When I was a kid, America was everything: they had the Shuttle (and I was hoping to become an astronaut), the best museums (and I was hoping to become a paleonthologist, too), the best military airplanes (third option, become a pilot); eastern Europe was the enemy in all war-related movies and generally the things I liked came from America: Happy Days, Dukes of Hazard, Knight Rider and Poncerello (I don't even remember the name of the series) were the only things I watched on TV, and I was hooked to a young, up-and-coming musician (Jovanotti, for those willing to know) that sang praises about motorcycles and fast foods.
Jovanotti was forgotten shortly after, but he promoted the NES, and I simply had to have that little gray box that played videogame cartdriges. I had very little knowledge about videogames, but I already knew that there was Super Mario Bros. on it, and if he said that the game was good, I knew it was good for me too.
I don't remember to beg my parents to buy me a NES as a Christmas present, but in year 1987, I recieved a NES action set (NES console, 2 pads, Zapper and SMB/Duck Hunt double cartdridge) and since then I was hooked to Nintendo. The coming of a Nintendo console was almost everytime the start of a new, exciting part of my life, and often it was was always a Mario game.
I still remember that day in 1987, I had recieved the NES, I played Super Mario Bros for a long time but then my father wanted me to come along to his mother (my grandmother, that's it). During the trip to my grandmother, he asked me if I read the manual, and I quickly replied "why? I don't need it"
"Then" he asked me "what Mario becomes after taking the mushroom?"
"Luigi, of course!"
"No, he becomes Super Mario"
Super Mario was an easy game: three directions, two buttons. However, due to my skills, the fire flower never really lasted long, so it was left, right and jump. And I always thought that I knew more about videogames than my father, so those line were almost upsetting to me.
When we got back home, I breezed through the manual to fill my lack of knowledge, then began to play again. Time for lunch, time for an other present. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Oh boy oh boy oh boy! I was extremely happy. I kept the box with me for the whole lunch (we were at home, but there were my aunts and my mother's parents with us, so no chance to skip it to play - and it was Christmas lunch, too many good things to eat), reading the manual and then playing it until evening, when I had to go to my room - the only TV set was in the living room and the NES was hooked there.
The NES days were filled with bliss: a store started to rent Nintendo games and my aunt was happy to pay for them, so that I could try new games without buying them - being a 6 years old kid I had no money on my own and games from my parents came for birthdays and festivities, so it was sell than a game per month. The first game I rented was Top Gun and in my young mind it was my ignorance of basic English words that made me fail landing on that carrier, only to later discover that landing on that thing was completely random and refuelling was even harder. Mega Man was an other game I liked, I liked to hurt myself with Cobra Triangle, then came Super Probotector, Solstice and a whole lot of games.
Super Mario 2 was fun, and I do remember that while playing it the local edition of C+VG published the first Super Mario Bros. 3 trick and the Super Famicon preview; import gaming was nothing I knew of and being them a Japanese thing, I wasn't really looking forward to them - in fact, after a few years, I came to admire the Megadrive for Moonwalker.
Moonwalker, Altered Beast and Golden Axe were always displayed at the local mall and this time I do remember to ask my parents for one, but for some reason they didn't bought it.
In the long term, that was the wisest decision: Super Mario Bros. 3. It should have been a birthday present from one of my friends, his sister had a boyfriend working in a videogame store and he could buy videogames for much less than 15 euros, but unfortunately they broke up few days before, so I was pretty angry with him - and he was my best friend. We spent afternoons trying to figure out Lolo puzzles, playing Soccer (the videogame) and so on. It was fun. A lot of fun. Our friendship still lasts, strenghtened by the Super NES.
The SNES was an other Christmas present, and this time I was irremovible: I wanted it. The starter set had just one pad, but it had Super Mario World inside.
During those years, my parents had a shop in a newly-opened mall, and when school was over, I always went there; you can't keep a kid in a store for long, so I always went to play with the SNES display unit and with Super Mario World. I became pretty good, I could reach world 3 before having someone telling me to let other people play.
Few days before Christmas, a large box appeared underneath out tree, and I knew it was the SNES. I set the alarm clock to 6 AM and barely closed my eyes as I was way too excited. I woke up at 6 AM sharp, run to the living room and opened the present, to find the Super NES waiting. I opened the box, carefully removed its contents and as I wasn't able to connect any cables (you had to crawl behind that huge TV, after all), I read both SMW and SNES manual; I went as far to connect all cables inside the box to the SNES without connecting the to the TV, until my father woke up, hooked the whole thing for me and then went back to sleep.
