And a few levels have a haunted house feel to them.Īnother enemy you may run into is called a smeech. One of the bosses you battle is called a bouldergeist, obviously a derivative of poltergeist. Speaking of mildly mean foes, allow me to introduce you to a couple: Beyond the cartoon violence in games like this, you have to reckon with Boo ghosts, who chase you occasionally. As for those special power-ups, at certain points the persevering plumber can morph into one of seven differently enabled versions of himself: Cloud Mario, Rock Mario, Fire Mario, Bee Mario, Rainbow Mario, Boo Mario and Spring Mario.Īnd that’s just the tip of the iceberg-or more accurately, the tail of the comet-when it comes to the multitudinous ways the game varies the basic tasks of running, jumping and defending Mario from the mildly mean foes he meets along the way. That ride comes courtesy of the Starship Mario, a ship shaped like, no surprise here, Mario’s head. Two other necessities for interstellar pursuit: a cool ride and equally cool powers. One of Mario’s friends this time around is a little star-like character named Baby Luma who rides under his hat and gives him the power to attract other stars-whose energy Mario needs to keep chasing Bowser. Because the stewards of the Mario franchise have once again dreamed up cagey new ways to empower their hero as he chases Bowser across the universe in this 3-D (and occasionally 2-D) adventure. To accomplish that task, Bowser-who looks like a cross between a mad dog, a turtle and something out of a Godzilla movie-has been munching on power stars and morphing into supermonster proportions.Īnd so Mario must once again save the day.
The plumber’s arch nemesis, Bowser, has once again kidnapped Princess Peach and is bent on taking over the galaxy.
And as is often the case with this franchise, the proceedings here are as simple as they are complex.Īll the main characters Mario aficionados have come to love over the years are back (along with new ones, too). Mario’s latest platforming adventure on the Wii console more or less picks up where its predecessor, 2007’s Super Mario Galaxy, left off. And Nintendo is still figuring out clever new ways to put players in control of the most famous video game character of all time. Some 200 Mario titles have sold 210 million units worldwide since those golden days of my youth. And at the heart of that Nintendo’s allure was … Mario. But the void it left was quickly filled with the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. Believe it or not, the last Mario game I played for any length of time was Donkey Kong Junior on my ColecoVision in 1983.ĬolecoVision went the way of the dinosaur, of course. Put me squarely in the latter category, though I have to admit it’s been a couple of decades since my last go at the aforementioned jumping and power-upping. They’re just looking to have some fun clearing obstacles and chasing a princess who always seems to get hauled away by some nemesis, no matter how diligent poor Mario’s pursuit is. Grown-ups who need a mindless break and can’t put their hands on a Pac-Man game at the moment.
Second, there are players who want nothing more than a bit of innocent digital distraction. Not only are they masters of the strategic power-up and the perfectly timed jump, but they can dispense obscure bits of digital lore about Nintendo’s famously mustachioed, overall-wearing plumber-adventurer. These are the people who have diligently played through the scores of Mario games Nintendo has released since Donkey Kong got the party started in 1981. I suspect that there are two kinds of people who play Nintendo’s Mario-themed games.
0 kommentar(er)
