple monster, Grimace. A lot of people tend to hate his guts. I like him though. No, he's not as visually attractive as Rosalina or as involved in the story as she was but I found him pretty charming with the way he makes fun of Mario and the cheesy jokes he comes up with. And concerning all the complaints that Lubba is constantly reminding you to take a break, I played for many hours at a time and he only advised me to take a break once. He isn't even in your face about it. You have to voluntarily speak to him to get that message and you even know he's going to say it before you talk to him. If you don't want to hear it, don't talk to him. And sometimes I think I'm a whiny gamer...
- Is it inventive/creative? - I dunno, maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about or it was hard to see it being so flustered with the controls but I didn't see a whole lot of creativity here. I mean, yeah, it takes effort and imagination to think of these things but they didn't build on any of their ideas which kinda signals to me that they were kinda running on fumes when coming up with the levels. Being creative or inventive to me is doing something in a way that either changes the perspective of something you're used to or coming up with something you just straight-up haven't experienced yet. Also, since it's happening in a AAA game, I expect those ideas to be fun. You'll have to excuse my lack of evidence of what's creative or not since I forgot the names of the galaxies and I don't have the game anymore.
There was one galaxy where the platforms appeared and reappeared in a 4/4 time rhythm. Cool idea. Then you pair it with the cruddy controls and you have Mario Hell. What I found to be really clever were a lot of the ideas that came forward on the sand galaxy in the fifth world. When you're sliding down a sand hill while dodging rollers coming from behind and then to have the sand turn into a thinning waterfall, or when you're on a sand bird that's being destroyed by cactus and other obstacles, they just had me smiling because they progressed ideas they had already worked with. It felt fresh and it was fun. It also worked well with the game's controls. Other than that, I don't get what everyone's fascination is with Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Graphics
+ Same old, same old - It's using the same engine as the first Mario Galaxy which makes it one of the more beautiful titles on the Wii, it's just nothing new to look at.
Sound
+ Sounds good to me - The score in this game is enchanting and intimate. A few of the songs really got me and began sending shivers through my whole body. It's also nice to hear a Nintendo game actually use an orchestra. My favorite track is the World 3 theme. I could listen to it on repeat forever. Also, Nintendo better use an orchestra for Zelda. I'm done with Midi.
Should you buy it?
As you can see, I don't have a lot of fun with Mario games. The whole thing just feels like a marathon to see how long you can stand playing it before you accept the idea that it's just not THAT good. In fact, I feel like it's pretty easy to pick on current Mario games for the same points that you can pick on the current Sonic games for. Actually, after playing the game for myself and looking back on other reviews, it seems like they're just die-hard Mario fans and they simply suck at playing games. Someone said it was "unforgiving" in it's difficulty. Unforgiving is not gaining 40+ lives after the first 3 levels you play. Nintendo actually went out of it's way to make hard things easier which makes them, well, easy. It is also not player error when the game works against you becoming comfortable with the controls at every point.
Buy it - If you love 3D Marios and you especially liked the first Mario Galaxy. There's really no reason why you don't have it. It's perfect in that regard plus it's got Yoshi. It's also got a TON of replay value. And I mean A TON!
Rent it - If you feel like you just need to play it to see what everyone's talking about, give it a rent. I guess it's your call in the end.
Stay away from it - If you don't like 3D Mario games or you feel like Nintendo has its titles catering too much to the casual gamers, there's nothing for you here. It's still easy as hell and the same as Mario games ever have been. Also, if you didn't like the first Galaxy or thought it was just okay, ignore the populous claiming it's better and harder than the first one. THEY'RE LYING!
Super Mario Galaxy 2 was developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. Played 10-12 hours to the end with 108 stars collected before not caring anymore. Now I can play something enjoyable for a change...
