It's A Me!

So, after more than a month I am back. It's been a pretty busy time what with finals and translations and whatnot, but the real reason I haven't had a rant is that I couldn't think up a worthwhile topic. Well, I finally have a topic, and even though it's not a fully qualified rant, it's at least something.

(Last week), Nintendo, after 14 years, finally released a new side-scrolling Mario game (before you say "Hey! Super Mario World 2 came out in 1995 that's only 11 years asshole!" I feel the need to point out that it wasn't a Mario game. Sure, it featured him, but so did Yoshi's Cookie.).

Now don't get me wrong, I like Super Mario 64 as much as the next guy not only was it fun, but it also revolutionized the way we play video games. Super Mario Sunshine was great until you get to the mud boat part, then it was one of the most annoying games ever, plus, it came out 4 years ago. And the Game boy re-releases gave me an excuse to play the classics again (not that I really need one). But, a new Mario platformer, all I could say (when it was announced) was, "About fuckin' time."

Well, once I actually started playing, I was not disappointed. Well, maybe I was a little, I really liked the idea of having the koopalings rather than Bowser Jr. (plus, there's the issue of continuity), and there doesn’t appear to be any power up for flying, like the cape or the raccoon suit. They have removed the spin-jump that was present in Super Mario World and have essentially rendered the X, Y, L, and R buttons useless. Due to this, it almost feels as though they built the engine for the Game Boy Advance and then decided to use the DS for the improved graphics capability.

In all, the gameplay is classic Super Mario, but when you play it you feel as though it has regressed to a game somewhere between SMB1 & SMB3 that has been repackaged with fancy graphics.