One of my kidz Christmas presents was the third Mario 3D platformer (after Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine). The game takes Mario on a quest to save the ever-needy Princess Peach from the ever-evil Bowser.
It is one of the few games to have received a '10' score from Edge magazine (the others are Super Mario 64, Gran Turismo, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Halo: Combat Evolved, Half-Life 2, Halo 3 and The Orange Box).
The game is a delight to watch (I'm not allowed to play the games, cos I'm far too rubbish), with Mario scuttling around a series of mini planets, fighting a wide range of weird enemies.
As I observed Brook working his way from planet to planet, I was once again struck by the uniqueness of the Nintendo gameplay, the way it transports you into a world that is 'other', in a similar way to which Tolkien, Lewis and Pullman do with their narratives.
Where games like Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare are copying reality, Super Mario Galaxy takes you into an Escherian super-reality, providing excitement, intrigue and fun without the usual gore quotient.
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2 comments:
You're allowed to play, daddy, we just don't like seeing you cry :(
Mario has outlived & beaten down the competition again & again! The new game kicks much butt!
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