Review Break

What the title says. My NPC: Mario Power Tennis review will be up this Friday or the next. The reason for the break is that I’ve just got back to school after the half-term holidays.

Also, I got the original Metroid Prime for £7, so you’ll probably see a review of that before too long.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

True exploration and adventure is something of a rarity in video games nowadays. Ocarina of Time was one of the first games to introduce exploration and adventure to the third dimension; in turn bringing a greater sense of immersion than ever experienced before. Since then, other than the odd game outside of the Zelda series, you’d have to wait until the latest Legend of Zelda game to experience this type of gameplay.

Twilight Princess sees you play the role of Link, an adolescent farm boy living in Ordon. Link was assigned the task of delivering a present to the royal family courtesy of the mayor. But, he and his friends get kidnapped, and have been taken to separate places. You get taken to Hyrule Castle, where you meet Midna and learn that the land of Hyrule has been taken over by Zant; the self-proclaimed ‘king of twilight’. Zant wishes to engulf the whole world in Twilight, and has nearly accomplished that. That only describes the first few hours of the game. The games ‘prologue’ sets the scene for a darker, far more epic Zelda game. The games plot twists won’t be spoiled in this review, but are executed brilliantly.

I consider Twilight Princess to be the spiritual successor to Ocarina of Time. From the introduction video alone, anyone who has ever played Ocarina of Time will pick up a scent of déjà vu. Link majestically rides Epona through Hyrule field, the camera swinging around them to give you a perfect view of Hyrule Field; yet barely scratching the surface of how much you have to explore.

It stays true to the tried and tested Zelda formula which Ocarina helped to create, whilst adding huge improvements and refinements, and adding some new gameplay elements; the most important being Wolf Link.

This being a game on the Wii, Twilight Princess has some motion controls implemented into it. You simply shake the Wii remote to swing your sword, and shaking the nunchuck to perform a spin attack. Sure, ‘waggle’ controls are nothing unique in a Wii game anymore. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Wii game without waggle. But, the controls work well. Unlike a lot of Wii games, they aren’t overdone. The motion controls are simple, un-complicated, and will eventually feel like second nature to pull off when you play, if not within the first few minutes. Combat has been changed a bit from the previous Zelda games.

Old weapons also make an appearance; such as the bow and arrow, the slingshot, the hookshot, and others. As you’d imagine, those which I’ve mentioned use pointer controls; which work very well. You can adjust the sensitivity of the pointer, but the default sensitivity works perfectly, resulting in surprisingly precise shots. It’s much easier to defeat an enemy using the bow and arrow with the pointer. This does seem like an odd thing to use at close range though; the game features a lock-on system like in the previous Zelda games.

Midna is a new face who follows in the footsteps of Navi from Ocarina of Time; offering you helpful hints where they’re needed. As I have said earlier, Link will turn into a wolf in this game, and it’s while playing as a wolf that Midna becomes much more useful than Navi was. She will be able to help you reach high areas which you can’t get to on your own, give you an extra ability in combat, and will allow you to teleport to certain areas. Midna will also be able to take things with her; an example being a missing part of a bridge.

The wolf has the added advantages of senses and digging. You bring up these senses with the side button on the D-Pad, and it brings up a filtered view of what you see on the screen, where you can see things, and sometimes people which you cannot see without senses. This helps gain information, and also gives an indication of places where you can dig. Areas which you can dig into are flashing when your senses are turned on, and are slightly rougher and darker in the normal view. You can dig up different items; like hearts and rupees. Also, you’ll often be able to dig your way underground to get into a certain area.

Playing as a wolf is fun, but, at least for the first half of the game, can seem like a bit of a chore sometimes. You see, in the first half of the game, you’ll normally follow a set pattern; get to a new area, turn into a wolf, rid the area of twilight, turn back into a human, and go to a dungeon. Rinse and repeat, and that pretty much sums up what the first half has to offer.

The process of ridding the area of twilight did often get tedious. You’d talk to the Light Spirit in the area, and would be given the Vessel of Light. You’d have to fill up the vessel of light by collecting all of the tears of light in the area. Thankfully, this process is scrapped halfway through the game; and you’ll gain the ability to transform into a wolf and back into a human as often as you’d like to.

