Zero Punctuation vs. Super Mario Galaxy

Mr E

Yahtzee vs. The Plumber.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/2768-Zero-Punctuation-Super-Mario-Galaxy

(Site is hammered, so it might be a bit slow for a while)

Kiith

Funny, but not as funny as other ones. Plus i still havent played Galaxy.

Rhyme

Mario Galaxy was a tough one... it's hard to work up the vitriol with a game like that.

Jack Sheehan

A few great jokes but not one of the best. Still a high standard every week though.

mawk

i agree, not amazing. but still amusing


i cant quite decide on the game.. i mean.. its great, lots of fun, very intuitive.. but...


maybe its just that i hate mario..

Retr0gamer

Seemed to be scraping a bit to find anything wrong with the game.

Also, when did it become fashionable to hate Mario Sunshine? It was no Mario 64 but it kicked the **** out of every other platformer of last generation. It kind of reminds me of the way it's now fashionable to hate The Da Vinci Code. I read that book on the recommendation of one of my firends when he wouldn't stop gushing about it on the bus a few weeks after it came out and found it to be a great page turner. A few weeks ago I met him in the pub and he started going on about how crap it was (in his new psuedo south dublin accent he picked up since he went to trinity, ****ing twat).

po0k

TRANSFOOOOOOOOOOOORM is only cute the first 3 times.

Crash

Luma's talk too ****ing much. my finger gets tired holding down the A button to make them speed up and shut up.

Tusky

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Seemed to be scraping a bit to find anything wrong with the game.

Also, when did it become fashionable to hate Mario Sunshine? It was no Mario 64 but it kicked the **** out of every other platformer of last generation. It kind of reminds me of the way it's now fashionable to hate The Da Vinci Code. I read that book on the recommendation of one of my firends when he wouldn't stop gushing about it on the bus a few weeks after it came out and found it to be a great page turner. A few weeks ago I met him in the pub and he started going on about how crap it was (in his new psuedo south dublin accent he picked up since he went to trinity, ****ing twat).

Noticed that too. Its an entertaining, trashy, adventure novel with snippets of truth about the origins of Christianity and people criticize it for not being factual ? ITS A NOVEL.

Azza

Mario Galaxy had a flimsy storyline which merely served as an excuse to fly off to those various galaxys. While I admit you could not have tied a decent story into this type of game and then take it seriously, you don't really feel too involved in the game as other genres can make you feel. I played this game to the end because I wanted to see what the designers did for the next level and because of the the fun and addictiveness of the gameplay. Other genres can sometime do that and involve you in a great storyline as well. Just more of a complaint I level against the genre rather than this game. Its one of the reasons I would consider myself not a huge platformer fan. Other than that he was right about the boss battles being pretty meh. Still a great game though, just one or two small pieces missing.

Never played Mario Sunshine so I can't comment on it.

Retr0gamer

Azza wrote: »

Mario Galaxy had a flimsy storyline which merely served as an excuse to fly off to those various galaxys. While I admit you could not have tied a decent story into this type of game and then take it seriously, you don't really feel too involved in the game as other genres can make you feel.

It's a game about an italian plumber who never does any plumbing who's girlfriend princess is continuously kidnapped by a big green dinosaur and he has to save her with the help of his little mushroom friends. What the hell were you expecting? The intelligent and sophisticated ending of Panzer Dragoon Saga? Commentary on how war can destroy the lives of people like in Suikoden 2? The subtle themes of friendship and racism in FFX? It's bloody mario for gods sake. It's like complaining that a Michael Bay film has too many explosions and not enough plot.

johnny_ultimate

Hmm indeed a weaker review than usual. I admit it must be hard for him to review games that are actually very good, but I think he really was struggling to criticise this one.

Although it would kind of defeat the point if he was all gushing about it..

Azza

Could of guessed I'd irk you with my last comment Retr0.

Regardless I felt less invested into the game. It is indeed for God Sakes just Bloody Mario and thats my problem. He is not a very particularly interesting character (bar a bit of nostalgic charm) and neither are the people who inhabit his world although the world has character itself. Mario is doing pretty much what he always has done and not alot different. I can't think of any other series where the plot is the same so often. I just find Mario games less involving than other games in general even if the gameplay is of a high standard.

I have never played any of those games you mentioned by the way.

Michael Bay movies do have too much explosions and not enough plot!....but maybe you where being sarcastic?

Retr0gamer

Azza wrote: »

Michael Bay movies do have too much explosions and not enough plot!....but maybe you where being sarcastic?

They wouldn't be Michael Bay movies if they lacked explosions in favour of a plot

Whatever you think about mario at least he hasn't gone th way of sonic where they just keep introducing more and more boring unnecessary characters. Shadow the Hedgehog needs to be killed, painfully.

Although I felt mario is the same character as always, I thought the toads and Luigi were endlessly charming.

Azza

Actually I was a a major Mega Drive Sonic the Hedgehog fan preferring them over the original Mario's, was the game that first introduced me to gaming properly in fact but I have not played a Sonic game in years as most of them are suppose to be rubbish.

