PSTP Gaming Network

We’ve been waiting for this motherfucker for about a year now, and we finally have it.

It was worth the wait, because this is one of the best, if not the best Mario game ever.

The story is basically the same as every other Mario game. Bowser decides to fuck up your Star Festival and kidnaps Ms. Always-Kidnapped Princess Peach (A Super Paper Mario reference? Impossible). You then awake on a planet where you play Hide and Seek with some weird star things called Lumas, and then you find out to save Peach you need to go out and collect Power and Grand Stars.

Along the way, in addition to Stars you collect “Star Bits”. Collecting 50 will net you a 1up. You can press B to shoot them at whatever your Wiimote is aiming at. You can also feed Lumas with them. Feeding a “Hungry Luma” will some how transform it into anything from another planetoid in the galaxy to an entire freaking Galaxy. Yeah, this game is weird.

These Galaxies created by Hungry Lumas, as well as a few other ones you unlock by getting a lot of stars, are optional. As such, they are hard as balls and will kick your ass. For example, a galaxy where you have to catapult Mario from one Space-Tree to another, avoiding obstacles, where missing a tree by even a fraction of an inch means falling into a black hole. Hell, for most of them your only saving grace is that there’s a 1Up in plain sight somewhere and there are so many star bits getting to increments of 50 between deaths is no problem. Thankfully, your Star bits don’t disappear when you die.

Just a note: the Galaxies are pretty much like the paintings in SM64. I didn’t really understand this until I had played the game.

Running around feels great. The controls are nice and you can get used to them quickly. Attacking is a simple matter of shaking the Wiimote/ Nunchuk, you can jump with A, pause with + or -, shoot Star Bits with B, and crouch with Z on the Nunchuk.

The game is similar to Super Mario 64 in that you’ll have a world that you’ll unlock, you’ll go to it, and have a mission there. Once you complete it, you get a star, and go back to the Hub of the game. You can then go back and complete other “missions” and get more stars. In addition, there are these weird “Mischievous Comets” that will appear around galaxies and mess things up there. However, going to a Galaxy while there’s a comet there will let you get another star. Because I’ve only run into one so far, here’s a copy-paste from Wikipedia:

The Speed Comet adds a time limit;
the Daredevil Comet reduces Mario’s life to 1 unit;
the Cosmic Comet forces Mario to race with his shadowy clone, Cosmic Mario;
the Fast Foe Comet speeds up enemies;
and the Purple Comet, which appears after Bowser has been defeated at least once, unlocks bonus levels requiring Mario to collect 100 Purple Coins under various conditions, such as a time limit.

The game has this great epic feel to it. The bosses, for example, aren’t that hard, but it’s fun to find their weak point and attack it foar masiv dmg. There’s this huge “Moonwalker” that Bowser Jr. (Oh yeah, spoilers: Bowser Jr’s in the game) sics on you that is many times Mario’s size, and you need to climb up it’s leg, then lure a Bullet Bill to you and have it follow you to the top of it, where you have to get it to slam into a dome containing a star.

So overall, I find that this game is one of the greatest Mario games I’ve played in a while. It’s challenging, but so fun that you’ll want to keep trying. I call this an Impression because I’m not even close to beating the game yet, but so far I give this a 9.5/10. Go buy it naow.

Posted in Games, Nintendo Wii