The combat as a wolf is different from the combat as a human, giving you an advantage when facing certain enemies. When locked on, you can lunge with the A button which is preferable for enemies which are further away, you shake the Wii remote for a close range and aggressive attack, and you can do the back-flips and side-steps that you can do as a human. It seems pretty similar so far, but there’s more. With the help of Midna, you can hold the B trigger to summon an energy field. Releasing B when enemies are inside it will make Wolf Link lunge at each of the enemies, often killing average enemies instantly. For some enemies, you could perform a lunge attack, and it would then give you the option of repeatedly biting the enemy by mashing the A button.

A huge chunk of the main quest in the game is the dungeons. These dungeons are larger than in any other Zelda game, and feature some interesting, albeit easy, puzzles. Each dungeon is normally split into two halves. The first half is exploring what you can with the items you already have. What splits the two halves up is defeating a boss in the middle; usually to be rewarded with a new item. The second half of the dungeon consists of you exploring the areas that could only be seen with your new weapon, and eventually fighting a boss that you can only defeat with your new weapon. It’s a set up which has never gotten tedious in any of the other Zelda games; and this game is no exception. The bosses are all very well designed, each with their own set of attacks and also their own weaknesses. Some of them can get a bit easy, but they’re all fun to fight against. The dungeons are all very well designed.

How much you can explore is one of those things which can separate a great adventure game from a true adventure classic. The different Zelda’s have all had enormous areas, crammed with secrets that only those gamers with the eye for exploration will find. Nintendo proudly claim that Twilight Princess is the ‘biggest Zelda adventure of all time’.

And this is no mean feat. But Nintendo have somehow managed to pull it off; creating a world which can be explored to a ridiculous extent. Hyrule Field is a great example. It can take a huge amount of your time to simply walk around its perimeter without stopping; it’s that vast a land. On your first time through, you can sink forty to fifty hours into the game; and this is only when you do what the story presents right in front of you.

Another improved feature from Ocarina of Time is the horseback mechanic. Link can ride on his horse; Epona, summoning her using a whistle. Unlike in Ocarina of Time, you can use your sword while riding your horse, as well as the bow and arrow. Even when you gain the power to warp, you’ll still enjoy occasionally using the horse; if anything because shooting an arrow at someone while Epona is moving is incredibly satisfying.

Twilight Princess was designed for the Gamecube, and then ported to the Wii as a launch title. That being said, the graphics are still fantastic. They’re easily the best graphics I have seen on the Gamecube, with a lot of detail put into the character models and a good use of bloom effects. Because these are Gamecube graphics, they aren’t exactly pushing the Wii hardware. That being said, these graphics are better than those featured in most, if not all third party Wii games.

The music in Zelda games are a testament to how great Nintendo’s composers are. Like in the other games, Twilight Princess has a phenomenal soundtrack; ranging from adventurous and epic to calm and relaxing. Because the game was made for the Gamecube originally, the music is not orchestrated, but MIDI instead. It’s still one of my favourite Zelda soundtracks ever.

I could easily write a lot more detailing every nook and cranny; every boss battle, every character and every location to be seen in the game. There’s so much to see in this game, many of it you will want to see on your own. Twilight Princess is a great evolution for the series, vastly improving on what Ocarina did. Although it won’t be nearly as influential as Ocarina of Time, it’s still one of the best, most charming games you’ll ever play, and provides a long lasting experience. Buy it now or regret it.

Overall: 9.7

+ The game’s a behemoth

+ The wolf is a great new feature

+ A fantastic evolution of Ocarina of Time

- Gathering all of the ‘Tears of Light’ can get tedious

- Some of the puzzles are a bit easy

- …

Mario Kart Wii Review

For every new Nintendo console, a new iteration of Nintendo’s insanely popular racing spin-off, Mario Kart. Since the release of Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo, the series has gained a very large amount of fans, and was a lot of people’s introduction to Nintendo. Mario Kart’s unique take on the racing genre makes them a blast to play, and my favourite racing series of all time. Mario Kart DS has gained much critical acclaim since its launch in late 2005, and has been viewed by many to be the definitive karting experience. In case that doesn’t tell you anything, Mario Kart Wii has a tough act to follow. Does it surpass Mario Kart DS as the definitive version of Nintendo’s much-loved franchise?