Unfortunately for me, all the time spent with Super Mario World before getting it meant that I finished the game in a mere 6 days, but that was just in time to get Super R-Type for Ephiphany.
Then came Super Probotector, F-Zero and above all Super Mario Kart. Super Probotector was fun played with a friend, but Super Mario Kart was something that I could never forget. The super-hard 100cc granted you a spectacular fly-by of all tracks and the first time I saw it (after many, many, many, many times trying to beat the Rainbow Road) I was sitting with my mouth gaping at the images on screen - it was simply beatiful.
However, all the afternoons passed battling in the Battle Mode were much more beatiful. You had the Red Shell: the Red Shell was the ultimate weapon, during the SNES days there wasn't much you could do against it. Except during battles when you had the Jump Feather.
Then, my friend and I would act as modern digital cowboy: the one with the Feather near a wall, ready to jump over the Red Shell that the other player would use at the climax of the match. There was always tension in such situation, and my friend's mother (I always played at his home once he got the SNES, my parents were always away from home during the week) liked to watch us staring at the TV screen, eyes peeled, telling one-liners to distract the other.
Those days were fun.
And up till then, Mario was my greatest videogame hero. Manlier than He-man, he had no visible muscles, used a cape (or ears and tails) to fly, he battled a giant fire-spitting dinosaur and his army of evil mushrooms and turtles and rescued a princess. He was the man, braver than anyone else and nothing could stop him.
And if you ask "Link?" I've never played a Zelda game until A Link to the Past, and even after that game Link was still inferior to Mario. He had a sword, a shield, bombs, bow and arrows, defeated knights and so on, but he wasn't Mario. He will never be Mario, even in the Nintendo 64 days.
I played with the Playstation at one of my friend's, but never really wanted one. My eyes were only for the Nintendo 64 and its strange pad.
My parents forced me in a high school I never liked, resulting in an extremely bad first year, I failed big time, but this let me enter the school I wanted and the (second) first year was a complete success and gave me enough strenght to ask them a Nintendo 64 as a promotion present.
They agreed, and the Nintendo 64 was mine. The shop where I bought the console had only Turok available and no memory card. I played Turok's first level for I don't know how many times, until I tracked down a copy of Super Mario 64 and a control pack at a local shop.
During years were you start to go out with girls, your jokes are always sex-related and there was only an indefinite idea what real sex would be, Peach invitation for a delicious cake was completely without any vice.
A princess wants you with her for a cake, nothing else, nothing more. The smiling world of Mario was impervious to any adult-related theme (well, not, as the internet would later reveal...and, believe me, Xenogears' Elly was on the opposite side of the spectrum), I knew that Peach would be in Bowser's hands and I just had to be there.
With Mario 64 I never really had to collect those stars. You had the park outside the castle where you can play - it's big, you got water, hills, bridges, trees to climb on, birds to chase as they take of, you can experiment with the camera and Mario's new set of moves. In fact, even playing with Mario's face is entertaining, even today. It's something I still need to find in an other game: not playing the game but having fun.
Of course, completing the game with 120 stars will grant you even more fun - the flying cap was simply the best powerup in any videogame.
Mario 64 gave the player freedom: actions were simple: run and jump. You can grab ledges and more complicated maneuvers, but it's still the same run and jump core of all previous Mario games, brought in full tridimensional glory and with a less strict structure.
The menus were part of the game and you had a giant level hub that allowed you to test whichever world you wanted.
It was pure freedom.
It's a feeling I later had in Kokiri Village, this time I was playing as Link in his first N64 adventure, but the starting point gave you the possibility to test the whole game structure without forcing you to do something, you could run around the village as much as you can having fun.
And let's not forget Pilotwings 64.
To me, the N64 was the last console were the game moved at the player's pace. Now all games (with very few exceptions) force players to learn something they already know by gradually increasing the plyaer's freedom with tutorials and plot-devices. It's something that even Nintendo is guilty of, there's no denying to it. RPGs, with their load of stats and lackluster manual had those cumbersome in-game menus and lenghty battle tutorials that introduce to something that you can master in 30 or more hours and it's so easy that doesn't need 15 minutes of explanation.
