Super Mario Galaxy = God

[Matteo]

I have been awaiting this game for quite awhile. Actually, I think we all have been waiting for this game for about 10 years (sorry Sunshine.)

So, I can't believe its finally coming next week. The funny thing it that there doesn't seem like there is as much hype for the game as one would think. Time will tell.

Anyway, to get to my point, I got to play it at a local GS here in the Philadelphia area on Saturday, and wow, I was blown away. I don't want to give any spoilers away (I actually played for about 20 minutes before I forced myself to stop playing and not spoil anymore of the game), but it EXCEEDS expectations. It has that certain flair that Mario games have. Something that NSMB and SMS lacked. Its hard to put a finger on why its so fresh and exciting, but I can go on and say that the level design simply blows away all other current games. Furthermore, I did not truly understand the gravity aspect of this game until playing it. It makes this game so different from all the other 3D platformers out there.

EDIT: I played a saved version of the game, so I got a good look at some of the different galaxies, not just the beginning of the game.

A few other tidbits, (most of them I'm sure you all know)
The EB/GS demo kiosk SMG games are actually the full games.
There was a leak onto the internet of copies of said games last week.
Best Buy in some areas actually started selling them earlier this week by accident, so quite a few people actually have the game.
There are some serious spoilers out there, BIG SPOILERS, so beware.

There are already 7+ reviews at Game Rankings... with an average of 96.5!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Super Mario has returned.

[phattonez]

I never beat Super Mario Sunshine and I didn't care.

[Matteo]

I never beat Super Mario Sunshine and I didn't care.

Ditto...

Yeah, there was something about that game, even though it was well polished and controlled great, that didn't appeal to me.

[ShadowTiger]

Same with Luigi's Mansion. It seems ... droll? I haven't even touched Mario Sunshine. Don't think I will either, after I "forced" myself to get Luigi's Mansion just so I wouldn't be living under a makeshift rock for the rest of my life. >_O'

I suppose I may as well get it. I'd always rather wait until the price drops, but then again, It WILL drop eventually, as all games do, and by then, Brawl will have stopped getting as interesting in eight or so years.

[phattonez]

Hey, I liked Luigi's Mansion, and I played it through a few times. It was the first game I had for Gamecube, but still, I thought it was pretty good, abeit a little repetitive at times.

[Warlock]

I liked Luigi's Mansion but it was 4 hours of gameplay with very little replay value.

[Cloral]

One thing about SMS was it felt pointless at times. You run around this island doing random tasks with no real goal in sight. The game never tells you what you have to do to unlock the final area, so when it does unlock it feels like what you were doing to that point really had nothing to do with it. At least with Mario64 you knew you needed to collect stars to open the doors that would get you closer to your confrontation with Bowser. It was simple, but it was effective because you always had a clear goal in mind.

[punkonjunk1024]

I liked luigi's mansion a lot, I wish they'd sequel it with more content, and some actual challenge. That's LM's problem, was the ease of play after you mastered doing crazy stuff with one stick and something different with the other.

Sunshine was fun, too. So maybe SMS will be awesome. NSMB blew rediculous ass chunks. That seriously was less of a mario game than SMB2. at least SMB2 was fucking awesome.

[Warlock]

I'm glad I was not the only one disappointed with NSMB. Everyone seems to love it like crazy.

Personally I think it was the level design. It sucked. The game started to get decent in the last world (it almost had a SMB3 vibe to some of the levels, especially with enemies like Sumo Bros. and Fire Bros. returning), but overall it was too little, too late. The rest of the game really felt like a souped-up SMB1 - and frankly, SMB1 has not aged well at all.

If they make a New Super Mario Bros. 2, I'd like to see them work towards something closer to SMB3/SMW feel, or even SMB2 (our version) with a less rediculous plot and more familiar enemies/settings. I'd personally love another game with multiple characters like that (SM64 DS actually did a decent job with that, but it felt too tacked-on.. the game would need to be designed from scratch with that concept in mind).

[Yoshiman]

I've been thinking about getting a Wii when this game is released. It's looking really good. I'm just kind of concerned that a lot of the gameplay looks like it's taking place on little planetoids, and there's not that many "big" levels like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine had.

I'm also worried about the fact that the game actually has "spoilers." I mean, Mario games have always been known to be "save the princess," and not much else of a plot. I just don't want one of my all-time favorite game series to go down the path of Sonic and add ridiculous plot-lines and characters.

I'm really hoping this game is a lot like SM64. I liked SMS, but it did feel like there was something missing. It wasn't a bad game, but I just had a kind of empty feeling. Keep in mind that I only rented SMS, so I may not have really looked at it.

With NSMB, it kinda did feel half-assed to me. Most of the levels were really plain when compared to SMB3 and SMW. Very few levels were vertical, and there didn't seem to be any real "gimmick" to the worlds. World gimmicks are kind of a good thing in Mario games. I mean, SMB3 had quicksand and the sun in World 2, and all those pipes and piranha plants in World 7. NSMB was just like "there's a few more enemies and holes here than in the previous world."