Mario Galaxy 2

[Dark_Einstein]

So, MG2 came out recently. It was supported by much cock-sucking from Nintendo Fanboys within the media, giving it a rating of over 9000 on Metacritic. Fuck me. Much like its predecessor, the praise is so undeserved.

Right then, shall we? So, a bit of background information: In Mario Galaxy, Peach was kidnapped during the annual Star Festival. In the new game, the same shit happens again. You'd think the bitch would improve security. Anyway, Mario games aren't about story lines, its all about the gameplay. Yet, this game is sadly a carbon copy of the first. The most important new changes are: the different stages, though they're nothing really new or exciting; a simpler, but illogical map (instead of calling places galaxies, they're called 'World #') and Yoshi. However, Yoshi plays worse than he did in Super Mario Sunshine and doesn't really breath much air into what already feels an outdated formula.

Loads of people see Mario Galaxy as this massively revolutionary platformer, but it just is not. SEGA came up with this shit years ago, but you know, it was canceled because the concept sucked. I'll admit that Mario Galaxy has it moments, but not its sequel. If this was music, it would be a b-side. Honestly, way to play it fuckin' safe. Recycled rubbish.

[Sonic Remix]

Nice review, though I disagree with the X-treme bit. I think the fish eye camera system looked quite well with it. I have yet to play MG2, though I do plan to considering all the high praise its gotten.

(Oh, and X-treme wasn't canceled because of the concept)

[Dark_Einstein]

To be fair, mate. There is no official reason for the cancellation. Unless you read the wikipedia entry, which totally wasn't written by a butt-hurt Chris Senn. Wait...

[Sonic Remix]

Ha ha fair enough. Though canceling a project on a poor concept would be a very silly thing to do considering the amount of professionals you'd be working with. As far as I'm concerned the game was canceled because of the large amount of rookies working at Sega and the strict holiday release date.

If there's anyone to blame for X-treme's death, I'd point my finger at Yuji Naka.

[Zach]

I agree mostly with DE - Xtreme's cancellation was mainly a nod to "Er, this might not work. It's non-traditional. Um... fuck it. Port of 3D Blast, anyone?

It was at this moment when STI rode the failboat, never to be heard from again.

[Sonic Remix]

I agree mostly with DE - Xtreme's cancellation was mainly a nod to "Er, this might not work. It's non-traditional. Um... fuck it. Port of 3D Blast, anyone?

It was at this moment when STI rode the failboat, never to be heard from again.

That isn't how Game Design works. When you have a team of over 60 people working a holiday hit for a major company like SEGA, story boarding and development planning is all done ahead of time. When a game is developed, the first thing a team works on is the concept and the target audience. SEGA invested a lot of money in X-treme. (also note that the game was over 90% complete) A video game cannot be canceled because of a poor concept. (Ie, look at Shadow, which sold over one million units in the US alone)

It was canceled because of the lack of support from SEGA Japan, who had struggling relations with SEGA US at the time and Amateur employees whose first video game was X-treme. You can read the story at Wikipedia.

[Zach]

I see. It appears the Sega Japan people were partially at fault, but why they weren't shown the newer demo is beyond me.

[Arcterus]

Glad I'm not the only one who hates this game. I remember seeing Metacritic's "Top games per system this half-year" or something like that, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 was just storming up ahead of everything. Ridiculously undeserved praise.

I think Mario has just become one of those franchises that nobody critiques anymore because it's "too prestigious". It's the best-selling franchise ever, they can't POSSIBLY do wrong. Mario could come up with it's own version of "Hot Coffee", and the response would be that it was a riveting mini-game, and more importantly helped educate kids about issues that the parents are afraid to discuss! I know there are some people who genuinely like Mario games, but I think most people in general have just stopped looking at it critically. It automatically has to be genius.

[Dark_Einstein]

Agreed. Even Super Mario Sunshine got positive reviews. Are you joking me?

[aj - comic guru]

I guess if you rate the game as a 5-10 year old might rate it, they'd get positive marks... however, I think we've entered some king of crap ratings system - where anyone was runs a magazine and gets paid by game companies gives positive marks to keep that money (except SEGA, 'cuz FUCK SEGA). I don't know, Mario lost its shine for me after Super Mario World(SNES)... Blah, I'll just stick by them rating it for little kids who don't know any better and leave it at that...

AJ Fox

[Dark_Einstein]

Yeah, but even my little brothers don't really enjoy Mario Galaxy as much as they could. The Wii remote is difficult and frustrating for my little brothers. Any critic should have picked up on the fact that this is a major disappointment for kids who want a simpler means of playing Mario games. However, ignorance is bliss.

[Arcterus]

Agreed. Even Super Mario Sunshine got positive reviews. Are you joking me?

I'm still cringing over that. Who wants to spend hours going around spraying water? I thought that game was so boring.

I don't know, Mario lost its shine for me after Super Mario World(SNES)

Seriously? Next to Blue Twilight, the under-appreciated gem of the Mario franchise, Super Mario World was my favorite. The only one I liked at all, in fact.

EDIT: Or were you saying that was the last good game of the series? In which case, I agree with you, with the exception of Blue Twilight.

[aj - comic guru]

You'd be agreeing with me, Arc. And I've never played Blue Twilight.

AJ Fox

[Arcterus]

It was basically Super Mario World with more abilities, better level design, harder, more interesting bosses, etc... Just a cooler version of Super Mario World, basically. It had some of Super Mario 64 in it, minus the suckiness, a big part of that feat is that it's a 2D game and not that shitty "where's-the-camera-now?" feature in Super Mario 64.

EDIT: Just so we're clear, this was an unofficial fangame. So I'm not saying that they makers of the franchise are capable of making a good Mario game. It's just an accident that some fanboy managed to go above and beyond anything Nintendo ever did with the series.