Moving on, I bought the GameCube with my first paycheck: a black PAL GC, a second pad, a memory card, Super Mario Sunshine, Rogue Leader and Resident Evil Rebirth.
This time around, I was more excited for the paycheck itself than for the console, but I quickly bought a huge number of GC games and until I bought a modified PS2, it was easily the console with the most games.
This time around, Sunshine wasn't a worthy successor to Mario 64, even if it's still fun. In fact, it was the very first Mario game I own I never finished. Shame on me, I know, but there's something in Sunshine that never really made me want to play it, even if the pure platform sections (those without the FLUDD or whatever it's called) are ace.
Probably it was because there wasn't that thrill associated with every jump, but Sunshine still remains uncompleted.
I knew this: I read about the game on magazines and newsgroups, and everyone mentioned it wasn't Mario 64. Mario 128, as it was codenamed, would arrive later. I waited. And the GC began its fall, so I waited longer. I can't deny that I had a lot of fun with other GC games, but a Nintendo console without a proper Mario games was something hollow to me.
I bought the DS after I got a new job; it was a Japanese unit and I bought Mario 64 DS with it. Even if I already owned and knew the game by hearth, I couldn't pass on those 30 new starts and the ability to play as other characters; Mario 64 was and still is my favourite game, I wanted to believe in Nintendo and their quirky new handheld console, even if the situation looked grim.
Mario 64 DS was a pleasant diversion until Advance Wars DS came out; just like its GBA predecessor, Advance Wars DS was so good that I lost the count on how many time I passed my train stop because I was playing.
However, there was still no new Mario game.
New Super Mario Bros. was announced and Miyamoto began talking about that new chapter in Mario's history.
The thruth is, New Super Mario Bros. was probably the worst Mario game I ever played. There's nothing really new. It's old school platform action, but level design is inferior to Super Mario 3 (not that's easy to reach that game), infuriatingly easy (yes, easy) and it lacks that something that made all other Mario games special.
Nintendo always tried to reinvent the Mario franchise on each console they launched, or even on the same console (think Super Mario Bros., the US/EU Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario 3), they sometime did not things right (Piantas in Sunshine) but they always show a willingness to create something new out of an old character that just wasn't is New Super Mario Bros. It's a fun game, but it lacks magic.
Now I have Super Mario Galaxy in my hands. I never read full reviews, just pros and cons or thread titles; everyone praised the game. Everyone. People that I trust did it too, and they quickly decided that it was even better than Mario 64. Here in Italy many stores broke the street date and some bought the Japanese version to play on a modified Wii, so people were playing it before me, and I simply jealous of them - I couldn't read their posts, I couldn't comment, I couldn't say "hey, youre' right, it's the best game ever".
When DHL gave me my packet I was like when I was young, and it was very hard for me not to play it immediately as I had something else to do.
I wanted to play it for at least two hours straight, so Friday evening was impossible, as it was Saturday morning.
I spent 5 hours playing it Saturday afternoon, and...uhmmm...damn, its' hard to say, but I couldn't help myself but to compare it to Mario 64. I never wanted to do it, really.
"I already had races in Mario 64"
"Mario 64 would have allowed me more freedom"
"I hope that next levels would be bigger and more complex, like Mario 64"
"Mario 64 had a better storyline, who needs this Rosalinda chick, anyway?"
"This level feels a lot like world 2 from Mario 64"
"why new enemies aren't as good as in Mario 64?"
Those are some of the thoughts I had when playing. Mario Galaxy has its own merits and right now I'm only at the beginning, but there's this feeling in the back of my mind that tells me that there isn't the same magic as in previous Mario titles.
And a game that uses Mario 3 ships at the very beginning is already worth 10 point out of 10 in my book.
And from what I've played, the game is on par if not better than Mario 64.
The I realized it: I don't like my memories getting raped. Mario 3 ships are good in 2D, it's time to think of something else for Mario Galaxy. No, having Super Mario Bros. screenshot as a background is not good, think something new. I know you did the game, but celebrating it in your brand new game isn't exacty what I want to see. I want to see something new. I don't pretend to see an other revolution in gameplay just like you did with Mario 64, but I want you to move on. Miyamoto, Nintendo Tokyo Studio, whoever: move on.
