zex20913
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If you don't already know about Super Mario Galaxy, it's getting some rave reviews

I think...


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[Last edited by mrimer at 11-20-2007 12:29 AM : augmented the thread title for the search engines]

Oneiromancer
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I'm only at 30-something stars, I know Clayton was in the 60's last night. It's a great game, the only reason I'm not farther is that I am splitting my time between several games so I don't get too much of just one. Galaxy is definitely better than Sunshine, and while it's not as good as 64 it comes pretty close. I think there's more replayability in Galaxy though, which is good.

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"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

coppro
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I'm just under 60 stars, and I've been having fun. I actually had to leave my Wii at a different house in order to prevent myself from getting distracted from my work this week (of which I have a lot).

Mattcrampy
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The first time I played Mario 64 was well after Zelda came out. Mario 64 hasn't aged as well as its predecessors. (The camera is terrible, for instance, something that seems mostly fixed in this game.)

Comes out here in two weeks. I can't wait.

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What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

Oneiromancer
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The thing about the camera in Mario 64 was that, except for the ghost house, it was pretty much always 90 degrees from you, or could be rotated to be 90 degrees. So for me the camera was very easy to use in Mario 64 in most cases, because it let me push one direction and know I would go in a straight line.

Mario Galaxy is more complicated because of how it fools with gravity on the planetoids. So usually the camera is fixed or follows you around, thus making it difficult to run in a straight line sometimes. However, there have been so many 3D console games since Mario 64 that we're more used to the controls. So the camera works well in Galaxy, but I think if someone who had never played a 3D console platformer before tried 64 and Galaxy, they'd find the camera in 64 more friendly.

Somewhat off-topic, now that I've gotten used to using the stylus to control Link in Phantom Hourglass, maybe I should try to play Mario 64 DS again. I royally sucked at it when I tried it the first time but maybe now with my Zelda and Metroid Prime Hunters experience it will go more smoothly.

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

mrimer
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I think the game intro (up to the first save point) is well done. It did a great job of showing me what the game is about. The graphics and music are beautiful. Moving around the new spaces is fun and exciting. I'm glad to have my adored long jump back. This game is a "pageturner" for me -- I want to keep going to "one more area" every time it's getting late and I should be going to bed. I've played to 100 stars now after 25-30 hours and have enjoyed every moment, except for

[after winning the game spoiler:]

I like using the Wiimote to gather starbits, etc. I like the "two player" mode -- it gives me good opportunity to perform useful back seat driving when my wife or seven-year-old plays.

I also like the new feature of using coins gathered in an area as a score, and that Nintendo provides the option for showing off your progress and scores to your friends online.

I'd say that the game does feel easier than Mario 64. But then again, we all have ten+ more years of 3D platforming under our belts now -- as opposed to nearly zero when M64 came out. Maybe the controls on this game are just better. They certainly feel solid.

I'm fine with having the harder stuff as optional challenges, rather than putting them on the required path. More casual players can experience the whole core story, while hardcore players still have room to show off their leet skills even in the easy areas (e.g. seeing how many coins one can find and grab in an area without dying).

Also, I notice they make it twice+ as easy to gather extra lives everywhere. This made me not whine when I realized my lives get reset to five every time I start playing again.

How about we begin a friendly competition here where someone proposes a galaxy-area to optimize and we see who can get the highest score in that area?

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Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

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[Last edited by mrimer at 11-20-2007 12:18 AM]

larrymurk
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Watch out, my bro' and I start playing this weekend.

I can't wait!

zex20913
Level: Smitemaster

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Heh...don't let Syntax hear about that, mrimer. I want a chance!

