#aled morgan

[aledmorgan]

Just Fuckin' Around - A review of Saints Row: The Third

Saints Row 2 carved out a niche in the open-world crime genre, standing apart from the more dramatic and realistic portrayal of urban crime that we got with Grand Theft Auto IV. Now it’s time for the sequel and Volition have offered something packed to bursting point with sexually suggestive weapons, crude humour, and a button entirely dedicated to crotch punches. It’s the kind of game that actively encourages you to take off all of your clothes and prowl the street with a giant purple sex-toy; the kind of game that takes a self-aware delight in just how crazy and ridiculous it can be. Unfortunately this hyper-dose of the obscene also comes at the expense of cohesion, and the impressive spectacle that the game otherwise excels at is hampered at times by underwhelming writing and a very obvious lack of focus.  After a bank robbery gone wrong you’re dropped into the city of Steelport, another concrete jungle of twisting highways, docks, and sky-scrapers. It’s a new city in layout but not in tone, with nothing practically changing between the local in the last game. Steelport is nice enough, with your typical New York sandbox giving the player a few changes of urban scenery, but in all honesty I’m finding that the setting is getting old now.  Steelport serves as a backdrop to all the madness in the game, but never does the setting feel anything other than incidental, feeling more like the playground than it is than the living city it should be.

Steelport is the ultimate playground for reckless carnage, but the city itself is a little lacklustre

 Dropped in this new city and with a rival organisation gunning to ruin The Saints new media empire, you have to start out from scratch and tear down all who oppose you. It’s essentially the same story from the last two game where you’re progress revolves around recruiting a cast of useful side-characters and then eroding the influence of the rival gangs.  Each mission is staged as a way to disrupt another gangs operations and this being Saints Row they’re usually done in the most violently gratifying way possible. Throughout the games campaign you’ll be put in control of fighter jets, given access to predator drones and air strikes, go into a Tron-inspired virtual reality showdown and base-jump into an enemy penthouse to the tune of Kanye West’s Power. I was constantly and pleasantly surprised by just how far the game goes to surprise you, and if you’re looking for absurdity then Saints Row: The Third will deliver in spades. This isn’t without its drawbacks though.  The game can put you in a scenario that’s thrilling and absurd in equal measure, but they often suffer from a lack of context. The missions are a good length but feel far too compartmentalised. You’re driving to a building, hit a checkpoint, and now you’re waking up in captivity with only the most cursory piece of exposition to link the two. Saints Row: The Third does often deliver on thrill, but its lack of inner-mission focus is reflected in the story as a whole. Reasons for performing these gloriously excessive tasks are often hard to come by and by around the half way mark I stopped really caring why I was doing any of this.

Some newly refined controls makes it simple to pull off some entertaining moves

Take the gangs for instance. There are three who you’ll have to vie with for control of Steelport, each one suitably unique, but they prove to be a wasted opportunity. Antagonists are introduced and barely expanded on before ducking out of the action and their individual mission lines feel stunted and inconsequential in the grand scheme. “Just roll with it” seems to be the games excuse, and while I was willing to suspend disbelief and experience every separate shooting gallery as simple exercises in gameplay and spectacle, the Saints over the top antics would have been all the more gratifying for letting me see the necessity of them. Saints Row: The Third tells a stock story with a varied cast of fairly interesting characters, but fails in its deliverance.  While there’s weak storytelling and little cohesion to bind them, the missions are well paced from a gameplay perspective, if not from a narrative one. Saints Row: The Third controls adequately though not impeccably. A lack of a cover system means you’ll have to manually manage your crouching and use scenery to your advantage, while whittling down the hordes of gang members. A few new control options raise the bar in other areas though. Sprinting while attempting to carjack sends your character fly-kicking through the windshield and into the driver’s seat, while a running melee attack will activate a quick but satisfying takedown. A handful of QTE sequences enhances the visual spectacle, but at the expense of your control. Vehicles handle better, with a challenging and satisfying learning curve behind them which made driving from A to B a pleasure. Control never shines on its own merits, but altogether is sharp enough to get you through the missions and the various sandbox distractions without getting in your way.

Customisation is a focal point and anyone not cruising around in classic Saints purple is doing it wrong.