Have Peach kidnapped by Bowser, but keep it _extremely_ simple. I don't need a new character to explain me that I need 3 stars to access a galaxy with a giant "3" on it. Kids know it better than me, really. I don't need a story for Mario I need non-stop platforming action. I need freedom right from the beginning, you gave it to me in previous games and I want in the new games - you signed a contract with me about freedom when I first bought the NES.
I know that you hired 50 game designers to work on Galaxy, but you have to keep things simple. You did it with the hardware, you did it with Wii Sports, you have Zelda to write all the stupid text you want. Keep Mario simple. Everyone loves Marios because it's simple.
You don't need tutorials, you don't need on-screen images telling you how to shake the Wiimote (especially if it has that rubber thing around, it's ugly). There's always the manual for that. A manual that people should begin to read and developers should care more about it. Or, signs. Signs are good. You can read when you want and if you want.
I can't deny that your new Mario is good and it's the game I have waited for oh-so-many-years, but don't burden it with things noone cares about in a Mario game. If RPGs dare to call that silly group of words put together almost at random a story, you don't have to mimick them.
Also, Mario with 3-stage health bar is good, allowing people to stockpile on lives even without the customary 100 coins is bad. Game over isn't a bad thing, you know. You save quite often and it's a game based on skill, and there was a time were you used to gently punish people for getting careless, slapping them in the face with a few game over screens will make them better in jumping between platforms.
Despite describing myself as a child in a man's body, I grew old way too fast, thinking too much about the past and comparing everything new or present with the old good days; I don't know if it's better than ignoring them altogether, but I know I can still be amazed at things, being them comics, artbooks, consoles or videogames. Mario Galaxy gave me some of these moments and it was genuinely fun, but I will never be able to exclude Mario 64 from my memories.
Friends will ask about the game, I will tell them that it's good, and they will ask how it relates to Mario 64. "it's better" I'll probably tell them, but then I will start speaking about what I think are downsides, putting the gave in a bad light.
However, I'm not a really talkative person (but I like to write), and I will skip the many good things altogether. Probably that's because I think people should play a game before telling if it's good or bad, and my friends have their opinions and I know they make them based on what they really think but I found myself writing more about the bad things of a game rather than the good ones.
I don't know why. I don't really know.
But this is a topic for more posts, I'll get on it later.
Excuse me gentlemen, but I have a princess to rescue.
Jovanotti was forgotten shortly after, but he promoted the NES, and I simply had to have that little gray box that played videogame cartdriges. I had very little knowledge about videogames, but I already knew that there was Super Mario Bros. on it, and if he said that the game was good, I knew it was good for me too.
I don't remember to beg my parents to buy me a NES as a Christmas present, but in year 1987, I recieved a NES action set (NES console, 2 pads, Zapper and SMB/Duck Hunt double cartdridge) and since then I was hooked to Nintendo. The coming of a Nintendo console was almost everytime the start of a new, exciting part of my life, and often it was was always a Mario game.
I still remember that day in 1987, I had recieved the NES, I played Super Mario Bros for a long time but then my father wanted me to come along to his mother (my grandmother, that's it). During the trip to my grandmother, he asked me if I read the manual, and I quickly replied "why? I don't need it"
"Then" he asked me "what Mario becomes after taking the mushroom?"
"Luigi, of course!"
"No, he becomes Super Mario"
Super Mario was an easy game: three directions, two buttons. However, due to my skills, the fire flower never really lasted long, so it was left, right and jump. And I always thought that I knew more about videogames than my father, so those line were almost upsetting to me.
When we got back home, I breezed through the manual to fill my lack of knowledge, then began to play again. Time for lunch, time for an other present. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Oh boy oh boy oh boy! I was extremely happy. I kept the box with me for the whole lunch (we were at home, but there were my aunts and my mother's parents with us, so no chance to skip it to play - and it was Christmas lunch, too many good things to eat), reading the manual and then playing it until evening, when I had to go to my room - the only TV set was in the living room and the NES was hooked there.
