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Super Mario Galaxy Son!:
Story -
Sadly being a Mario game, there isn't much to be said here. The tiny Italian plumber Mario is invited to a Star Festivle by the princess, and when he makes it all hell breaks loose and Peach is kidnapped.
Something I noticed that is a flaw in the opening cutscene alone, however, was that the aliens that kidnap Peach, not once do you fight them! They shop up in the begining and I suspect that a couple times throughout the story they serve as a backdrop but that's about it.
I didn't play the game for the storyline and let's be serious here no one ever does. Mario games were never good for storyline. If the original Mario storyline from the first game has taught us anything, there was never anything surprisingly unique in storyline, the games made up for it.
I personally find Mario a perfect example of "story doens't make a game". The Mario storylines are about as original as the sun rising up, and they always will be. Regardless of spinoffs and the such the official Mario games have really been a waste to put in a storyline. Superstar saga and SPM (two of my favorite games) have some pretty good storylines in my opinion, however they are spinoffs.
Now, in my previous review I complained about the game storyline being crap and over used, but this is a different subject here. Saint's Row attempts to physically make a storyline and takes the storyline seriously. Mario on the other hand, well let's just say if you can look me in the eye, tell me Mario is trying to be serious, and MEAN it, then you need help. The game itself barely has more then two official cinematics (official as in cgi pre rendered graphics), and even beyond those the ingame is very small only showing off a level, if that.
Characterization-
Again, apples to apples. Mario can't make more then a few cute sounds, and Peach can say the word "Mario". Trying to make more characterization with those characters, just by itself, feels forced.
There isn't much to say on this part, which I fear will make a lot of people discouraged. But Mario as a character isn't fairly deep, however very loved. Mario is one of the most well known characters in the world, any country on earth. And that is very good characterization.
Gameplay-
Classic Mario here. Very good jumping, rather decent/good camera in a whole. The levels left a bit to be dersired though. The toy level went from fun and original to frustrating when trying to unlock Luigi, as an example.
Another example will be when I was playing some of the first levels. There is no way ahead of time to find out there is a hungry luma on the level itself (unless you are willing to sit through a cutscene to the level EVERY time), and even if you know its so bloody hard to get enough star bits before that 1 bloody luma it sucks!
Its incredibly frustrating at some parts, incredibly terrible camera at some parts.
Finishing Thoughts-
Maybe I'm judging Mario by different standards because I respect it, or that I enjoy it, or that it's not the same game type. I played Mario for about a week and can still go back to it and have it challenging. And with no storyline there are no real points that bore me effectively during story scenes.
I am judging this differently, I admit that, and maybe it's a bad thing. Maybe I should look at this through the same eyes, but just as someone evaluates Math differently then English, I can't look at this through different eyes. This game is going purely for gameplay, and not trying for much else. It can be proven by inconsistency in the story, and even inconsistency in the level design themselves, which is a major thing stopping this score from getting very high.
And one thing I want to say off topic for a moment, why does SMG have the best graphics for the wii, but Miamoto is the one who fights that the wii can't compare graphically, though he himself has proven it can?
Final score: 8
Story -
Sadly being a Mario game, there isn't much to be said here. The tiny Italian plumber Mario is invited to a Star Festivle by the princess, and when he makes it all hell breaks loose and Peach is kidnapped.
Something I noticed that is a flaw in the opening cutscene alone, however, was that the aliens that kidnap Peach, not once do you fight them! They shop up in the begining and I suspect that a couple times throughout the story they serve as a backdrop but that's about it.
I didn't play the game for the storyline and let's be serious here no one ever does. Mario games were never good for storyline. If the original Mario storyline from the first game has taught us anything, there was never anything surprisingly unique in storyline, the games made up for it.
I personally find Mario a perfect example of "story doens't make a game". The Mario storylines are about as original as the sun rising up, and they always will be. Regardless of spinoffs and the such the official Mario games have really been a waste to put in a storyline. Superstar saga and SPM (two of my favorite games) have some pretty good storylines in my opinion, however they are spinoffs.
Now, in my previous review I complained about the game storyline being crap and over used, but this is a different subject here. Saint's Row attempts to physically make a storyline and takes the storyline seriously. Mario on the other hand, well let's just say if you can look me in the eye, tell me Mario is trying to be serious, and MEAN it, then you need help. The game itself barely has more then two official cinematics (official as in cgi pre rendered graphics), and even beyond those the ingame is very small only showing off a level, if that.
Characterization-
Again, apples to apples. Mario can't make more then a few cute sounds, and Peach can say the word "Mario". Trying to make more characterization with those characters, just by itself, feels forced.
There isn't much to say on this part, which I fear will make a lot of people discouraged. But Mario as a character isn't fairly deep, however very loved. Mario is one of the most well known characters in the world, any country on earth. And that is very good characterization.
Gameplay-
Classic Mario here. Very good jumping, rather decent/good camera in a whole. The levels left a bit to be dersired though. The toy level went from fun and original to frustrating when trying to unlock Luigi, as an example.
Another example will be when I was playing some of the first levels. There is no way ahead of time to find out there is a hungry luma on the level itself (unless you are willing to sit through a cutscene to the level EVERY time), and even if you know its so bloody hard to get enough star bits before that 1 bloody luma it sucks!
Its incredibly frustrating at some parts, incredibly terrible camera at some parts.
Finishing Thoughts-
Maybe I'm judging Mario by different standards because I respect it, or that I enjoy it, or that it's not the same game type. I played Mario for about a week and can still go back to it and have it challenging. And with no storyline there are no real points that bore me effectively during story scenes.
I am judging this differently, I admit that, and maybe it's a bad thing. Maybe I should look at this through the same eyes, but just as someone evaluates Math differently then English, I can't look at this through different eyes. This game is going purely for gameplay, and not trying for much else. It can be proven by inconsistency in the story, and even inconsistency in the level design themselves, which is a major thing stopping this score from getting very high.
And one thing I want to say off topic for a moment, why does SMG have the best graphics for the wii, but Miamoto is the one who fights that the wii can't compare graphically, though he himself has proven it can?
Final score: 8
ramirez: NICE lol
Pidgeotto221: ya i get ur point
Pidgeotto221: ya i get ur point
dead rising freedom (as in you can pick up anything)
set in the star wars universe (so you can pick up cars, buildings trains etc with the force, or even ppl or something)
and make it set in a modern day city (gta or sr style)
and just sandbox it
maybe put it online
but that's always a bit fishy
set in the star wars universe (so you can pick up cars, buildings trains etc with the force, or even ppl or something)
and make it set in a modern day city (gta or sr style)
and just sandbox it
maybe put it online
but that's always a bit fishy
i love how people are still being like 5 and claiming I'm imabitch.
I did put next before writing smg so im sorry if you got confused
to the people on this forum who posted on this topic who aren't 5 thanks for the comments
I did put next before writing smg so im sorry if you got confused
to the people on this forum who posted on this topic who aren't 5 thanks for the comments
i thought your review was dumb because you meandered about so much. like, the entire gameplay section is GTAIV and 3 paragraphs later you go "oh yeah, saint's row 2 isn't supposed to be realistic."
i like the SR games; it's everything GTAIV should have like custom soundtracks and basic shit like customizable cars and clothing. also ZOMBIES AND UFOS
I wanted someone to mention that. I read over it again as you said that and you are correct. To be honest I just really was disappointed by GTA4 and really wanted to mention how every sandbox game is always considered to be a gta clone, when even if saints row two is trying, it did it better. And since now a days every sandbox game is always forced to compare to gta, i figured i would to, but i understand your point.
And ya the zombie/ufo bits were bitchin
Also on a side note, I'm currently working on trying to make a Super Mario Galaxy review, so prepare for one.
ok fine fair enough I was wrong I do apologize. But you have to admit as wrong as I was I was a bit justified to get angry. But I apologize if you guys dislike me for what I have said so be it.
and not to be a dick but as a general statement towards Psyburn:
I understand what you are saying about Asian not being capitalized, however not capitalizing isn't exactly a very big offense. That's my personal belief and you may think differently, which obviously you do. Now I don't understand why you feel different, for the simple fact I don't like to be a racist dickhead I will capitalize it from now on when I don't, I honestly wasn't thinking when I wrote it though. My fault. Also, while you cannot empathize with this, white and black are not capitalized, but Asian is? That's a little self centered. I'm not talking about the country of Asia, just like I'm not talking about the country of America, I'm simply talking about what society decides the color of your skin (or shape of eyes or accent etc) is considered, white, black or asian
and not to be a dick but as a general statement towards Psyburn:
I understand what you are saying about Asian not being capitalized, however not capitalizing isn't exactly a very big offense. That's my personal belief and you may think differently, which obviously you do. Now I don't understand why you feel different, for the simple fact I don't like to be a racist dickhead I will capitalize it from now on when I don't, I honestly wasn't thinking when I wrote it though. My fault. Also, while you cannot empathize with this, white and black are not capitalized, but Asian is? That's a little self centered. I'm not talking about the country of Asia, just like I'm not talking about the country of America, I'm simply talking about what society decides the color of your skin (or shape of eyes or accent etc) is considered, white, black or asian
thats regardless of the fact that that isn't anyone but a moderators business. And if that respective mod thinks that then they can warn me and take that up with me on their own time. I mean hell one guy didn't even talk about anything to do with that fact all he said was that he wanted to read imabitchs other topic?
