What I'm Playing: Not the Wii

I'm not really sure what the deal is. Mario Galaxy is one of the most creative and fun Mario experiences ever. It's certainly the best title on the Wii right now (with Metroid Prime 3 on it's heels). But I'm not totally sure why I've been so nonchalant about playing it.

Getting Rock Band definetly put a hurt on the Wii. My underlying desires to be a drummer have put many hours into the game. I'd say I'm pretty efficient and sight reading is second nature now. I think I could play a real drum set playing some basic stuff and getting used to real drum set notation .

Puzzle Quest also still has Nicole and I deeply entrenched in it's RPG-Puzzle goodness. The idea behind the game is probably one of the best gaming mashups ever. A card game (Magic the Gathering), a puzzle game (Bejeweled), and an role playing game (Dragon Warrior). If you like even one of those games or genres, you'll like playing this along with the other two.

But there's Mario, sitting in the Wii in low-power mode. I don't know if it's the fact that it's in the back room. If it's because I'm jaded on Mario-collecting-star games, or what. Mario Galaxy definetly deserves some more love than I'm giving, but when your at the point of forcing yourself to play a game, does it then lose it's purpose and meaning of existence? A game you HAVE to play. A game you HAVE to enjoy?

And that's just it. I'm not enjoying it. It's levels are entertaining bits at a time, but the overall goal of the game, to earn enough stars for a chance to fight the final battle, has permeated through the many layers that make up a video game (graphics, sound, fun, controls, etc.) and I'm seeing the forest for the trees.

Metroid Prime 3 suffered the same fate. Since it's graphics and gameplay are merely rehashes of the past two games with a different story and humans, it feels like a repetitive chore. Like the third chapter in the longest game ever.

I'm starting to think that it's because they are games made by Nintendo, but I know that can't be true because while these to games are collecting dust in my game room, the newest Zelda was played probably every available day until it was completed. I don't think it was the fact that I bought the GameCube version over the Wii version either. The new Zelda game had such a great new aroma too it. It was the new hearty chicken soup that made you forget about Cambell's version. The same thing, for sure, but energized and given mood and feeling and more character. Spice.

Mario and Metroid have somespice. Maybe it's just the wrong kind for me. Or not enough of what I do like.

2 Hour Review: Metriod Prime Corruption

Now I don't think that Metroid Prime Corruption for the Nintendo Wii is going revolutionize 1st person shooters.

The level of realism in waving your arm around to aim your gun and flicking back with the grappling hook to pull away debris is truly awesome. There's no question about that. But there is always going to be a market for games with keyboards and mice and console thumbsticks. The main separation between the two is accuracy. The handholding that is done in console and PC gaming makes accuracy top notch, giving you wilder action.

What Corruption is doing for video games is cementing the foothold of bringing the user into a 1-to-1 experience with a virtual character and a virtual world. It's better than Duck Hunt. It's better than Virtua Cop. Your in the world. Your physically reacting to it's elements.

As a game though, Corruption is a carbon copy of Metroid Prime 1 and 2. Games that brought the franchise over into the 3-d world in a huge way. A good thing, yes. Gamers like some stability throughout iterations of a series. A solid, top performing game is something that we just really don't like messed with too much. But the elements that the Wii we're able to add to the game were perfect, fine tuned, and implemented with style and intelligence.

And I really enjoy and appreciate some of the new additions to the series. Voice acting has made it's debut as well as other bounty hunters that were carried over from the DS game Metroid Prime Hunters. The Metroid universe just got so much deeper with those two things, where before the game was silent and solitary.

Voices don't just bring audio to a game, but they help define the character of it. In Corruption, the voices aren't fully developed, movie quality acting. In a science fiction game, I don't mind that. You feel more like your in the future where maybe we've changed the way we talk. Where as Halo, the superior voice acting made you feel like you might actually know the people, which isn't possible in the future. Because it's the future!

I'm going to enjoy the next month I have with this game. I want to see how the story develops and how the addition of the new bounty hunters add to the gameplay. This is the kind of game that is just begging for a paperback novel or three. But I'll live with just playing the game for now.

And Down on Planet Zebes...

Damn, those cats.

In addition, here is the Wikipedia article on one Nintendo's greatest franchises, Metroid.