Zero Punctuation: Super Mario Galaxy

laikenf

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Oct 24, 2007
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viciousmaniac said:
Can never understand why people expect Shakespeare out of Mario. Do you ever get to see a gripping sex scene between Popeye and Olive Oyl, let alone see the dynamic change between him, Bluto, and the ditzy rubber-legged slag? Do you ever see Mr. Bean suddenly have a nervous breakdown and confess to Teddy his first name and that he's gay? No, and why? Because all of that, however interesting, is not the point of those characters. The point of those characters ARE their usual antics. Popeye's out to do absurd physical feats with his spinach. Mr. Bean is here to give us physical comedy. Mario exists to jump on colorful platforms/enemies. The rest is really incidental to this, pretty much proven so everytime, so why get angry when it's not there? Love it or hate it.

To be honest, when I hear the complaints and bashings about Mario not having some sort of epic storyline, it just makes me think "thou doth protest too much". If you really think Mario is a "git", then you really wouldn't care about him at all enough to complain. I'm sure you can tell a riveting story with Mario (he's a fat Italian plumber from Brooklyn living in Wonderland after defeating a giant gorilla, that's worlds of possibilities), or really anybody, and I'd actually wouldn't mind seeing it with Mario, but that's not what Miyamoto has in mind. The man enjoys his Disney and Depression-era cartoon characters, Mario is a giant homage to them, let him and us enjoy that or stop playing.

Otherwise, excellent review. To the bashers, the point of criticism IS to foster debate and discussion, not gush over what you like as well (unless you are a critic from the MSM, whom 99% thereof feel their opinion is holy writ).
So true, if you want a deep story line then drop that Mario game and get yourself a Metal Gear Solid or a Final Fantasy game. Just picture how pretentious a Mario game would be with an epic gripping story and deep dialog. Besides I personally couldn't care less for in game stories, my gaming career (if you can call it that) has gotten to a point where I really don't pay attention to stories (I keep skiping cut-scenes all the time and when I can't skip them I take the moment to stand up, stretch, get a glass of water or order some food) there are a lot of good books to read and great movies to watch so I really rely on a GOOD game (read game play) to be able to enjoy myself (I'm sure a lot of people my age feel the same way).
 

Muzz

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Sep 20, 2007
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I'm not too sure about this one. It had everything I should like, but Yahtzee sounded kinda beaten and tired. There was something lacking in the Glee department. I don't know why exactly.
Oh well. Keep it up old boy anyway. Looking forward to more meta-gaming and/or gaming culture commentary. Yahtzee's year in games would be awesome.
 

romitelli

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Jan 2, 2008
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TheTakenOne said:
Edit: And personally I think the "Game Of the Year" title is frivolous anyway. A lot of my favorite games would never be considered Game Of the Year by any review site but it doesn't make me love the game any less. If you really need a whole community to agree with you on the greatness of a game for you to lend credibility to your argument that it's so great, then why even form your own opinion?
To be awarded "Game of the Year" the title doesn't only have to be good; it has to be recent. It is similar to the Oscar-effect, where christmas-launched movies seem fresher than others.

This, of course, is amplified by the fact that most game critics grew up on Mario.
(Not Yahtzee, evidently)
 

tobyornottoby

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Jan 2, 2008
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Malidictuim said:
u2rocksbaby said:
It makes sense that you couldn't find anything wrong with a game as short as Portal, actually. A shorter game has lower expectations.
That, plus Portal being innovative and fun as opposed to all the games today stinking up the place with good graphics and gameplay as deep as a teaspoon.
That's exactly what MG is ^^ innovative & fun, no story or (outstanding) graphics. So I wonder, if the exact game would be made but with non-mario graphics, I guess even Yathzee would find it indie enough to love it :p

And Yahtzee complaining that a Mario game is lacking in the story department is like complaining a shoe store doesn't sell authentic iron greaves used in the Battle of Crécy, so we're both allowed to have our respective opinions.
indeed
 

thestor

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Dec 19, 2007
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He really spoke quite slow for his standards, and although I could understand more this way (I am no native English speaker as you probably already guessed), I don't like it, I like him rambling on at near-supersonic speed. Even if I'd only get half of his jokes (though usually more like 90%), it'd still be more jokes per minute than when he talks so horrible slow, um normal.
 

Chis

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Nov 28, 2007
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laikenf said:
So true, if you want a deep story line then drop that Mario game and get yourself a Metal Gear Solid or a Final Fantasy game.
Haha! Now THAT is comedy.

... what, you were serious?

Go play Planescape: Torment if you want a seriously properly arse-crunchingly good story, with truly fascinating characters. Even Kefka falls short by comparison.
 

SacrificiaLamb

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Nov 14, 2007
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On his website he clearly states that his reduced pace and volume were due to him not wanting to wake his roommate, who was sleeping in the next room. True? I don't know, but that's his explanation.
 

PurpleRain

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Dec 2, 2007
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Malidictuim said:
Lucien21 said:
Wow, this is getting seriously tiresome.

Is there anything this guy actually likes?

He's not paid for objective reviews, he's paid to rip games to pieces. He revels in the fun of dismantling years of development as he takes one of the games of the year and throws it to the lions, The fevered crowd wait for the carnage.

All hail Caeser.
He liked Psychonauts and Portal.
And Bioshock, and he never said he didn't like Mass Effect either.
 

broadband

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Dec 15, 2007
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i think this review lacked of bashing, funny facts like the big number of male chars in games that are white with short brown hair, and words like ugly ************, heh

and i understand that mario has practicly no storyline but for some people that like to guess, it driven us crazy
 

Tzachitx

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Jan 7, 2008
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I personally don't see what everyone's whining about. If you don't like it, don't watch it, simple as. You don't need to gripe about it.

Personally even after watching all of Yahtzee's reviews, i still find myself checking ZP obsessively every wednesday, waiting for the moment his new review is up. What people don't seem to realise is that thought he DOES rip these games to pieces, if you actually LISTEN you will find that he does ENJOY most of them, but at the end of the day it's a game's flaws that determine how confortable or otherwise it is to play. Not to mention it's more interesting to listen to.

I do, however, agree that this week's ZP seemed the slowest so far... other than that though, another great review!
 

DrmChsr0

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Jan 7, 2008
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I'm waiting for the next review where he espouses the same praise for a game like he did for Portal.

It'll be so funny, it'll make everyone pee in their pants.
 

The Conformist

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Nov 1, 2007
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Love the game, love the review. Nice work.

The issues Yahtzee expressed mirror my own and I bet other peoples views too (though they won't actually admit it).

Yes the camera wonks out and yes Mario sometimes goes in the wrong direction to what you thought he should, yes it would have possible on the Gamecube, but it's still a wonderful game, it's still game of the year.

I don't think this review really wanted to set about dispelling its hype or rip it to peices, it just reviewed it rather well, even if it was slightly elaborating on the cons slightly more than the abundant amount of pros this game has and were evidently experienced by Yahtzee.

And remember, it's just one persons review, and an amusing one at that. Take it for what it is.
 

Corbineau

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Nov 20, 2007
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tobyornottoby said:
I don't get the things I want from a review:
- I want a review to be more serious, because every joke is 1 informative line less: I get very little information about the game from ZP
- I want information about the game, not the context: When I read a review, I want to know what Zelda and Mario are like, not that N should try new things
- I want unbiased reviews, or maybe written by someone with my likes & dislikes

so yeah, it's 99% entertainment and 1% review for me :p
So, it's not that it's not a review. It is that it is not /your/ review.

Though I personally am not sold on the "reviews r SEERIUS BIZNIS" idea. I kind of like context relevant jokes. And while I might concede that, on other games, I would like to know what the characters are like et al, I'm pretty certain that at this late date, I rather know what Mario and Zelda are like. Though you were probably referring to gameplay, and I think, rather, it covered that fairly well. No, you won't get all 100% of the information regarding every nuance of the game, but I have yet to see a review that does that well.

You might prefer gametrailers.com, for your "hmmm should I buy this game?" wonderment.