Super Mario Galaxy

[bigscary]

This was possibly the most epic video game I've ever played. Yes. A Mario game.


The cutscene right before the last level is pretty impressive, and the last battle, though just an amped-up version of the previous Bowser fights in the game, is insanely epic. An actual conversation:

bigscary: Here we go, fight with Bowser!
negativeq: Oh, is it the end?
bigscary: I'm fighting Bowser in the heart of a dying star. If it's not, whatever comes after had better be pretty impressive.

The difficulty scales beautifully throughout, from quite easy to "you must be kidding me" levels of 3D-action-platforming brutality, but it never feels unfair or cheap, as there are very few points where what you have to do is unclear, it's just very hard to execute. 60 stars + all the "Grand Stars" (boss stars) unlock the final fight, but I doubt I've scratched the surface, as I'm sure there are plenty of hidden stars, and I KNOW I've only found Luigi the first time and only done one comet level. And considering I unlocked the red star (flight) and then did nothing with it, well, I'm sure there's plenty of more gameplay with that, too.

10/10: If you enjoy video games, play it.

Comments

[slackwench.livejournal.com]

I agree completely with your analysis.

There are 120 stars in the game. I have 93, and I know where about 10 more are. The others, I'm not sure about.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just got the new counter and the "Purple Comet" notice. No idea what the latter is, but I look forward to finding out.

[slackwench.livejournal.com]

Purple comets appear on some levels (separate from regular prankster comets) and give you a special level where you need to collect 100 purple coins. If you get all 100 coins, you get a power star. The first one (in the Good Egg Galaxy) was pretty easy, but the second one is a bit tricky; I haven't gotten past it yet.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it! It'll be a long while before I reach the end, but I'm having a blast with it.