Absurdity is the calling card of Saints Row: The Third and nothing helps reinforce this more than the amount of customisation. There are a pleasing number of body and clothing options, though the customisation has been slightly scaled back this time around. You can opt to have your character speak in zombie growls, pimp out a mega-mixer in classic Saints purple with gold trim or sprint around dressed as a Japanese cat mascot. All of the customisation options serve to underline the silliness that the game builds itself on. On one side-mission I had to find a golf buggy to draw out a target, so I phoned in my customised purple/gold cart with wheel spikes and nitro and tore up the city dressed like a deranged Willy Wonka. Scripted diversions including trail-blazing, insurance fraud and the bizarre Professor Genki’s Reality Climax offer some mild distractions, though the majority of them are lifted from Saints Row 2. They quickly get punishing but the reward of more money and respect actually has some meaning in this world. Respect is used as a levelling system, rather than locking off sections of the story like in earlier games. You can use your cash to buy cosmetic items and ammo, but most of your mission bounty ends up being spent on upgrades, ensuring that to progress you need to invest yourself in some of the secondary activities. The economy toes the balance between having to grind to buy items and having the in-game currency completely meaningless. The upgrades start slow – 25% more sprint, fast damage recovery, more ammo capacity – but the later perks can make you partly invulnerable for a massive investment. It’s good to see that a sandbox incentivises itself and gives the player a reason and reward above and beyond the thrill of participation. Driving an enraged tiger around the city while trying to avoid traffic is fun, but becomes all the more worthwhile when you know you’ll be able to upgrade your crib into a purple neon lit skyscraper with the reward.

Bottom Line: This is a game that’s here to make all your absurd dreams come true at once, and for that it’s a fun and varied romp with lots of extras, and story missions that offer some brilliant set-pieces. While the games control and combat is nothing to particularly write home about it’s the complete absence of pacing that’s the biggest detriment. The game obviously seems custom built to be a great big stupid playground for you to fuck around in, but too often does it retain that artificial feeling, never managing to make the leap to a cohesive world. A handful of frequent graphical glitches further undermines this. Saints Row: The Third is best described as a big, stupid, fun game. It’s certainly not got the intelligence or satirical edge of its contemporary, but the sheer number of unique toys that are eagerly pressed into your hands means there are plenty of unique, water-cooler moments to be had in Steelport. The writing might be pedestrian, the city samey and the pace non-existent but Saints Row: The Third is a game that lets you cruise the streets on a military hover bike, dressed as a cockney superhero, firing a gun that summon sharks, and for that I can’t help but applaud it. 

[aledmorgan]

A Pleasant Apocalypse - A review of Bastion

Waking up after the events of a destructive, apocalyptic event known as ‘the calamity’ The Kid makes his way to the titular Bastion – the place where everyone agreed to meet up should things go wrong. Things have indeed gone wrong. The world is a fragmented, eerie place, made up of floating platforms that arrange themselves ahead of you and the remaining wildlife are hostile and numerous. Bastion occupies a lofty position thematically, somewhere between fantasy, post-apocalypse and western, while gameplay-wise it’s a mixture of RPG, action and hack-and-slash. Did I mention the dynamic narrator? He sounds like someone’s grandfather genteelly sipping a rich whiskey while telling a campfire story on the side of some dusty, western trail. It’s a nice touch, and probably the one that Bastion will remain known for. However, beyond these superficial features is a tightly designed game with plenty to endear itself to any player. First Bastion gets you with its looks. The world itself is a kind of autumnal apocalypse, all floating precarious platforms against a backdrop of bold water-colour. For a game set after the end of the world the environments themselves keen and alive. The areas you visit teem with wildlife that will rise up and stalk you in groups and each area is cluttered with destructible items. Old Corinthian pillars, satin pillows and disused wagons will all crumble under your array of weaponry, should you feel the compulsive need to methodically clear out each area to check for hidden health tonics.

