Nintendo's Italian plumber Mario caught the eye of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences at this year's Interactive Achievement Awards, nabbing an award for Adventure Game of the Year. If there was one game that could be classified as an "adventure" back in 2007, we would definitely have to say Super Mario Galaxy.
Also, Nintendo ended up walking away with another award. The winner of Handheld Game of the Year was none other than The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. As for the other awards, none were for Nintendo or games on Nintendo platforms. So, you could probably care less.
When most gamers think of that sense of amazement the certain parts of Super Mario Galaxy seem to invoke, they attribute that moment to the Miyamoto touch, a direct result of the imaginative developer's attention and care. While it's a natural assumption to make, one shouldn't forget about Yoshiaki Koizumi, the director behind the critically-acclaimed platformer!
In a recent interview with Next-Gen, Koizumi championed the importance of surprising players: "If you think about games only as a thing that you interact with, you're missing the possibility of immersion. The inspirations that I tend to draw on for that all come from real life itself. Hiking on a mountain and seeing a cave and thinking about what's inside -- it's that sense of wonder and excitement I want players to feel."
Well, we certainly had a lot of that with just the Gusty Garden Galaxy!
In little over 60 weeks, the Wii console has managed to sell over 5 million units in its home territory of Japan. As impressive as this is, it falls short of the DS, which achieved sales figures of this nature in 56 weeks. But, the Wii did manage to beat the PS2, which cracked the 5 million mark after 66 weeks on the market.
A system is only so good as its games though, right? Well, in Japan the games pushing the Wii are Wii Sports (2.6 million copies sold as of now), Wii Play (2.1 million copies sold as of now), