Andy Laub

The other day I had a brief phone conversation about video games:

X: “So yeah, my friend is really into video games.”
Me: “Cool.”
X: “He thinks Mario Galaxy is the best game ever!”
Me: sighs

Over and over I hear about how amazing Super Mario Galaxy is. Seriously.

But I wonder if those people have played the same game that I’ve played; my copy is definitely lacking in the “super” territory. Graphics and sound are good, but not mind-blowing; am I supposed to lower my standards because this is a Wii game? Story is… well, it’s the same basic story that we’ve seen in Mario games since the 80’s. Except that was never really a story. Controls get some points for being better than Super Paper Mario, but I could’ve had just as much fun with a more conventional controller.

But I feel like I’ll be chastised if I say that Mario Galaxy isn’t all that. I was really excited about Mario Sunshine when that came out, and it turned out to be pretty average. Galaxy is not some amazing revolution in storytelling or graphics or sound, and the controls are gimmickry at their finest. Yet Metacritic shows an average score of 97/100.

I’m coming to terms with the fact that I’m no longer a subscriber to the Nintendo school of gaming. I’ve certainly enjoyed my share, and maybe I’ll pick up the new Mario Kart at some point, but I can’t think of a recent game of theirs that I want to play and keep playing. Perhaps I will plod through the rest of Galaxy, but at the same time I’ve been thinking about just ditching the Wii altogether.