The NES days were filled with bliss: a store started to rent Nintendo games and my aunt was happy to pay for them, so that I could try new games without buying them - being a 6 years old kid I had no money on my own and games from my parents came for birthdays and festivities, so it was sell than a game per month. The first game I rented was Top Gun and in my young mind it was my ignorance of basic English words that made me fail landing on that carrier, only to later discover that landing on that thing was completely random and refuelling was even harder. Mega Man was an other game I liked, I liked to hurt myself with Cobra Triangle, then came Super Probotector, Solstice and a whole lot of games.
Super Mario 2 was fun, and I do remember that while playing it the local edition of C+VG published the first Super Mario Bros. 3 trick and the Super Famicon preview; import gaming was nothing I knew of and being them a Japanese thing, I wasn't really looking forward to them - in fact, after a few years, I came to admire the Megadrive for Moonwalker.
Moonwalker, Altered Beast and Golden Axe were always displayed at the local mall and this time I do remember to ask my parents for one, but for some reason they didn't bought it.
In the long term, that was the wisest decision: Super Mario Bros. 3. It should have been a birthday present from one of my friends, his sister had a boyfriend working in a videogame store and he could buy videogames for much less than 15 euros, but unfortunately they broke up few days before, so I was pretty angry with him - and he was my best friend. We spent afternoons trying to figure out Lolo puzzles, playing Soccer (the videogame) and so on. It was fun. A lot of fun. Our friendship still lasts, strenghtened by the Super NES.
The SNES was an other Christmas present, and this time I was irremovible: I wanted it. The starter set had just one pad, but it had Super Mario World inside.
During those years, my parents had a shop in a newly-opened mall, and when school was over, I always went there; you can't keep a kid in a store for long, so I always went to play with the SNES display unit and with Super Mario World. I became pretty good, I could reach world 3 before having someone telling me to let other people play.
Few days before Christmas, a large box appeared underneath out tree, and I knew it was the SNES. I set the alarm clock to 6 AM and barely closed my eyes as I was way too excited. I woke up at 6 AM sharp, run to the living room and opened the present, to find the Super NES waiting. I opened the box, carefully removed its contents and as I wasn't able to connect any cables (you had to crawl behind that huge TV, after all), I read both SMW and SNES manual; I went as far to connect all cables inside the box to the SNES without connecting the to the TV, until my father woke up, hooked the whole thing for me and then went back to sleep.
Unfortunately for me, all the time spent with Super Mario World before getting it meant that I finished the game in a mere 6 days, but that was just in time to get Super R-Type for Ephiphany.
Then came Super Probotector, F-Zero and above all Super Mario Kart. Super Probotector was fun played with a friend, but Super Mario Kart was something that I could never forget. The super-hard 100cc granted you a spectacular fly-by of all tracks and the first time I saw it (after many, many, many, many times trying to beat the Rainbow Road) I was sitting with my mouth gaping at the images on screen - it was simply beatiful.
However, all the afternoons passed battling in the Battle Mode were much more beatiful. You had the Red Shell: the Red Shell was the ultimate weapon, during the SNES days there wasn't much you could do against it. Except during battles when you had the Jump Feather.
Then, my friend and I would act as modern digital cowboy: the one with the Feather near a wall, ready to jump over the Red Shell that the other player would use at the climax of the match. There was always tension in such situation, and my friend's mother (I always played at his home once he got the SNES, my parents were always away from home during the week) liked to watch us staring at the TV screen, eyes peeled, telling one-liners to distract the other.
Those days were fun.
And up till then, Mario was my greatest videogame hero. Manlier than He-man, he had no visible muscles, used a cape (or ears and tails) to fly, he battled a giant fire-spitting dinosaur and his army of evil mushrooms and turtles and rescued a princess. He was the man, braver than anyone else and nothing could stop him.
And if you ask "Link?" I've never played a Zelda game until A Link to the Past, and even after that game Link was still inferior to Mario. He had a sword, a shield, bombs, bow and arrows, defeated knights and so on, but he wasn't Mario. He will never be Mario, even in the Nintendo 64 days.
I played with the Playstation at one of my friend's, but never really wanted one. My eyes were only for the Nintendo 64 and its strange pad.
My parents forced me in a high school I never liked, resulting in an extremely bad first year, I failed big time, but this let me enter the school I wanted and the (second) first year was a complete success and gave me enough strenght to ask them a Nintendo 64 as a promotion present.
They agreed, and the Nintendo 64 was mine. The shop where I bought the console had only Turok available and no memory card. I played Turok's first level for I don't know how many times, until I tracked down a copy of Super Mario 64 and a control pack at a local shop.
