It’s official release date is the 12th but apparently a lot places are having trouble getting the shipments because of the holiday. Gamestop has it already available, for example.
That’s odd, because I called my local GameStop to see if they had it. “No,” they said, “it doesn’t come out until tomorrow, and we’ll have it then.”
“But it comes out today,” I said.
“No, it’s tomorrow.” Because it’s GameStop, he then talked about how I should stop by the store to reserve a copy, since they only had a few left to sell tomorrow.
Instead, I went to the Wal-Mart next door and just bought the game.
After about an hour, I’ll say that this game is pretty much the greatest thing that’s ever happened anywhere in the world.
Mario & Sonic is fun. Some events (fencing, trampoline) are easier than others. The running is a tad easy, but still a workout (in a good way). I’m still trying to figure out swimming.
Super Mario Galaxy is super. The colors are wonderful, the music is great, and the unique planets and gameplay are very entertaining. If you have a Wii, buy this game. If you don’t have a Wii, buy one and buy this game. It’s that good.
I’m about a third of the way through myself and I’m… what’s this unfamiliar sensation… oh yeah, having fun. It’s only taken ten years but we’ve finally got a successor to Mario 64.
That’s a good question. I thought Sunshine was disappointing, but I’m not exactly sure why. It would be an interesting discussion. I think I remember thinking that the worlds weren’t very interesting.
I think it would have been much better received if it wasn’t a Mario game. It’s a good game, but not up to Mario standards.
Galaxy is a great game though. The level design is really, really good. I was a little worried that the space and going between planets thing would get boring, but they do a lot of cool stuff with it.
It’s hard for me to decide if it’s better than Mario 64. It is an improvement in many ways but it has lost some things that I loved about Mario 64. Peach’s castle was a cool place to explore, and there was a lot to see and open up. Galaxy’s space platform doesn’t have that, although it is cool to see the changes as you restore power.
The worlds aren’t as open either. Although when you do have a chance to explore, you’re rewarded for doing so.
I agree. Sunshine was a fun game, but it wasn’t really what you would consider a “Mario” game. The thing I didn’t like most about it was you didn’t have the sense of freedom you did in Mario 64: rather than collect the Shines (rather than Shines get?) in any order you please in each world, you had to collect them in a certain order- which was frustrating when you were stuck on a certain one and couldn’t go try another one instead. Also, the secret Shines were difficult to get since you weren’t given clues on how to find them- and having to go around collecting Blue Coins in each world to buy Shines was particularly frustrating. FLUDD was fun to play with, but its different nozzles weren’t as awe-inspiring as the Caps in 64. Galaxy solves these problems in a way: the stars can once again be collected in any order, and you take a different path to each one than the one you took to get the previous one, so it always feels like you’re finding something new. The secret stars are opened up by comets randomly appearing in levels that you see on the map, so you get a hint as to how each one is to be found. And Mario has a lot of clever power-ups: I’ve only gotten the bee so far, but apparently, he can also become a ghost, throw fireballs, and ice skate.
I just checked the metacritic score for this game. It’s sitting easily at the top of all Wii games, even beating out Zelda and RE4 (97, 95, and 91 respectively). I am most definitely getting this one, and I’m not even waiting for Christmas.
I’m at about the 26 star mark. I usually kind of power through a game the first time, leaving all the side missions and such for a second runthrough, but I’ve been getting all the stars because even replaying levels is a lot of fun. (The only one I got frustrated with and bypassed so far was the garbage-blowing-up minigame.)
That took me a few tries. The trick is that when bombs explode they make neighboring bombs explode too. So you have to just pitch the bombs out there as fast as you can to make a big chain reaction. Set it up well and you can clear the bulk of the trash in two explosions.
Oddly, Galaxy didn’t catch me on my first playthrough as strongly as it seems to have caught everyone else. It’s clearly a very well-done game, but upon finding the two-player Costar mode, my roommate and I began playing the game that way. Chaos ensued, with player 2 clicking on everything spastically, making Mario jump when I wasn’t expecting it, and generally backseat-driving. Even once she got tired and left me to play by myself, I found the controls a little difficult, mainly because they seem to change from moment to moment. I had to concentrate and experiment a few times just to figure out how to get Mario to move left without running around in circles.
Still, clearly a good game and worth the cost of admission.