I've been having some fun during this winter break. I've been reading some good books, watching some good television and movies, and cooking some interesting dishes. However, I've been floored by Super Mario Galaxy. The game is amazingly well designed and entirely entertaining. In fact, it is the most fun I've ever had with a single player video game. I realize that this is a strong statement, but here's my comparison with some of my other favorite games. And yes, I realize by doing this I am revealing my dire dorkiness to anyone who reads this, so it's probably good that very few people do.
Final Fantasy VI/VII, Final Fantasy Tactics & Chrono Trigger The Final Fantasy games and Chrono Trigger are undeniably great. The complex narratives and battle systems enthralled me as a kid and still do. However, these games do not test dexterity, reflexes, or problem solving in the same way that a platform game doe
s. The greatness of these games lies in their storylines, creative fantasy settings, and acquiring powerful equipment and spells. [best exhibited in Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, respectively.] Although it's [again] dorky to admit it, getting the best sword in the game is fun. These aspects of the game are enjoyable on kind of an intellectual level whereas the fun in Galaxy is a more visceral, true "game-y" type fun.
Super Metroid & Symphony of the Night Metroid and Symphony are fantastic but suffer when the player runs into a brick wall where you have no clue what you should be doing or where you should go. This leads to total confusion as to what the player should be doing. This means you have to take a humiliating trip to Gamefaqs. When the original Metroid [an even more befuddling game without any direction given to the player] came out the Internet did not exist, so most confused kids were basically fucked unless they had Nintendo Power. For the patient type, this exploration aspect is indeed a lot of fun. However, I prefer the more well-established goals in games such as Galaxy. You might criticize this quality as excessively linear, but I prefer some restrictions in a game.
Legend of Zelda
Nintendo's other flagship series presents a strong challenge to Galaxy on many levels. It has produced four truly amazing games, including Ocarina of Time, which is generally held as the greatest game ever made. However, I would draw a distinction between greatness and fun. Ocarina is great because it combines many of the elements of the games already discussed such as an immersive fantasy universe, acquisition of items which permit you to explore a large digital world, genius level design and near perfect controls. Yet, where Ocarina evokes awe and reflection, Galaxy evokes bliss. Everything about Galaxy is giddily primary colored, from the art direction and the soundtrack to the actual gameplay. Galaxy contains a diverse array of mini-game like tasks, preventing it from feeling stale at any point in the journey. In this sense, my euphoria when playing Galaxy is very subjective. For whatever reason, I enjoy the tone of the Mario games with their storybook simplicity.
Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Super Mario 64 Which leaves the remaining truly great Mario games to evaluate. Galaxy is very similar to 64. Surely, 64 is the more important game, but Galaxy builds on that framework in nearly every way. The side-scrollers present an equally strong challenge. I really have no rational basis upon which to declare Galaxy the more enjoyable game. I think, however, it comes down to this moment in my life and what video games mean to me. In all likelihood, summer 2009 will be the last time in my life when I can truly devote any meaningful time into fanatically playing games. Given recent gaming trends, especially games by Nintendo, I would expect to casually play games into the foreseeable future, but not in the same way as the past. From that perspective, Mario Galaxy [and soon, Smash Bros] are kind of a capstone to my career. So, Galaxy takes on a special significance to me in this way. It has been an incredibly long time since I felt this way playing a video game, and it has reinvigorated this aspect of my life. Gaming can be pure fun, and Galaxy is console single player fun incarnate.
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