Mario Kart Wii, like the other games in the series, doesn’t have any kind of story. There’s still no explanation for why they take karting; something that’s supposed to be a fun past-time, so seriously. Even your beloved hero: Mario will use every dirty trick in the book to win the race. Call me old fashioned, but that’s just the way I like my Mario Kart games. But, if anyone can come up with any sort of hypothesis for why they take karting so seriously, I’d be glad to hear it!

The Mario Kart series consists of your favourite Mario, and even Donkey Kong characters (as well as some characters which have nothing to do with Mario himself) coming together for some fast-paced and hectic kart racing. They’ll be prepared to use anything they can get their hands on to win the race, mainly items. You can get items by driving through the item boxes, but you’ll have to watch out for the fake item boxes. The phrases “It’s the taking part that counts” and “Slow and steady wins the race” have never and, thankfully, still don’t apply to Mario Kart games. With a total of 25 characters; Mario Kart Wii features one of the best rosters of characters in any Mario Kart game! The characters are split into three different height classes; small, medium and big. The different classes get the access to different bikes and karts.

The items are all unique and have different effects. There’s the classic items like the mushroom; which gives you a boost, the star; which makes you faster and invincible. There are also some new items like the mega mushroom from New Super Mario Bros; which makes you much larger and able to squash enemies, and the POW block; which shakes everyone around except for the person who activates it. Oh, and there’s one more new item; the thunder cloud. When you get this item, and then the cloud will appear above you. It’ll give you a few seconds to pass it on to another player by bumping into them, but if it’s above you when the time runs out, you’ll shrink! It makes you slightly faster so you have more of a chance to pass it on, but the majority of the times you get it; you’ll be shrunk by it.

Mario Kart Wii is the game that introduces the Wii Wheel, essentially another plastic shell for your Wii remote to slot into. The Wii Wheel itself looks nice and simple, with a hole in the back to put your wrist strap through and a blue circle at the back saying Wii inside of it. When actually playing the game, I find it’s not the best way to play the game. It’s fun at first, but the novelty of ‘getting behind the wheel’ wears thin after about five minutes. The game sometimes doesn’t register what direction you’re trying to go in, and feels awkward at time. So, the Wii Wheel goes into my pile of unloved Wii accessories. Thankfully, you don’t have to play with the Wii Wheel; as Nintendo have given you some other options. You can play with the Gamecube controller, the Classic controller, and, my personal favourite; the Wii remote and nunchuck combination.

The changes in Mario Kart are usually small, but effective changes. These changes, while not being too drastic, still keep the chaotic and classic Mario Kart feel intact, but enhance it to keep things fresh. Don’t worry; Mario Kart Wii is no exception. The game new features 12 players as opposed to 8 players in the previous game. This being on the Wii, the motion controls have been added, which I’ve already explained. The biggest addition to the series is being able to ride bikes. This stands next to the two players to one kart mechanic in Double Dash as one of the most controversial changes in Mario Kart history. Its announcement was the cause for concern of some veterans, but you can rest assured that it doesn’t turn the Mario Kart you once loved into something that’s gone horribly wrong. In fact, the bikes are very good. I would go so far as to say they are better than the karts, and are a great addition to the series!

So, other than design, what’s the difference? Well, the bikes can do wheelies, giving you a slight, but noticeable speed increase. To make things fairer for people on karts, the wheelies have much more restricted movement, and you’ll stop for a second or two after being hit while doing a wheelie. Some of the bikes can also turn tighter corners, but the bikes can only generate blue sparks while drifting; whereas the karts generate orange sparks, giving them an advantage in drifting. But, because of wheelies and the ability to turn tighter corners, bikes seem to be the vehicle of choice when it comes to the Time Trial mode.

Also new is the trick system. Most of the tracks have had more ramps added to them. Once you’re off the ramp and in the air, you’ll have to shake the Wii Wheel/Wii remote/D-Pad in an up, sideways or down direction to do a trick. Not only do these look very flashy, but they also give you a short-lived boost, so you’ll have to do this as often as possible.

