All things Super Mario Bros.

[hazeredmist]

I'd actually say the whole hub world thing has turned really dull considering the roots laid by the likes of Mario 3, Mario World and Mario 64. Even Mario Land 2 had a great hub world. It's a shame, I'd like to see a return to a proper multi-root map.

[hazeredmist]

Also PLEASE do podcasts for the Super Mario Land games!

Apologies for the digression

[mikeleddy83]

Super Mario 64 is a collection of memories visiting Toys'R'Us in the months leading up to the games release where you'd pray the line was short and that the person playing that demo cart would be ushered off before the store closed. Something has to be said for a launch game with little to no technical hitches, an almost perfect establishment of 3d platforming and a new controller which felt custom made towards this stupidly colourful and silky smooth ride into Nintendo's future prospects for what had already seemed to be a perfect series of games.

Super Mario 64 completely blew me away in a year that almost every console out there pushed its very best out of the door. 1996 is a goldmine of genuine classics but this game conjures the most memories by a long shot. Sadly, I'd never have had the money for a system at launch and it was a year long wait, a traded in SNES and a second hand system that would get me to the game again (albeit borrowed alongside the all too eager for my time Goldeneye). I have vivid memories of almost every instance I lied when I said I'd forgotten to bring the game back to any of the many friends I can list borrowing this game from and should really retrospectively thank them all for their abused generosity.

I finally purchased the game at the launch of the DS where I rinsed the game for all its worth and adored it over again! Nostalgia might have warped my love for this game but I wouldn't have it any other way.


P.s. If you worked in the Altrincham branch of Toys'R'Us in 1996 and did usher people off to make way for some of my greatest gaming memories you have my eternal thanks!

[ratsoalbion]

This Friday evening I'll be getting together with Darren G and Tony to review Mazzer's one proper Gamecube outing for the podcast.

We'd love to hear your memories, experiences and opinions of Mario's 2002 holiday escapades to share on the show.

[DomsBeard]

It's a flawed gem. I liked Fludd and it was beautiful to look at but it didn't quite click with me as much as any other Marios did. It was far more testing than any other I'd played before and the levels where Fludd was taken I found extremely difficult as you'd spent many hours getting used to jumping with Fludd.

It's cute, fun but it's nowhere near World/64 or Galaxy.

[Cass]

YES! I was hoping you guys would cover this.

I grew up a Sony kid for the most part and, besides Super Mario Land on the original black and white Gameboy, Super Mario Sunshine was my introduction to the series... which is probably for the best, actually. Having subsequently played Mario 64 and Galaxy, this game really doesn't feel much like a Mario game. Between the weirdly open-world Delfino Plaze, the Piantas and Nokis (whose names I didn't remember either until looking through Wikipedia), the general tropical theme and of course the FLUDD, Mario Sunshine feels weird as hell compared to the more "mainstream" Mario titles.

I do love it for its weirdness, though. It throws a lot at the wall, and certainly not all of it sticks - the FLUDD is interesting but unwieldy as hell, and too many puzzles live or die by its frustrating controls - it's still very satisfying to clean that gunk off of the beautiful island. Isle Delfino feels like a holiday to me. I gather not a lot of people liked the prevalence of the tropical theme, and compared to 64 and Galaxy it does feel a little one-note. Considered by itself though, Isle Delfino feels much more cohesive as a setting for a game than most Mario games, and they still do some stunning things, both with the tropical theme and extensions of it. Plus those secret worlds with the a capella music still make me grin from ear to ear.

I can understand why people didn't like it. Mario 64 changed the way games would be played for (console) generations, so for its successor to be just this laid-back, flawed experiment naturally felt like a cheat - and I remember the great wailing and gnashing of teeth this game caused when it came out. But I remember it as my first Mario game, a fun little side project that was a welcome relief from the emerging grimdark of the late 90s and early 2000s. For all its flaws, Sunshine really can't help but make me smile, and I can't really think of much higher praise than that.

[Flabyo]

I don't like Mario Sunshine. But I've always found it very difficult to articulate why.

All the elements of a great 3D platforming caper are there. Interesting level layouts. Varying challenges that sometimes test your speed, other times your precision. A decent amount of hidden things.

But none of it seems to join up. It feels a little thrown together, like there are elements from several different competing game designs all trying to get into the same game. And the controls seem oddly imprecise for a Mario title.

It was playing this that put me off even wanting to try Mario 64.

[suzzopher]

I really liked Sunshine, but it really felt like a step back after Mario 64. The levels didn't feel as tight as those found in the previous game.

The most annoying thing was the camera, how the hell did they manage to mess that up after Mario 64

[hazeredmist]

Seriously underrated this game. Loved the water jet mechanics and wide-open levels. Thought a lot of the criticism levelled at it was rather unfair actually, I think Mario Sunshine is far from the bad egg many perceive it to be. The game holds up pretty well too, having revisited it fairly recently. I wonder if others would change their view should they go back to it? Keen to hear what the C&R lads have to say...

