Jimbo_N

+ All of the Mortal Kombat characters ever, both famous and not so famous.
+ A truly balanced and fun fighting game. Still one of the best in that aspect.
+ Wii controls are super smooth, really makes it easier for everyone to enjoy MK
+ Great leveldesign & layout
+ Fun Motor Kombat, Kreate a fighter & endurance modes. + Loads and loads of extra content for the hardcore fans !
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- New "Finish Him/Her" system is not as personal to the fighter as the old finishing moves
- Wii controls sometimes glitch and moves wont work (very unusual)
- The whole conquest mode feels very patched on and is both clumsy and boring
- A few bugs here and there, unlocking a character in conquest mode locks up the game...
- Graphics are dated and widescreen support are "wierd"
- Only one slot for custom fighters per profile.
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To put it short this is really the ultimate version of Mortal Kombat. This one has the most stages, characters, music, lore, moves, modes and bosses of all the MK games so far. So If you´re wondering what this game is the short answer is "as much Mortal Kombat as you can possibly handle". Its also a direct port of the Ps2 version of the same game but with Wii controls. If you´re a big MK fan like me this game is really heaven in some aspects. Packed into this lovely game is every character you can possible imagine and its also the best version of them. Its the Sub Zero WITH the mask and its Zombie Liu Kang e.t.c. Every character is very intact and true to their originals. They have just the right moves and just the right sounds and voices. Scorpions harpoon shout "Get over here!" sounds just the same as in MK1 but with cleaner sound of course. The leveldesign is crazy. You get all the cool locations you would expect from a MK game with "Hell" being my personal favorite. But this time the stages are divided into several arenas that can be accessed by hitting you foe into certain points of the arena you´re in. This will for example launch him through a stone wall, down some stairs or through a fence and this will move you both to a different area. This can result in some super crazy fights where one player is uppercutted through the roof to the floor above and after some fighting there launched through the wall into a 3rd section of the stage where the round finally ends. The stages also have "danger zones" where you, if knocked into them, instantly die. They are really frustrating for the player that loses a winning round because of one hit into a danger zone but they are easy to spot so you should try and avoid them at all times. They are all over the top violent and always fun to watch. Simply put they are masterpieces of violence. On one map you have a catapult with a huge burning ball of fire put onto it. If you´re lucky you can send your opponent onto the burning ball wich will kill him in the following order. 1 - He will start burning madly just bursting into flames and screaming. 2 - The catapult will fire and send him flying forever out over a cliff and towards a castle in the background & 3 - He will finally smash into the wall of the castle in super speed effectively killing him like a bug on a windshield with a large "splat" sound and blood all over the wall.

MK: Armageddon also feautures loooads of extra content as if the great fighting engine wasnt enough. First of all you get a "Mario Kart" mode where you race with small childlike models of the fighters in their own little gocarts on different MK themed tracks. This is actually great fun and a welcome break in the fighting. The game also sports a complete system for creating your very own fighter for use in both Single & Multiplayer. You get to pick everything from the characters complete appearance to what kind of horns / wings / ears and or facemasks he/she should have. Then you pick some moves and name your fighters fighting style and of course the fighter itself. The sad thing here tho is that you can only have 1 custom fighter per profile so you cant make both a female version of Scorpion and a female verion of Reptile on the same profile wich is a shame. Then we have the Conquest mode wich is just down right silly. Its a clumsy 3rd person adventure with all of the characters included in some super bad story wher you run down a linear path to earn money (wich you buy Kreate a Fighter parts for, money can also be earned just by fighting in Arcademode, racing or playing multiplayer) and unlock bonus content such as Art and scetches. I actually played this mode until I unlocked a new character but the game actually stopped responding on me... so this whole mode seems to stop working when you reach your first big unlockable wich is of course, just dumb. In addition to this you have the classic Arcade mode and the Endurance mode wich pits you against a neverending stream of opponents with only 1 lifebar of your own. Then you have the Krypt where all the insane amounts of extra content are collected. If you´re a fan you will find endless goodies in here, im guessing most of it will require you to play the conquest mode tho..and you dont want to do that.

