Your post is about gameplay, his complaint was about story, meaing what is motivating Mario to do what he's doing.

 It's simply a matter of what he is trying to say and who is he trying to convince with it.  That's fine that he wants more story in a game, but to make a blog post about it?  He is not a reviewer.  Moreover, he can be viewed as a direct competitor. His opinion can be highly suspect if so.

There is bad blood between Nintendo and Sony, but this past few years it has been obviously one sided.  Sony started to really heap it on Nintendo when they said that only children wanted to play DS, the only game they have is Pokemon, gimmick waggle wand when the wii came out, etc.  From Nintendo?  Nothing, really.  Except those sales numbers they let do the talking for them.

 If it is truly his opinion, that's fine, but he had best be prepared to be in the miniscule minority, and have the reasons for his opinion judged.  His blog is not a private space.  He posts it for the world to see, and as such the world will judge, and most think him to be more than a little jealous and envious.

 Yeah, Gears really doesn't really have a story, and if it does, it's far from heavy handed. One of the reasons I enjoyed it actually. Stories typically have a beginning, middle, and end. Gears has a middle, and not much else. There's a few pointless cut-scenes where stuff I presume the creator's thought looked bad ass happened, and some minor crap about what you're doing, but you can mostly skip all that. 

Criticizing Mario for a lack of story is like criticizing Halo because it is too violent or god of war because it is too mystical.

If a picture can tell a thousand words, one might argue that Mario Galaxy's Gameplay IS its Story, as a moving interactive picture.  For many simple and complex minds, this is sufficient, especially when those visuals are as creative and vivis as Mario Galaxy's.  If Mr. Barlog wish to be lead like a sheep through his entertainment, well, that is reflected in his method of storytelling, no?

And remind me, Famine, to tell your future boyfriend/girlfriend that being kidnapped would not be a sufficient enough reason to attempt to rescue him/her.  I'm sure that would go over like salmon pancakes.

this guy has a point. But like most said not all games work with stories.

Mario keep the story limit low.
Zelda well its pretty much a recarnation of a different link everytime but it would be nice to get a bit more epic in a zelda game.

I pray mario never ends up like MGS series. I bet i will need to bring out the popcorn for number 4, that one will be like 40min video then 10mins gameplay then another 1hour video of watching haha. None the less i still love mgs games

He'd fit right in with the fine fellows at the Player Haters Ball.

http://www.tv.com/uservideos/?action=video_player&id=dnI6n2P55bsIszXe

John Lucas 

For me, the fact that he complains of not having a compelling reason to continue playing is highly suspect.

Is having fun not reason enough?

Does he not like video games?

Super Mario Galaxy is actually my 2nd favorite story in a Mario game. #1 is the original Paper Mario.

I can't believe this thread is ongoing. Folks you're taking this comment about lack of story-line way too seriously. Let's face facts - ALL video game storylines are superficial. Yes, some are more superficial than others (SMG vs Mass Effect) but in every case the story only exists as an excuse for the action to happen (or a mystery to solve in the case of RPGs and adventure).

Does romance happen in VG stories? Vertually never.

Character development? Considering your the character - no, vertually never.

Meaningful character interaction? Almost always superficial stuff just to progress the action.

Does it matter? No. People don't turn on a video game for a deep meaningful story, they turn in on for a fun distraction, which a loose story-line might help or hinder.

Personally, I agree, after being kidnapped for the uppteenth time, I'd like to know why Bower is so determined and why Mario cares so much that he carelessly risks his life time and again. But that's cause I've been playing Mario games since before he was even called Mario. There's a lot of kids out there where this is their first time seeing Peach being kidnapped and all that extra info would only hinder their enjoyment of the game.

1st rule of any story - if it isn't necessary - leave it out. SMG has it right, but what-his-name still have a right to feel how he does, and he admits that's just his opinion and others disagree with him.

Now before someone tells me about some JRPG which was all those things I mentioned or such, ask yourself this: If you were to take that and directly translate it into a book (or even a movie) without adding or subtracting anything would it be successful? It'd be pretty boring or pretty thin wouldn't it? Otherwise it'd be a book already.