Linkstew

When the Game Boy Advance was released a couple of years ago, Nintendo also released a remake of Super Mario Brothers 2 as Super Mario Advance. They supposedly updated the game some, and I considered buying it at the time, but I ultimately decided against it on account of having already played Mario 2 back in the day, and there being several other GBA games out that I wanted to play.

A little later, I got the opportunity to borrow Super Mario Advance from a friend. So I borrowed it and played it, and beat it in one night. More than 10 years since I played the game, I still remembered where the warps were, and how to beat all the bosses, and more. Sure, I had fun playing it, and it was a nice little nostalgia trip while it lasted, but in the end, I was glad I didn't pay for it myself.

If you've ever played Mario 2 and you're thinking about buying this game, then I'd recommend you think twice. Though it's nice to able to save your progress, and the added dragon coin challenge adds some replay value, there's still just not enough new here to really justify full price. I'd recommend either renting it, or maybe try to find it cheap on eBay.

On the other hand, if you've never played Mario 2, this game is great fun. Of course, the game play is very different from your typical mario game, so if you want a game where you stomp on goombas and kick koopa shells, then you should probably look somewhere else. But it's still a uniquely fun game that has well stood the test of time. Additionally, this game features the first appearance of now classic enemies like shyguys, and features the only appearances of many other enemies with distinct character of their own who I'd like to see again some day.

Of course, I'd recommend the more recent Mario Advance remakes (of Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island) over Mario 2, but if you've already played those games and are thirsting for more Mario, this isn't a bad option. 4/5.

I played Luigi's Mansion way back in December 2001, but I've always wanted to say a few things about it, and I figure since I just wrote about Super Mario Sunshine, now was as good a time as any.

"This'll blow your mind. All your hard work lasted only a single night."
-- Dr. E. Gadd

That quote is from the end of the game, but it's ironic that it directly applied to me, because I played and beat the entire game in one night, and I've never actually played it since. Obviously, then, the length of the game is called into question. It took me somewhere between 4 and 6 hours to beat, by the time I died a few times. It probably would have been better spread out across a couple of evenings, but I was having so much fun that I just didn't want to stop until it was over.

I don't remember not liking the graphics at all, and the only things I remember about the graphics are good things, like nice transparency effects with the ghosts or how nicely the vacuuming the curtain effect was animated. I'd have to go check it out again to be sure, but in my memory, its graphics were at least as good as Super Mario Sunshine's.

I also don't remember a lot about the sound, but once again, what I remember is mostly good. Luigi's humming, screams, and cries for "Mario!" all work very well, and aren't overly intrusive. I do remember the vacuum noise starting to become a droning in some of the later rooms where I was effectively constantly vacuuming for several minutes continuously, but for the most part, it was ignorable. But, on the whole, nothing super offensive.

The basic suck up the ghost with the vacuum gameplay was enhanced with neat variations like the fire and ice vacuum, or just by sucking up a ball to use like a gun. There are only four bosses, but each one requires a moderately different approach to beating. Sometimes more difficult to figure out than how to beat the bosses is how to awaken some of the sleeping portrait ghosts. Once you figure out how to wake up one of those ghosts, however, it's very rewarding to fight him and ultimately capture him. Each ghost sucked in brings with it a small thrill of a job well done. While even more variety of gameplay would have quickly made for a longer game, the variety in the final game was just about right for its length.

I really enjoyed playing this game a lot, but in the end, its length is a pretty solid reason to recommend against buying it. Instead, I highly recommend you rent it some weekend and give Luigi's vacuum a whirl. It doesn't suck. Uh, except for when it's supposed to. 4/5.

I've been playing Super Mario Sunshine since I got it way back in September. Though I haven't quite finished it, I feel like I've played more than enough of it to say my piece.

For starters, the graphics were a fairly mixed bag. While things looked good for the most part, it seemed like I saw all of the good graphics early on (in particular, various water effects) and was left with the discovery of innumerable disappointing graphics for the remainder of the game. In some places it was a bad texture, in some places it was a blocky object, in some places it was strange clipping, and everywhere it was stupid looking islanders. It was a shame that there weren't more amazing graphics to find later in the game, because then I would have gotten something for my hard work.

Unfortunately, the player's introduction to the sounds of Super Mario Sunshine in the game's opening sequence is possibly some of the worst sound in the game. From the horrible airplane engine to various grunts, squeals, and cries from Mario, Princess and Toad, it's just ridiculously bad. I mean, I thought Sonic Adventure had bad sound, but this was worse. The sound situation only improves a little from there. The sound effects are incredibly repetitive throughout the game. Mario grunts and cries his way through all of his maneuvers, while all of the islanders Mario talks to make one of about three different guffaws. And off the top of my head, I can't even think of any of the game's music, because it was all drowned out by the sound effects.