The graphics in MK: Armageddon are a direct port from the Ps2 with some wierd widescreen support. The textures are nicely designed but feels very dated at times and the game IS played in 16:9 but still some parts of the game feels very stretched out wich is a shame. The game still looks OK tho. You still get a very nice MK feeling thanks to the graphics. The sound is superb. Everything from the commentator to every characters voice is done the right way and punches kicks and special moves sounds just as brutal as they should. The Music goes in a typical MK vein and feels just right for the fighting !

The big thing to notice in this version of the game tho is the new Wii controls. They make special moves so much eaiser for those that never really got the hang of the "up, down, punch" thing. Simple motions with the Wiimote will now execute special moves for you and once you get the hang of it it works like a dream ! Lets take my personal favorite Scorpion as an example where a back -> forward motion with the control will launch his harpoon, a forward -> back motion will do his teleport kick and a down -> up move will do his fire attack. This system is also worked into the new finishing move system wich is, im afraid, not as good. Its still very very cool since moves you make with the controller will result in a long finishing combo where a quick thrusting motion will rip out the heart and a forward -> up motion will rip off the head but the system takes away all of the personality that was in the old system. I want all of the characters to have completely unique finishing moves. I want my Scorpion to rip his mask of, revealing the Ghost Rider head and then have him flame his opponent to bones and ashes. They could have baked in the new Wii-controls into that old system instead.

All in all tho this is a VERY solid Mortal Kombat game that any fan of the series will truly appriciate and I can safely say that the Wiicontrols are a great success. You can of course still go old school and play the game with a gamecube or classic controller if you want but even I, old school as I am, prefer the new system. It actually is as smooth as Ed Boon wants you to think it is! Its a very balanced and fun fightinggame that now also has a truckload of extramodes and content that makes the value of this release go up even higher.
If you own a Wii and are looking for a solid fightinggame this is really the only choice for you at the moment. The spirit of MK truly lives on and tho you can clearly feel its a Ps2 port and tho the game has some bugs and glitches its still truly worth buying !

Where to begin with this game? Theres so much good about this game and theres so many parts that come together to make this a superb gaming experience. I guess we start from the beginning. You are sitting in an airplane watching some family photos and reading the card that is glued to the nice present you got from your parents. The year is 1960 and you are crossing the deepest parts of the atlantic ocean in a plane that is thick with cigarrettesmoke. You dont know who you are or where you are heading or why. Suddenly your vision blurs out and everything goes dark. The next thing your hear is the airplane security alarm screaming "altitude, altitude" while the plane is rushing towards the dark cold ocean. Boom! You wake up 50 meters below the surface, you hear things exploding up there and parts from the plane and luggage are sinking around you. You desperetaly begin to swim upwards when half the plane suddenly swooshes down into the black abyss right next to you. You´re almost out of breath and are desperetaly trying to hold it for a couple of seconds more. When you finally surface you do it in the middle of burning planefuel. You can see the back half of the plane slowly sinking. But whats that? You can see a huge, very odd lighthouse sticking up out of the water like a giant arm. You are almost freezing to death so you hurry over to the lighthouse and step inside while the last parts of the plane and its other temporary survivors are swallowed by the cold merciless ocean. Further into this lighthouse is en elevator, below it is..Rapture! If you didnt know this already Rapture is an underwater city built by a man in the 50s where he could be free of the opression that is politics and religion and where he and the citys inhabitants could live their lives the way they wanted to. But something went wrong and the huge utopia is now a ghost city, leaking and burning everywhere. This is the beginning of a fantastic game! Why are you here? why did the plane crash here? who are you? what is this city? what happened down here that destroyed it? Who are these giant walking beasts called Big Daddies and what role do the small "Little sisters" have? Who are the people still alive and why do they help you? You carefully take your first steps into this underwater New Yorkish utopia and you take your first steps into a truly unique shooterexperience!