During years were you start to go out with girls, your jokes are always sex-related and there was only an indefinite idea what real sex would be, Peach invitation for a delicious cake was completely without any vice.
A princess wants you with her for a cake, nothing else, nothing more. The smiling world of Mario was impervious to any adult-related theme (well, not, as the internet would later reveal...and, believe me, Xenogears' Elly was on the opposite side of the spectrum), I knew that Peach would be in Bowser's hands and I just had to be there.
With Mario 64 I never really had to collect those stars. You had the park outside the castle where you can play - it's big, you got water, hills, bridges, trees to climb on, birds to chase as they take of, you can experiment with the camera and Mario's new set of moves. In fact, even playing with Mario's face is entertaining, even today. It's something I still need to find in an other game: not playing the game but having fun.
Of course, completing the game with 120 stars will grant you even more fun - the flying cap was simply the best powerup in any videogame.
Mario 64 gave the player freedom: actions were simple: run and jump. You can grab ledges and more complicated maneuvers, but it's still the same run and jump core of all previous Mario games, brought in full tridimensional glory and with a less strict structure.
The menus were part of the game and you had a giant level hub that allowed you to test whichever world you wanted.
It was pure freedom.
It's a feeling I later had in Kokiri Village, this time I was playing as Link in his first N64 adventure, but the starting point gave you the possibility to test the whole game structure without forcing you to do something, you could run around the village as much as you can having fun.
And let's not forget Pilotwings 64.
To me, the N64 was the last console were the game moved at the player's pace. Now all games (with very few exceptions) force players to learn something they already know by gradually increasing the plyaer's freedom with tutorials and plot-devices. It's something that even Nintendo is guilty of, there's no denying to it. RPGs, with their load of stats and lackluster manual had those cumbersome in-game menus and lenghty battle tutorials that introduce to something that you can master in 30 or more hours and it's so easy that doesn't need 15 minutes of explanation.
Moving on, I bought the GameCube with my first paycheck: a black PAL GC, a second pad, a memory card, Super Mario Sunshine, Rogue Leader and Resident Evil Rebirth.
This time around, I was more excited for the paycheck itself than for the console, but I quickly bought a huge number of GC games and until I bought a modified PS2, it was easily the console with the most games.
This time around, Sunshine wasn't a worthy successor to Mario 64, even if it's still fun. In fact, it was the very first Mario game I own I never finished. Shame on me, I know, but there's something in Sunshine that never really made me want to play it, even if the pure platform sections (those without the FLUDD or whatever it's called) are ace.
Probably it was because there wasn't that thrill associated with every jump, but Sunshine still remains uncompleted.
I knew this: I read about the game on magazines and newsgroups, and everyone mentioned it wasn't Mario 64. Mario 128, as it was codenamed, would arrive later. I waited. And the GC began its fall, so I waited longer. I can't deny that I had a lot of fun with other GC games, but a Nintendo console without a proper Mario games was something hollow to me.
I bought the DS after I got a new job; it was a Japanese unit and I bought Mario 64 DS with it. Even if I already owned and knew the game by hearth, I couldn't pass on those 30 new starts and the ability to play as other characters; Mario 64 was and still is my favourite game, I wanted to believe in Nintendo and their quirky new handheld console, even if the situation looked grim.
Mario 64 DS was a pleasant diversion until Advance Wars DS came out; just like its GBA predecessor, Advance Wars DS was so good that I lost the count on how many time I passed my train stop because I was playing.
However, there was still no new Mario game.
New Super Mario Bros. was announced and Miyamoto began talking about that new chapter in Mario's history.
The thruth is, New Super Mario Bros. was probably the worst Mario game I ever played. There's nothing really new. It's old school platform action, but level design is inferior to Super Mario 3 (not that's easy to reach that game), infuriatingly easy (yes, easy) and it lacks that something that made all other Mario games special.
Nintendo always tried to reinvent the Mario franchise on each console they launched, or even on the same console (think Super Mario Bros., the US/EU Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario 3), they sometime did not things right (Piantas in Sunshine) but they always show a willingness to create something new out of an old character that just wasn't is New Super Mario Bros. It's a fun game, but it lacks magic.
