Whelp, I finally beat Super Mario Galaxy 2, aka my favorite main Mario game! Now for impressions!
Contrary to first impressions, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is indeed much more than a mere expansion pack. It's more akin to the real Super Mario Bros. 2 (The Lost Levels over here) in that it uses the same engine and premise as it's predecessor, yet runs over with creative ideas that especially challenge those who enjoyed the first.
The sequel obviously doesn't have that 'wow' factor the first had, such as when you first shot out of a Launch Star into the depths of space, but it constantly outdoes itself in level design and ideas. Yoshi was a much-welcomed addition, getting a much more expansive role than he did in Sunshine in that he's most definitely not water-soluble and now regains use of his elastic tongue. It's used in very creative instances and uses the Wiimote's pointer control in a manner I can't imagine can be done any better. Of particular note is the innate instinct to catch a Bullet Bill, hold it for a few moments while you reposition yourself out of harm's way, and then the big payoff of firing the living projectile into a canon, eliminating the chance of it firing more.
Galaxy 2 is brimming with such instances, big and small, that prove that the Big N can pull out all the stops when it wants to. Nintendo's first-party efforts always showcase a level of polish that most companies wish they could pull off, and Galaxy is a shining example of the company's talent focusing solely on gameplay. There's no big plot beyond the usual damsel in destress the series is known for; there's no reason for it. It plays almost as a retelling of the first game, starting very similarly and ending in a (much more) satisfying bout with Bowser. It's also more difficult than the first, which was a slight blemish on that otherwise superb game.
But the difficulty never gets in the way of the fun. The game offers tips and even an auto-pilot similar to last year's New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but the help is easily ignored if it's not needed (or wanted, for veterans such as myself) just like NSMBW. I pride myself on my Mario skills, and only ever encountered three Game Overs in the entire game, and they were all on the last Galaxy's Comet challenge. More on that shortly.
While most will just get to the end and call it a day, the Mario elite will be rewarded for their diligence. The game plainly showcases it's 120 Stars, divided into normal play Stars and Comet Stars gotten through the acquisition of a Comet Medal in each Galaxy. These are generally more challenging, though not impossible. It's after the main 120 are gotten that the game outshines it's predecessor's end-game effort.
Instead of playing as Luigi for the same 120, the game throws in Green Comets that yield Green Stars in each Galaxy, matching their normal Stars' appearance. These extra 120 Green Stars are hidden throughout each Galaxy, usually in out-of-the-way and/or hard-to-reach places. It was a real treat to hunt through each Galaxy again. I like to think of it as Nintendo's way of acknowledging us obsessive Mario fans by giving us a chance to put our skills to the test. Many of these Emerald celestrial bodies require a nuanced jump, a carefully-timed mid-air shake, or sometimes a leap of faith, though in the end it's all worth it.
Getting all 240 Stars unlocks the Grandmaster Galaxy, a compilation of gimmicks from the entire game in a showcase of true muscle memory. The main Galaxy is a good enough challenge, but it's the Comet that puts this one over the top. Called The Perfect Run, it requires a player to go through the Galaxy's obstacle courses without checkpoints and with only one health. Took me three Game Overs (haven't heard that classic tune in a while, lemme tell you!) to get it right, but I got it after around 25 times. Yes, I counted.
How hard it is, you ask? Well, IGN happens to have a skilled player at the reigns. While he chickens out (most likely for time) at the end by taking out only the necessary enemies, the point's clear. Have a look:
I absolutely love this game, and was an excellent way to get through the summer. It ranks above the first Galaxy simply due to it's unbridled fun, which I thought couldn't be topped. I'd be amiss to neglect the music: an orchestrated mix of nostalgia and sweeping fanfare, easily one of the best soundtracks Nintendo's ever produced.
The graphics build slightly upon the already-impressive engine the first game used, which means it looks gorgeous. It takes a presentation like this to wonder why everyone is so focused and spoiled on HD graphics when 720 and 1080p are just a resolution. Pixels pale in comparison to solid art design, and Galaxy 2 is by no means bad-looking, this coming from a guy who plays it on a 52" 1080p LCD LG widescreen. I love efforts like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII on my neighboring PS3 like the next guy, but it's proof that the Wii can give out an impressive performance when given the chance.
It's my favorite game this year, possibly this generation, and it's the most fun I've had this generation, matched only by it's predecessor.
If you love gaming, do yourself a favor and play Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Yeah, every big fan of gaming should see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It was a big love letter to gamers and was a real treat for the eyes and ears. Plus, I dug the insane way it presented itself, zooming back and forth between pop-ups and sound effects, complete with visible THWAK's and PUNCHes.
I went in with only the first volume's knowledge and the random pages posted online years before I realized it was actually a comic book series and not some random webcomic, but it was enjoyable regardless. Pretty sure it's faithful, as per reactions of a friend of mine at our midnight screening, so every gamer can find something worthwhile.
Thinking about getting the game based on it on PSN. Looks a lot like an homage to River City Ransom... And now I feel old.
Just got around to actually preordering Metroid: Other M and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Dunno why I waited so long to do so, but it's high-time I ordered them. Originally I was opting for the GameStop offer of a 16-page art book and I almost jumped on the free one-night shipping window they had back in June, but I went for Amazon's $20-off your next purchase incentive. Same with BbS, with it's $10 perk.
