The game that won Game of the Year
It appears people have some myths and misconceptions about Super Mario Galaxy.
Well I am here to shed at least some light on what the game actually is like.
Myth #1: It's a rehash of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine
By that logic Crysis is a rehash of Goldeneye. Anything in the same genre is going to seem like a rehash. But let's look inside the genre. Super Mario 64 plays very differently from Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Sunshine plays very differently from Super Mario 64. Super Mario Galaxy plays very differently from both Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine.
Super Mario 64 in action:
Super Mario Sunshine in action:
Super Mario Galaxy in action:
As you can see, they are all three very different and varied from each other.
Myth #2: The music is rehashed from past Mario games
Anybody that actually has Super Mario Galaxy will know this is very far from the true. Super Mario Galaxy features ALL NEW music from composer Koji Kondo. It's not just one new theme or two, almost all of the music is orginal and has never been on any past Mario games.
Listen to the full soundtrack here. As you can see only two or three tracks actually have appeared in past Mario games. The rest of the other tracks are brand new orchestral compositations. Soremember, the best way to tell if somebody has not played Mario Galaxy is if they say that there is no new music.
Myth #3: You can play Super Mario Galaxy on a standard controller, and better yet, it would be better on it.
No. Completely not true.
This is another way to tell that you have not played Super Mario Galaxy at all.
Let's see how you use the Wiimote in Super Mario Galaxy.
You shake either the Wiimote or the nunchuck to do a handy dandy spin attack. Sure this could be done on a normal controller by just pressing the button. But where's the fun in that?
As you can see, in Super Mario Galaxy, the pointer in the Wiimote is just as much as important in this game as the analog stick. You just can't play Super Mario Galaxy without it. How will you get star bits that aren't on the ground (like all of them), how will you reach pull stars? How will you pull the toads out of a sticky mess? How will a second player help you out? To adapt this game to a normal controller, it would have to change the game dramatically.
Myth #4: This game has bad graphics.
There is no rationale behind this except that it is not playing in HD.
Let's see what the merits of this game's graphics are:
1. It runs at 60 fps.
How many games on the other consoles run at this speed? Except Call of Duty 4, barely none of them. What? The Wii is doing something faster and more efficient than the other consoles? How pathetic. Next-gen should be running at 60 fps. Consoles shouldn't struggle to render their games.
2. No pop up.
You don't see planets popping in when you get close to them. Enemies don't appear out of nowhere. You can see star bits and coins clearly from one planet to another. Very few 'next-gen' games can say that about theri graphics.
3. Everything is animated smoothly.
You never see Mario click from one animation to another animation. He always transitions very smoothly, as if the whole thing was one single animated stread. The animation doesn't lag neither. The animation happens when it's supposed to happen. All characters are always expressive and you can tell what they are feeling, and there is no ugly faces or uncanny valley here.
4. No clipping.
When you play the game, you won't notice Mario's head go thru a ceiling or his hand go thru a wall. The same for enemies. Unless you find a way to do it, and it would be really funny.
5. It has multiple shaders.
You can notice this on the textures. You move around an object and it shines realistically, like hen you see a flying saucer crashing down on the sun, and as you fly towards it, you can see the whole thing melting with light reflecting from it, and you can see the light on Mario as well. It's not to the extent of, say, Unreal Tournament 3, but it looks great.
6. A sense of depth.
You look out into space with the planets in the distance, you really get the feeling that they are...well...far away. When you move, you don't see the planets moving independedly from the space backdrop, they move with it. And when it's on an atmospheric level, like on inside a large planet, the faraway land masses have blur of depth. It looks like the planets are not real and are just part of the backdrop until you get on a star launcher and you go to them in real time.
This game has great graphics that holds it's own against the rest of the consoles.
But what's even more impressive is that it's running on a console that's only a couple times more powerfull than the original Xbox.
It's like seeing Call of Duty 4 on the DS. It's not very impressive compared to consoles, until you realise it's running on the DS.
Myth #5: There is no story.
Thank you for proving you absolute ignorance.
Since when do we need a story in a game?
The only genre that needs a story is an RPG.
You don't need a story to shoot down aliens. You don't need a story to explore a jungle. You don't need a story to chainshaw enemies. And you defenetaly don't need a story to go into outer space.
As you can see...most of the misconceptions are a result of damage control.
Don't let it go to your head and know the facts!
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