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Mario Might Save Christmas?

Posted by Zonk on from the when-you-have-nintendo-power dept.

Last week there was a Nintendo media event giving the gaming press preview experiences for the Christmas season's games. 1up has a look at all the titles on offer, but the one that (understandably) got the most attention was Mario Galaxy for the Wii. Wired's Chris Kohler thinks Mario's bee suit might save Christmas, while MTV's Stephen Totilo has comments from an hour hands-on with the game ala Games For Lunch. From Totilo's comments: "Each planetoid presents a challenge -- squash things, collect things -- that rewards players with the creation of a new launch star. I've launched Mario to a sphere that looks like it's made of wood. A star guy of some sort is in a glass jar. I need to kill all the Goombas to free it. I can jump on their heads, but I can also do the spin move, which knocks them dizzy and sends them spinning themselves. If Mario runs into them while they spin, they die."

10 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. $5 Says... by Baylan295 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    $5 says Mario Galaxy loses game of the year to Halo, despite the fact that it will be a game that is talked about for twice as long, in the same way that people still talk about Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, Super Mario 3, Final Fantasy 7, and the other great games of the generations.

    1. Re:$5 Says... by Volante3192 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      it is by far the largest game in the world today

      World of Warcraft? Second Life?

    2. Re:$5 Says... by Sciros · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Howdy troll,

      Do you REALLY want to bitch about graphics when WoW looks quite a bit worse and yet has 9 mil active accouts? (last I checked, anyway) People care about gameplay more than graphics. Guitar Hero, WoW, Second Life, STARCRAFT, man I could go on but the point is maybe over half of your criticisms shouldn't have been about graphics.

      As for art direction, Halo has its share of the mediocre and the spectacular. Not everyone has Bethesda's concept artists, you know ^^

      One would have thought you'd try and criticise things like the story mode, where the last level is an uninspired rehash of the last level from Halo 1, or something. But you probably don't even know about it, as who would expect you to give the game a fair shake...

      As for what else an Xbox owner can buy, go to the store and see for yourself. There's a lot of good stuff out there, and there's soon to be more.

      Bottom line, sometimes it's not about the graphics but about providing more of the good thing that people have come to expect from a franchise. If "Halo 2.5" can make $300 mil in a week, then that speaks for the strength of the franchise more than anything else. How is it a disaster?

      Play the games you like, and stop trying to bash others.

      --
      I like basketball!!1!
    3. Re:$5 Says... by hansamurai · · Score: 2, Insightful

      None of the Halo games are even in the top twenty all time best sellers. If the only games we discussed were the best selling games of all time, our discussions would all be about whether we should evolve our Pikachus into Raichus or whether or not Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen were worthy remakes of the originals. Seriously, Pokemon dominates your top twenty all time best seller list and it's filled in with Marios, Sims, and GTAs in between.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

      Those are all fine games to talk about, but considering there are many more games worth discussing than just those, I don't really see your point about sales numbers.

      Halo 3 was mega hyped and marketed by Microsoft. It made lots of dollars very fast. People outside the industry are noticing us and it's not about boobs, deaths in internet cafes, or hot coffee. He may be an "Xbot", but that doesn't make his point invalid. Just look at last generation, ten years from now, a lot more people are going to be talking about Halo and GTA than Super Mario Sunshine.
      --
      Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
    4. Re:$5 Says... by SetupWeasel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes. Nintendo regularly takes a critical hit due to a nostalgia bias. Look at Wind Waker.

  2. Not to troll... by AsnFkr · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ....but is it just me, or does this sound like Mario64 and Mario Sunshine's basic theme of collecting stars after tasks, only on planets instead of "rooms" or "areas"? I was hoping for more innovation from Nintendo's main franchise and hope I'm proven wrong. Ah well, I'll download it and try it either way.

    --


    adventure-today.com
    1. Re:Not to troll... by SeeManRun · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If it ain't broke...

    2. Re:Not to troll... by pembo13 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ....but is it just me, or does this sound like Mario64 and Mario Sunshine's basic theme of collecting stars after tasks, only on planets instead of "rooms" or "areas"? You make it sound like they retitled it and were trying to pass it off as a brand new thing. And how exactly are you going to download Mario Galaxy?
      --
      "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
    3. Re:Not to troll... by theNeophile · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ....but is it just me, or does this sound like Mario64 and Mario Sunshine's basic theme of collecting stars after tasks, only on planets instead of "rooms" or "areas"? Explain to me how that's not awesome.
    4. Re:Not to troll... by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      More importantly, how many do that and don't end up as the black sheep of their respective series?

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.