In this series of articles celebrating the upcoming 30th Anniversary of Super Mario, various members of the Nintendo Life extended family will share their memories and thoughts on the iconic franchise. This time we have our charming reviewer Joel Couture.
There was a long period in my life where I felt I needed violence in my games to keep me interested. I craved the headshot, the sound of sword meeting flesh, the crunch of fists slamming into bone. If I didn't have those things, then the game was childish. Built for little kids. Not for me, a grown man who needed to see people hurt to know he was playing serious games for serious players. This was where I was at back in 2007, playing Gears of War on my new Xbox 360 and feeling nothing but regret for my Wii purchase.
Super Mario Galaxy rolled around that year in November. In the days before I worked the launch at Gamestop I'd look at the back of the box on my lunch breaks. Walking on planets? Jumping across whole worlds? That sounded kind of neat. Jumping on goombas, though? Kicking turtle shells, all while listening to Mario's endlessly joyous cries? That was the sort of stuff I played while plunked on the bedroom floor with my dad when I was young. Not for this discerning adult, who needed corpses and angst. What did the smiling plumber have to offer me any more?
Wonder.
I felt something I hadn't felt while playing games for a long time: wonder. I was in awe of the massive, plant-covered planets that swirled through the beautiful cosmos, seeing all the lush colour contrasted against the black skies. Moreso, I was in awe of the powerful happiness I felt exploring those worlds, leaping from one planet's gravity to the next, feeling I would hurtle off into space with every jump. But I didn't. As usual, the grinning plumber had everything well under control so long as I gave him the right directions. All that was left was for me to savour the thrill of being able to jump across planets and hurtle through space - a delightful dream I could relive whenever I liked.
Somewhere along the way, I'd forgotten that games can make you feel happy, and that something that made you smile wasn't just built for children. I'd forgotten that Nintendo, while crafting excellent games, was also the only developer in the world who seemed capable of harnessing joy and turning it into a gameplay experience. Unlimited days of sunshine and play lie before me when Mario was with me, as well as all of the triumphs and crushing defeats of the gritty games I felt I had to play as an adult.
Super Mario Galaxy helped me welcome wonder back into my gaming life. It reminded me how good it felt to feel happy while playing a game, and that a powerful imagination could be worth far more than a thousand hours of bleak 'realism'. No wonder that Mario, the character who'd showed me the joy of games to begin with, was the one to bring that joy back when I thought I needed to leave it behind.
Comments 22
And it was the first appearance of captain toad :3
Funny how the game showed me wonder incarnate when I listened to its soundtrack two days ago.
I'm not kidding, it's that good, and I really want to play the game now.
In the third paragraph it says, "planet covered planets," I know that is technically right, but IMO it would sound better if you said planet covered worlds.
Sadly that powerful imagination has disappeared since then.
This is wonderful. Really shows how gaming has changed. When you grow up, or in some places before that, a game isn't a game unless its full of murder and corpses and kids swearing more than a soldier.
The writer wouldn't by any chance be in the UK, given he stated he felt as though he HAD to play those kinds of games
Almost all video games channel one's inner child in some way or another. Games like Gears of War channel some of the less savory aspects: the power trips, cruelty, and anger one sometimes felt as a child. The best Nintendo games channel something more pure: that sense of wonder about a bright, beautiful world that is slowly beaten out of us on our way to adulthood.
If I had to volunteer a candidate for the title of "mature game," though, I'd probably go with something like Shadow of the Colossus: a game that is simultaneously beautiful, tragic, melancholy, mysterious, and morally ambiguous.
@Ralizah I've never felt any anger or cruelty channeled by a game like that.
Not a perfect game (some issues with controlling the character and camera in 3D, and imo some slightly "girly" graphics in places, which was a bit unnecessary), and not as good as the best 2D Super Mario Bros games (two of which are basically the pinnacle of the platforming genre as far as I'm concerned, and three if you count Yoshi's Island), but a very good 3D Mario platformer.
@Ralizah For a "mature" game, I'd probably go with Journey. It's not "kiddie" but it is about as wondrous, magical, emotional, inspiring, uplifting, artistic and beautiful as gaming gets imo.
As I see kids and some teens and adults buying only 'M' rated games, they seem to think that buying those are the only thing that makes you an adult. I'm 35 and I love playing the platformer titles and party games more. I guess I'm old school, but in the Atari and NES days, there were no ratings on games. We had the occasional blood and horror themes, but they never went out of their ways to be the 'let's make it as violent as we can, let's put as much of the 'F' bomb and nudity as we can in'. Mortal Kombat was the first game to introduce the rating system that I remember, which then came games like Beavis and Butthead and Boogerman. Grand Theft Auto is what pushes it, and continues, to where kids think it's cool to kill people, but that's not what makes these kids go out and kill.
I do like the occasional M rated title (Assassin's Creed, Until Dawn, Eternal Darkness, Silent Hill, Castlevania), but my kids don't play or see them due to the graphicness in them.
I guess I feel that games are meant to be played with others...like a board game. Nintendo games always bring joy with their brand of characters and visuals, which is what makes them a great company for gaming. If nintendo wasn't around, I think gaming would be bland. I like Sony too, but there's not many good children games out on it that attract kids and some of their E rated child titles, contain a little too much adult references or dark images. Nintendo is like Disney...made for young children and young kids at heart. Sony is like Universal...made for the older kids and teens. Both can have various games and even go into M ratings, but they should both keep various selections.
Probably one of the best games ever created, perfect graphics, control, camera etc. But bettered by SMG 2 with the amazing (blimp) Yoshi and the new mechanics. Superb soundtrack.
I actually thought Mario 3D World is a better game, as the latter does not have camera issues.
This one did put a smile in my face. Infact, that's true for every Nintendo game I have played as of now.
I just replayed Super Mario Galaxy a few weeks ago, for the first time since 2007. I forgot how great the game is. Not as groundbreaking as Super Mario 64 but a fantastic game in its own right. SMG2 is almost as good, but I enjoyed the original more.
@Kirk Journey is brilliant but very short, and not really a 3D platformer is it...bit of an odd comparison imo.
@adamatsu
I think @Kirk was offering a game to go with @Ralizah expounding on maturity in gaming. Not sure it matters what genre except maybe: video game.
@shyguylink Yeah, that works too. I think the term "twee" is pretty descriptive too.
Twee, cutesy, girly—all those things in places, which to me isn't something the original Super Mario Bros games really suffered from (all the way from SMB to SMW), and to me that's also what helped make them so universally appealing without being patronising and/or slightly off-putting to certain gamers, especially older male gamers.
It wasn't until New Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Galaxy that I started noticing Nintendo forcing the overt "cuteness" of the design in its Super Mario games in certain areas, and it's not a trend I particularly like.
@adamatsu Well it's as much a 3D platformer as Shadow of the Colossus is a 3D platformer, which is what Ralizah brought up and what I was responding to with my own example of Journey as a similarly "mature" but amazingly magical game.
@aaronsullivan Exactamundo.
@pherret022 it actually says 'plant covered planets...'
Mario games make you swear and curse while smiling . It's why im 33 can't stop playing Nintendo games.
@FLUX_CAPACITOR yay, another person saved
I never understood those who are afraid to embrace the cute and adorable. I've lived a hard life growing up and I can tell you, it's the peaceful things that bring me joy in my life.
Not to say I don't play the violent, realistic games too. But in the end none of that matters. What matters is whether or not the game is fun. How it looks is irrelevant, although having a cute appeal is a HUGE plus in my book.
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