1. Super Mario Galaxy - I'll begin by saying that up until about three days before the game was released, I had no idea when it was going to be released. I had figured, given all the news of Smash Bro's and whatnot around the holidays, that we wouldn't see this for quite a while. I believe I was looking around Gamespot's upcoming releases and saw this, immediately hopped on Amazon and ordered it. Turns out that was a bad idea. Amazon missed the mark with judging pre-order quantities perhaps, and then declared that they would not ship any units until up to a week after the game was released. Nice work, guys. After finding that out, I promptly cancelled my order and pre-ordered with Gamestop. I think it was the right decision, after all, who wouldn't want a "rare" commemorative coin to mark the release of the game? I say rare in quotes because it seems like 1 in 2 people in the US use Gamestop for all their gaming needs. Really rare, eh?
The initial reviews of the game were super hyped. Many said it was superior to Mario 64 while others said it was not only a worth successor but the true sequel to Mario 64 (discarding, as many did, the less successful Mario Sunshine, which I'd like to get my hands on again, I remember thinking the game was quite good despite not being totally similar to Mario 64.) After finally receiving the game, I popped it in. People who know my gaming habits have been that I complain about the quality of graphics on the Wii, even with titles like Metroid Prime: Corruption which are grainy at times. I will say, the art direction in SMG is spectacular, every edge is smoothed, there is no grainyness, pixelation is kept to a minimum, shading is handled excellently, and textures are always tasteful. I found it as surprising that I was impressed with the graphics as I was with my wanting to promote this game to others almost immediately. The first night I had it, it was only played maybe for an hour or so, and I promptly put up an away message stating "SMG... proving the Japanese have better drugs than you since 2007." It's a trippy game, small pieces of sometimes amorphous debris floating in space not only have their own black holes, but systems of gravity which frequently apply to all sides of the object. The controls are done in the same spirit as M64, using the wii pointer capability to a minimum and again, tastefully. The story, like many Mario games is really corny and themes are focused around things that kids can relate to, such as contempt of adults (in the "Beach Bowl" galaxy, a group of young penguins urge you to throw a shell at something while the adult penguin pulls a Jack Black circa Orange County and tells you "You better not!")
Overall, I will say that Nintendo knows how to make better games than just about anyone, either first or third party I know. One of the more astute comments about the games industry I have heard was made by a non-gamer when he stated that there are two types of things masquerading as games currently: games and simulations. Games disregard realism to a degree or embrace types of surrealism that make a world totally distinct from the one we live in, and I don't mean to say that science fiction games like Mass Effect are not simulations. Nintendo makes games, Sony and Microsoft's 3rd party game developers make simulations. Halo series - simulation, Gears of War - Simulation, Serious Sam - Game (ftw!) And that is only how it's possible within the FPS Genre. Anyways, Nintendo continues to make stellar games, and should be praised for both Super Paper Mario and SMG, as they were both excellent gaming experiences that I'd recommend to anyone.
2. Rock Band - I am going to preface this by saying two things. I've loved the most recent incarnations of rhythm games (i.e. Guitar Hero.) Secondly, I think I've possibly played a bit too much of them. When I purchased Guitar Hero III, I played through 3/4 of the game on expert (I didn't, and still can't pass Slipknot's "Before I Forget," there's a section about 3/4 of the way through the song that's just plain unfair. I've even beat some of the songs after that like "Cliffs of Dover," "Cult of Personality," and "Number of the Beast" but I can't beat that one part of the damn song!) and put it down for about a month. I think I may be a bit burnt out on these games, but really wanted to try Rock Band. I will say that it seems like the ultimate "Friends + Beer + Game = Party" game ever conjured up. That being said, I met up with some friends who had recently purchased the game the day after Thanksgiving and we played. The guitar that they bundle with the game, due to copyright issues with the Red Octane guitar, is completely different and uses a different strum mechanism that's completely awful. It's impossible to know if you're hitting notes from the bar, which instead of clicking, offers lots of resistance and not much more. What's more, Kotaku ran an article the other day about how most of these guitars are faulty and have been breaking. Nice, huh? Aside from that, it takes a while to get used to the square notes instead of the circular ones, and I have no idea how to find whether a note is going to be a hammer-on or a pull-off. The drumming is pretty realistic, and very difficult and it's all because of that blasted bass pedal. Song difficulty appeared to be no way close to Expert on Guitar Hero III, but I really didn't play the game enough to say definitively. The vocal analyzer appeared to be alright too, but I thought I was, in a few cases, singing at the pitch of the song and it told me otherwise.
3. Mass Effect - I have to admit, I can't say too much about this seeing as how I've not played this game at all. In fact the only way I've experienced this game is through a few different gameplay videos, including the super-controversial lesbian sex scene that is possible in the course of the game, oh, and through Penny Arcade's rendering of the absurdity of a few portions. It's gotten roundly alright reviews and is probably a good game, I look forward to giving it a shot at some point if someone I know buys it.
4. Call of Duty 4 - I just played this game for the first time last night, and, not having any experience with the other CoD games, sucked real bad. I will say that this game has a monopoly on sheer intensity, whether it's in the single player missions, which frequently make you feel like you're actually fighting in a war and not the mere isolated combat situations that Halo frequently finds you in. In contrast to Halo, its the things which you're actually involved in that feel epic as opposed to what's going on around you (on many levels, dogfights appear overhead or squadrons of Hornets fly off towards a Covenant cruiser, making the game artificially feel more epic than it actually is.) I am hoping to pick this game up in the near future and give it a more in-depth review, as well as get pwnt by 13 year olds online, which I was doing last night.
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