[Electric Crocosaurus]

I'd love to write a detailed commentary on Super Mario Sunshine, but the truth is I hardly remember anything about it. I remember the visuals, which were gorgeous as usual, and I remember giving up before the end because I found it frustrating.

The fact that I remember so little about a mainline Mario game marks it out as a disappointment in my book. Or that I'm getting old. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone new to the series, as it lacks the historical importance of Mario 64 and is nowhere near as refined as the Galaxy games.

[chase210]

I traded my copy of sonic adventure DX with a guy in school for super mario sunshine, a lucky decision in the end. As the first mario game I played all the way through, I agree its not as bad as people say it is. I really enjoyed the fludd mechanic as it made a distinct game from mario 64, thought the game looked really nice, still does, but I wasn't a fan of the fludd-less levels at the time, I thought they were restrictive. Overall great game still, shame its never been re-released.

[Roy42]

I could waste a paragraph talking about the stupidity of trying to have more of a story than "here's a world, go get some stars", let alone a sidekick character to get emotionally attached to, but it'd be a pointless endeavour. The big problem I have with Sunshine is that it's too open. Where the other 3D Mario titles have a very tight progression gated by the number of stars you've collected, at a certain point, Sunshine just dumps you into the world and expects you to figure out that you have to beat the seventh star of every level to unlock the ending, which can be especially annoying when it's a task in and of itself just to get into some of the levels. Sunshine wanted to recreate the feeling of discovery that 64 had, where it was entirely possible to miss some of the levels and secrets with how they're hidden in the castle, but they didn't take more than a minute to get to, unlike some of the secrets in Sunshine.

At the same time, the game is too restricting. In 64, you could pick one star at the start of a level and usually you'd be able to pick up two or three different ones, with only a couple of stars per level needing specific conditions to be set by choosing that star in particular. That was a great system that they since got rid of for every Mario game after it, so you can only get the stars in the order they tell you.

Going back to it taking an annoying amount of time to get into levels, why do we even need to use warps to go into levels at all? In 64, I got the impression that the worlds inside the paintings were fictional worlds, or, at the very least, that they weren't a part of the Mushroom Kingdom, and that the only real way to get to them from where you were was the paintings. But the levels of Isle Delfino are all on Isle Delfino. Why do I need to warp to the harbour? Why can't I just go there? They wanted to make this more of an open world Mario game, so why wasn't it? You already get most of your tasks for the stars from NPCs, so it's not like it would have been hard to make this a cross between an open world RPG and a platformer; and I think it would have been much stronger for it (assuming they did it well).

The game looks and sounds very nice, the controls are nice and tight and I thought the F.L.U.D.D gameplay was fine, I suppose, since I don't remember utterly hating it or anything. I just think that their experiment with a more open game failed because they didn't go far enough with the concept.

[Woodfella]

Super Mario Sunshine is still an absolutely gorgeous game. It's all so bright and colourful. It's also still immensely fun to just run around the hub area, delfino plaza. Mario controls and moves so well in this one, he's nippy, agile. Something that was lost in the galaxy games. Side flipping, wall kicking bouncing off market stalls and best of all spraying water and belly sliding forever! Brilliant. I still fire it up now and again just to do that, ignore the main game, just pelt about, jump high, kick some durians, lob some melons, have a blast and sing along to the fantastic soundtrack. One of the best looking games on the gamecube. A good game...

[arry_g]

I spent the summer of the year after the game was released playing the game with my wife. It was her first Mario experience and she loved it! As for myself I enjoyed the shared experience with my wife (fiancé at the time) more than the game itself. Sure, it had the usual Mario charm and it was fun but it felt more like a side entry that a mainstream Mario title and that isn't what I wanted.

[ratsoalbion]

Time for another shout-out for potential podcast contributions as we record our Super Mario Galaxies 1 and 2 podcast next Tuesday (April 22).

[Katieee120]

This game is probably one of my favourite Mario games. It was one of the first games that got the Wii noticed & on the map. Was very colourful & just about anything could happen ! It took awhile to get used to the layout/gameplay. Because every world Mario travelled to was different but the one thing that was consistent was the fact that you could walk upside down, the map would turn upside down for you. That took some getting used to! Sometimes could make me feel sick ;p

[Electric Crocosaurus]

Just before Christmas, on one of Charlie Brooker's games programmes, one of the talking heads said that 'Mario IS games'. It's a line that's stuck with me, as it's a perfect summary of why Mario means so much to so many people. Mario isn't just the defining mascot for our hobby; his games are our hobby. If you don't like the Mario classics then you're as weird as someone who doesn't like the Beatles, or who looks at Van Gogh's Sunflowers and thinks, 'they're a bit shit'.

