E3 07: Super Mario Galaxy
Fruit Brute and I got too little time with Super Mario Galaxy, but what time we got was enough to assure us that the game would be both another hit in the Mario cannon and a good fit with the Wii controls. We were glad to see both the triple-jump (with timing) and the long jump return from Mario 64, although with Galaxy's planetoid-based environments that long jump can launch you into orbit! The gravity mechanic felt like gravity, if that makes any sense at ll - we intuitively felt out what was safe and what, like slipping over the lip of a hollow planetoid into the mini black hole within, was unsafe.
Above you can see footage of the Tanooki-esque bee suit, which vanishes if Mario touches water but otherwise allows him to hover and land on flowers that would otherwise refuse to bear weight. Something that made me happy was learning that while each planetoid might be relatively small, the levels chain many together - making puzzle-solving digestible but keeping level design intricate or at least big. Galaxy-big.
In fact, my favorite thing was the simple act of shaking the Wiimote beneath the star portal at the completion of each planetoid, which rockets Mario into space and toward the next stage/planetoid like so much Italian space pinball.
My second favorite thing? The second-player mechanic: play with a friend who can wield a second Wiimote as a kind of comet-looking cursor on the screen - stun enemies, hold back rolling boulders, and collect resources while the first player trounces the level - it's a second game unto itself, and far more rewarding than the old wait-your-turn Mario/Luigi tag-team.
tiny dancer
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, Video Games on 17 July 2007
Other stuff like this: bee suit, cooperative play, e3, nintendo, planetoid, super mario galaxy, tanooki, wii