I guess the most obvious comparison to another game would be System Shock 2. This is pretty much a spiritual successor to System Shock 2 made by Warren Spectors old buddy Ken Levine and the game stands on the same basic foundation as the old System Shock and Deus Ex games. Its a shooter BUT its a shooter with freedom, rpg elements and a huge amount of exploring and interaction with your surroundings. Like any other shooter you shoot bad guys and monsters with big weapons like shotguns and grenadelaunchers BUT here you can do oh so much more. First off you come to learn about this "drug" that was a big factor to why this city went to heck. Its called Adam and it gives you the ability to genetically alter your own body to shoot ice, start fires, move things with the will of your mind or send swarms of bees at your enemy. (give this ability to a whole city and you have created the beginning of the end.) On top of this you can use your surroundings to your advantage in fights. So for example you COULD shoot an enemy with your shotgun OR you could set up some traps in a walkway leading to a small area of water and then lure the enemy into your traps and then into the water. When hes in the water you could then zap the water with electricity from your fingertips so he dies of the shock. On top of this you can upgrade your body in a huge amount of areas. Do you want to hack the security system of the city to do your dirty work for you? Then upgrade your hacking skills. Do you want to go in guns blazing everywhere and just shoot and hit stuff? Then upgrade so that you can take more damage, have more health and emit electrical bursts when someone else hit you. If you dont want to play the game like that you can focus on your "splicing" and upgrade all of your genetical abilities. As if this werent enough you can switch out abilities from certain stations all over the place to try different things and go to Weapon upgrade-stations where you can upgrade the weapons you want with different upgrades. OR you could go invent your own ammunition for the weapons to make them more effective versus the thing you desire. I could go on all night about this but I guess the point here is that you play the game the way you want to. You could blast open a locked door or you could hack the lock OR you could go through the vent beside it OR you could hack the security system OR you could find the correct keycode to the door by searching some nearby apartments. Apply this formula to exacly everything in the game from combat to moral choices and you really get a game that you play the way YOU want to play it. 2 people will have 2 completely different experiences depending on how they choose to play the game.

The story works the same way. Its really up to you how much of the mystery you uncover. The game never forces you in a certain direction. You have an arrow that tells you where your next MAIN objective is but nobody is forcing you to go there. You can roam around freely in the "hub" of the city you are currently in to uncover stuff about the city and the huge mystery that is resting in it. Bioshock manages to really draw you into its story and make it so that you really really want to go off exploring every little corner you can of the city. And its always rewarding. You will always find some ghosts whispering to each other or some audio diary explaining something that went on before the city went under. The story in Bioshock is one of the most mysterious, engaging and disturbed stories I have ever witnessed in a game. There is sooo much backstory, explanations to everything and clues to everything that everything feels extremely alive and believable. All things have a reason and an explanation down there and its up to you to figure it out. Before you are done with the story theres also some twists in it that really blow all other "story twists" away. there are moments of Bioshocks story where it feels alot like the TV series "Lost". You really dont know what is going on..or do you?! And when you think you know they twist it around and you go "Wow, ok so THAAT S why! thats cooool". It also feels very grown up and mature and the game makes use of its M rating all the time. You thought Silent Hill was twisted? Wait until you get deep down into the bowels of Rapture!

The graphics are awesome and the graphical design is even more awesome. The engine they are using is the Unreal 3 eninge wich can be seen in Gears of War (aka the best looking game ever made). Maybe the most technically awesome part of the graphics is the water. Whem developing the game they had a group of very skilled programmers working ONLY on the water for the whole development process. In a game where water is everywhere around you its kind of important that the water looks good, and it does. This is the best looking water effects in a game ever. Period. The design is over the top 50s Art Deco and its sooo gorgeous. The whole city is this temple of superb graphical design. I dont think I´ve ever before stopped to watch the surroundings as many times as I did when playing Bioshock. Every new room you enter is filled with art and details in the environments that you really cant help but stop and stare at. Everything from posters to the total chaos of an abandoned apartment. Everything is so carefully planned and detailed I have yet to see another game ever that has the same amount of detail and care to the world.
The sound design is just the same. Its insanely detailed and with a 5.1 system you truly are IN this world like no other game.

