Earlier today (er yesterday) I finished Super Mario Galaxy – or at least, its first ending. It is one of the latest games in Nintendo’s Super Mario franchise, and it is probably one of the best games I have ever played in my life. From the moment I started it, I knew it was something special: there was a certain vibe to it that I rarely get playing computer games. (The last game I remember having this feeling was from playing Shadow of the Colossus on the Playstation 2.) I will try to explain.
One night when I was young I came upon this (popular) children’s book called The Little Prince. Not normally patient with books, I amazingly read through the entire text that same night. The book, filled not only with a layered story but with drawings that evoke the story perfectly, left a very significant impression on me that I still carry with me until now. That impression is quite hard to describe in words, as it is a complex jumble of the visual, visceral and intellectual. It says a lot reading it as a child, but it still says as much for an adult. For one, it reminds us that as we grow up, we slowly lose that wonder that we had, and that shouldn’t be – life is better enjoyed looking at it through the eyes of a child.
It does sound sentimental, doesn’t it? But it has become one of the principles I try to apply in day-to-day – and really, it just translates into open-mindedness. I do wonder now if this is the same reason why I watch movies, read books, listen to music… basically creations which explore anything at all (as long as the coherence is of a level that I can appreciate).
But I digress. I would like to point out that, the most tangible impression of The Little Prince is mostly an extension of the drawings in the book: of space and its wonders, of small planets one could walk around in in a matter of minutes, the ease of travel, the prince’s acquaintances in those travels, and even that child-like illustration of the African desert (see that last drawing in the book, where Exupery says, “This is, to me, the loveliest and saddest landscape in the world.”).
So how do these all fit in with Super Mario Galaxy? I think it got The Little Prince right – nay, it got it precisely. The game is an epic adventure of planets of different personalities, zooming from one to the next. There is also an embedded tale, told in storybook fashion, that captures the journey of the prince, complete with loneliness undertone.
A few frustrating stages aside, gameplay is fantastic, and the soundtrack (by the Mario Galaxy Orchestra) one of the best I’ve heard in a game.
Super Mario Galaxy makes me a child again – except, with the reflexes of a somehow-skilled grown-up platform gamer ;)