If you belong
to a certain age group, namely the aging gamer group, you'll most likely have
some sort of affinity towards Super Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog.
But lets face it, now a days, neither of these guys really appeal to the
hardcore gamers. Sure they are gaming icons that looks good on T-shirts
but outside of children and loyal fan boys most people would rather be in the
boots of Marcus Phoenix or Niko Bellic.
Razor sharp controls, creative level design, and something new is all you ever
need for a platform game to be successful. Throw in a camera that isn't
broken, and you the formula for a near perfect platform game.
Controls in SMG are simple, literally "child's play". The basic
Mario controls break down to this; the analog stick moves Mario, and the A
button controls Mario's jump. Thats pretty much always been the
formula. The new to SMG controls throw in the obligatory Wii waggle
gesture (in this case the Mario bitch slap that could have easily been mapped
to any button). And the strangely addictive FPS/light gun star bits
hunting and shooting game. Basically your cursor is constantly hunting around
the screen to collect star bits and should you see fit, use these star bits as
ammo to shoot at enemies. Why does this control scheme work? Well
it has more to do with the game design but basically given our youtube like
attention spans, we're having to platform while multi-tasking a reflex based
game of photo hunt that requires FPS like skills.
The mind boggling gravity and physics found on each level design, (or in this
case I should perhaps say planet design) really gives this game a sens of
'something new'.
This isn't a super deep game with an amazing science fiction plot line, its a
game that tests the reflexes, a game that you will pick up and put down over
the course of a year, its a game that you'll play when you've beaten your epic
story games, its a game you will play when you get off work and your brain is
too fried to think, its a game you should own.
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