Posts Tagged ‘mario’
Super Paper Mario Game Review–A Really Surprising Epic
I have to admit that it’s nice–downright nice!–to be able to play a Wii game that doesn’t rack my arms or shoulder all to ruination, and I got my chance with one such game today, Super Paper Mario. And while I’d set out to play this one with little more than a hope of rest, what I found instead was a surprisingly decent RPG built around action elements and a whole searing load of nostalgia. Big N seems to love to pound my nostalgia button and usually to good effect.
Super Paper Mario may be the most surprising epic I’ve ever found, featuring Mario and Luigi hanging around their house and wishing that something would for crying out loud happen already. Naturally, they get their wish and Princess Peach has been kidnapped once again. Suspecting Bowser, King of the Koopa, the brothers rush to his palace only to discover that, for once, he had absolutely nothing to do with it and the plumbers had landed on him while he was planning to do what had already been done. The discovery is made that a new evil, in the form of Count Bleck, was the one behind the kidnapping. Count Bleck has a plan that easily trumps anything Bowser ever came up with for terms of sheer catastrophic evil, namely, the summoning of a massive void that will destroy all reality everywhere as the inhabitants know it. It’s up to Mario to go forth and tangle with Bleck and his numerous minions to rescue the princess and save all reality.
While the game itself controls much like the original Super Mario Brothers, with the Wiimote held like an original two button NES controller, you’ll occasionally use the Wiimote in its newest form to analyze monsters and locations for added effect. This is a fairly interesting new twist on an old classic, which lends a note of credibility to the proceedings. But the new twists don’t stop there–early on, Mario is given the ability to “flip” between dimensions, allowing him to go from 2-D to 3-D and back again. But spending too much time in 3-D is clearly taxing on the normally flat plumber, as spending too long “flipped” causes Mario to take damage. You’ll be able to collect and use a whole host of items for attack and defense, and you’ll also run into different fairies called Pixls that give Mario various special abilities.
It’s downright surprising to see Mario adapted into RPG status, though it’s happened before with the Paper Mario series, and even farther back with Super Mario RPG. This time, Super Paper Mario gives us an entire large and sprawling storyline to go with your standard action elements. Even many of the stages you’ll troop through bear a striking resemblance to those from the original Super Mario Brothers. I found bonus level pipes in Super Paper Mario through vague half-remembrances of the original game, and this was a development that made me doubly happy. Sure, the graphics are Wii-standard and lag way behind the next gen, but this is a truly minor point as there are so many good points to this game. It’s a lot of fun and the control schemes are pretty nicely adapted to the Wii. I have to admit, I liked this game, and there’s plenty of reason to believe that you’ll like it too.
Tags: Action, action game, Bowser, epic, Luigi, mario, Mario Bros, Nintendo, role playing, RPG, RPG game, Super Paper Mario, Wii
New Mario before end of year, Wii Fit Plus too
According to Nikkei newspaper, a publication in Japan, a new Mario game for the Wii is in the works and will be out before the end of the year. Whether it will be a brand new platformer, a sports title, or a bloody board game is unknown. Hopefully, all will be known once Nintendo holds their press conference at E3.
Some information on Wii Fit Plus was also given, mentioning that it will be an online follow-up of the preceding title. In addition to Internet functionality, more accurate measurement readings will also be included.
Read (N-Philes)
Top Ten Reasons Why The Wii is Winning
Since we’ve discussed why the PS3 is foundering it’s only fair we point out what the Wii has been doing well.
10. Brand Loyalty.
When it comes to video game companies, Nintendo boasts an incredible amount of longevity. Their first console, the Nintendo Entertainment System almost singlehandedly made home gaming popular and they’ve been going strong ever since. People have been buying Nintendo products for years. Sony hasn’t been in the games industry for quite as long and Microsoft is a relative newcomer to the console game.
Japan likes Mario more than Street Fighter
Recent software sales are in and Japan has spoken, they are much more fond of Mario than the Street Fighter series.
This comes as news after Mario & Luigi RPG3 for the Nintendo DS hit Japanese shelves and then proceded to beat out Street Fighter 4 for the number 1 spot by a pretty big margin.
Top 10, courtesy of Kotaku, below:
01. Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!! (DS) – 193,000 / NEW
02. Street Fighter IV (PS3) – 86,000 / NEW
03. Mobile Suit Gundam: Giren no Yabou – Axis no Kyoui V (PSP) – 40,000 / NEW
04. Mobile Suit Gundam: Giren no Yabou – Axis no Kyoui V (PS2) – 38,000 / NEW
05. Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360) – 38,000 / NEW
06. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 (PSP) – 27,000 / 175,000
07. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 (PS2) – 25,000 / 170,000
08. Demon’s Souls (PS3) – 22,000 / 62,000
09. Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 (PSP) – 22,000 / 280,000
10. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (DS) – 20,000 / 156,000
Super Mafia Land–Someone’s Probably Gonna Get Whacked For This
I don’t know if it’s going to be Nintendo or the Gottis that land on these guys first, but going out to Armor Games is going to show you a reason that someone is going to be sleeping with the fishes.
It’s called Super Mafia Land, and it’s almost a frame-for-frame knockoff of Super Mario Brothers 2. Call it an homage if you like, but the key thing is that they took it apart pretty nicely and repackaged it. Basically, it’s the exact same game, only with different characters. And not even that many different characters, either—I saw Shyguys and Phantos and Birdos running around shooting eggs at me and stuff. The gameplay is even identical—where you pull vegetables and such out of the ground and throw them at the various monsters. The only significant difference is we’re not playing with Toad and Luigi any more. Now it’s Bruno and Giuseppe.
If you’ve been missing Super Mario Brothers 2, and you don’t want to drag your eight-bit Nintendo out of the basement and hook it back up, then Super Mafia Land is just the game for you.
Japanese Mario Galaxy TV Adverts
Here’s three Mario Galaxy trailers for those who lust for shiny Mario in space goodness (and there’s lots of it). Super Mario Galaxy is coming out in November in all areas. [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=26683" width="473" height="400" wmode="transparent" /]
More videos after the jump:
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Mario Party DS Site Finds The Internet
The Official Mario Party DS website is up, but unfortunately only the Japanese version is up at the moment, but expect an English equivalent to arrive some time soon. It’s being created by Hudson again, similar to Mario Party 8 for Wii. If you can’t wait, or similarly can’t read Japanese, then here’s a fansite to tide fans over until something more… English finds the internet. Either way, minigames + stylus = quite a lot of fun to look forward to.