"He gets up. Sets off for The Bastion, where everyone agreed to go in case of trouble. Ground forms up under his feet as if pointing the way. He don't stop to wonder why"

You look down at The Kid from a third-person isometric viewpoint, meaning the cluttered landscapes can occasionally be overwhelming and the precise point where paths begin and end can get lost in the dense, colourful artwork. Accidently tumbling over a ledge happened to me a lot, though the visual niggles that stem from this isometric view can be forgiven once you’ve found yourself lost in the bold, autumnal loveliness of the painted worlds.  The ambient soundtrack traces its roots to both western and eastern influences, blending oriental sitar riffs with the acoustic rhythmic strumming of country and western. It’s a soundtrack that settles you into a rhythmic state of play, despite the often frantic and cluttered nature of the combat. Much about Bastion feels like you’re drifting through a dream or playing through a short-story, and much of this is owed to the narrator. The narrator isn’t entirely as dynamic as the game would have you believe, but his rich, whiskey voice is usually spot on, commenting on items you find, routes you take, defeats and successes. Ruck’s narration serves to spoon feed you the games story and the background of the broken world you find yourself in, but he also serves as a companion on your lonely journey, offering you a familiar voice in the hostile wilds.

Bastion looks great, but the sheer number of objects - moving and stationary - can cause some confusion when the fighting begins.

However, good as these things are, they aren’t really what make the experience and soon they become nothing more than pleasant garnish on an otherwise awesome cake. It’s the compelling customisation and inherent replayability that elevate Bastion from ‘that’s nice’ to ‘that’s fun’. Bastion doesn’t over-reach but takes the simple things and makes sure to get them right. At any one time the screen will be writhing with enemies, all signalling attacks and spitting out projectiles to dodge. It would become overwhelming if your dodge move wasn’t so agile or your shield so easily at hand.  The constant flow between dodge, swipe and block is an easy one to settle into and it’s satisfying while still challenging. The game features melee and ranged weapons and each one fills its own distinct niche in combat. Each one is worth investing in and each one has its own distinct feel. There are no right answers when choosing a weapon, and players will likely find themselves drawn to different ones.  Once you’ve wrestled a shiny core from the uncooperative local wildlife you’ll be back to the Bastion to upgrade it with buildings. In Bastion all of the RPG systems are locked up in the Bastion itself. A distillery unlocks spirits with typical RPG boosts. A lost and found acts as a shop. You equip yourself with two weapons at the armoury, and upgrade them at the forge. That the RPG systems are explained and embedded in the world is a great success for world-building, and the systems themselves are balanced, while inviting players to keep coming back to try out new weapon combinations, upgrades and abilities.

The Bastion is your downtime between combat areas, and it's the safe-haven you need to gradually piece back together.

Something else that’s a success for world-building is the story. Bastion plays like a short-story, dealing only with a small number of characters with their own arcs. The events that transpire are focused and intelligible, but there are allusions to a greater world here. The people of Caeldonia and the Ura -their history, culture and motivations – are only mentioned in passing, but these mentions help build a world with character. It’s a world that exists around the edges of the game, whose mere presence is felt all throughout. When you are called upon late-game to make some important decisions it’s the weight of an implied fantasy world that gives them gravity. These later decisions offer a reason for a second playthrough, but there are more reasons to return. Bastion is interested in variety and invites repeated playthroughs with its New Game plus mode, but also through its temple. The Bastion’s temple allows you to invoke the power of various Gods. They essentially act as combat multipliers, much like the skulls in Halo: Reach, and each one offers a greater challenge for greater reward. Once I had finished the game I couldn’t resist ducking into a few more levels with some gods active to see if I could strike the perfect balance between fun and challenge. Bottom Line: It’s these well-balanced systems that really make Bastion. While it’s easy to appreciate the game because of its visual and audio flair, it’s ultimately the solid gameplay that keeps Bastion afloat. Bastion is only ever a lean action-RPG, but it’s one done with impeccable polish. What it sets out to achieve it does and it never disappoints by over-reaching. Coupled with its absorbing art and the impeccably voiced narrator Bastion is an extremely refined action-RPG. Its systems are simple and it’s combat basic, but Supergiant have given enough scope for customisation and experimentation for it to keep its allure after your first completion. It’s a pleasant game in every sense; satisfying to play, lovely to look at, fun to experiment with and absorbing in its narrative simplicity.

[aledmorgan]

Cars 2 Review (PSP)

The first boxed game I got a review copy for was Cars 2 on the PSP. What a sought after title that was. *Ahem* It's fine though. You can't just play the good games, and in honesty having a lacklustre title to play works as a learning experience as well. Review can be found here.

[aledmorgan]

Five Games to Check Out This Halloween

This article went live on Halloween for Just Push Start. It's a standard list that simply recommends some games to try out around the Halloween period. I don't have a massive amount of experience with horror games, so I went with five games that might not be seen as conventionally 'horror', but nevertheless fit the mood of the holiday. So there we go, have a look at it on Just Push Start. 

[aledmorgan]

Mercury HG Review on Just Push Start

The first game that I had ever reviewed for a site. Hopefully this will review will be the first in a long, long line. Anyway, Mercury HG is a cheap title available on Live Arcade where you tilt the board to drop a blob of mercury into a goal. A neat little puzzler with an attractive price. Have a look at the full review here! 

[aledmorgan]

Straight - Forward Insanity - A review of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

Set against a unique and thoroughly gorgeous background of rich, vibrant colours, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a game that seems utterly unique. What’s hidden behind the sharp, dark contours of the shadow planet is, however, an enjoyable, if short, experience that never reaches beyond the functional. For a game that seems to emphasise exploration and puzzle solving, it’s a linear affair sporting simple, uninspired lock and key solutions. Not quite the Metroidvania you might be expecting, Shadow Planet is none-the-less a fun, functional little adventure that stands out thanks to its bold aesthetic, if not for its by-the-numbers design.  The twisted, shadowy planet of the games title is a wild, hostile place that’s immediately threatening and very alien. Twisted creepers line the labyrinthine tunnels until the silent menace of nature gives way to the loud hums and screeches of machinery further on inside the planet. The Shadow Planet is separated into several different areas each with their own visual themes, enemies and puzzles, though the most striking difference is one of aesthetics. Shadow Planet carves out its own visual niche by presenting black silhouettes against splatters of bold colour that fade away into vibrant blurs in the background. The game certainly looks striking. While you wind your way into the ever more complex depths of the planet you’ll be treated to a variety of gorgeous looking environments, even if the gameplay doesn’t change all that much throughout. 

Deep purple, bold blue and dark reds all give individual areas a look of their own.

There’s nothing in the way of text or voice in the game, reinforcing the sense of isolation and alien hostility at the expense of not really knowing what’s going on or why. You start the game as a feeble ship and can manoeuvre around in the twin-stick fashion. Control is, for the most part, excellent. Moving around with the left stick you feel agile yet weighted thanks to the physics engine and the right analogue allows control of your equipped tool, in all directions, while you move. Only a few scenarios involving the intricate positioning of crystals to refract light make it feel as though the controls are inadequate for the job, and apart from this the game allows you to pilot you way through the tunnels and caverns of the Shadow Planet seamlessly.  Being billed as a Metroidvania type game – a game that focuses on exploration using a sprawling world map and a trickle of upgrades to help you reach new places – you’d expect Shadow Planet to actually encourage this exploration more than it does. While the games visuals are fantastic and always entrancing, the design of the game feels rudimentary by comparison. The game is inherently linear, with only a few small, token divergent paths, nothing of significance to have to backtrack towards and puzzle solutions always made fairly obvious. While linearity isn’t a bad thing, here it means that puzzles are always straightforward to the point of being easy. Exploration isn’t integrated in this game – it’s tacked on. Don’t expect to pick up a new tool and feel exhilaration as you remember the dozens of areas now open to you. You’ll find a new tool and then the next puzzle will require its use. It’s simple, functional design that lacks nothing but the ambition to be an easily attainable better.

Boss fights are more like puzzles that fight back and offer the most challenge in the game.

