Zero Punctuation: Super Mario Galaxy 2

[NapoleonSolo]

I don't know why I still go to ign for info, they gave this game a perfect score, I don't have a wii so I can't say anything on the quality of this but, as an outsider to me this game looks identical to every other mario game. IGN has been going mental with their 10/10's GTA 4, Metal Gear Solid 4 etc, suggesting these are perfect. It makes me think just how much bull shit an X out of 10 score is.

While I did like gta 4 more than that toy box behemoth known as san andreas (which suffers the problems red dead redemption suffers)I gotta say I admire yahtzee for discrediting the score system, it's a system designed for short attention spans who think reading and listening are for poofters and want to get their frag on as soon as possible. Would literary critic Harold Bloom give Moby Dick a perfect 10 and rate the book in terms of Prettiness of Cover, Quality of Font and multi-reader/cooperative reading capabilities? Just to summarize, scores bad, criticism good.

 

[CK76]

If I got a Wii, the Mario games would be top of my list. Why? Because Mario does what he does better than anyone else in his genre. What other platformer is coming out this year? Been many challengers, but Mario keeps coming back reasserting that he made this genre and he still owns it. Besides, it's fun.

 

[The Cake Is Annoying]

Curse my now unfortunate choice of username.

 

[FolktheWorld]

Glad to see Yahtzee's a Bowie fan.

 

[The Paradigm]

Well I did it.
On my second viewing, I paused the video and watched his SMG1 review.
I feel complete.

 

[tikalal]

I liked the end particularly.

 

[ManaAdvent]

Quite frankly, I really enjoyed the game, and thought it was better than the first. Besides, if it ain't broke, don't fix it like they say.

Also, Mario games are mostly focused on gaming than the plot, and IMO, gameplay is the utmost important thing in games while plot is of course 2nd. SMG2 was fun to play and challenging esp. when collecting the green stars where it gets pretty frustrating. If Mario was focused on plot, we might get crappy stories like with some of the Sonic games out there, or worst, might get something similar to the Super Mario Bros Movie.

 

[Eponet]

Eww, cake.

 

[yanipheonu]

I just wish the "story" was bit better. You never play a Mario game for the story, but the Rosalina story added an extra layer to the classic Mario rescues Peach from Bowser story, and learning her back story is one of the deepest moments in Mario histroy :O.

As it is, it feels like an "LOL let's just slap together a new story"

But the gameplay is really fun, and more challenging that the original, so I guess I can't complain too much.

 

[Sudowoodo]

My mind completely disregarded the review, which I was agreeing on, the moment you said that The Simpsons stopped being good around Season 5. I mean some of the best episodes in the series occurred after that. If you had said it stopped being good around season 9 or 10, I would have agreed with you.

Good review regardless.

 

[SAMAS]

Curse my now unfortunate choice of username.

Ouch, man...

 

[Wolfy4226]

*offers everyone some....cake*

 

[flipsalty]

Wait, her cake needs to be spread wide?
I.e. her sex needs to be spread wide?

Uh-huh... other than that, nice episode.

I think he meant it as in pussy.

 

[ZeppMan217]

Cake time!

 

[bobbobberson]

What is wrong with releasing something that offers only new game play levels and nothing else? it should be fine to release games that offer game play with little innovation and only new level design. Crosswords are the same basic premise everyday yet still people do them. Why would anyone want an attempt at a story. By saying bowser kidnaps peach Mario must save her Nintendo basically has no story. No story is much better than a crappy or even kinda OK story because it doesn't detract from the rest of the game. I would rather watch an action movie that was just one battle with no story than one with a shit story tacked on. Ultimately the game gets good reviews because it accomplishes what it set out to do. Though it might not be ambitious it still is successful. It doesn't nessessary deserve a ten as that should be reserved for games that are truely ambitios will go down in history as important like mario 64 however it is not this games fault that review scores are high to the point of stupidity for all games

 

[McMarbles]

So the video was about 5 minutes of a rant we've all heard Yahtzee say about Mario, and then he just says the games fun and the music plays.

I'm not sure how people can think this was brilliant.

The emperor's been naked for the last few months, but nobody will admit it.

 

[Quicksilver1111]

He ignored the upped difficulty level. This game is surprisingly challenging compared to the original. Also like the level design more and there's a bit more variety in the missions.

 

[Lorginsms]

Not one, but two David Bowie references. lol. This was a good video in comparison to the last few. I felt they were going downhill. This one however, went uphill.

 

[Ravenlock80]

Yes, yes, I know, at some point everybody has a sacred calf slaughtered by Yahtzee and that's half the fun, but honestly? If you're going to take a game that's got the 3rd highest rating on GameRankings of any game *ever* and try to convince me that it isn't at least very good, you've bitten off more than you can chew no matter how big your mouth is.

SMG2 one of the most joyful examples of pure platforming gameplay ever made. It's challenging in just the right ways, especially if you intend to complete it 100%, and for him to say that the game "forgets that it's a sequel" or expects us to is flat-out nonsense. It picks up with almost no tutorial at all, and gets challenging much faster than its predecessor. It very clearly expects its audience to have played the first game and want more of the same with variations, and that's exactly what it delivers with almost no filler.

I don't mind Yahtzee being a whiny complainer, that's his shtick and it's frequently pretty funny stuff. But I'm surprised and disappointed when he says things that don't hold up to even casual scrutiny. Go ahead and say there's no gameplay innovation in the Zelda series, you'll be 100% right. But to call SMG or SMG2 "stagnant" is laughable.

 

[muticere]

"I guess the fanbase will get the franchise it deserves, but is this really all you want?"

No it is not actually! About a week before watching this review, I rented Super Mario Galaxy 2 from gamefly and found it enjoyable. It was more fun than the first Galaxy game, but I will be honest and say that as a Mario fan I felt a little insulted by the opening of the game. It made absolutely no attempt at trying anything in the least bit different, quickly shot through the stock plot opener of Bowser kidnapping the Princess, and seemed to disavow the existence of the first Galaxy game completely! I was so surprised when it came out and said the star festival happens every 100 years and thought to myself "so it's been 100 years since the events of Super Mario Galaxy 1 ?!?! That's when the last star festival (or whatever it was called) happened!" As a fan of these old franchises (Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Metriod, etc.) I expect certain conventions to be the same over the years, but I would at least appreciate it if Nintendo would at least acknowledge us gamers who have been with the company since the NES and would like to see some games targeted at us. That's why I agree with Yahtzee when it comes to the Mario RPG games. They're the only Mario games that seem to treat the player with some respect and make ironic self-deprecating jokes about the franchise and story.

But anyway, I digress. Good review as always. Every time Nintendo takes a direction I like, it always comes with a weird catch. But whatever. They're still usually "fun" I guess.

EDIT1: But in defense of the way the story was handled, that is one thing that I found appealing about this game vs its predecesor was that it got going almost immediately with very little exposition. Within a few moments of creating a new game I was already playing, and for a modern game that is a feat in and of itself.