So if the graphics and sound weren't that hot, how was the gameplay? Well, I hate to sound repetitive, but like the sound, the gameplay quickly started to get repetitive. The main problem here was that each level in the 8 or 9 worlds (depending on how you count) is set in the same exact place. There are minor variations between each level -- sometimes a river runs dry or a few platforms are repositioned -- but for the most part, each of the 8 levels in each world is identical. While this does have the advantage of letting players become familiar with navigating the larger areas that are sometimes difficult to make mental maps of, it pretty quickly sucks the novelty out of each world (especially the smaller ones) after about the third or fourth level.

In addition to the overall lack of scenery, many of the tasks also get repeated. It felt like collecting 8 red coins, racing what's 'is name to the finish line, chasing down Shadow Mario, and hosing people and places off, made up more than half of the game. To make matters worse, the camera sometimes felt downright antagonistic. I would position the camera just where I wanted it, and as soon as I moved, the camera would slowly drift to the point where Mario was completely obscured by a wall. Admittedly, where the tasks were unique, I really enjoyed them. For example, the two roller coaster tasks were by far among my favorites.

A few of the tasks involved Yoshi, but I didn't feel like they were really exploiting the game play opportunities Yoshi presented (reference Yoshi's Island). Instead, it felt like the Yoshi tasks involved Yoshi just because they made the task so much significantly harder. I seriously didn't play the game for a couple of months after getting to Ricco Harbor 8, which required spending forever getting the fruit dispenser to give you a certain fruit, and then precisely kicking a soccer ball like fruit to the Yoshi egg without accidentally kicking it into the water, and then precisely jumping Yoshi across small platforms above water. Did I mention that Yoshi disintegrates if he hits water, requiring you to go back and play the stupid fruit game again? Jesus christ that was infuriating.

One other thing that pissed me off to no end was what certain buttons do while Mario is on a fence. If Mario is on a vertical fence, A will cause him to jump away from the fence, while B makes him punch the fence. BUT, if Mario is hanging from a horizontal fence, A will cause him to punch upwards while B makes him fall off. The fallout of this is, if you're on a vertical fence, you hit B to punch a gate and get to the other side of the fence, but if you're hanging from a horizontal fence, you press A to "jump up through" the gate. If you forget and hit the wrong button, in the best case you're going to lose a lot of ground. In the worst case, you'll die. SO FRUSTRATING.

As for the big addition to Mario's Sunshine arsenal, the FLUDD water gun backpack? I felt like it added a moderate amount of variety to the game, and the hover mode took some of the emphasis off of precise jumping (which only made the obstacle courses and yoshi segments that much more frustrating). However, it felt like still more could have or should have been done with FLUDD to expand the game play options further.

It was nice to see the little link between Luigi's Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine in that Dr. E. Gadd made the backpacks that the brothers wear in each of their games, but a little more of a tie between the two would have been a nice bonus for those who actually played Luigi's Mansion.

There are something like 120 Shines to earn in the game, but I'm going to beat the game with around 65, and frankly, I have absolutely zero motivation to go back and try to earn the rest of the Shines, much less do I want to try to find all of the blue coins. Even with the help of gamefaqs that would totally suck. Earning the Shines I've already got was pretty hard, and there were several points where I set the controller down boiling with anger at how close I'd repeatedly come to succeeding, but still ultimately failing. Trying to do some of those obstacle courses with a time limit (among other things) to earn all of the shines would probably actually put me over the edge.

So, in a nutshell, the game is hard. I seriously cannot imagine an 8 year old kid playing this game and getting very far at all.

Have I used the word "unfortunate" 50 times by now? It seems like I have, and if I haven't it's only because I've been trying to check my urge to use the word. But really, "unfortunate" is the first word I that comes to mind when thinking about Super Mario Sunshine. In the end, I can only give Super Mario Sunshine 3.5/5. There just wasn't enough good to make up for its multitudinous annoyances. If you know someone who owns it, borrow it. Otherwise, rent it. But I don't really think it's worth buying unless you're a big mario fan.

Just skimming the news for the week, here's what catches my eye:

• Crazy Taxi 3 is coming first, and possibly exclusively, to the Xbox. D'oh. But then again, I haven't particularly cared for what I've played of Crazy Taxi 2, so perhaps it's for the best. (See Benjy rationalize away Xbox's every advantage).
• Here are some pictures of Pokemon Advance. While I'm interested in this game, there's absolutely no getting around the fact that the graphics are very disappointing. There better be some rockin' GameCube/Game Boy Advance interaction to make up for the graphics.
• Oh, Mario Tennis (And Mario Golf, but that's less exciting) is coming to the GameCube. Mario Tennis for the N64 was a blast. Now where's Mario Party 4?
• The notoriously harsh Famitsu gave the GameCube exclusive remake of Resident Evil (known as Biohazard in Japan) a 39/40. Wowie. I might have to give this game a try, though I've never played any of the Resident Evil games to date.
• Finally, some Sony guy has some interesting ideas about where he thinks video game consoles will go. Here's my favorite imaginary scenario involving this idea: The PS2 becomes even more popular, to the point that it's considered to have a monopoly on video game hardware. Then, Sony gets in trouble for trying to sell TVs with its Video Game monopoly. Heh, one unlikely scenario amongst hundreds.