Mario Kart Wii gives you a lot of tracks to choose from; each of them incredibly well-done and elaborately designed. And whether you’re driving around the autumn leaves in Maple Treeway, or speeding down a waterfall in Koopa Cape, no two tracks look similar. Most of the tracks have been designed to feature shortcuts; meaning you should go around the track slowly to try and find them. There are a total of 32 tracks; with 16 brand new tracks and 16 that were featured in previous Mario Kart games. A lot of the older tracks have had some ramps added to them to make use of the trick system. Nintendo certainly don’t seem to be showing any signs of running out of creativity when it comes to level design.

The tracks feature some very nice looking environments. While they’re not incredibly detailed, they have some nice looking textures for a Wii game, and use the bloom effects well in most cases. However, for a few tracks, Nintendo added a tad too much bloom. The character models aren’t too good, though. Most of them are poorly done with choppy edges; and a few of them being on par with the DS versions character models. In short; the graphics are a mixed bag, with some great environments but the designers must have left the character models until the last few minutes or so. This is made more disappointing by the fact that it’s a first-party Nintendo game. Nintendo have made superior graphics while working with the Gamecube.

Snaking is something which has been pointed out as a major flaw in Mario Kart DS. It consisted of shaking the D-Pad left and right to achieve a quick boost. People normally do this so fast that it can be done several times in a matter of seconds, and the movements resembled that of a snake slithering along the track. It wasn’t a technique new to the DS version; in fact it was featured in previous Mario Kart games. But the problem was highlighted with Mario Kart DS’s online mode, as it was full of snakers. It made playing online a competition based solely on snaking, and ruined the online play for several people. Now you’ll just have to hold the drift button and wait for the orange sparks (blue on the bikes) to appear. You can waggle the control stick to make the sparks appear faster, but they don’t appear nearly as fast as they could in previous games. Two words: good riddance.

The game has a few different modes to choose from. There’s the Grand Prix mode, which is basically the tournament mode, and is used to gain unlockables; such as karts, bikes and characters. Its difficulty levels are 50cc, 100cc and 150cc (easy, normal and hard respectively). And, presumably in an attempt to help you adjust to different vehicles, 50cc is karts only, 100cc is bikes only, and 150cc is both. Another part is the extra Mirror mode. Mirror mode is just 150cc, but horizontally flipped. Not only will you have to face the challenges of 150cc again, but you’ll have to re-adjust to the tracks. If there’s one thing wrong with the Grand Prix, other than the lack of 2-4 player modes, is the wonky difficulty curve. The progression between 50cc and 100cc is smooth, but spikes once you get to 150cc. Long story short; the Grand Prix offers a bit too much challenge for some, but will keep you playing for quite a bit.

The multiplayer mode is what the series is famous for, and, like in Mario Kart DS, you can play offline and online. Offline is your standard split screen affair, as you would expect. Online play in Mario Kart Wii runs smoothly, and it’s rare that you’ll notice any lag; amazing considering the console’s poor reputation for online and the fact that it features 12 players online. When you start off playing Mario Kart Wii online, you’ll have 5,000 points. When you win you’ll gain points, and when you lose you’ll lose points. The amount of points you can lose for a loss seems odd, I’ve lost as many as 100 points on some occasions, which is completely ridiculous!

Connecting with friends still requires the friend code system, which is a slight annoyance. However, I’ve learned to accept that the system is not perfect; a fact that even Mr. Iwata has acknowledged before. When your friends are online, you can send them pre-written messages. The messages include the basic phrases that you would say before playing a Mario Kart game, and you can try to agree on what mode you want to play. While it’s a cool feature, I would have preferred to be able to use a USB keyboard, or at least type my own message.

New to the series is online battle mode. The battle mode in the game is decent, but it won’t replace simple kart racing, for a few reasons. The stages are very large, being designed for twelve players. So, if you’re playing a 2 or 4 player battle, you’ll rarely bump into each other. Battle mode has been changed to be purely tem-based. I don’t have a problem with team-based battle mode, but there should definitely have been a free-for-all option added to it. In balloon battle, you won’t die when you lose all of your balloons. All that happens is your team loses one point.

