Archive for June, 2010

The year was 1996 – the summer Olympics were to be held  in Atlanta, Ga – and a then 10 year old Ryan Kenward was about to discover one of the most amazing games of his life up to that point.  Being a proud SNES owner in a time where my friends were getting their PlayStation’s complete with 32-bit graphical eye candy, I was starting to think that perhaps the SNES ship had begun to sink.  Much to my excitement I remember seeing an article in a Nintendo Power Magazine about a little game called Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars – not knowing what the hell RPG meant I was excited as hell nonetheless.  I never owned this game, but I spent my allowance renting it several times.  Needless to say, it was a breath of relief that my SNES had not yet met it’s untimely demise and that perhaps I had another year or two until all of my friends had their PlayStation’s and I would be laughing when I had the “Nintendo Dolphin” — later known as N64.

Simply put, Super Mario RPG was quite a feat at the time of its release.  Now years later available in the Wii’s virtual console library I can say it is no less satisfying to play now than it was over 12 years ago.  The game starts out like all Mario games preceding it, Princess Peach has once again been kidnapped by Bowser (If I knew about restraining orders at 10 years old I may have suggested she get one) – like always, our hero Mario sets out to rescue her battling with Bowser on chandeliers held up by chomps.  After a quick battle with Bowser, Mario jumps up to reach the Princess.  His victory is short lived as a bad ass sword crashed into Bowser’s castle launching all three in different directions.  Mario just happens to wind up at his home (lucky shot) – and from there sets out on his initial adventure of saving our damsel in distress.  Mario is joined by a puffy humanoid with a frog complex named Mallow in the mushroom kingdom.  Their adventure leads them all over the three dimensional world through a roadway of bandits, a sewer full of baddies, a forest with some pissed off caterpillars, a sunken ship and much more!  Mario assembles a chain gang of cronies consisting of some familiar faces (Princess Peach and Bowser join his forces) – along with Mallow and Geno (a guardian of the star road)  Mario and company must recover the star pieces to reassemble the Star Road (as seen in Super Mario World [SNES]) so people’s wishes can come true again and also defeat the big sword suck in Bower’s keep named Smithy.
Graphically and in my opinion, Super Mario RPG is one of the strongest shows of the SNES’ capabilities.  It integrated animated turn style combat systems, a plethora of interesting levels, and unique characters all rendered in impressive 3D for that time in video gaming.

Like all Mario games, catchy tunes are omnipresent throughout the entire game.  A quick youtube search for Super Mario RPG turns up tons of song parodies to the game’s main theme.  One of the many reasons the SNES was better than the Sega Genesis was the sound capability – it is clearly demonstrated in Super Mario RPG.

There are several hours of game play involved, and even after you beat the game it is still fun to pop into it occasionally and look for hidden chests or just fight some bad guys just for fun.  Super Mario RPG is game that has excellent replay value; the entire journey through is equally as fun the second and third time.

All in all – the 800 Wii points ($8.00) is most definitely worth it to play this classic game.  Whether it is the first time playing, or a nostalgic return to a great game – Super Mario RPG will not disappoint!

Graphics: 9
Sound: 9.5
Fun Level: 9.5

Overall Rating: 9.5

Finally, another great success for the Wii!  While Wii titles that are genuinely all around good seemingly come far too infrequently, Wario Land: Shake It! was well worth the wait!  Immediately when you pop the game into your Wii you’ll be stepping into the time machine and will feel like you’re back in the golden days of Nintendo.  Wario Land: Shake It builds upon the great successes of past Nintendo titles without distorting it beyond recognition or fun by excessive use of the Wii’s features.  What I mean by this is that the controls will feel extremely intuitive.  Everything works exactly as you think it would – if you play any Wii games at all you know that this is becoming less and less common.  You hold the Wiimote sideways and use the buttons like a simple NES title.  While there is some waggle involved it isn’t to the point where it is over done.  For instance, to get the coins out of a bag of money you shake the Wiimote until the bag is empty.  A quick downward flick of the Wiimote will make Wario blast at the ground which is necessary throughout the game to solve the puzzles of each stage and find the treasures hidden within.

While the game is of course not in HD – it still will look great on an HDTV with the Nintendo component cables.  The actual artwork and graphics of the game are quite impressive!  The cartoonish style images are colorful, fun, and pretty straight forward.  The game looks and feels a lot like Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land for the original Game Boy.  Wario will use familiar moves like jumping up and smashing the ground or charging into enemies and breakable bricks.  What the game does not have are the various power up hats, which really doesn’t detract from the game experience as every power Wario does have is all you’ll need.  Each level has 3 treasures hidden within — trying to find them all is a rewarding experience alone.  You’ll need to think on your feet to solve puzzles while meanwhile trying to make it to the end of the level before time runs out.  The game features a Super Mario Land 3 (NES) map system with a boss at the end of each world.  Each level also has challenges built in such as collecting X amount of gold coins, avoid falling into water, so on and so forth – which continues to add into the reply factor.  While the game is not very hard, to actually get the full extent you will need to put time and thought into it.

Like any Nintendo game, an outstanding sound track will play you along in your journey as Wario to accumulate mass wealth and treasure.  Not only does the music really add to the game but simple sound effects are pretty good too – while they may not be the most inventive, they fit.

Overall, Wario Land: Shake It! is most definitely worth the buy for the upcoming holiday season, it is bound to please everyone who owns a Wii!