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jemann
Level: Master Delver

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As someone who enjoys platformers: I recently played through Mario 64 for the first time, under emulation, and had a very frustrating time. Partly due to the camera, but mostly due to Mario running off platforms rather than going where the hell I wanted him to go, because the designers went for 'cute' rather than 'responsive'. 3D platformers have come a long way since then.
That said, if I had a Wii I'd be picking up Galaxy on launch day.

zonhin
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 99
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jemann wrote:
As someone who enjoys platformers: I recently played through Mario 64 for the first time, under emulation, and had a very frustrating time. Partly due to the camera, but mostly due to Mario running off platforms rather than going where the hell I wanted him to go, because the designers went for 'cute' rather than 'responsive'. 3D platformers have come a long way since then.
That said, if I had a Wii I'd be picking up Galaxy on launch day.

The reason the contols were so bad is because you used an emulator. The controls are prtty nice if you play them with a contoller.

____________________________
I looked at the world through apple eyes
And cut myself a slice of sunshine pie
I danced with the peanut butterflies
Till time went and told me to say hello but wave goodbye

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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You mean playing via keyboard, right? Yeah, that's awful for analog movement, for sure.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

zonhin
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 99
Registered: 10-18-2005
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Yeah. Also, if you're going to play 3D games on emulator, the first thing you should do is go out and buy a USB controller. Go ahead, do it now and tell us how much better the controls are.

____________________________
I looked at the world through apple eyes
And cut myself a slice of sunshine pie
I danced with the peanut butterflies
Till time went and told me to say hello but wave goodbye

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[Last edited by zonhin at 11-20-2007 10:27 PM]

jemann
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zonhin wrote:
Yeah. Also, if you're going to play 3D games on emulator, the first thing you should do is go out and buy a USB controller. Go ahead, do it now and tell us how much better the controls are.

I did. That's what I was reporting. I shudder to think what the experience would have been like with a keyboard.

zonhin
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 99
Registered: 10-18-2005
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oh. well I think the controls are fine, but hey, who cares.

____________________________
I looked at the world through apple eyes
And cut myself a slice of sunshine pie
I danced with the peanut butterflies
Till time went and told me to say hello but wave goodbye

zonhin
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 99
Registered: 10-18-2005
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Alright. I just got to one hundred twenty stars and I have to say I'm kind of sad. I usually get sad when a good game like this ends. I loved the entire game except for the Really though, the worst part of the game was the trash clearing game. That was just cruel. But the rest of the game makes up for all that.

____________________________
I looked at the world through apple eyes
And cut myself a slice of sunshine pie
I danced with the peanut butterflies
Till time went and told me to say hello but wave goodbye

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[Last edited by zonhin at 11-24-2007 01:36 AM]

Oneiromancer
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Oh, the trash clearing game. I lost the first time, then beat it the second time, then decided to look around before I got the star. Somehow I jumped off the edge and died...I was so pissed off at that. When I got back to the game I failed the first time yet again, but beat it the next time. So I am really annoyed with it but I wouldn't say I hated it.

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

zonhin
Level: Delver

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No. It was much worse for me. I never fell off the edge, but it took me about twenty tries to finish one round. Ugh. I really hated it.

____________________________
I looked at the world through apple eyes
And cut myself a slice of sunshine pie
I danced with the peanut butterflies
Till time went and told me to say hello but wave goodbye

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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I finished both trash-clearing games on my first try. All you have to do is throw a bomb on each yellow/lamp marking.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

BeefontheBone
Level: Master Delver

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mrimer wrote:Also, I notice they make it twice+ as easy to gather extra lives everywhere. This made me not whine when I realized my lives get reset to five every time I start playing again.

My hypothesis is that your previous number of lives affects how many gift packages Peach sends you via the mail-delivering mushroom guy the next time you load the file. Man, Nintendo (and Square for that matter) like to deliver things by mail in their games
I'm enjoying it so far, although it has yet to really stretch me - the toughest things have been the cosmic comet races and daredevil comet boss fights. One or two slight camera niggles, but mostly it's been fairly sensible, which is good. A huge improvement on Sunshine, without that tedious water-shooting thing.

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Braindead's Mordor Site - Dungeon crawling having nothing whatsoever to do with LotR. Plus a freeware remake in-progress, featuring descriptive text written by yours truly!