But like really if you thought that don't post here just let the topic fade into oblivion, don't sit here and ruin my reputation before I even have one by saying I personally have made multiple users.
But like really if you thought that don't post here just let the topic fade into oblivion, don't sit here and ruin my reputation before I even have one by saying I personally have made multiple users.
ya but it went from criticizing my rant to talking about my friend to talking about proper spelling and whether or not to make Asian capitol or not, it has nothing to do with the fact that I have less responses than anything else, I'm not that thick. Also I JUST BLOODY STARTED unlike my friend who has no excuse! Maybe I missed the part that specifically said that hiding your text was for off topic (and if I did then its completely my fault) but since without physically looking it up you guys don't have it plugged in like you do bold so its a pain in the ass to use anyway.
And it's hopeless because out of everyone who commented here Pidgeotto221 and two other people were the only ones adult enough to act so! Psyburn went on a hissy fit saying I insulted him twice? when I did once and I do apologize. Then people went way off topic talking about ONLY that to accusing me of being someone else.
And it's hopeless because out of everyone who commented here Pidgeotto221 and two other people were the only ones adult enough to act so! Psyburn went on a hissy fit saying I insulted him twice? when I did once and I do apologize. Then people went way off topic talking about ONLY that to accusing me of being someone else.
actually imabitch is my one friend who posts on here as a joke and he let me make an account on his computer.
I love how far off topic this got lol just lock this, this whole website is clearly hopeless.
also Psyburn i didn't mean to offend you its my mistake
Asian
I love how far off topic this got lol just lock this, this whole website is clearly hopeless.
also Psyburn i didn't mean to offend you its my mistake
Asian
partially because it was a lot of text
Okay this is probably not a review, just a rant. But I did score the game at the end of the rant, so call it whatever you want. This is NOT my first attempt at writing a review for a game or ranting about how bad a game is, it is however my first time releasing it to the public.
Hidden content (Click to reveal)
Story -
The story in Saint's Row two is about as non original as it can get. That's not to say the story wouldn't have been original last game, but they basically did it already. The only difference is you start a bit lower then you did in the first game. You play as any old character you want (I opted to make him as girly and feminine as possible in a pink dress, jacked up to full muscle and a womens voice) and break out of jail with some idiot you never see again.
As soon as you're out of jail shit gets real. The Saint's are broken up and it's up to you to try to get your way back into the loop of things. Let's start easily here and attempt to explain what happened. Since most of the world has played the first Saint's Row lets try to explain what's going on:
In the first Saint's Row Julius used a mute with a creepily fast matabolism (ie YOU) to take over a city as he sat behind the scenes. When you officially own the city as Julius' second you are on a boat (for some reason I'm not a hundred percent able to remember) and the boat explodes. You make it off and starts Saint's Row Two. You take over the same character "Two years and 31 days" after the original (but who's counting) yet somehow through magic your entire appearance has changed while you were in that coma. The Saint's are destroyed, Julius is missing and it's up to you to bring them back together from the rival gang.
In short its the same story as the last game with not a single thing but some details changed, except for the small magic element it has. For a game that's so close to realism to have a random part in it when you fight a voodoo priest who can Neo style stop bullets and control a floating voodoo doll (while an awesome fight) felt forced in and fake. But that's besides the point. The story is not original at all, the first game did it and did it original, Saint's Two literally copy and pasted the story with only a few changes.
Characterization-
The characters in Saint's 1 were 3 cardboard boxes, a DEAD cardboard box and Julius. In the second game we have a familiar cardboard box returned (Johnny Gat who's entire character is just being a gun toting idiot, as proved when he tells the enemy gang he won't fire a shot at the funeral and the second the cut scene ends he opens fire) Julius, a cardboard box with a nice suit (Ultor) and you.
Yes in this game you actually have a voice and can speak. And boy do you speak A LOT. These people can't shut you up. Now that's not to say you don't have some funny dialogue but most of the talking could have been either more badass or not used at all, since it's about as worthwhile to talk in this game as it was in the last game and that is not very.
In the last game you could get through the entire story only talking once or twice the entire game, I beleive a total of 4 times. In this game you are thrust into the world as a talkative sport, with one of your lines being "That mute shit is over." Anyway like the first game many cutscenes could be taken up by your mute ass and nothing else, but the developers seemed to want to use the most of their expensive new studio (I'm thinking) and do ten billion lines.