Gameplay
Crouch + Jump = High-jump Back-flip. Running Start + Crouch + Jump = Super Long Jump. The "equations" I've just laid before you piss me off about this game. Let's say I'm doing a series of forward jumps and I see that I really need that back-flip to come out asap. Well, I'm not going to get it. The second I need to do it, he'll do a long jump instead because he still has momentum from the previous jumps. Unfortunately I can't even begin crouching before I hit the ground since Mario slides forever when crouched with momentum and if I jump during that slide, I get a long jump. I have to deliberately make Mario stop moving before I can back-flip. I really don't want to do that. The platform I want to be on is now moving away from me and if I don't get on it, I'll have to wait forever for it to come back.
Also, every long jump I didn't want almost certainly throws me to my death. I probably wouldn't die either if Mario actually controlled well. If you begin jumping, make sure Mario is facing the way you want because he will travel in another direction for no gamer. I've jumped off so many edges because of this ****. I'M HOLDING THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!!!! JUMP THAT WAY WHEN YOU TOUCH THE GROUND!!! Ceasing to jump barely works better since Mario can't just change directions. If it's not exactly 180 degrees in the opposite direction (and this counts from the second you begin moving the stick) Mario will want to RUN AROUND to the opposite direction. IS IT TOO MUCH TO JUST TURN AROUND YOU ****!?!? After that, he'll run off the cliff and no matter what I do, he will not grab the ledge because Mario doesn't know how to turn the **** around so I'm dead.
Whine, whine, whine, right? Well it wouldn't be so bad if this **** didn't plague me for the entire game. It was so hard for me to have fun because Mario would seldom ever do what I wanted even though I knew full-well that he was capable of executing it.
- Turning the world on it's head - Ok, when you make a game that has gameplay dealing with playing upside down, choose a control scheme and stick to it. It felt like the damned control scheme changed every thirty seconds when I had to go upside down. Sometimes it wouldn't react to my controls at all. I could rotate the control stick in every which way and Mario will still travel forward like a mindless, glitched-out zombie. Sometimes he just stands still! Look, either design the controls to work a certain way after you move past a point or design the camera to follow Mario around IN A WAY THAT MAKES SENSE.
- The camera sucks - Dear God, it just does. Inquiry: What advantage, visually, do I have when the camera is zoomed in, pointing straight at the ground? Answer: None. Part of what adds to the imprecision of the platforming is that the camera works like a new college student that believes he can make every shot into an artsy-fartsy one. Seriously. It does not help me when the camera thinks any angle will do and that I'm perfectly capable of compensating my movements with every change of the angle. I could if Mario controlled that way but seeing as how he's really a tank that's set in moving down a straight line, it doesn't work. It doesn't work! And to add on top of that, you can't control the camera almost at all. And even when you can, the second you move it'll move to it's own preferred angle.
- This is harder? - I read a few reviews and seen a few previews and the line I see the most is that since we already played the first Mario Galaxy, it gives Nintendo room to make the levels more difficult and boy, are they hard. LIARS!!!! YOU'RE ALL ****ING LIARS!!! If I didn't know better I'd say it's easier but that's only because the levels are so short. It's really not difficult at all. In fact, it lacks so much difficulty that it's boring. I could not wait to be done with the game. I wanted to stop playing it everyday I started playing it. Out of 5 worlds with around 5-7 galaxies each world and 100+ stars, the game didn't even start getting fun or inventive until the fifth world which is around 74 stars in the game. I'm not really sensing a hard or difficult game here.
- HOW DO I STOP THIS THING?! - The new rock mushroom that turns Mario into a rolling boulder sucks. There's no way to control the speed or even stop the thing unless you hit a solid object. The thing is just badly executed. This is just one more thing that contributed to my deaths.
= What a rush! - After a while, the game starts picking up and the fun begins, after a while meaning within the last fifth of the game. After that, all the levels start gaining a flow, begin experimenting with ideas, and become challenging. It was really enough to make me smile from ear to ear. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot of it and it comes way too late.
+ No glitches - If I had to say one good thing about the game I guess it would be that there are no game-breaking glitches. At least none that I ran into.
- Bosses suck - Incredibly simple and weak bosses. They die way too quickly and are much too easy to go up against. I also hate realizing that the majority of creatures Mario fights don't even have a beef with him. He just destroys them. At least it's understandable why Kratos kills most things.