Beef Row wrote: Actually, it doesn't really matter because the soap is a lye.

zonhin
Level: Delver

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Really? I had almost no trouble with the daredevil and cosmic comets. My real problem were the those were really difficult for me.

____________________________
I looked at the world through apple eyes
And cut myself a slice of sunshine pie
I danced with the peanut butterflies
Till time went and told me to say hello but wave goodbye

zex20913
Level: Smitemaster

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Zonhin--BeefontheBone might not be there yet.

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zonhin
Level: Delver

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oh. thank god it was spoilered then, huh?

____________________________
I looked at the world through apple eyes
And cut myself a slice of sunshine pie
I danced with the peanut butterflies
Till time went and told me to say hello but wave goodbye

Pilchard VIII
Level: Smiter
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I loved the game, but it was way too short. Both me and my step-brother completed it in 4 hours. Yes, you did read that right, four hours. Another six hours after that and I had all 120 stars, and was playing as Luigi. But I traded it in for Guitar Hero 3 today.

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The DROD Dragon

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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Woah, no kidding. It took me thirty hours to get 120.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
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I only got 120 stars Tuesday night, and I bought it the day of release. It felt longer than Mario 64 to me, but not as long as Sunshine...but that's probably because time flies when you're having fun.

In terms of hours I have no idea, but I was pretty efficient. I guess I could check all of my gameplay records but that doesn't sound like the most fun use of my time.

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

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[Last edited by Oneiromancer at 11-30-2007 11:31 PM]

LordKinbote
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Pilchard VIII wrote:
I loved the game, but it was way too short. Both me and my step-brother completed it in 4 hours. Yes, you did read that right, four hours. Another six hours after that and I had all 120 stars, and was playing as Luigi. But I traded it in for Guitar Hero 3 today.

No offense, but I don't believe you. That means that for the first 60 stars you averaged 4 minutes a star, and for the whole 120 you averaged 5 minutes a star. And, honestly, I don't believe that it's possible on a first run unless you're like that kid from The Wizard. Especially when you consider that you have to account for the time it takes to run between levels, to search for hidden levels, etc.

Maybe if you knew exactly where you were going all the time and never lost a life. But some of the coin levels take 10 minutes to beat even if you know exactly what you're doing!

zonhin
Level: Delver

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Guys, this is obvious. He's made from frozen light.

____________________________
I looked at the world through apple eyes
And cut myself a slice of sunshine pie
I danced with the peanut butterflies
Till time went and told me to say hello but wave goodbye

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[Last edited by zonhin at 12-01-2007 02:32 AM]

zonhin
Level: Delver

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(Seriously though, it's probably that he just underestimated the time he played. That can happen when you play a lot of a game in a single setting. Not only that, at his age he probably doesn't have a very clear perception of time. He probably just got lost in the game and didn't realize how much time passed.)

____________________________
I looked at the world through apple eyes
And cut myself a slice of sunshine pie
I danced with the peanut butterflies
Till time went and told me to say hello but wave goodbye

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[Last edited by zonhin at 12-01-2007 02:51 AM]

Mattcrampy
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I'm not very far in, only 30 stars or so, but I'm enjoying it much more than the other 3D Marios. It's so polished and varied, you never know what they're going to throw at you next.

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

Pilchard VIII
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I can see where LordKinbote is coming from, and I can understand his doubts, so I thought it would be best for me to check my times, and I found this. On the first day, I had played for 3:22, and had around 40 stars. The next day, I unlocked Luigi about ten hours in. That gives it a total of about thirteen-and-a-half hours. Admittedly, my sister did try to help a little in co-star with some harder missions, but that was how fast I was. Plus I did most of the prankster comet levels in one attempt, if that helps.

Okay, so that number a few posts back was from memory, but that's still a pretty quick time, right?

PS. Congratulations LordKinbote, you've gone from goblin to delver!

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The DROD Dragon

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[Last edited by Pilchard VIII at 12-01-2007 10:52 AM]