In fact, if you're a fan of classic platform-game action, the GBA price drop comes at a perfect time with the impending releases of Sonic Advance on February 4th and Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World on February 14th. There's some sort of sick irony about a sonic game and a mario game both coming out for the Game Boy Advance within about a week of each other, but instead of worrying about it, I think I'll just pick up both games and enjoy replaying Mario World and exploring Sonic Advance.

And the icing on the cake is that Sonic Adventure 2 Battle is also coming out for the Gamecube on the 14th. Once I heard that Sonic Adventure 2 would be coming out for the Gamecube, I put off on buying the Dreamcast version. Even better is that Sonic Adventure 2 on the Gamecube can interface with Sonic Advance on the Game Boy Advance to exchange data to (presumably) open up extra gaming options in each game.

Ah, platforming goodness! How can you possibly go wrong?

There's been three installments in the Mario Party series to date, and I've played and enjoyed them all. In brief, Mario Party puts you and your friends in control of various Nintendo mascots on a map which looks and acts just like a board game. You roll a digital die and move your spaces, choosing a path when there's a fork in the road, attempting to sabotage your opponents with items you've picked up along the way, and gathering coins and stars by landing on the right square at the right time. If that sounds boring, don't worry, because that's only half the game. After every round, a small game takes place -- sometimes it's a matter of hitting a combination of buttons as much as possible, sometimes it's memorizing a pattern, sometimes it's a matter of precision, still other times it's a matter of russian roulette.

Yes, it's a simple formula. Yes, it's possible to play just the mini-games without futzing around with the board game. Yes, it's a game that isn't fun in and of itself, but which is fun because you're playing it with your friends. If you regularly play four-player games, and you're actually getting tired of Smash Brothers or Tetris, etc, then this is a perfect addition to your game library, and is well worth the money. If you're solely a solo-gamer, then you can spend your money on something better suited to your unique habits.

The graphics in all three versions of Mario Party are about the same, as there's only so much that the poor little N64 is capable of. There are subtle enhancements as the series progresses, but they're hardly worth noting. Luckilly, Mario Party is also a game which doesn't need stunning graphics. It's only a framework to having a good time with some friends.

The sound is good throughout, with lots of catchy little musical tunes. Notably, the intro theme from Mario Party 2 frequently pops into my head and brings a smile to my face. On the other hand, the character voices are used a little too often (though it is not as bad as the insanity in Super Mario Advance), and if I hear Toad shout Ya-Hoo! one more time, I'm going to go nuts. But on the whole, the sound and music doesn't get in the way of the fun.

As hard as it is to explain, the theme went from very lighthearted and whimsical in 1 and 2 to dark in Mario Party 3. It's not a bad change, it's just an unusual change. I think the main difference is the music is a little darker, which leaves a subconscious residue coloring my view of the rest of the game. I don't mind the darker mood, but while playing Mario Party 3, I did find myself craving the lighthearted fun of Mario Party 2 from time to time.

As far as the mini-games go, they come in all shapes and sizes, and between all three Mario Party games, well over 100 little games have been introduced. Most are good, but as with any sample that large, there are a few rotten ones. Every time "The beat goes on" came up, for example, we would all let ourselves lose, just because the game is so annoying. And each of us has mini-games that we excel at, and games that we can't do well at for any reason.

If you're only going to play one of the games, I would recommend 3, because it had a lot of enhancements added. It has more mini-games, more modes of play, and more variety in the board game element. If you were going to try out two, I would suggest 2 and 3. It's not worth your time to try all three at this point, though.

Or, instead of trying any of the N64 installments, you can wait until Mario Party 4, which is due out on the Gamecube some time next year. What I would like to see in a Mario Party 4 is a return of the lighthearted feel of 1 and 2, with the systems of 3, and all of the mini-games from the first three games (yes, even the bad ones, because bad is subjective) as well as a ton of new games. With the new Gamecube mini-dvd format, a single disc will be able to hold all of those games and more.

If you enjoy playing video games with a lot of your friends, then one of these three games is for you, and at the very least you should give one a rent. Any one of them earns a 4/5 on it's own merits.