Story and Presentation
+ What do you expect from the presentation? - It's a Mario game. Nintendo normally pulls all the stops to make sure the game is polished and visually inviting. It feels just like you're used to a Mario game feeling like.
+ Lubba - I can't find a good picture but just imagine Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy being replaced by McDonald's purple monster, Grimace. A lot of people tend to hate his guts. I like him though. No, he's not as visually attractive as Rosalina or as involved in the story as she was but I found him pretty charming with the way he makes fun of Mario and the cheesy jokes he comes up with. And concerning all the complaints that Lubba is constantly reminding you to take a break, I played for many hours at a time and he only advised me to take a break once. He isn't even in your face about it. You have to voluntarily speak to him to get that message and you even know he's going to say it before you talk to him. If you don't want to hear it, don't talk to him. And sometimes I think I'm a whiny gamer...
- Is it inventive/creative? - I dunno, maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about or it was hard to see it being so flustered with the controls but I didn't see a whole lot of creativity here. I mean, yeah, it takes effort and imagination to think of these things but they didn't build on any of their ideas which kinda signals to me that they were kinda running on fumes when coming up with the levels. Being creative or inventive to me is doing something in a way that either changes the perspective of something you're used to or coming up with something you just straight-up haven't experienced yet. Also, since it's happening in a AAA game, I expect those ideas to be fun. You'll have to excuse my lack of evidence of what's creative or not since I forgot the names of the galaxies and I don't have the game anymore.
There was one galaxy where the platforms appeared and reappeared in a 4/4 time rhythm. Cool idea. Then you pair it with the cruddy controls and you have Mario Hell. What I found to be really clever were a lot of the ideas that came forward on the sand galaxy in the fifth world. When you're sliding down a sand hill while dodging rollers coming from behind and then to have the sand turn into a thinning waterfall, or when you're on a sand bird that's being destroyed by cactus and other obstacles, they just had me smiling because they progressed ideas they had already worked with. It felt fresh and it was fun. It also worked well with the game's controls. Other than that, I don't get what everyone's fascination is with Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Graphics
+ Same old, same old - It's using the same engine as the first Mario Galaxy which makes it one of the more beautiful titles on the Wii, it's just nothing new to look at.
Sound
+ Sounds good to me - The score in this game is enchanting and intimate. A few of the songs really got me and began sending shivers through my whole body. It's also nice to hear a Nintendo game actually use an orchestra. My favorite track is the World 3 theme. I could listen to it on repeat forever. Also, Nintendo better use an orchestra for Zelda. I'm done with Midi.
Should you buy it?
As you can see, I don't have a lot of fun with Mario games. The whole thing just feels like a marathon to see how long you can stand playing it before you accept the idea that it's just not THAT good. In fact, I feel like it's pretty easy to pick on current Mario games for the same points that you can pick on the current Sonic games for. Actually, after playing the game for myself and looking back on other reviews, it seems like they're just die-hard Mario fans and they simply suck at playing games. Someone said it was "unforgiving" in it's difficulty. Unforgiving is not gaining 40+ lives after the first 3 levels you play. Nintendo actually went out of it's way to make hard things easier which makes them, well, easy. It is also not player error when the game works against you becoming comfortable with the controls at every point.
Buy it - If you love 3D Marios and you especially liked the first Mario Galaxy. There's really no reason why you don't have it. It's perfect in that regard plus it's got Yoshi. It's also got a TON of replay value. And I mean A TON!
Rent it - If you feel like you just need to play it to see what everyone's talking about, give it a rent. I guess it's your call in the end.
Stay away from it - If you don't like 3D Mario games or you feel like Nintendo has its titles catering too much to the casual gamers, there's nothing for you here. It's still easy as hell and the same as Mario games ever have been. Also, if you didn't like the first Galaxy or thought it was just okay, ignore the populous claiming it's better and harder than the first one. THEY'RE LYING!
Super Mario Galaxy 2 was developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. Played 10-12 hours to the end with 108 stars collected before not caring anymore. Now I can play something enjoyable for a change...
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