Mario Might Save Christmas?

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."

Comments

Awesome.

[Applekid]

Is this similar to how The Flintstones, Underdog, The Peanuts, Garfield, and Futurama saved Christmas?

(alternative jokes rejected for this submission:
  Thank you Mario, but the Christmas is in another castle)

$5 Says...

[Baylan295]

$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.

Re:$5 Says...

[nine-times]

Well, if the people giving the "Game of the Year" award are the sort of gamers who are most interested in console-based multiplayer FPS games, then Halo will likely win.

I mean, if you want to talk about it, then let's just say what's going on with that. The current pop-culture of gaming right now is biased towards multiplayer, either FPS or MMORPG, doesn't care about story, art, or single-player gameplay. If that's who's handing out awards, then it's no surprise that Halo is the big game this year.

That's not to say there aren't better games, more original games, or games which will ultimately prove to be more influential. Personally, I think that if you look back in 10 years, Wii Sports will probably have had a bigger effect on the gaming community than Halo 3. Portal is far more innovative than Halo (even though it's kind of a remake of Narbacular Drop), and the Half Life series continues to provide a better single-player experience than Halo.

I recently read someone's attempt to compare Bioshock and Halo 3 to decide which was a better game. The review basically said, "Bioshock looks better, has a better story, and generally has a much better single-player experience. but Halo 3 has the best multiplayer ever, and multiplayer is what really matters!"

So yeah, it's basically a question of who's giving the review or who's giving the award. For some people, Mario Galaxy won't be a very good game unless it's a multiplayer FPS they can play on XBox Live.

UR MR GAY

[samwh]

For those who don't get it: http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/18/u-r-mr-gay-message-discovered-in-super-mario-galaxy-box-art/

Quick comparison

[Captain Spam]

Quick comparisons, Mario and Santa Claus:

[Overweight] Mario: YES; Santa: YES
[Dressed in red] Mario: YES; Santa: YES
[Facial hair] Mario: Moustache; Santa: Beard
[Hair color] Mario: Brown; Santa: White
[Headgear] Mario: Cap with 'M'; Santa: Floppy conical hat
[Frequency] Mario: Annual/Bi-Annual*; Santa: Annual
[Lineage] Mario: Unknown**; Santa: Elf (Jolly)

*: Rough estimate of release frequency of new Mario games
**: Is he human? A mushroom person? What is he, anyway?

Tough call, but I'm still gonna give this one to Santa Claus. Mario might be able to save Peach, but he's got a bit to go to save Christmas.