Now I have Super Mario Galaxy in my hands. I never read full reviews, just pros and cons or thread titles; everyone praised the game. Everyone. People that I trust did it too, and they quickly decided that it was even better than Mario 64. Here in Italy many stores broke the street date and some bought the Japanese version to play on a modified Wii, so people were playing it before me, and I simply jealous of them - I couldn't read their posts, I couldn't comment, I couldn't say "hey, youre' right, it's the best game ever".
When DHL gave me my packet I was like when I was young, and it was very hard for me not to play it immediately as I had something else to do.
I wanted to play it for at least two hours straight, so Friday evening was impossible, as it was Saturday morning.
I spent 5 hours playing it Saturday afternoon, and...uhmmm...damn, its' hard to say, but I couldn't help myself but to compare it to Mario 64. I never wanted to do it, really.
"I already had races in Mario 64"
"Mario 64 would have allowed me more freedom"
"I hope that next levels would be bigger and more complex, like Mario 64"
"Mario 64 had a better storyline, who needs this Rosalinda chick, anyway?"
"This level feels a lot like world 2 from Mario 64"
"why new enemies aren't as good as in Mario 64?"
Those are some of the thoughts I had when playing. Mario Galaxy has its own merits and right now I'm only at the beginning, but there's this feeling in the back of my mind that tells me that there isn't the same magic as in previous Mario titles.
And a game that uses Mario 3 ships at the very beginning is already worth 10 point out of 10 in my book.
And from what I've played, the game is on par if not better than Mario 64.
The I realized it: I don't like my memories getting raped. Mario 3 ships are good in 2D, it's time to think of something else for Mario Galaxy. No, having Super Mario Bros. screenshot as a background is not good, think something new. I know you did the game, but celebrating it in your brand new game isn't exacty what I want to see. I want to see something new. I don't pretend to see an other revolution in gameplay just like you did with Mario 64, but I want you to move on. Miyamoto, Nintendo Tokyo Studio, whoever: move on.
Have Peach kidnapped by Bowser, but keep it _extremely_ simple. I don't need a new character to explain me that I need 3 stars to access a galaxy with a giant "3" on it. Kids know it better than me, really. I don't need a story for Mario I need non-stop platforming action. I need freedom right from the beginning, you gave it to me in previous games and I want in the new games - you signed a contract with me about freedom when I first bought the NES.
I know that you hired 50 game designers to work on Galaxy, but you have to keep things simple. You did it with the hardware, you did it with Wii Sports, you have Zelda to write all the stupid text you want. Keep Mario simple. Everyone loves Marios because it's simple.
You don't need tutorials, you don't need on-screen images telling you how to shake the Wiimote (especially if it has that rubber thing around, it's ugly). There's always the manual for that. A manual that people should begin to read and developers should care more about it. Or, signs. Signs are good. You can read when you want and if you want.
I can't deny that your new Mario is good and it's the game I have waited for oh-so-many-years, but don't burden it with things noone cares about in a Mario game. If RPGs dare to call that silly group of words put together almost at random a story, you don't have to mimick them.
Also, Mario with 3-stage health bar is good, allowing people to stockpile on lives even without the customary 100 coins is bad. Game over isn't a bad thing, you know. You save quite often and it's a game based on skill, and there was a time were you used to gently punish people for getting careless, slapping them in the face with a few game over screens will make them better in jumping between platforms.
Despite describing myself as a child in a man's body, I grew old way too fast, thinking too much about the past and comparing everything new or present with the old good days; I don't know if it's better than ignoring them altogether, but I know I can still be amazed at things, being them comics, artbooks, consoles or videogames. Mario Galaxy gave me some of these moments and it was genuinely fun, but I will never be able to exclude Mario 64 from my memories.
Friends will ask about the game, I will tell them that it's good, and they will ask how it relates to Mario 64. "it's better" I'll probably tell them, but then I will start speaking about what I think are downsides, putting the gave in a bad light.
However, I'm not a really talkative person (but I like to write), and I will skip the many good things altogether. Probably that's because I think people should play a game before telling if it's good or bad, and my friends have their opinions and I know they make them based on what they really think but I found myself writing more about the bad things of a game rather than the good ones.
I don't know why. I don't really know.
But this is a topic for more posts, I'll get on it later.
Excuse me gentlemen, but I have a princess to rescue.
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