The Galaxy games, then, represent the pinnacle of a series that already had its share of masterpieces. That isn't to dismiss the older games. As your podcast has shown, there is still much fun to be had with the 2D games. Playing the Galaxies, though, you're struck at just how refined everything is. Mario doesn't move so quick as to be twitchy, nor so slow as to be unresponsive. The camera swoops around the 3D space, rarely feeling obtrusive. The visuals are full of glorious renditions of past icons. And the gameplay, liberated of Sir Isaac Newton's most famous discovery, allows Nintendo to jam-pack the hours of run-time with a level of invention that is gob-smacking.

In case you can't tell, I love the Super Mario Galaxy games. The first game justified the purchase of a Wii for me, and the sequel has kept that white box in my possession years after I should have sent it to the eBay graveyard. Mario is games.

[InsrtCoins]

(I can only speak of Galaxy 2. It has been far too long since I played the first one, and I did not finish that one).

Super Mario Galaxy 2 was one of the standout highlights of the last generation (even though I didn't get around to playing it until I bought my Wii U). To play the game is to experience pure joy. Released during a time when video games were racing towards hyper-realism, the Super Mario Galaxy titles are games that revel in their own artifice. Although grand in scale, contextually (traversing the universe and flying between star systems), the play experience is actually a minimalist simplification of the Mario formula. Instead of building massive worlds that feel cohesive and logically arranged, the Super Mario Galaxy games gave the developers the freedom to craft a micro-level. A small planet that has, maybe, two or three good jumps in it and then on to something completely different. It is the model of pacing popularized by Super Meat Boy, mobile games, and even the WarioWare series. To make up for the lack of consistency -- the cohesiveness that had to be sacrificed to allow for more bite-sized level segments -- the developers instead celebrate variety. The worlds are as inventive in their visual design as they are in their mechanical implementation. The fact that no planet plays by the same rules as any other ironically makes the game's aesthetic hold together remarkably well.

The diversity of the challenges was magnificent. Every star of every level forced me to learn a new mechanic or try something that I had never thought of trying before. This culminated in my personal favorite part of the game, the green star challenges. The green stars were scattered throughout the levels -- sometimes cleverly hidden, forcing me to put myself in the mind of the game's developers ("if I was hiding a star, where would I put it?"), and sometimes in plain view but sorely out of reach, forcing me to rethink the way I approach each object in the game world. "Maybe if I triple jump from this small surface and follow it with a well-timed wall jump......". Brilliant fun. My only criticism for the green star challenge is that I don't like that it kicks me out of the level after collecting each star. I would much rather just progress onto the next star than have to re-enter the world from the map screen. But, alas, that is a frustration I have been stubbornly complaining about since Super Mario 64, and it looks like nothing is going to change. You've won this round, Mario.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is incredibly close to joining my short list of perfect games. It is one of the games I am most proud to have 100%'d.


...That last level...


Ok, quick note on the last level. Absolutely bonkers. It's a difficult obstacle course with no checkpoints. You cannot get hit once or you have to start all over. They give you only one star-bit in the beginning of the level. Not because it'll help you in any meaningful way, but because you keep star-bits when you die. It serves as a counter of how many times you have had to retry that damn level. Those sadistic bastards.

[suzzopher]

These games are probably my favourite video games of all time!

When I first saw the screens of the original I was a little worried that play area was a bit too small, but once I started playing I soon forgot about any doubts I had.

Each stage presents the most perfect platforming challenges in any game in the genre, the music is majestic and they nailed the camera to perfection.

When Super Mario Galaxy 2 was announced I remember reading a lot of people claiming it to be an expensive bit of DLC but it's really not, the game changes things up with the introduction of Yoshi and new power ups enough to make it feel like going from Super Mario Bros 3 to Super Mario World.

I believe Mario Galaxy came out the same week as Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and a week before Uncharted Drake's Fortune, can you guess which of those five games is still as good to play today as it was in November 2007?

Both games are gaming perfection in my eyes.

[InsrtCoins]

When Super Mario Galaxy 2 was announced I remember reading a lot of people claiming it to be an expensive bit of DLC but it's really not, the game changes things up with the introduction of Yoshi and new power ups enough to make it feel like going from Super Mario Bros 3 to Super Mario World.

This is something I had forgotten about. There was a lot of resistance to a sequel, wasn't there? I can't imagine why. The gaming audience has become vary comfortable with sequels that change very little of the game's formula. That isn't even a trend that started in the last generation (I bought each Tony Hawk game religiously for years).

While there are new additions, like you mentioned, the sequel, for me, is just more of the same, but that's exactly what I wanted. And, honestly, I think that they sanded off a lot of the rough edges. Mario Galaxy feels like the type of game that changes the way that developers think. It takes time to fully acclimate the mind to the mechanics and design possibilities the Super Mario Galaxy games allow for (a similar experience to the first time playing Portal, as I'm sure we can all relate to). I can imagine the developers still bursting with new ideas as they were pushing the first game out of the door. Mario Galaxy 2, for me, is the great premise pushed to new levels of excellence made possible by the team having experience with the first game and time to mull over all of the possibilities. I would happily buy a Super Mario Galaxy 3.