Replay value is solely a case of back-tracking to find the few places accessible only via tools you picked up far later on and even then these excursions aren’t of any relevance to your main objective. Back-tracking is solely done for a handful of ship upgrades, some concept art and an explanatory cinematic. It’s hard to not want to revisit the games diverse, elegant environments but for something so insubstantial it’s hardly a compelling incentive. Apart from gazing at its poignant art style players won’t have much reason to return to this shadowy planet. Solid controls, amazing visuals and only mundane, standard design holding it back sounds like a recipe for a distinctly above-average game and this would be true if it weren’t for the games crippling length. At 1200 Microsoft points, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet will be finished within four hours, with only another hour gone into hitting the one-hundred percent completion point. While some may find worth in the game for its art alone, others will no doubt demand a more challenging experience for their money. Aside from the single-player, players can band together either locally or over Xbox Live to try their hand at the small, cooperative offering. Four players must constantly evade a looming monsters coming from the left side of the screen while dragging their lantern through randomly generated obstacles and enemies. Not a significant portion of the game by any means, the Lantern Run mode offers a suitably different pace to the single player and will get a few plays before it loses its appeal.

Undeniably magnificent looking.

Bottom Line: While few are going to remember Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet for anything other than its visual prominence, few people will find themselves unable to have a bit of fun with the title. However, with good controls and the impressionable style paired with its unfortunately simplistic design it’s hard to get overly enthusiastic about the game with the overall experience coming off as ‘quite nice and pretty fun’ rather than ‘outright amazing’. 

[aledmorgan]

Blood, Sweat and Bacon - A review of Deathspank

You play as the titular hero 'Deathspank' - self proclaimed dispenser of justice and hero to the downtrodden on an epic quest to claim a powerful artefact and beat a despotic tyrant. If this sounds familiar then that's because it's supposed to be. From Ron Gilbert - responsible for the first two Monkey Island adventure games - Deathspank is a hilarious parody of the fantasy role playing genre with quirky visuals and great characters that's thick with personality and charm.

The nameless world you reside in is a museum of exaggerated fantasy cliche's and conventions. There's such attractions as the central town of Pluckmuckel, the fiery demon mines, the candy-flossed enchanted forest and the eerie haunted woods. It's a theme park built explicitly for you, with all sorts of absurd creatures and monsters tohack and slash to death with a myriad of potions and power-ups providing the 'RPG' in the games Hack-and-slash RPG credentials.

The combat is basic yet functional. Deathspank is able to wield four weapons at a time and the game stocks you with a large variety of ice hammers, fire axes, ranged weapons and other implements which are certain to keep the RPG enthusiast at least reasonably satiated. Many of these weapons have special moves such as spinning blade attacks, powerful hammer strikes, and vicious power-punches. You can execute these once your justice meter has been filled by either building a successful combo with consecutive different weapon strikes, or by negating all enemy damage with a well timed shield block. The combat can get a bit repetitive when your endlessly swinging through the many hordes the game will throw at you, but it never becomes boring enough for you to resent it. It's simple, but there are enough extra attack options available to tide you over to the games end without becomming bored.

While Deathspank's combat isn't particularly deep, innovative, or challenging, you'll still have a decent amount of fun with it.

Despite its constant send-up of the genre, Deathspank is actually a nicely involved RPG. Levelling up is as simple as choosing a hero card to increase melee damage, running speed, shield time or loot drops and you'll soon find your inventory full of stat-boosting potions, health-giving snack foods, and sets of armour. You'll want to be often checking your inventory to grind excess items into money with your handy item grinder, because item drops are generous, meaning the game never rises in challenge past its simple hack and slash roots. Yet despite the relative ease, the game is one of the meatier titles available on the Xbox Live Arcade clocking in at about ten hours a play through.

The bulk of your time with Deathspank will involve the games vast amount of side quests. Most of these amount to nothing more than a five minute item fetch or collection, but each one puts Deathspanks strengths at the forefront of the game - the exploration of the quirky world, and Deathspanks fantastic dialogue. You'll certainly feel compelled to go through each speech option because there's so many great one-liners in the game that not exploring each dialogue tree fully would feel like a missed oppurtunity. While the main quest will take multiple hours to complete, the 60 plus side-quests are what really gives the game its abundance of character and charm.

Speaking of charm, the games visuals are drenched in it. The graphics aren't particularly powerful but they are attractive. Objects and backgrounds are all rendered in thick, vibrant 2D with the character models rendered fully in the third dimension. It's not powerful, it's not particularly stylish, but the vibrant visuals mirror the overall tone of the game. The sound is likewise quirky and original. There's none of the rousing orchestral backing you'd expect in a fantasy game. Instead the music is sparse guitar, bass and drums which picks up its tempo in the presence of enemies. There's little audio variety though, meaning after only half an hour's play you'll have heard it all already. Given the striking aesthetic differences between many of the games areas, it's a shame we couldn't have had a larger offering of music to greater characterise the different geographical locations.

