Super Mario Galaxy - A Dialogue

Ruut and I have both had a chance to play Super Mario Galaxy for a couple of hours. Here's our conversation regarding our first impressions of Nintendo's latest Mario game:

s u d 0: so SMG.. you're further ahead than I am
Ruut: I want to play some more!
R: I *did* play for 3 and a half hours
R: that was fun
S: I played for a couple of hours I think
S: I can't put my finger on why it has that wonder of SM64
S: but Sunshine didn't
R: it's so polished
R: so beautiful
R: and the physics are bang on, you know everything in the world, all the objects exist for a reason
S: did you play Sunshine?
R: no
S: It didn't flow very well and although it had its moments it was ultimately quite a frustrating experience
R: but I know the feeling -- when they released SMB2
S: it didn't feel like a Mario game.
R: which was a rehash of a Japanese game called Doki Doki panic
R: it also didn't feel like a Mario game, and it lacked cohesion
R: and there were parts to it that you thought "What's this got to do with Mario?"
S: Once I understood how SMG was going to work I could see the logical succession from SM64 that just wasn't there in Sunshine
R: yeah
S: It sounds like SMB2 and Sunshine suffered from the same problem
R: there was a point to things in SM64
S: SM64 was so damn clever, and Galaxy is the same. I keep coming back to the word 'wonder'
R: in SMG, the progression works, the story works, the look and feel is bang on, I'm excited just remembering it
S: It's redefined platforming again, in the way that SM64 did
R: I was in Tesco on Saturday and I saw SMG on the cover of a mag and it felt like it feels when you've seen a really good action escapist film the night before
S: It's taken it to the next level, in a way I struggled to visualise from the videos
S: I wasn't sure, or couldn't see, how it was going to work... like the running upside down thing
R: it's so much more than the previews showed. Like, in the vids I thought it all looked disjointed, jumping from world to world, but in the game with the story line behind it it makes sense
R: Where you press A to get beamed to the blue stars and you follow a path that way, puzzles like that give me such a sense of achievement
R: it's like a Mario Zelda game
S: Especially with the fixed camera, all the things that are usually so frustrating in a game - moving in an unatural orientation, with a fixed viewpoint
R: the nunchuk has a button to make the view flip
R: and the first person view is glorious
R: I stop and look at the view a lot
S: but I guess, like SM64 you can't move like that?
R: no, no movement in FPP
R: but it's great for collecting star bits
R: stop, look about and point at the bits to pick them up
S: When I first died and got put back at the start of that Galaxy, I thought "Oh no."
S: but it wasn't a chore
S: and in fact the coin collecting encourages replay, just like SM64 did
R: the galaxies have rooms, too, and you have to do the room a different way each time
R: but they change the objects in the rooms to make it work differently
R: not room as in four walls, but you know, a connecting level
S: Ah yes.
S: I loved the first boss... the Dino Egg
S: I was going to say I was grinning, but then I was grinning all the way through
R: oh yeah, figuring him out was great, and the animation was lovely, the RAGE
R: I was grinning too and LOLing
S: I was wondering about the planets, or comets or whatever they're called
S: once you start running over them, they seem suddenly to become larger
S: they take a lot longer to circumnavigate
S: then the appearance seems to warrant
S: do you think that's clever scaling or a real illusion?
R: they're all different sizes
R: I didn't notice that...
R: I thought they seemed right to scale
S: I felt it straight away on the first puzzle planet... where you have to change the yellow switches to blue
R: that was fun
S: maybe it's just me
S: there hasn't been a rock I haven't completely scoured yet
R: no, I did that, too
R: it seemed a waste not to
S: exploration doesn't become a chore
R: and from the beginning I started to collect bits, even before they said
R: oh the village leading up to the caste from SM64
R: it was glorious
S: yes - in fact, when I accidentally catapulted off or climbed the vine to the next rock, before I'd completed my recce it bothered me
S: so - any downsides that you could find, or foresee?
R: not really
R: there were times when I plummeted off a ledge and thought "that's not fair..."
R: but that's just me
S: yeah.. the ledge thing. It didn't happen a lot to me, but the black-hole planets seem to be worse for it
S: there's no clear indication as to when you're going to fall and when you're going to flip
S: Hence I approach many of the precipices quite timidly
R: Yeah, I know what you mean
S: so he gets to do the fingertip catch if it's a drop
S: do you think you could get bored with the format?
S: it just seems so open to invention
S: i can imagine the developers coming up with this idea, say, one day before lunch
S: and by 3pm, when they'd realised what they'd come up with...
R: it's prolly one of the finest gaming moments I can remember
S: can you imagine the brainstorming sessions?
R: just pure fun
R: oh yeah, it must be great to do
R: it's a killer app
R: that, zelda and metroid justify the console's existence
R: if they do nothing else worth while, they at least gave it it's history making games
S: is it too hardcore for the new gamer bunch?
R: no
R: it's very gentle at the start
S: i wonder.. like metroid it takes advantage of conventions that we know about
S: from 20 years of gaming
R: it leads you to each new move in a very Shigeru way
S: I think it is a lot more friendly than Metroid, overall though
R: some of it may confuse, like hitting and re-hitting ? blocks
R: like, why would you do that?
R: plus crouch jumping and wall jumping
R: but you would discover them
R: and we dont have a book
S: The slide-flip was quite a hard move to pull off in SM64 at first
S: but I think it's much easier on the Wii controls
S: they've tuned that in nicely
R: yeah
R: I liked the waggle to pull me off toward the next planetoid
S: heh... I remember one bit that I loved.. on a giant five-point star
S: with a blue pull star on each point
R: yeah, floating towards the middle -- timing and selection
S: and you had to switch direction mid-flow in order to get to the center
S: also - there are stars in space that seem to be there purely to extend your journey
S: no other reason but to make Mario go Whheeeeee and do an extra loop
S: there's a lot there for someone with previous knowledge of the genre.
R: there are the stars that you waggle to activate in deep space, you can fly past, or if you time the waggle right when he's flying, you can divert to a new path
S: Shig's just gone "Here you are guys, I know you'll like this."
S: and a new player wouldn't even see it, let alone get it
R: the music in the underground pipe... rooms
R: "banna banna banna"
S: yeah... following that path
R: I love how he grabs the stars when he's won them too
R: he slaps them in a different way sometimes
S: I hadn't even noticed that
S: To be honest this is the game that Zelda and Metroid didn't quite manage to be.
S: And by that I mean - the game that makes the Wii.
S: to be fair Twilight Princess is a Gamecube game
S: But despite the fact that Corruption is technically spot on, it felt lacking in some ways
S: Corruption is strange... it's a pixel perfect Metroid game. You really can't fault it (as long as you're right handed.)
S: But there's a spark missing. There's nothing new there, even given the brilliant control scheme.
S: Is it better than SM64?
R: Galaxies?
S: yeah
R: yeah, so much better
R: this is better than Super Mario World
S: it's not such a technical leap forward, but it seems like a quantum leap in how to think about building a platform game
R: it's not about the technical side, never has been with Mario, it's the fact that it's so well finished off
R: so complete
R: and it's the little touches
S: We have so much praise and we've only played for a total of 4 hours between us.
R: I reckon three hours is enough time to know a game
S: so - when are you getting your Wii?
R: LOL
S: you looking forward to babysitting again? ;)
R: fo def
S: I can't wait to get home tonight.
R: I'll bet
S: I was so annoyed at falling asleep.
R: LOL
S: I was tempted to grab a coffee at midnight so I could carry on
R: did he wake you up? "Hey! What-a-da-fuck?"
R: lets-a-go
S: Mario is dangling by his fingertips while I doze!