Another element worth brining up is the Little Sisters.Probably one of the greatest gaming elements ever to be put in a shooter. All over the city there are these young girls in little cute dresses running around. They stick needles into dead bodies and draw out the "Adam" in them and then drink it themselves. They are little ghouls and only shadows of their former selves. They are the source to the huge amount of moral choices you will have to make throughout the game. To survive in this crazy city you need this drug to upgrade your genes. But the only way to get "Adam" is to get it from these "little sisters". And they have it in their bodies. You have 2 people guiding you through the city through a comradio. 1 of them gives you a special medecine that can CURE these little sisters. The other one think you should just kill them. If you cure them you wont get as much adam as if you were to actually "harvest" them but you will feel better about yourself and you wont commit a cruel deed. But if you kill them you get a huge amoun of Adam but you also get more addicted to the stuff. Will you save the little girls or will you harvest them for more power? It will affect alot of things before the game is over. And before the game is over you will also have figured out just what these girls are and how they were put into this state of bodyharvesting.

I guess Bioshock is the result of all these things put together in a very sharp package. You have freedom, the ability to play how you want. You can explore, find clues to the great mystery that is Rapture and you can upgrade yourself and kill stuff how you want to. In thix mix we have this great visual and audiodesign and this deep, twisting story that will leave you breathless. Theres plenty of cinematic moments, scary sequences, change in pace and straight up crazy shooter action. Sometimes it feels like Doom 3 and sometimes it feels like a deep RPG. Bioshock drives you to get to the bottom of all the questions that the city throws at you and you wont get any rest before you have figured it all out! Bioshock will leave you scared, on the edge of your seat and with tears in your eyes. It stirrs up strong emotions and it deliveres on every part of the gameplay. its this huge sandbox where you are dropped down and are free to do what you want. Theres actually this whole economy system so if you want you can gather money from an abandoned clothingstore and then go to the casino to try and get a jackpot on the one-armed bandit. Or you could go do a "dead rising" in the shopping mall of the city. Throw hats as enemies from the hatstore or visit the stripclub to figure out the mystery of the dead hooker you find in there and then proceed to drink some coffee in the coffeeshop before you kill the psycho that resides in the part of the mall you are in. I could of course go into details with all the pshycotic people you will run into but Ive gone on long enough about this game now. I can tell you this much. You will run into ALOT of twisted personalities down there. An artist who tries to make one last sick masterpiece and doctor thats never satisfied with only "fixing" his patients.

Ok, Im gonna try and make sense of all this. Its like Doom 3 meets Deus Ex meets Dead Rising meets insanely well written detective story meets survival horror meets Sci-Fi horror movie. Yea, damn, Bioshock would make such a good movie! Theres certainly enough Political and religious aspects to why Andrew Ryan built his city to make it feel very important for the movie audience today!
Dont miss out on this game. The background to this city on the bottom of the ocean is enough to warrant a playthrough, then u have this insane crazy masterpiece of a game on top of it! Game of The year? maybe so! One thing is for sure. I know a couple of more big shooters that comes out this year, and I know that none of them will be THIS insanely immersive!

Ninja Gaiden was released many years ago as a Hack n Slash actionadventure with heavy emphasis on the action. The game could arguably be compared to games like "Devil May Cry" or the more recent "Heavenly Sword". Enemies spawn and you string together combos of moves similar to a fighting game to eliminate them and move on to the next room. Contrary to DMC and HS tho, Ninja Gaiden feautured quite alot of exploring and puzzlesolving feeling almost like a Zelda adventure at times.
Since the release of Ninja Gaiden, Team Ninja have released an updated version of the game called Ninja Gaiden Black with some updates to the game and gameplay as well as the addition of some extra stuff. Now, 2007, The same game is release for the third time as Ninja Gaiden Sigma and it includes all the balancing updates and mission packs from previous version as well as the addition of making Rachel playable in a couple of missions making this the ultimate and most complete version of this very popular game!

