It’s been a long time coming, but the video version is finally up: Join the JRT Show as I critique one of the holiday season’s heaviest hitters, Nintendo‘s return to its oldest franchise, New Super Mario Bros. Wii for the Nintendo Wii! Featuring dragons, mushrooms and pillow-fights.

This episode has been at 95% since early December, so there exist a couple of dated comments, but NSMB Wii is still going strong in the charts; I figure the review can still be helpful. The sound should be clearer than usual, but there are a couple of instances near the end where it fluctuates out of its own volition. You’d think it’d be easy to fix, but it only appears at the final encode and not while editing, so I suspect metaphysical shenanigans. Probably one of those damn Boos.

Next review will be of a much fresher release and it will be up… soon!

One of the hottest titles this holiday season and the biggest Shigeru Miyamoto release in a long while, I take a look at Nintendo‘s New Super Mario Bros. Wii for the Nintendo Wii.

As the seminal (PC) gaming connoisseurs over at RPS might put it, my analysis starts a bit like:

It’s hard to believe it’s been more than three years since my review of the DS version. I think that my writing style has changed a bit, but I have an innate aversion to looking at my older pieces for too long, so I can’t say for sure.

Another blockbuster review I could only do at Ciao! and I add further fuel to the “Nintendo Fanboy” fire, by reviewing, and loving, Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii.

The argument is that while I’m usually all about the story and the creativity, I’ve panned many games that lacked in those departments, I seem to be handing out free passes when it comes to Mario games. After all, you can’t get more clichéd than “Save the Princess” and the platforming mechanics have been the same since day one, right?

Well, the way I see it, the real story with Mario is the surreality that inescapably envelopes you as you are playing his games. Nintendo is careful not to break the formula, but they almost always surpass the absurdity of the previous instalment, be it with Bee and Boo suits, or with Mini ‘Shrooms, Brown Leaves and other power-ups with questionable illegal connotations. The result is absurdly fun games.

Of course, sometimes Nintendo does release a Mario game that feels played out, or relatively common and I have no qualms about panning it. But, even though most games from 2007 will be old hat by that time, I’ll certainly be playing Super Mario Galaxy with my nephew in a few years: it’s that good.

My Wii coverage concludes and my “career” as an amateur reviewer comes to a close, as I gleefully analyze The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Traditionally, I reserve “perfect” ratings for games that can be enjoyed universally and absolutely. In a “precise rating” system, I saw Twilight Princess as either a 9.0 or a 9.5, so I really was debating whether I should give it a perfect five out of five for Ciao. It’s a game that you need to be a gamer to appreciate, not something you can pick-up and have fun without making a little; unlike New Super Mario Bros. or Pro Evolution Soccer 6.

But it was so brilliant once you get into it, in the end I figured it was worth the fiver. A bit like KotOR or Oblivion, only those games are still rated a little higher in my mind.

Anyway, this was my last review to appear on Ciao! for a while, as I was recruited to write for a dedicated gaming site. I had to review games of a much lower profile than Twilight Princess and I had to be much more concise and humourless, but getting paid a couple of cents per word instead of a couple of cents per review did make me feel more professional.