I may have written about the game Fez before, I can’t remember. Anyways, this is a gameplay video from GDC. The game still looks awesome, and looks like it will include all the platforming goodness Super Paper Mario didn’t with it’s “camera changes the game landscape” mechanic.
Monthly Archive for February, 2008
Like with too many other movies and games recently, I’ve kind of dropped the ball on writing a review for Mario Galaxy to the point where it almost feels so late that it’s pointless to do so. However, reading a Gamasutra review by David Sirlin, a designer for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix who had similar views and some interesting observations has inspired me to write some of my impressions of the game.
The game is absolutely brilliant. We finally have a true sequel to Super Mario 64, with enough innovation to not just feel like a rehash. The levels all float in space, and most are made up of a collection of little oddly-shaped planets, each with its own gravity. In Galaxy we get classic Mario gameplay with the added twist of varied gravity mechanics. There’s many gameplay surprises and unique levels, and even some 2D platforming segments.
Playing this game is pure joy, with some small exceptions – mostly segments involving the motion sensing capabilities of the Wiimote that are irritating to play and feel very much tacked on. I’m two stars away from completing the game at 100%. As incredible as the game is, the final challenges – returning to past stages to collect 100 purple coins – are tedious and feel unimaginative. We’ll see once I finish everything whether these were worth it.
David Sirlin made an excellent observation about Galaxy, something I hadn’t even thought about:
Inertial Frames
When you jump straight up while riding a train in real life, you do not slam into the back of the train; you land on the same spot as you jumped from. Physicists say that you are in the same inertial frame as the train, meaning that you’re moving with it and your walking or jumping is relative to it.
You all know this instinctively and yet almost no platform games know this. I remember actually being shocked in the game Spider-Man 2 when my Spider-Man was on top of a car and I jumped straight up and landed on the car. “Wow, they know about inertial frames!” I said. At long last, Mario Galaxy knows about them too. You can finally jump straight up while riding a moving platform and land on the platform without worrying about it moving out from under your feet.
Read Sirlin’s review at Gamasutra for more.
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