However I complain about the uselessness of a character talking that doesn't need to is a worthless review. He/She talks no matter what I say or do about it, but it's a good kind of talking. When you look past the fact the talking was shoehorned in and look past the fact most of the voices are stereotypical (and look past the fact there is an asain preset but no asain accent?) then you can find the dialogue sometimes funny, but most of the times expected and bland.
Gameplay-
If anyone tells you that GTA4s gameplay was the be all end all of gameplay they have their head's shoved so far up their ass they've reverted back to a single celled organizm. GTA was not perfect and Saint's realizes that. Saint's 1 was a tiny bit shit with the gameplay, with gltiches up the ass. And many things people would do for fun (ie stand on top of a car cause you are basically glued to the bloody things) has become a fun little mini game.
In GTA the cars drove very unrealistically. I recently got my drivers license and can now drive a car so, doey eyed and with a smile stretched upon my face I sat in a car and started to drive it. Now unlike in GTA4 a sharp wind will not make me spin out for an hour, now that's not to say that like in Saint's Two I can sly four hundred feet on my roof, flip over and keep driving. But I digress. Saint's Two's handling towards cars in general is something I wanted to touch on, because it's far more realistic than GTA. I can drive in GTA very easily, I'm not bad, but that's not what I'm getting at. I'm getting at realism in driving isn't fun! Saint's is fun because it's not realistic its fun to drive 10 billion miles an hour on your bike and still control it or drive for a mile and make a 90 degree turn BECAUSE of the fact it's so unrealistic!
In GTA4 the rockets would take a realistic trip and curve in a billion different directions and miss the target unless it was an inch in front of you. In Saint's you shoot a rocket and like a bullet it flies straight, which is much better because you can HIT THINGS! Which I tend to like to do!
Let me go away from both comparisons and gameplay for a second to explain exactly WHY I am making so many GTA references. It seems now a days the only thing a person can do is say "GTA clone" and that's just not true anymore. Sure games try to be like gta up the ass and its not a bad thing, but don't try too hard. GTA did a lot of things right and equally as many things wrong, and Saint's is just like that. People will call Saint's a GTA clone until their tongues fall and whether its true or not you can't look at it like that.
GTA is set to a realistic backtone and for the most part does it very good. Some things don't work, some things do. It's tricky to make something that works as good as you want when its finally done. Let's make it real is a great concept to the average gamer but it never works out quite right. From what I've seen Saint's doesn't try to be real, but instead goes for a realistic setting to instate unrealistic graphics and violence. Because I don't care what you say but no city on earth has 18 pimps jump you at once all dressed the same while two of them jump a business man in the background.
Final Thoughts-
You may disagree with what I have said about Saint's Row Two. You may think it's the worst or the best game ever made. Everyone has mixed opinions and I can give you mine. In short, and compiled into one sentance: "Saint's Row Two is a fun game, but bland." Bland story and characters, but fun to play and a character design through the roof.
Now giving something a score from 1 to 10 is never something I enjoy doing. I find it difficult to put my feelings on a game into a numerical score, because I always feel like if I enjoyed it I should put it high regardless of flaws. Normally I put game scores higher than I should because I spent my money on these games and that means a lot to me so I try to like them regardless of flaws. However I know most people out there (and most people who are willing to sit through and read an actual review) cling to numerical scores like a babe to their mommies.
So in final: 7.5
The story in Saint's Row two is about as non original as it can get. That's not to say the story wouldn't have been original last game, but they basically did it already. The only difference is you start a bit lower then you did in the first game. You play as any old character you want (I opted to make him as girly and feminine as possible in a pink dress, jacked up to full muscle and a womens voice) and break out of jail with some idiot you never see again.
As soon as you're out of jail shit gets real. The Saint's are broken up and it's up to you to try to get your way back into the loop of things. Let's start easily here and attempt to explain what happened. Since most of the world has played the first Saint's Row lets try to explain what's going on:
In the first Saint's Row Julius used a mute with a creepily fast matabolism (ie YOU) to take over a city as he sat behind the scenes. When you officially own the city as Julius' second you are on a boat (for some reason I'm not a hundred percent able to remember) and the boat explodes. You make it off and starts Saint's Row Two. You take over the same character "Two years and 31 days" after the original (but who's counting) yet somehow through magic your entire appearance has changed while you were in that coma. The Saint's are destroyed, Julius is missing and it's up to you to bring them back together from the rival gang.
