Super Mario Galaxy
January 2008 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Gaming Gloves
- Gaming in the Media: Women Working in Games - 5 Viewpoints, 2 Ways to Play
- Market to Me: Women as players
- Gamer vs Gamer: An old debate for the new year: casual vs. hardcore
Interviews
- Industry Interview: Naomi Clark
- Blogger Interview: Mighty Ponygirl [Feminist Gamers]
Articles
- Gender & Live-Action Role Play: Reality Repackaged
Author: Samara Hayley Steele
- Planning a Women-Only Gaming Group
Author: Robyn Fleming
- Celebrating women in the industry
Author: Andrea Rubenstein
- Choosing Imitation Over Innovation
Author: Richard Pilbeam
In this ongoing series, Samara shares her experiences as a female LARPer in a male-dominated LARP Organization.
Robyn outlines the trials and tribulations of organizing an all-women gaming group.
Andrea looks at some of the influential women in the video game and tabletop gaming industry.
Richard discusses ways in which imitation and a lack of innovation help to perpetuate sexist themes in games produced by the RPG Maker community.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Retro Review: Pitfall!
Odds 'n Ends
By Ariel Wetzel
Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo, Wii, 2007
Super Mario Galaxy is the most intuitive game right out of the box that I’ve played since Katamari Damacy. Galaxy pushes the platform genre by getting out of up, down, left, and right. Direction is relative as Mario moves through space, and gravity simply flips out from under him. Use of space and gravity, combined with a beautiful world, inviting two-player mode, and the inherently engaging Wii remote, is what makes Super Mario Galaxy so dang fun.
I found Super Mario Galaxy to be best experienced with others; if you’re a social gamer, Galaxy has a built in active role for your co-pilot with the second controller in “Co-Star Mode”. Your “Co-Star” uses the second Wii remote to freeze enemies, literally point where to go, make Mario jump, and collect and shoot Star-Bits at enemies. As one friend pointed out, youngest sisters and brothers everywhere are going to get a lot of play time in with the second controller. At my less hierarchal household, we took turns passing the controller back and forth when we beat a level or died as we worked on the same save file.
Galaxy is a great game for bonding with your friends. However, something feels a little empty when turning it on to game alone without anyone to see how bad-ass you are for tickling a bee-queen. (My opportunity to play actually came from a fellow gamer bored playing solo; I borrowed the game from a friend because he was bored after beating the game and didn’t want to go back and collect the remaining 60 stars to unlock the playable Luigi.)
Super Mario Galaxy is fun and approachable for nongamers; the dimensions give Galaxy a bit of a learning curve. Whereas my gamer instincts let me pick up the remote and scale a sinking tower while upside down, friends felt a bit of vertigo watching Mario slingshot into space.
Super Mario Galaxy actually has a pretty good story for a platform Mario game. The tired Bowser-captures-Princess plot is rehashed and not especially compelling, not to mention Bowser’s intent to force Peach to live by his side is disturbing and inappropriate. What works for the story is that what Mario does in game–collect star-bits and stars–makes sense with the story. Mario is helping a woman named Rosalina, the watcher of stars, repower her spaceship so that he may travel to confront Bowser.
I never expected a Mario game to be so beautiful. The world-building is fabulous: levels are collections of colorful planets and shapes floating over a bright constellations. The music, tranquil and orchestrated, is reminiscent of Epcot Center, and indeed playing Super Mario Galaxy like a theme park ride, disorienting, but delightful in its engaging details. Show this game off: it’s an essential title for the social gamer.
Article © January 2008 by Ariel Wetzel.