Unicorns, rabid leprechauns and gingerbread men - Deathspanks variety is commendable!

So in true fantasy tradition you've got a large palette of different areas to explore, troves of weapons to equip and stat bolstering items to use, but this seems merely a framing for the personality and humour that's evident in every aspect of the game. Deathspank himself is a charismatic hero who lives and breathes to help the downtrodden - seemingly only to bolster his own ego, but he's a loveable character none the less. Sometimes oblivious, sometimes witty, always funny, it's his dialogue which makes the game, and most the NPCs and quest givers seems like mere walls for Deathspank to bounce his lines off. The item descriptions are witty, revelling in tired fantasy game conventions and the monsters are often absurd but endearing. The game switches seamlessly from childish, humorous banter, to sharp satire, to self-aware humour. I haven't experienced such a legitimately fun and good humoured game for years.

Bottom Line: Deathspank is one of the best value titles your likely to find for the Xbox Live Arcade. While its combat, RPG elements or difficulty aren't as deep as most RPGs fans will demand, it's the charm, the personality and the sheer abundance of the quirky humour that make this title very definitely worth picking up.

[aledmorgan]

Hop, Skip, Fly - A review of Super Mario Galaxy

What will we do when we’ve got nowhere to go? What will we do when we’ve plumbed the oceans depths, seen every sight available to see, discovered everything on the earth and have hopped, skipped and jumped across every variety of floating platform the earth can throw at us? Nintendo chooses to go into space with the sure-footed confidence that only the Mario series can truly deliver. It’s confident, it’s fun and it’s platforming in a completely unprecedented and mind boggling way. When Mario took to the third dimension with Mario 64 it seemed like there was very little extra that could be done with the genre. The levels mixed the confident platforming of the seminal two-dimensional games with wonderfully unique worlds for you to explore free-roam style. Then Super Mario Sunshine came along and while the game added some secondary toys for you to experiment with the core concept was essentially the same. Super Mario Galaxy, however, takes all of this and then blows it up, spins it around and weaves the genre into an entire new plane of play. The traditional Mario platforming and simple combat is spliced with insane perspective shifting and quirky gravity changes that allow the gameplay to offer more of a cerebral and control challenge as you’re required to constantly adjust to changes in angle.

Up and down are little more than a question of viewpoint in Super Mario Galaxy

The set-up for this round of star-collecting will only get a cursory mention here. It’s the day of a cosmic festival in the mushroom kingdom when Bowser shows up and with all the certainly of the seasons kidnaps Princess Peach. Mario, in an ill-fated attempt to intervene, winds up blasted into space and onto the space-faring observatory of enchantress Rossalina. To go after Bowser and save the Princess the observatory needs powering up with the power stars that Bowser has stolen. Thus begins Mario’s quest to obtain enough stars by dipping into various themed ‘galaxies’ and completing various platforming challenges.  These individual galaxies deviate slightly from the established ‘worlds’ of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine however. Instead of a dozen bigger worlds Galaxy packs in forty-two ‘galaxies’ each with a small handful of star-grabbing scenarios to bounce your way through. While the larger number of mini worlds means that the game can be diverse and crazy in its environments, this leads to an issue with cohesion among the worlds. Essentially each galaxy, for all their individual colour schemes and aesthetic themes, looks like a bag of marbles scattered on a sheet of black velvet. Each scenario is a linear progression between gravitated chunks of rock. The rocks might have grass on in one level, and then lava in the next, but this fairly standardised approach to the level design means that very few of the galaxies stand out as memorable experiences. Imagination is little without a defining thread, and few of these levels have that making them pretty forgettable. As platform tasks they work great, but as whole, cohesive worlds they fail. Those who fondly remember the sunken bay of Dire Dire Docks in Super Mario 64 or the chilled out evening at Sirenna Beach in Super Mario Sunshine will be disappointed to hear that Super Mario Galaxy doesn’t deliver anything in the same vein. 