As for the toads and Lugi I found the toads abit too childish for my tastes but I prefer Lugi as a character over Mario.

Grim.

:eek:

Rhyme

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It's like complaining that a Michael Bay film has too many explosions and not enough plot.

Trasformers didn't have enough explosions.

Stephen

I kind of agree with yahtzee about Mario. The gameplay itself is great, but Nintendo need to stop flogging the dead franchise horse at this stage. Come out with something new and interesting, kthxbai.

Mr E

Wow... do people still say kthxbye?

L31mr0d

meh... not his best, didn't really laugh once. Picking on Mario for being overused and having little plot is like shooting fish in a barrel as he's never tried to be anything else. Mario has always, and will always be about fun and enjoyment. Nintendo have never tried to hide the fact that they develop the gameplay first then work a rough storyline around it.

Mark Hamill

Azza wrote: »

I can't think of any other series where the plot is the same so often.

Zelda comes to mind. In fact, I think Zero Punctuation mentions this in his review of Phantom Hourglass.

Call Me Jimmy

Azza wrote: »

Could of guessed I'd irk you with my last comment Retr0.

Regardless I felt less invested into the game. It is indeed for God Sakes just Bloody Mario and thats my problem. He is not a very particularly interesting character (bar a bit of nostalgic charm) and neither are the people who inhabit his world although the world has character itself. Mario is doing pretty much what he always has done and not alot different. I can't think of any other series where the plot is the same so often. I just find Mario games less involving than other games in general even if the gameplay is of a high standard.

I have never played any of those games you mentioned by the way.

Michael Bay movies do have too much explosions and not enough plot!....but maybe you where being sarcastic?

Are you honestly saying you would like a story with your mario? That's like askign for a story with pong or pinball ffs

KdjaCL

he slates the upside down sections and the not walking from left to right as hard to judge, the best parts of the game and he slates them

poor review but most of his are.

the howard stern of games reviewers.

kdjac

steviec

I agreed with most of the review. Mario doesn't need a story and I've no problem with lots of it being re-hashed, but he has a point about the really bad controls and camera. As was said in the review, it would have been much better with a Gamecube pad where you could control the camera with the C-stick and you'd have the instantaneous response of a button instead of the silly waggle attack. Admittedly that would mean a reworking of the slingshot star bits of the game though, and they work really well as they are so I guess you can't have everything.

thelordofcheese

I want to play this version of super mario galaxy with the terrible controls and camera, it's not in my copy.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

yeah, I can remember about three times when I thought 'bloody camera', but that's it.. everywhere else, and in just about every other way... this game was amazing.

Ivan

No way, there are definitely certain portions where you are walking around a planet or a flying saucer and the camera completely moves, up on the stick then becomes down and down becomes up and you end up jumping to your doom. Its incredibly frustrating.

The boss battles are retardedly easy and the cutsey wootsiness of it all just makes me want to hunt down Mario and force feed him 'star bits' until he explodes into a red ball of Spaghetti and Meatballs!

thelordofcheese

Ivan wrote: »

No way, there are definitely certain portions where you are walking around a planet or a flying saucer and the camera completely moves, up on the stick then becomes down and down becomes up and you end up jumping to your doom. Its incredibly frustrating.

The boss battles are retardedly easy and the cutsey wootsiness of it all just makes me want to hunt down Mario and force feed him 'star bits' until he explodes into a red ball of Spaghetti and Meatballs!

I'm about half way through, and while the first time i walked around a planet and went on it's underside i had a bit of a WTF moment but other than that, nothing so far that stands out.
Judicial tapping of the c button is also your friend if you get confused easily.

As for complaining about the cuteness of mario is like complaining that Halo features alot of shooting and explosions or that Xbox live is full of petulant 13 year olds.
It's pretty much what the whole thing is about.

Peteee

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Although it would kind of defeat the point if he was all gushing about it..

There was a review where he was mostly positive about the game, buggered if I can remember which one though.

Edit: Psychonauts one

Retr0gamer

Peteee wrote: »

There was a review where he was mostly positive about the game, buggered if I can remember which one though.

Edit: Psychonauts one

He did give psychonauts a totally positive review. Funny that since it's a 3D platform game were the core gameplay mechanics are nowhere near as refined as in Mario Galaxy and it has some pretty jarring camera issues. Funnily enough this never came up in that review.

Jack Sheehan

Retr0gamer wrote: »

He did give psychonauts a totally positive review. Funny that since it's a 3D platform game were the core gameplay mechanics are nowhere near as refined as in Mario Galaxy and it has some pretty jarring camera issues. Funnily enough this never came up in that review.

Lets not go nuts now he did point out its flaws, to quote

'the platforming handles a bit dodgily at times, the sidequests are all just scavenger hunts at various levels of unfairness, the combat is meh and it has a really weird difficulty curve'

His point was that psychonauts was forgiven all these things because of its amazing art design and stellar scripting.