WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!

That’s right Nintendo Wii fans; Mario is back and better than ever!

The local Game Stop opened at 10am yesterday, and I was in the store by 10:30 to pick up my very own copy of Super Mario Galaxy. The long awaited debut of Mario for the Nintendo Wii has finally arrived, and believe me when I say that this game is out of this world…literally.

Super Mario Galaxy is a spectacle for the eye from start to finish, and when you’re done it will leave you begging for more. From the minute you pick up the Wii Remote and Nunchuck you are seamlessly entrenched in a game unlike any other Mario, let alone any other game, you’ve ever played. However, despite all its new additions and innovations Super Mario Galaxy has a ton of historic Mario driven themes in place to make those of us hardcore gamers feel right at home. From the music to the enemies (yes Goombas, Kooopas and the like are all back), Super Mario Galaxy is like a freshly cooked homemade meal. It will have new gamers asking for seconds and hardcore gamers completely satisfied.

The biggest thing aside from the innovative use of physics in the game is that despite the lack of graphic prowess of the Wii the game looks amazing. Now I know that the Wii doesn’t support 1080p and high definition, but the 420p capability of the Wii hardware is pushed to the max. Hands down this is the greatest looking game on Nintendo’s home console by far. From the opening cinematic and throughout the course of the game I was constantly blown away by its crisp textures and vibrant colors. Mario jumps, shoots and soars from planet to planet and galaxy to galaxy leaving you taken back by the pure beauty of it all. The outstanding variety of the different worlds and levels in the game are enough to please a fan, but because this variety looks so sharp it doesn’t just please, it surprises. Take my word for it when I say that this game could rival some XBOX 360 titles in terms of sheer graphical outlook. It looks that good!

Yeah it really looks that pretty. Look at the texture of that volcano and the lighting effects on the lava. Impressed yet?

Aside from the visuals, Super Mario Galaxy boasts completely innovative game play just as its predecessors, Super Mario Bros. and Mario 64, had done before. Super Mario Bros., the originator, was released in America in 1985, and it transformed the way people played games. Before the debut of the NES, arcades were the best form of a videogame outlet for the masses. Atari came out with a home console, yet it was so barbaric that when Super Mario Bros. hit the market people were blown away by its graphics, its extremely tight control and its addictive game play. Then over a decade later, Mario 64, viewed as one of the greatest (if not the best) videogame(s) of all time brought the Mario franchise to the third dimension. For the very first time people finally had total freedom over the control of Mario and his environments. And now after another decade and a critically split GameCube installment, Super Mario Sunshine (some loved it, others hated it), Mario returns to glory on the Wii in Super Mario Galaxy, arguably his best game yet.

Super Mario Bros. – The game that started it all.

Super Mario 64 – Crafted tight control and originated seamless 3-D character roaming and environments.

Super Mario Galaxy – Brining game play into a whole new league with amazing physics and well done motion control.

Super Mario Galaxy’s innovation lies in its spectacular use of physics and gravity. The game takes place primarily in space after Bowser rips Princess Peach’s castle from the ground and carries it off into another galaxy. Of course Mario gives chase, and on his journey he encounters the various ends of the universe. The idea is so fresh and exciting that you’ll keep coming back for more the very first time you walk around on the bottom of a planet or jump as high as you can only to be sucked back to the surface by the planet’s gravitational field. The controls are tight and responsive, and they aren’t over used by forced motion control from the Wii Remote. There’s no motion control gimmick here. In fact, you hardly use the motion of the Wii Remote with the exception of Mario’s spin attack (a replacement of the punch) and some very well done racing and balancing situations. For example, Mario must stand atop a giant ball and steer it through a hole-ridden course from start to finish by using the Wii Remote’s motion control as a make-shift steering wheel.

However, despite all of Super Mario Galaxy’s triumphs, I do have a few miniscule areas of improvement. The game runs very smooth with little to no frame rate drops, yet sometimes the camera, which overall does a fabulous job of following Mario around the backsides and underbellies of planets and objects, gets stuck in a bad spot where you can’t use the free camera to change Mario’s view, or it changes view too quickly often resulting in death during an intense jump sequence. The developers this time around really tried to incorporate an actual story line into the game, and it works, but it is no Legend of Zelda tale. These are extremely minute details that should easily be overlooked because the good of this game outweighs the bad by far.

Overall, I can’t limit this games greatness to just mere words. Rather, you must take my advice, and pick this game up for yourself. Buy it, rent it, or steal it from a friend – I don’t care what it takes. If you have a Wii (or even if you don’t) you won’t want to miss this game. It is epic, and it is Mario, but most of all it just plain FUN, and that’s what Mario games have always been about.

-Dillon (a.k.a. D-Dub)

It’s here!!!!! Assassin’s Creed is now on shelves at your local video game store. There has been a lot of hype and now we get to see for ourselves what all the hype is about.

Please see excerpt from a review by Games Radar and a recent video showing off the intro to the game. Video could be considered Spoiler, Beware!!!! Oh, if you want more videos you can go to twobrothersandasister.com.

“We’re just going to come right out and say it: Assassin’s Creed is fantastic. More to the point, it’s beautifully realized, richly detailed and carried by a story with twists that rival the surprises of BioShock. It’s also endlessly fun, giving players complete freedom to tear ass across the rooftops and streets of its medieval cities as they track down their targets and try to avoid attracting attention while doing so.” Please read the rest of the review here.”

S.A.M.