Fat Plumbers Can Fly

So I just beat Super Mario Galaxy. Finally.

Just a warning - there are some minor spoilers in here, if you give a damn.

I got this game for Christmas the year it came out (2007, I wanna say) and played it shortly thereafter. And I played a good size chunk of it. But then it happened. I got distracted. Time went by, and the game sat there, half finished and forgotten. And the status dropped from "game I'm playing" to "game I'm half way through" to "game I really should finally finish". But the problem is, half the time when you get to that last stage, it's too late to pick up where you left off. You can't remember what the hell's going on, or the controls have become a fuzzy memory. So you know what that means - you have to start over. And it's just so sad, isn't it? Looking at the old file, seeing those 10 hours you sunk into a game you're now abandoning for a fresh start. That's 10 hours of your life down the toilet, basically. It's not easy to take.

And sometimes that second try doesn't go too well either. The distraction cycle starts all over again. And now it's 20 hours down the tubes.

Luckily for me I actually continued through this time, and finished the game. I didn't finish having gotten all the stars I would have liked to get, (not all of them, by any means, but most of them) but I knew with so many games coming out soon that I was likely to get taken over by "the distraction" (suddenly I've decided it's its own entity) and forget about it. Again. So since I was already at the end anyway, and could leave freely at any time to kick Bowser's ass, I did just that. He fell into lava, but of course, he's fine. That's old hat for him. He probably takes baths in the stuff by this point.

Now you don't really play a game like Mario for the story. It's pretty predictable. Good vs. Evil. Fat plumber loses pink clad Princess, fat plumber saves pink clad Princess. Oafish brother says he's gonna help but then ends up being more work. Mushroom head people cry and whine and get in the way. Giant evil lizard creature sends his child into harms way. Tiny stars commit mass suicide. Typical stuff.

I normally like Luigi, but he was completely stupid in this game. First you have to save his ass. Fine. He's saved you before - that one time, so fine. Then he offers to help you - he's gonna find some stars, he says. Great! You go do that. I've got like 100 to go. Way to be helpful, brother! You're the best. Then he finds a star all right. But he gets stuck/lost. And he's crying for you to come save him. Again. So his "help" just ends up being more work for you. This happens 3 times. And then he gives up. He's "tired" he says. And he crashes with the toads, who are probably doing shrooms or god knows what else. Meanwhile Mario's running around 24/7 shooting from galaxy to galaxy finding star after star and he's not complaining he's tired. Meanwhile Luigi, the brother who appears to be in better shape and not at risk for type II diabetes, has given up. Way to help. Just take up space with the rest of the toads, why don't you. Why don't you find that creepy doctor guy from Luigi's mansion and Super Mario Sunshine? I'm sure he could invent something out of a cardboard tube and a flashlight in 3 seconds that would be more useful than you.

But overall it was a fun game and I really enjoyed it. The platforming was great. Really inventive, if frustrating at times. I have a lot of experience with platformers since I've been playing them for over 20 years, so it takes a lot to challenge me. This game definitely brought it. But at the same time it wasn't ridiculously impossible, which I also hate. Nintendo knows how to make a platformer. And they know how to keep things fresh - there were plenty of elements I had never seen before. But this is no surprise.

People complain that Mario titles are all the same. Okay, story wise they have some ground to stand on, but really - who cares? Mario isn't about the story. It's about familiar characters you enjoy and great gameplay. And on those fronts, it's never disappointed me. Can't wait for Galaxy 2. Bring on Yoshi, because I seriously missed him in this game. Also, please don't have him dissolve into blobs of goo and die if he should touch water like what happened in Sunshine. Because that greatly disturbed me.

But having beat this game...it got me wondering... Could I make a list of every game I've ever beaten? Could you?

Well, I'm on the quest to find out. Stay Tuned.