Well I don't know about NSMB as I haven't played it... but I can certainly speak about being blinded by Mario.

Back in the late 90s to early 00s I thought platformer was one of the dullest genres, my experiences with Crash, jak & daxter, Spyro and Ratchet & Clank on PS1+2 being very dull... I kept away from Mario platformers on my own consoles partly due to the other platformers, and partly because I have a natural tendency to ignore whatever is popular (I was introduced to Zelda OoT by a friend... if it hadn't been for that I wouldn't have bought that either).
But with the Wii I became mildly interested in Mario Galaxy... and someone on VGC reccomended I try SM64 on Virtual Console as a tester, I did so and loved it... the first platformer I properly enjoyed. As such I bought Galaxy and loved it even more so.

Whether this IGN writer is just being an ass or not I can't tell, perhaps 'Splosion man would be better to me than NSMBWii as well, I will likely not play either and find out. But my guess would be he is just trying to downplay Nintendo like many game "jounalists" do... because I have found Mario is usually in a league of it's own for platformers, and I have no nostalgia factor helping me enjoy Mario games.

whats professional about writers writing about games? i think jokes and hahas have to come into play when you write about games.. .

Bleh... if 'Splosion Man was made by Nintendo IGN and other people would still complain... too original so it's strange.. lagging 4 player mode.. and quantity > quality levels... >_>

I haven't played this 'Splosion Man but I love platformers and it sounds pretty fun. But can somebody tell me if it has any levels half as cool as Mario's new 8-1 level, or the World 9 stuff? Nintendo is known for the best platforming level design in the world (or in its worst case scenario it's a 4-way tie with old Sega, Capcom, and Rare).

Pretty much same thing happened to me instead it being SM64 for the DS...

He gets paid at IGN right?

Also, proffesional writers tell jokes... all the time.  Have you never read a newspaper or ESPN or something.

He's supposed to write things as a journalist - much as some deny it, specialist journalists ae still supposed to be journalists. Journalists ae free to write editorials, but that isn't what this is. The man is having a breakdown and it's embarrassing to watch.

I'm not going to get into a discussion with you about whether or not NSMBWii is mediocre. That's not what I'm here to talk about. But if those are your openly expressed opinions, I'm glad you don't have a journalistic position at a major site, otherwise I would have to go through this wincing fiasco twice.

I'm with Khuutra here. Reading this made me feel embarrassed.

Oh, well, looking forward to future articles about Super Mario Galaxy 2. "Nintendo added Yoshi and a drill and called it a new game. Nintendo are lazy (again)."

Since you don't like the Wii (something you are fully entitled to ) of course you find his article to be good... On a side note, Daemon Hatfield actually WAS on the Nintendo team, it was sometime during that time that I stopped reading him.

Also, personally I think that criticism of any Wii game should be written by someone who generally likes the Wii, this way when reading the criticism I can know that the criticism is not because of disliking the Wii but because of actual problems with the game itself. But that's just my opinion/wish.

yes i have >_>

but how proffesional can you be when writing about games....i mean hes trying to give points on how NSMB is not all that good, and gives jokes to back it up, sure some cross the line, but its the way he wants to write it to get his point across