Another new feature is the Time Trial mode. The time trial mode is a great addition, and a reason to come back to the game. You’ll obviously have to go through stages slowly, and observe them to see if you can find shortcuts to exploit in order to achieve a faster time. The game comes with ghost data from Nintendo staff. There are two for each stage, normal ghost data, and expert ghost data when you’ve beat the normal ghost data. You’re rewarded with unlockables for completing certain time trials. That’s not all. You can download a friend’s ghost data, race against your own fastest ghost data, and even upload your ghost data to Nintendo’s servers and compare them with the best of the best. I find that watching the replays of the top ranking ghost data in the leaderboards are a good way of finding shortcuts for different stages.

Previous Mario Kart iterations have had the concept of different items to mix things up a bit, while still holding closely to their chests the ’skill factor’. This meant, while the items still helped, the key element to karting success was practise and skill. Now that the Wii version has arrived, Nintendo felt it necessary to even the playing field a bit more, which brings up my first, biggest problem with Mario Kart Wii. At times, the game can feel more based on who can get the better items as opposed to actual skill. Certain items are overly powerful, like the mega mushroom. Also, if you get hit by an item, there’s no short period of invulnerability. This gives you little time to get back on your feet, and leaves you open for a barrage of green and red shells just after you’ve been hit.

The problem is highlighted in 150cc. Even if you’re in first place, this type of thing can put you down to sixth or seventh place, and this can cause some extremely frustrating defeats. Unfortunately, instances like those are not rare in the game. On occasion, the cheap and rubber banding A.I can be so frustrating that it can overshadow the fun. It doesn’t get that bad often, but if it happens at all, something must have gone wrong somewhere along the line. A shame, because Mario Kart Wii could have achieved a far, far higher score had 150cc been less relentless and unfair.

In short; the frantic karting gameplay was tripped up by the unparalleled levels of frustration felt during the 150cc and Mirror Modes. However, no matter how many times I threw my Wii remote and nunchuck to the ground in frustration, I’d always be quick to pick it back up and start playing again; for a number of reasons. When you’re not in the unforgiving 150cc and Mirror modes, the gameplay is very fun; at times nearing Super Mario Galaxy as the most fun I have had on the Wii.

In good old Nintendo fashion, Mario Kart Wii features some great, catchy music, some of which give a musical hint or two to different Mario games (eg. Rainbow Road features a hint to Super Mario Galaxy). The music’s theme is more techno pop. Although it’s great, it only uses MIDI instruments.

A feature that has been anticipated is the Mario Kart Channel. It’s a new channel you can install to your Wii Menu where you can access the leaderboards and rankings, see what different competitions are going on and see if any of your friends are online without actually inserting the disc. It seems pointless for me, because there’s an option on the game menu where you can access all this information anyway. A bonus to actually downloading the channel is that you get a message sent to your Wii Message Board from Nintendo alerting you about a new competition. The competitions are all very different, and occur on a monthly basis. They normally consist of a task you have to do, and you can upload your fastest time to Nintendo’s leaderboards. It’s a great new feature, and is bound to add some longevity to the game. However, I would have enjoyed being able to replay the challenges from previous competitions, or at least had some challenges included in the game.

Mario Kart Wii joins every game in the Wii series as one of the games to allow you to play as your Mii character. Their height class is determined by the height you registered for it in the Mii Channel. This is a decent addition to the roster, but I would much rather play as a different character. This is mainly because the Mii has one of the most annoying and completely random voices I have ever heard.

Mario Kart Wii, while coming close, fails to deliver the definitive Mario Kart experience that it had the potential to deliver. One thing I found upon reflection is that every aspect (bar the online) comes so close to amazing, but is let down by unnecessary touches and additions. There’s a reason Nintendo calls this game a bridge title: it offers a lot to both casual and hardcore fans, even more so than any other game in the series. It’s really easy for new players to ‘pick it up and play’ every now and again, but there’s still a lot to offer for the hardcore fans; for example, the time trial leaderboards and all the unlockables. Is Mario Kart Wii the definitive version of Mario Kart? No, but it comes very close and despite its flaws, it’s one of the best games in the series.