When it comes to hack n slash action this game delivers in every aspect of the word. The controls are made for this type of action and the action itself is supertight and superfun. It also rewards you for not playing it like a buttonmasher and for thinking about how you string together awesome combos. The game has recieved alot of praise for being this very balanced, challenging and rewarding actionexperience and I can only nod my head and fully agree with the masses on this point. The juicy actioncore of this game is one of the best ever for sure putting the recent Heavenly Sword to shame when it comes to showing off fluid, cool, fastpaced combat. The addition of Rachel being playable really makes the whole thing feel complete. I havent played the earlier versions of this game but I would like to think that it would feel like something would be missing if she wasnt playable. Her moves are slower but packs more of a punch so you need to play more defensively and counterattack with a few heavy blows to be successfull. The characters in this game are truly the most satisfying actioncharacters to play on this side of Devil May Cry 3 SE.

OK. So with that out of the way lets touch on the most popular question when it comes to Ninja Gaiden. The difficulty. Many people are scared to play this game (I was one of them) because of its reputation. The game is challenging, yes. Some might even call it hard. Enemies will not show you any mercy. Every battle is a ballet and if you trip on your partners toes even once you will quickly find yourself taking alot of hits and losing loads of health in seconds. You need to keep your guard up, run around alot and counterattack with haste to successfully completing a standard monsterspawn battle without to many potions. The same thing goes for bosses. They will not give you loads of hints on what attacks they will pull off or stay still for to long to let you hit them. The game expects you to have good reflexes and quick fingers to pull through the game. With that being said it never ever feels unfair. If you die you only blame yourself. I never once threw the controller and yelled at the game when I died because I knew there was something I just hadnt figured out concering the enemies movements. Also since this is the third release of this game everyone can find their level of difficulty. If you start dying alot you will be able to switch the game down to an easier difficulty where you get more money to buy potions for and more mercy from all the enemies. You´ll find yourself living alot longer and defeating bosses on the first try. So my point here is dont avoid playing this game because of its difficulty because they have now finetuned the game so much that everyone can win. Yea well ok, the game still wont be as easy as say Heavenly Sword (since we already used that game as an example before). The game will not show you mercy even on easy but it will not feel overwhelming if you havent played the game before.

The game´s problems is pretty much everything except this tho and its such a shame that all these layers of frustration are coated on top of this excellent actionadventure. For starters the controls are awful when it comes to everything except combat. The game´s platforming elements are so frustrating you just wanna scream at the television and go out and kill a kitten. The controls are not made for platforming at all and on top of that we have the horrible camera that is constantly working against you. Whether its combat, exploration or platforming the camers is constantly positioned wrong so that you have to manually adjust it with the right stick every second of the whole game. Enter a new room, adjust the camera, start a fight, adjust the camera, run in a particular direction, adjust the camera, jump from one platform to another, adjust the camera e.t.c. Whatever you want to do in this game, you gotta adjust the camera first. I swear, if this game didnt have the cameracontrols on the rightstick but instead went for keeping these premade camera angles, this game would be completely impossible to play. The game is also terrible at telling you what you are supposed to be doing. There is alot of backtracking through levels and over and over and over you´ll find yourself just stopping and desperately looking for a clue on the map or something because you have no idea if you´re going in the right direction. Its even possible to backtrack all the way back through several levels just to then realize you werent supposed to backtrack in the first place. This just gets worse and worse and it gets to the point where I couldnt get any furhter without Gamespots guide by my side to know where I was supposed to be going. This leads us to talking more about all of the backtracking. The same levels are used over and over again and all of Rachels missions (wich are not that many unfortunately) are played on stages you just finished with Ryu wich feels very lazy. The levels themselves are also very boring. The leveldesign could use a huge injection of Cliff Bleszinski. Levels feel alot like a boring room of enemies even if you are in a big outside area. I guess this is one of the things that make it so appearent that this is an old game you´re playing. Textures, colors, leveldesign and overall graphical quality feels alot like a game that is very old. Coming straight from the new generation of games this game really feels old. Graphics are truly lacking by 2007 and PS3 standards even ifs its upscaled to 1080p and runs in a smooth 60fps. The only really good thing that can be said about the games graphics are the characters wich, if you can accept the obvious doll-like design, are looking really sharp. They look extremely crisp and feels like true next generation characters. They animate beautifully and feels very cool in their design (no i´m not going to complain about Itagaki´s look on women, in fact I love it, take that!) .