Take a break from traditional platforming and kick back with some motion controlled mini-game star challenges.

This isn’t to say that the game itself isn’t utterly sublime and don’t let my disappointment with the linear levels fool you into thinking that the game doesn’t play incredibly well. As a piece of platforming Super Mario Galaxy is probably the best of the 3D Mario’s, simply because the perspective shifting and peculiar use of gravity adds another glorious dimension to the play. Mario controls as usual, with his typical double and triple jump awarded for successive hops, his ever-useful side-jump and his powerful ground-pound. This being the Wii, Nintendo have attempted to integrate some basic use of the motion controls into the game with fairly mixed results. Mario’s primary attack is now a spin which he can use to fell enemies as well as gain a little extra distance on his jumps. This is executed by giving the Wii-remote a brisk wave and I often found myself wishing it could be mapped to the B button instead. Admittedly giving the remote a wave to deflect an incoming rock had a visceral kind of charm to it, but activating it in quick succession was tedious and unresponsive. For a move that demands so much use in the game it’s odd that Nintendo forces more input from the player by ways of physical movement than less in the way of pressing a button with your thumb. You can also point the remote at the screen to move around a cursor, allowing you to collect the games many ‘star bits’ and then fire them, arcade shooter style, using the right trigger which allows you to stun some enemies although this is seldom required. The most natural use of the motion controls are the pull stars - blue-icons that you can target with the cursor to activate. They draw you in with a tractor beam and using several in conjunction to move Mario around feels oddly satisfying. Likewise, parts where you use the remote to fire Mario like a slingshot from sticky pillars work fluidly as part of the controls and actually make sense, unlike the constant Wii-remote waggling for the spin attack. The regular controls work fine, even if such things as Mario’s mid-air dive have been removed in favour of some questionable motion controls yet these are oddities that neither really seem to add to or detract from the game. As well as these new moves are the games new power ups dotted around the various levels. Ice Mario in particular is a joy to use. Gone are the days when the portly plumber slides ineffectually about on the ice. Now he skates with the agility, speed and grace of a pro and it’s brilliant to play. Unfortunately most of the other power-ups are boring, one-dimensional little puzzle-solvers that are as instantly forgettable as they are weird. Bee Mario can step on flowers without breaking them and can buzz upwards for a few seconds. Spring Mario can jump really high if you time it right and even the iconic Fire Mario is relegated to lighting up torches for a few undemanding puzzles.

Galaxies are varied in theme buy similar in design - most are simply linear progressions of gravitated planets.

With all of the perspective shifting and gravity hopping going on, the game requires an extremely agile camera to keep the platforming from falling flat and a surprisingly efficient automatic camera delivers this very well. It was quite a way into the game before I had to take matters into my own hands and position the camera manually and having to do this subsequently was rare. Sadly at some points it seems as though the game gets a little too ambitious in its relentless perspective shifting to the point where the controls can’t keep up. At a few points throughout I found that I had lost track of what direction I needed to push the analog stick in to make Mario go in any one direction and also had to wrestle with the camera far more than necessary to get some off-screen threat into view. Mario Galaxy, for all its reliance on off-the-wall spatial mind-fuckery, usually keeps the controls clean and the camera pointing the right way. The times when it doesn’t, however, are frustrating, confusing and more than a little nauseating.  Bottom Line: Don’t come away from this review with the impression that Mario Galaxy is at all underwhelming. If anything it’s the opposite. It’s vibrant setting and insane worlds coupled with beautiful orchestrated tracks and remixes of classic Mario tunes ensures that the game feels both quintessentially Mario as well as an entirely new experience. What few issues there are with the controls, the weird powerups and camera are really just small chinks in an otherwise perfected experience. I may miss the cohesive, memorable worlds from the past Mario games, but what Galaxy loses in this regard is made up by how the galaxies, even if lacking the free-roam fun of the past games, all seem perfected for all the platforming challenges the game relies on. While you’re blasting off around all of the great-looking, mad-hat environments the game has to offer you’ll simply be having fun and Mario Galaxy is definitely an exciting new direction for the Mario series and the genre as a whole.