Overall: 9.0

+ The classic Mario Kart gameplay remains intact, with some cool new features

+ Amazing track design

+ The environments are very pretty…

- … But the character models are poor

- Rubber banding A.I makes the 150cc and Mirror modes a huge pain

- The battle mode isn’t doing too well here

Super Mario Galaxy Review

When Super Mario 64 was released way back in 1996, fans of the 2D Mario games were stunned at how Nintendo took their most beloved mascot and took him into the third dimension. Seeing Mario in 3D for the first time was a great moment for fans of the series, and showed how much more elaborate the levels could be. Super Mario Sunshine, while still being an amazing game, is considered by some not to be a true successor to Super Mario 64, and since then, those people have been waiting for the true successor. Several years later, Nintendo and critics have hailed Super Mario Galaxy to be just that.

Mario games have been known to all have the same story, and Super Mario Galaxy is no exception to the rule. And, like other games, there’s a small twist in order to take you to other places. Princess Peach invites Mario to the Star Festival in the Mushroom Kingdom. While on his way, Bowser and his airships are back to wreak  havoc upon the Star Festival. One of Bowser’s flying saucers rip the castle from the ground, and take it into outer space. Mario tries to get into the castle and save her, but he gets blasted away before he can do anything. He lands on a small planet, where he meets Princess Rosalina. Rosalina has a space ship which she can use to travel to the Centre of the Universe where Bowser and Peach are, but a minimum of 60 Power Stars are required for it to work, and these Power Stars were scattered across the universe by Bowser. So, Rosalina grants Mario the ability to travel through planets by using Sling Stars, and he’s off to get 60 Power Stars and save Princess Peach!

Mario games are known to continually innovate in the genre it helped to define with the original Super Mario Bros, and Galaxy doesn’t seem to be a slacker in this department. The game’s biggest focus is the gravity effects on the planets. As Mario is running, your view of the planets takes several different twists, and can even turn upside down. It could be said that the camera is as focused on the planets themselves as it is on our favourite porky plumber. If you get high enough in the air when near another planet, the gravitational pull from that planet will pull you down towards it. Despite what you may think, this takes a very short time to get used to and eventually, seeing Mario twist and turn will seem like second nature to you while playing the game.

Rosalina’s observatory acts as a hub world to get to all of the different galaxies in the area. In the observatory are several different areas. These areas consist of several different galaxies each. There is no set path for you to follow. If you have enough stars, you can go to any galaxy you want in any order you want, which gives you a lot more freedom then you’re given in other games. There are some galaxies which contain Grand Stars, known as the Grand Star Galaxies. Each Grand Star will add more light to the observatory, and will give you access to another area. The observatory is absolutely huge, and very well designed. There’s also a library which you can visit, where Rosalina’s back story is seen. As the game progresses, you see more and more of Rosalina’s back story. Luckily for some people, it isn’t forced, but it’s still an interesting bonus to the game.

Rosalina’s observatory is often orbited by special comets. These will add certain types of levels to galaxies which they are orbiting. Some let you race Cosmic Mario (a sillouhette of Mario), while others require you to go through a level without being hit once! They undeniably add more challenge to people who want to collect all 120 Power Stars.

Galaxy features all the abilities that you have come to expect from 3D Mario games. Mario’s incredibly high jumps are back, he can do a backwards flip and the long jump also makes an appearance. The most important ability in the game is the spin attack. This is pulled off very easily; all you have to do is shake the remote. The spin attack has many uses. You can attack or stun most normal enemies with it, before delivering the final blow; which is done by running up to the stunned enemy, or stomping on it. You can also shoot back most projectiles that are launched at you by enemies, smash open crates to reveal items and Star Bits, and achieve a slightly higher jump than you would get normally. But, it’s main purpose is to move from planet to planet. You’ll have to use sling stars to do this. You simply walk towards it, and, when it pulls you towards it, you shake the Wii remote, and it shoots Mario off to another planet at a great speed.

Moments like these leave you in awe looking at the graphics of Super Mario Galaxy. Whether you’re looking at the water effects and reflections, the lighting effects, or looking at a distant planet that you have yet to explore, the graphics are absolutely astounding. While it doesn’t have an ultra realistic look, Mario doesn’t feel like the type of game that needs one. It’s a game which is supposed to have cartoony graphics. Despite this fact, there’s still a lot of rich detail in the game. HD or not, what is shown in Super Mario Galaxy can stand up to a lot of games on the Xbox 360. That’s not an easy feat by any means, especially considering the limited graphical technology Nintendo EAD had to work with. This just goes to show that, when handled properly, Wii graphics can look phenomenal.

