Another rambunctious (did I spell that right?) review by ours truely.
My only critisism of the critic: But c'mon! It's Mario :D

Lucien21:
Wow, this is getting seriously tiresome.

Is there anything this guy actually likes?

You do realize that complaining about Yahtzee giving a negative review is like complaining about shoe stores selling shoes.

That's what he does. He plays the games that we all think are the bees knees and then decisively points out why we're stupid for thinking so. Other reviewers tend to concentrate on how good or bad a game is, Yahtzee concentrates on what the game could be and, naturally, finds the actual game coming up short -- repeatedly.

Wraithfighter:
Uh, he liked SMG. He just found some faults with aspects of the game, especially how it follows the Mario carbon-copy storyline verbatim.

Flattered it with faint praise more like.

Kwil:
You do realize that complaining about Yahtzee giving a negative review is like complaining about shoe stores selling shoes.

Hence the reason it's tiresome. Same shit different game.

Lucien21:
Flattered it with faint praise more like.

Faint praise is still praise :).

Look, it's a matter of perspective. Most review sites think of an average game as deserving a 7, so you scale their review scores back a bit to compensate. A reviewer makes it known their general disgust of turn-based combat, you pay less attention when they criticize a classical RPG's combat.

And with Yahtzee, any praise at all is akin to another reviewer jumping up and down and saying he loves it.

It's not that he loves putting down flaws in games. It's just that he's an optimist about how good some games can be and he doesn't want the flaws to continue to exist.

I mean, seriously, who is really okay with Mario's cookie cutter stories anymore?

Lucien21:
Is there anything this guy actually likes?

Portal

Is anyone else getting seriously tired of the comment wank? I know I am.

It seems whenever Yahtzee makes a review, a thousand people hastily make accounts so they can all rush in and say Yahtzee is wrong, that he's not funny, or that he's a terrible reviewer, or they just whine and rant about how anyone could possibly point out flaws in their precious, precious games.

People get so hung up on the flaws that he points out, that they generally miss the part where Yahtzee says he enjoys the game (And by that point, they're probably frothing at the mouth with indignant fanboy rage, because how could anyone have a different opinion about than them? :O). Its not wrong for Yahtzee to point out the flaws, he SHOULD point out the flaws, no game is perfect and its far more lazy to just lavish these titles with perfect scores and treat them like classical works of art, than to say, "Okay, its a good game, but I noticed some problems."

...and Psychonauts.

Seriously, what's the big deal? It's nice to have ONE reviewer actually point out issues where all other reviewers ignore or try to excuse them. He did say he liked it, so getting upset that he nit-picks after that is a sure sign of medium to severe fanboyism and/or angst.

Nice review, Yahtzee. It's certainly one of the few reviews that I agree with almost completely (though like Wraithfighter said, I've enjoyed them all nonetheless).

i was having withdrawal symptoms over christmas, so thank god this was a excellent review, ahh i'm all sedated now. hum so yahtzee's left handed eh? thats considored a sign of evil in many civilisations ya know.

See, I take Zero Punctuation as less of a review (though it makes good points from time to time) and more as entertaining satire. So, to me, this episode sort of fell flat in the humor department. I dunno, maybe it's the subject matter. Is it really all that funny that Mario never gets any from Peach? I never expected it in the first place. It's a Mario game after all. Let me try explaining in other terms.

Let's say your mom contracted AIDS through a needle accident at the hospital she works at. Being so, AIDS really isn't all that funny to you. You can see the humor in someone's joke about AIDS and you almost want to laugh but you just can't bring yourself to it. That's what this episode felt like.

That example is a little extreme perhaps but it's the first thing that came to mind. Anyone see where I'm coming from and feel the same?

It's a little disturbing how much I missed my Zero Punctuation fix over the past week. Not enough people take the piss out of Mario. Bravo, Yahtzee.

Lucien21:

Kwil:
You do realize that complaining about Yahtzee giving a negative review is like complaining about shoe stores selling shoes.

Hence the reason it's tiresome. Same shit different game.