I know nobody will be playing this game for the story and the narrative but it still needs to be pointed out how BAD it is. It leaves a foul aftertaste in your mouth that wont go away even if you brush you teeth twice. The story is a pathetic excuse for hacking on fools and feautures characterinteractions and dialogues so bad you wanna cover your ears and just get on with the action. The english voiceacting is the worst I have ever heard in my life and shouldnt be used at all since you can thankfully go Japanese instead. You dont care anything for the story, its characters or how it ends. The fact that the end is extremely anticlimatic dosent really make things better. The ending is truly pathetic.

The game feautures a very uneven soundtrack. Sometimes its brilliant with adrenalinepumping electronic technovibes and sometimes its as awful as the voiceacting just getting on your nerves like a screaming baby. Soundeffects dont have much variation and you really start to question some of them as the sound more wierd than right.

In the end this is an excellent actiongame with some of the most satisfying and rewarding action you can find on the PS3. On top of this excellent core there are 10 layers of pure frustration that will keep you from enjoying the core of the game. Horrible platforming controls, an awful camera, frustrating and sometimes completely wierd puzzles, insane backtracking, no guidance on where you are supposed to be going at all, sucky story, insanely outdated leveldesign and environmentgraphics and way to few Rachelmissions. The game feels like the best hack n slash ever in certains parts and a very uninspired and stripped down version of a 3D Zelda adventure in other parts. Its a shame, a real shame. I wasnt hooked on Ninja Gaiden before and I am not hooked on it now. The chance that you will start to like it after playing Sigma is not very big. You need to have played the previous games and already be a die hard fan to truly appriciate the game and the improvements made on it. It feels outdated and you need to have that extra nostalgia to like rather than hate the fact that it feels old.

The game is still worth a playthrough to experience the cool bosses and the wonderful hack n slash gameplay but take with you a huge amount of patience to battle all the frustration that will try to kill you, your PS3 and your family before you´re through.

Mario is back for REAL for the first time since Mario 64 and he revolutionizes the series, the genre and the gamingindustry before hes done! This is the game that Wii owners bought their console for last year and its the game that pretty much anyone whos ever heard of Mario has been wanting to try out since they first heard of it. Its the game that a whole world has gazed at in amazement for years and its finally here. It delivers on everything and only a few annoyances keeps this from being the perfect videogame. These are words I honestly thought I would never use, I was pretty sure the perfect game could not be made. Well, I´m still right but I feel like I´m wrong since Mario Galaxy is about as close as you can get.

Once every now and then a huge comet passes by the Mushroomkingdom with loads of starfalls and a big festival as a result. Its the night of the Comet Festival at the Princess Castle and the area is drenched in song, dance and falling stars of every one of the rainbows colors. Peach has sent an invitation to Mario to come to the castle since she has something she want to give him. Mario runs happy towards the castle, arms out like an airplane through the happy festival night when huge airships appear on the starry nightsky. Bowser and his armada starts a bombing run over the whole area, freezing toads in place, destoying buildings and lifts the very castle from the ground in huge chains to take it away to outer space with Peach still in it. Mario manages to hold on to the castle but loses grip when hes attacked and starts falling with the distant scream of Peach echoing through the very vacum of space. An unknown amount of time later he wakes up on a green field with beautiful flowers all around him. He soon realizes that this is not a field, its a little sphere in the middle of space with its own gravitation. Before the whole intro is over you´ll get help from a huge spaceship that passed by Earth but got drained of all its Power Stars by Bowser whos now planning to make his own galaxy with Peach by his side. This spaceship / spacestation is lead by the beautiful young girl Rosalina who has hundreds of small cute stars under her care. Her ship will act as your hub to all the galaxies you´ll explore to take back enough stars to power the ship back up and go after Bowser and Peach at the center of the universe to save Peach and to save the universe itself from destruction. You enter the first part of the hub after recieving your own little star wich you keep in your hat and that makes you able to fly through space. The adventure is on!