The power-ups are back, and back with a vengance! The classic Fire Mario is here, as well as new, and undeniably much more interesting power ups. The Bee Mario will turn Mario into a bee, and you can fly for a limited amount of time and climb on honeycombs when you have it. The Boo Mario (by far my favourite power-up) turns Mario into a boo, and you can float, and go through walls with the flick of the Wii Remote. They make the more themed levels even more fun to play, and have some very interesting uses. Some of the power-ups, like Flying Mario, are not used nearly as much as I would have hoped, though.

The Wii’s motion controls have a lot of different uses. There’s the pull star paths; where you point at a blue star and press A to pull Mario towards it, and you do that until you’re at your destination,  ride atop a stingray by tilting the Wii remote in different directions, and ride atop a giant ball with a Power Star in it by holding the Wii remote like a joystick, and tilting it forward to move faster.

Star Bits are an important part of the game, and can even be exchanged for power-ups from Lumas. You collect them by simply pointing at them with the Wii remote, and for every fifty you collect, you gain a power star. They can also be used to stun enemies, by pointing at the enemy and pressing the B button.

Rosalina lives on the observatory with little star-like creatures called Lumas. These are very useful along Mario’s adventure. Their purpose is to transform into something at the end of their lives; some will grow into planets, others into comets, and some even transform into galaxies for you. Their services aren’t normally free. In fact, you’ll have to feed them some of your Star Bits as an insentive.

Nintendo always seem to shine with their level designs. Super Mario Galaxy is up there as one of the prime examples of Nintendo’s fantastic and original level designs. I originally thought that there wouldn’t be that much variation in the level design, and that Mario would only explore a series of small planetoids. Nintendo seem to have put my fears to rest, as there are many different types of levels in the game. There are the classic fire and lava levels, ice and water levels, as well as new types of planetoid levels. The variety of levels in the game make them all an absolute joy to play, but also fun to explore once your looking for the remaining stars.

With Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo have found the perfect balance of old and new in almost every aspect. While there are new levels, and concepts which have previously been unexplored; there are still some levels which retain the classic 2D side-scrolling elements and gameplay. The gameplay of Galaxy will never become repetitive, no matter how obsessively you play it, because of the variation featured in the game.

Then, we have an incredibly well-praised part of the game; the music. The music is now mostly orchestrated; which, on paper, wouldn’t seem to work. In the game, however, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Because the game is set mostly in space, most of the songs have a theme of exploration and adventure; so the music generally has that very theme. For the more obviously themed levels (like ice and fire levels), there are also some very good tunes for them with exactly the theme that the level design conveys. Simply put; the music fits the levels perfectly. There are also remixes of tunes from the older Mario games, which is a very nice bonus.

While everything I have said so far has been positive, that’s not to say the game is perfect; it does have flaws. While the camera angle does do a good job of trying to keep everything in, it sometimes does a better job of getting a good view at a nearby tree than Mario. Also, the different effects of the gravitational pulls, while very cool to watch, can be a little bit confusing.

Galaxy now has a co-operative multiplayer mode called ‘Co-star mode’. Instead of controlling two characters like you normally do in co-op games, one of the players takes charge of Mario, and another can help that player by grabbing a second Wii remote. The second player can keep some enemies or moving obstacles still by pressing A while putting the pointer over it, which will help Mario to get past them. As well as this, they can shoot some of Mario’s star bits. Obviously, having the second Wii remote is definitely the ’short end of the straw’. That’s not to say that the co-op is terrible, but I think the second player could have been given a bit more to do.

All of these elements combine perfectly to make an absolutely astounding platformer; a rare breed indeed. The difficulty level is adequate. Some levels are very easy, and some levels are very hard, some even ‘Mega Man’ hard. While some would say platformers are dead, it certainly seems to be the genre where Nintendo shatter expectations and innovate more than any other genre. This is the best game on the Wii, arguably the best game this generation, and one of the best games of all time.

Overall: 9.7

+ Fantastic gameplay

+ The best graphics on the Wii

+ Great power-ups

- The camera angles can be wonky on occassions

- Flying Mario isn’t used very often

- The co-op could have been better.