Variety Not Impressed By Super Mario Galaxy

Everyone agrees that Super Mario Galaxy is the best thing since the invention of the Goomba, right? Our Frankenreview of the Wii game is stuffed to capacity with praise. The current Metacritic review score hovers around 98, otherwise known as “universal acclaim.” But one reviewer, Ben Fritz of Variety, isn’t sold on the game. His review is positive at times, but surprisingly scathing and harshly critical of Nintendo’s hardware. Variety writes that “‘Galaxy’ makes poor use of the Wii’s motion-sensing controls and the graphics simply aren’t up to par with what players can now find on the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360.” Eep!

The review continues to point out flaws that other reviewers made nearly no mention of, writing that Super Mario Galaxy is “evidence of how bad the Wii is for third person action games”, pointing to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as further evidence of that claim.

Additional complaints include poor use of the Wii’s motion controls and “one of the worst two-player experiences ever seen in a videogame.”

Personally, I tend to disagree with Mr. Fritz’s opinion of Super Mario Galaxy, as our opinions on each one of these matters are at opposite ends of the spectrum. From my experience with the game, Nintendo nailed not only the perfect balance between Wii remote usage and traditional Mario-style platforming, but also added a two-player mode that suits the Wii audience quite well. I’m also quite glad that people are entitled to their opinions, so I’m not going to work myself into a froth over it.

But I hear some pitchforks being sharpened somewhere…

Super Mario Galaxy [Variety]