Mario Galaxy revolutionize the way we think about platforming. This game will bend and twist your mind until you are completely dizzy. The leveldesign of this game will literally blow your mind. You´ll run around from side to side on small spheres, jump between spheres, go inside of them outside of them and through them, You´ll cross bridges on them, under them and around them. You´ll walk on ceilings, walls, roofs, inside of balls, cylinders floating and twisting platforms. And when you think you´ve seen it all you´ll walk on a sphere, then inside of it, then flip the gravitation inside of it and walk inside of a 2D maze inside of the sphere then flip again, ride elevators upwards on the screen standing under the elevator then smash through the outer wall of the sphere, fly through space and land on cylinder thats also 4 stages in 1.

Every stage in Mario Galaxy is a game on its own. Every aspect and leveldesign-tweak could easily be a game on its own but here you get thrown into another just as awesome level just as you have started to understand the last and your mind is blown all over again, and it all makes perfect sense. Not once do you get confused about what you´re supposed to do and where you´re supposed to be going, you´re just riding along, screaming "wooow" at everything thrown at you. In the beginning you keep feeling a huge rush in your stomach each time you leap of a ledge thinking you´ll die just to flip around and land on the other side of the planet where you´ll continue to jump on goombas upside down.
From start to finish Mario Galaxy bends the very laws of gaming itself. Its like "The Matrix". It feels like you´re bending the gameworld to your will when you´re playing it and its a sensation I have never before felt in any game. This is hands down the best leveldesign ever in a game and it wouldnt even have to be set in a Mariogame to work. It would work without the nostalgiafactor that is Mario. Its platforming reinvented all over again!
You´really cant wait to check out the next unlocked galaxy since you´ll know it will feel like playing a new game evertime you enter one. Simply amazing!

But for this to work the controls has to be as tight as the leveldesign right? Well I can safely tell you that they are. The controls works perfect 95% of the time with perfect Wiimote support for launching launchstars, do your spinattack and collect Starbits that you use to unlock bonusgalaxies thats generally a bit more challenging than the normal ones. Once you get used to the controls they will feel like 2nd nature. Nothing to it. There are a few occasions however where the controls just fail completely and makes for some extremely frustrating bits. For once the swimcontrols feels very clunky. Swimming where you want to go is often easier said than done. Also some of Marios suits have kinda frustrating controlschemes. The springsuit that turns you into a human spring is the worst example sending you to your death countless times because you cant bounce it right.

Talking about suits. There are the springsuit, the fireflower, the iceflower, the boosuit and the beesuit. Theres also a healthmushroom that doubles your health until you have dropped down to your normal health again. Most of them are fun to use and makes for very interesting puzzles. This game also fixes some minor things from previous Mariogames like how you could stack up what felt like an infinite number of 1-Ups. Here you´ll start back at 4 lives each time you start playing the game so each gaming session is a 1-Up hunt. This ramps up the difficulty to a better level and is an excellent addition to the series. As for the difficulty its probably (again) the best balanced difficulty in a game ever. It stars you out easy and goes up as you go through the game with some extra crazy galaxies to unlock. The beginning of the game is a breeze where you´ll fly through the levels relaxed and laid back. This will not last forever however. Some of the later stages are REALLY challenging, forcing you to the edge of your seat and making handsweat cover your wiimote completely. But even when its that hard it never feels frustrating or unfair, its if possible even more fun when then game is really really challenging. The feeling of standing there under the star in the end of the insane level, just hearing nothing but the sparkling sound it makes is a feeling of accomplishment not very common in games.

Concerning graphics this game is pretty much a work of art. Its one of the visually most beautiful games i have (again) EVER played. And its not because of the technical part. This games artdirection, artwork and visual style beats most of whats out there and the way camerangles and events are used to really immerse you in the experience are insane. Compl