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!

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.

But it does have horrible puns!

Even though I had much less time to map it out, I was convinced that things would go much smoother than in the saga of the MGS4 playthrough. My optimism was duly greeted by a barrage of malfunctions and misunderstandings that delayed the review considerably, but, hey, better late than never.

There are a couple of gags that reference the MGS4 episodes, but they are quick enough not to bother anyone who hasn’t seen those. Think of the gags as a special treat for anyone who heroically sat through that viewing marathon.

Trailer:

It also pretty much served as the script for the video so, even though they still are quite different, the two versions are as close as they’re likely to get. It would certainly be very interesting to know which format you thought was best and I’ll investigate with polls, as soon as I get the rest of the site in working order.

During the research for this review, I couldn’t resist popping in the old Super Punch Out!! for the SNES. I remembered playing it of course, but I was shocked to find out that not only had I finished it, I had two separate save game profiles, both with some insanely fast time records!

I really hope some time traveling was involved because that was fifteen years ago and I am way too young to start feeling old!

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.

Personally, I always liked the classic, side-scrolling, “Metroidvania”-styled games more than Retro Studios‘ FPS-esque take, but there is no denying that all three Primes were excellent games that made the most of the technology available to them: And there’s nothing truer to the spirit of the series than that.

Except maybe the endless exploration and the massive battles against gigantic bosses, but, wouldn’t you know it, they had those too! So, the question is, exactly how much did I like Corruption?

I was very impressed with the original WarioWare, for the Nintendo Game Boy; it had the clever idea of 5 second “microgames” and a quaint way to merge it with the story. Even though later installments dropped pretenses of story intergration and focused solely on the wacky microgames, they still are pretty entertaining to play and make for a fun multiplayer experience on the Wii.

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.

With parents all around the world wondering on which toy they they spend their hard-earned money, there was little doubt in my mind that this should be the most well-researched review I had ever done. I really sank my teeth into it and even attended preview events, something quite above and beyond the call of duty for someone who isn’t a journalist or a fanboy.

I tried to be as informative and unbiased as I could, presenting the facts clearly and finally putting a lifetime of video-game expertise to some good use: making educated guesses on the future. Apparently the effort showed, the review was received extremely well and was featured prominently.

Forgive me if I appear pompous; I don’t think the review is a special piece of literature, but it is a big deal to me. It helped me make the transition to hobbyist reviewer to part-time journalist, so I have fond memories of it.

Anyway, the Wii went on to be a huge success and still remains the “it” gadget to have for yet another holiday season, to the utmost surprise of most analysts that found it lacking and wrote it off as a novelty. What was my position? Read the review to find out!

Actually a collection of minigames, Wii Play came bundled with a Wii Remote, so even if most of the gameplay was lackluster, it still presented a deal that was hard to argue with.

Wii Play, along with the rest of my Wii-centered reviews, were apparently good enough to garner the attention of some higher-ups that provided me with a ticket to semi-professional game-reviewing.