naznatips on 04 January 2008
| DeguelloNWR said: "I didn't want to get into an argument. Cory Barlog did make a valid point and it's sad that many people are choosing to attack him rather than admitting that he's actually right." The "validity" of the point is at best a matter of opinion. I have personally met several adults who thought Mario Galaxy reminded them of "The Little Prince" which is well-read and well-loved, as well as a finely crafted story that adults enjoy. Simply focusing on the ending is cherry-pickingly short sighted, especially when the source of the accusation's storytelling techniques can be constructed by any high-school student assigned Edith Hamilton's mythology and thrown in detention. Legend, while Nintendo may still be "stuck in the eighties" as far as plot goes, at least it's the 1980's, and not 80 B.C. For him to praise the game's creativity and then give it any criticism in regards to it's basic concept is flawed. To say all Mario platformers are equivalent simply because the beginning and the end result is the same is totally omitting that crucial middle part where they are different, which is to say, romping through the Mushroom Kingdom is different from going through Subcon (Mario), having a vacation interrupted on dinosaur Island (Mario World), Exploring the different paintings of the Princess's castle, having a vacation interrupted on a tropical island, and being jettisoned through space. When you piece together the actual THINGS YOU DO in these Mario games, it makes for a heroic story whose roots are in the universal fairy tales that we all tell our children. There is no need to stop the game and tell the player what's going on. He/She already knows. There is no need for "mystery" or "double-crosses" and whatever other tired plot devices get thrown in these days. The problem for Mr. Barlog is that he has seen the creativity abound in Mario Galaxy and instead of learning from it and applying principles to future games, he holds it at arms length and criticizes the story. Much has been said of Nintendo designers viewing competitor's games and from what little they pry loose from those designers lips is that they get heavily inspired by simply what they see, and it doesn't even stop at other games. Miyamoto and Eiji Aunoma (Other Zelda guy) have sourced movies like Amelie as inspirational contributions to Wind Waker, such as simply using model position and facial expression to bring a story forward instead of simply writing what the characters have to say and getting some out-of-work voice actor to punch through lines. This internet age we live in brings all the worst out in some people, and stealth-trolling as a result of sour grapes can be an indicator of bitterness. The fact is he seems jealous of Mario Galaxy's success, despite his apparent praising of it. This is no off-the-cuff remark that you might get from a guy who is coming out of a movie. Everything put on the internet, especially from official sources takes careful crafting. This is not an even-handed mostly positive criticism he posted as much as trying to convince his fans or even himself that something must be wrong with Mario Galaxy. Especially this part: "Maybe that is just me though, since almost every other designer I talk to thinks this game is the second coming." Who said that, other than Nintendo fans? Did the game get most of the GOTY awards? I thought Bioshock did. This is a typical Jack Chick offense, the non-existent straw man. Create a false characterization of somebody that is easy to knock down (a straw man, as it were) and knock that straw man down. IT's kind of tasteless. And why does he think anybody cares about his opinion. His market presence is quite small. Maybe he just wasted to have his name and Mario Galaxy in the same sentence. I dunno. |
Best first post ever. However, I should point out that quite a few GOTY awards have gone to SMG. This includes major sites like Gametrailers and Gamespot (although I don't like Gamespot). It's also the second best rated game of all time on gamerankings.com, so there is really no debate that critically it's a roaring success. I'm really just quoting you to bump you to the second page though.