In short its the same story as the last game with not a single thing but some details changed, except for the small magic element it has. For a game that's so close to realism to have a random part in it when you fight a voodoo priest who can Neo style stop bullets and control a floating voodoo doll (while an awesome fight) felt forced in and fake. But that's besides the point. The story is not original at all, the first game did it and did it original, Saint's Two literally copy and pasted the story with only a few changes.
Characterization-
The characters in Saint's 1 were 3 cardboard boxes, a DEAD cardboard box and Julius. In the second game we have a familiar cardboard box returned (Johnny Gat who's entire character is just being a gun toting idiot, as proved when he tells the enemy gang he won't fire a shot at the funeral and the second the cut scene ends he opens fire) Julius, a cardboard box with a nice suit (Ultor) and you.
Yes in this game you actually have a voice and can speak. And boy do you speak A LOT. These people can't shut you up. Now that's not to say you don't have some funny dialogue but most of the talking could have been either more badass or not used at all, since it's about as worthwhile to talk in this game as it was in the last game and that is not very.
In the last game you could get through the entire story only talking once or twice the entire game, I beleive a total of 4 times. In this game you are thrust into the world as a talkative sport, with one of your lines being "That mute shit is over." Anyway like the first game many cutscenes could be taken up by your mute ass and nothing else, but the developers seemed to want to use the most of their expensive new studio (I'm thinking) and do ten billion lines.
However I complain about the uselessness of a character talking that doesn't need to is a worthless review. He/She talks no matter what I say or do about it, but it's a good kind of talking. When you look past the fact the talking was shoehorned in and look past the fact most of the voices are stereotypical (and look past the fact there is an asain preset but no asain accent?) then you can find the dialogue sometimes funny, but most of the times expected and bland.
Gameplay-
If anyone tells you that GTA4s gameplay was the be all end all of gameplay they have their head's shoved so far up their ass they've reverted back to a single celled organizm. GTA was not perfect and Saint's realizes that. Saint's 1 was a tiny bit shit with the gameplay, with gltiches up the ass. And many things people would do for fun (ie stand on top of a car cause you are basically glued to the bloody things) has become a fun little mini game.
In GTA the cars drove very unrealistically. I recently got my drivers license and can now drive a car so, doey eyed and with a smile stretched upon my face I sat in a car and started to drive it. Now unlike in GTA4 a sharp wind will not make me spin out for an hour, now that's not to say that like in Saint's Two I can sly four hundred feet on my roof, flip over and keep driving. But I digress. Saint's Two's handling towards cars in general is something I wanted to touch on, because it's far more realistic than GTA. I can drive in GTA very easily, I'm not bad, but that's not what I'm getting at. I'm getting at realism in driving isn't fun! Saint's is fun because it's not realistic its fun to drive 10 billion miles an hour on your bike and still control it or drive for a mile and make a 90 degree turn BECAUSE of the fact it's so unrealistic!
In GTA4 the rockets would take a realistic trip and curve in a billion different directions and miss the target unless it was an inch in front of you. In Saint's you shoot a rocket and like a bullet it flies straight, which is much better because you can HIT THINGS! Which I tend to like to do!
Let me go away from both comparisons and gameplay for a second to explain exactly WHY I am making so many GTA references. It seems now a days the only thing a person can do is say "GTA clone" and that's just not true anymore. Sure games try to be like gta up the ass and its not a bad thing, but don't try too hard. GTA did a lot of things right and equally as many things wrong, and Saint's is just like that. People will call Saint's a GTA clone until their tongues fall and whether its true or not you can't look at it like that.
GTA is set to a realistic backtone and for the most part does it very good. Some things don't work, some things do. It's tricky to make something that works as good as you want when its finally done. Let's make it real is a great concept to the average gamer but it never works out quite right. From what I've seen Saint's doesn't try to be real, but instead goes for a realistic setting to instate unrealistic graphics and violence. Because I don't care what you say but no city on earth has 18 pimps jump you at once all dressed the same while two of them jump a business man in the background.
Final Thoughts-
You may disagree with what I have said about Saint's Row Two. You may think it's the worst or the best game ever made. Everyone has mixed opinions and I can give you mine. In short, and compiled into one sentance: "Saint's Row Two is a fun game, but bland." Bland story and characters, but fun to play and a character design through the roof.
Now giving something a score from 1 to 10 is never something I enjoy doing. I find it difficult to put my feelings on a game into a numerical score, because I always feel like if I enjoyed it I should put it high regardless of flaws. Normally I put game scores higher than I should because I spent my money on these games and that means a lot to me so I try to like them regardless of flaws. However I know most people out there (and most people who are willing to sit through and read an actual review) cling to numerical scores like a babe to their mommies.
So in final: 7.5