One might suggest that if you don't like purchasing shoes, you shouldn't bother going to the shoe store.

I completed this game few days ago got all 120 stars and the bonus it gives is simple but suprisingly chalenging.

Basically youget to play from the beginning allover again exept you play as Luigi and he runs faster jumps further etc but he stops like mario does on ice so be carefull with your running!!!!

This has made all the levels harder especially the Black hole worlds.

beoweasel:
Is anyone else getting seriously tired of the comment wank? I know I am.

It seems whenever Yahtzee makes a review, a thousand people hastily make accounts so they can all rush in and say Yahtzee is wrong, that he's not funny, or that he's a terrible reviewer, or they just whine and rant about how anyone could possibly point out flaws in their precious, precious games.

Yes. It's almost as tiring as reading an equal number of posts complaining about those people.

Should I point out yes, Mario has done the equivalent to Jason vs Freddy in Mario and sonic at the Olympics?

Russ, have you added this review to the ZP page yet? Because even after clearing my browser cache, I'm still not seeing it here:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/

Excellent review as always, Yahtzee. Top work.

8Track:
I want to play this Mario Galaxy with the horrible camera angle. Mine seems perfect, and you may wanna take the lead weights of your Wiimote as waggle isn't exactly a taxing exercise.

Another interesting comment, is how you explain all the different spin-offs in to Mario franchise, that involve the characters off Go-Karting, playing tennis, ramming pills in peoples mouths, but then later on explain that Mario does nothing different.

Super Mario RPG was different... And that's the only spinoff I can think of that was actually clever. I mean, my little brother can also come up with: "X was a fireman, now he's a policeman, tomorrow he'll be an astronaut and in three days he'll be a dad". Come on, that doesn't need any talent.

Hehe, my like Wednesdays.

Although I dunno, the shifting Gravity and shaking of the Wiimote were some of my favorite parts about Galaxy, and maybe I'm just not as good as Yahtzee, but the final boss fight for me was really f*cking hard.

I do agree about the creepiness factor of feeding those puff guys a bunch of stars to make them transform, sometimes into a mushroom for you to eat. Ew.

Lucien21:
Wow, this is getting seriously tiresome.

Is there anything this guy actually likes?

He's not paid for objective reviews, he's paid to rip games to pieces. He revels in the fun of dismantling years of development as he takes one of the games of the year and throws it to the lions, The fevered crowd wait for the carnage.

All hail Caeser.

I'm all for it, rip it to pieces. If you don't agree with some or all of his review, and perchance like the game, you don't have to let his review affect that. And if any part of it rings true, perhaps you could acknowledge it, even if it is perhaps minor. Those criticisms may be valid and not destroy the entire game. I guess I would criticize his criticism only in that, same old same old can be good. Little to no stress, easily adaptable, and there need not be a revolution every day for man to get anywhere good. Though the comparison is like comparing apples to WWII, I feel as though it has some pertinence. but meh. Good review, I laughed, keep writing, I'll keep reading.

Good review, but I think he got the gravity part wrong because that's exactly the whole apeal of the game (the way gravity affects gamplay). I mean, honestly, if you take that away from SMG then what will be so special about it?

Details, details. This ZP made me laugh more than the last few, probably because I'm playing the game (and really enjoying it.)

-Adam

Thanks! :D

Good review... Never played smg (and probably won't anytime in the future) so I can't/won't judge it.

Chis:
Russ, have you added this review to the ZP page yet? Because even after clearing my browser cache, I'm still not seeing it here:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/

Looks like there was a minor error in the page. Should be good now. Thanks for the catch.

Well, very good. All the criticisms were pretty well-founded. Easy boss battles (I say they're pretty fun and epic, though), same ol' premise, and an arbitrary, dated life system. But in reality, these are really very minor issues compared to what Mario Galaxy is as a whole.

To me, SMG felt so dumbed down. Maybe it's because I played SM64 when I was a toddler, but this game was easier than playing Halo against an Altoid.

I agree with just about everything else though.

