Monday, December 31, 2007

Super Mario Galaxy


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:

soraneko said...

You're allowed to play, daddy, we just don't like seeing you cry :(

Doogle This! said...

Mario has outlived & beaten down the competition again & again! The new game kicks much butt!

 
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