That's 30 bucks off a new game (which is half-off or more!) that'll go to whatever big-name title is next this packed Fall season. It's best to use those savings on a newer title to get it sooner, cheaper and save the older titles for that magic $20 and under pricetag. Amazon's been a great friend in my gaming needs, with their free shipping (if done by them) and tax-free purchases (also through a legal loophole). It's literally saved me hundreds throughout the years. Besides, who doesn't love the feeling of opening up a new box with a goodie inside? I know I do!
Currently in my Fall movie marathon, the one that basically consists of every film series we want to see, haven't seen in a while, or just want to watch again that isn't a Disney-associated flick.The Disney films happen in the Spring, right before our Memorial Weekend trip to the parks, since our Disney collection is expansive enough that they alone form a marathon that lasts for months.
I organize them by release date, the earliest being Fiddler on the Roof from 1971 and currently have it set to end with this year's How to Train Your Dragon and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The reason for the out-of-order Harry Potter flick is that I have Order of the Pheonix postponed to match the Blu-ray releases of Year's 3 and 4's Ultimate Editions, which I'll receive around the last week of October, and the entire marathon's planned to end on November 17, the night before I line up to the midnight premiere of Deathly Hallows, Part I. See, I occasionally have a method to my madness.
How I came up with the idea for these marathons stemmed way back almost a decade ago, when VHSs were just starting to get dethroned by DVDs back in '01. We'd eventually get a DVD player before the Holiday of '01, but by then we'd amassed a pretty respectible collection of tapes, many being Disney fare to entertain our young minds. It was in a copy of the now-defunct Disney Magazine that I noticed a poster of sorts being offered. It had a lot of Disney movies being showcased, around 45 of them if I recall correctly.
I realized soon afterwards that the majority of the promoted films was what is known to the Disney elite as the Disney Animated Features Canon, basically those animated films that were produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios for the purpose of claiming a film as "Walt Disney Pictures Xth full-length feature film" for advertising purposes (thanks, Wiki!). The numbering system worked, and is convenient and still used today. It begins with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and consists of 49 currently-released films ending with The Princess and the Frog, with three more currently announced and in production. While called canon, they obviously have little to do with each other plot-wise outside of the fact that Disney produced them all.
While the poster at the time included the Pixar films up to Monsters, Inc. or Finding Nemo (don't quite remember), I realized that we owned a majority of those films. So, using up a homework-free afternoon, I shuffled through our collection and found out we did in fact have most of them. We were missing only the packaged budget films from during World War II, Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, and the Sleepy Hollow latter half of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.
All things considered, we still had thirty-six and a half films of the main canon, enough for a good three weeks of family get-together-around-the-television time. It worked out that time, so the next time we got around to it I included the Pixar films. By the third year (2003), DVDs were the standard and we were slowly gathering the DVDs of Atlantis-onward and collecting the reissued DVD editions of the prior 40 films. Quality on many of the tapes were beginning to wear thin, so the upgrade in format was appreciated, especially due to the picture clarity gap the two formats had between them. It took a better part of a decade, but we will finally own all the Disney canon in disk form once we buy the 25th anniversary edition of The Black Cauldron (definitely the black sheep in past viewings) when it's released in a few months and when we finally get around to buying The Princess and the Frog. Heard it's good, but I wouldn't know yet.
Nowadays, the entire canon is accompanied by disk-only Pixar films (I refuse to watch those films on anything but Blu-Ray now, since my inner videophile is now spoiled on the clarity those films deserve - release Finding Nemo and The Incredibles on Blu-ray already!), Studio Ghibli films we own such as Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away, live-action/animated hybrids like So Dear to My Heart, James and the Giant Peach, and Enchanted (I include Who Framed Roger Rabbit depending on the company; half the family doesn't appreciate/care for the brilliant film), select DisneyToon and direct-to-video releases (such as The Tigger Movie, Return to Neverland, and sometimes concede to other sequels I like such as the Aladdin and Lion King sequels; othertimes, my arm gets twisted for one of the multitude of others that fall under that typical "Disney sequelitis" that most of us really don't care for and to which I politely step out of the room for), and some select live-action flicks they've done, such as the fun Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, National Treasure, some standalone films like Mr. Holland's Opus, Old Yeller, the first Santa Clause, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the like.
The list is pretty impressive now, since it's basically our entire Disney collection, which is why it's regulated to the first half of the year following anywhere immediately after the Holidays to as late as Valentine's to try to recapture that happy spirit I start to miss after everyone realizes they don't have to pretend to be happy. The exception this year for including Pirates is that it looks phenominal in 1080p - so much so I had to include it for kicks.
Generally, we average a film a day, though I usually pair a shorter animated film like An American Tail with a heftier one like Empire of the Sun to lengthen the evening; or to alternativelylighten up a darker one such as Schindler's List with a lighter affair like We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story so we're not completely depressed that evening.
It's been difficult to get the entire family to watch with us (sometimes me!) this year, though. We've been cleaning houses for the past year and the moving and dusting of items takes its toll when they're covered in dust, so I've watched half of these films alone this year, but it should get better the closer we get to the Holidays, with Thanksgiving typically the time when the rest of the family comes down and we play board/video games and watch movies for the heck of it.
I should also draw more, but I honestly haven't been that inspired since my B-Day. Drew a couple of things on my Cintiq, but it's honestly all crap. Picked up a piece of paper and actually came out with my best drawing in months. Maybe it was the feeling of real paper and pencil that jogged some ancient 7th Grade part of my brain... Who knows.
My, I do believe I've rambled for far too long about absolutely nothing yet again.