I was hoping for COD4 but oh well excellent review as always is it just me or are games actually becoming fun for you as opposed to "a second job"

Uh, he liked SMG. He just found some faults with aspects of the game, especially how it follows the Mario carbon-copy storyline verbatim

This review is like 99% positive :p

very true quote from gamasutra:

This game is wholeheartedly a game, and doesn't shy away from it -- more, it embraces it. In the first level of Future, Ratchet may traverse an amazing futuristic city. Mario traverses challenges -- nothing more, nothing less.

Again, just as with Zelda: the same characters, the same plot, the same goals every time doesn't matter for these games, because it's about the rules, not the representation ^_^ (yeah zelda is way more in the middle)
(I am a representation gamer though (or a vorthos for knowers of magic-slang) so I don't have galaxy yet and also startb to wonder why I bought a Wii >.>)

Darkong:
I thought that the whole gravity thing was the best part of the game, it gave a greater sense of freedom than a normal 3D platformer does and its fun to see if you can long jump right around a planet, and the camera was pretty much the best one any game has had in a long time, it never got stuck and was almost always in the best place to see the action.

I agree, I thought the gravity was a nice gimmick, that really set it apart from the others.

Of course, I also forgave the abundance of extra lives by saying that the reason for it is probably that Nintendo didn't want to HAVE a life counter in the first place, and giving so many one-ups was the next best thing to getting rid of it altogether. Now, as for why they didn't ACTUALLY get rid of it altogether, well, that's a bit of a conundrum.

EDIT: Oh, and I too noticed that Yahtzee seems to be talking a lot slower than normal. What's up with that? Ah well, the drawings were great.

Oh, and I thought Super Mario Sunshine was one of the best games in the Mario franchise, and while I should probably know better than to say that in a ZP thread, I loved the game, so fuck you. :)

Probably because they wanted a life counter : P

Good review of SMG, but like others said, it sounded like Yahtzee was drunk, bored, or didn't care about this episode. He also slowed wayyy down. Finally, not that I'm an uptight prick, but the gratuitous toilet humor and cursing is distracting, not funny here.

tobyornottoby:
This review is like 99% positive, nice o.O

very true quote from gamasutra:

This game is wholeheartedly a game, and doesn't shy away from it -- more, it embraces it. In the first level of Future, Ratchet may traverse an amazing futuristic city. Mario traverses challenges -- nothing more, nothing less.

Again, just as with Zelda: the same characters, the same plot, the same goals every time doesn't matter for these games, because it's about the rules, not the representation ^_^
(I am a representation gamer though (or a vorthos for knowers of magic-slang) so I don't have galaxy yet and also wonder why I bought a Wii >.>)

MTG nerds FTW! (I'm a Johnny myself.)

I'm with you there, although I don't have SMG and I probably won't get it unless I get a steady flow of cash very soon.

This review was surprisingly positive and I might actually go buy Super Mario Galaxy if I ever have the chance, but I'm saving for a PS3 and I need money set aside for Brawl. Boooo @ being poor. =(

Glad to see you liked it.

dv8withn8:
See, I take Zero Punctuation as less of a review (though it makes good points from time to time) and more as entertaining satire. So, to me, this episode sort of fell flat in the humor department. I dunno, maybe it's the subject matter. Is it really all that funny that Mario never gets any from Peach? I never expected it in the first place. It's a Mario game after all. Let me try explaining in other terms.

Let's say your mom contracted AIDS through a needle accident at the hospital she works at. Being so, AIDS really isn't all that funny to you. You can see the humor in someone's joke about AIDS and you almost want to laugh but you just can't bring yourself to it. That's what this episode felt like.

That example is a little extreme perhaps but it's the first thing that came to mind. Anyone see where I'm coming from and feel the same?

No, I have no idea what the fuck you mean with that bizarre example.

I understand that games don't need plots to be fun, but I don't understand why people are embracing that Nintendo is being lazy/blatant fanservice by doing the exact same thing over and over again with no variation or explanation whatsoever, even though, when you look at it objectively, the whole thing is completely nonsensical.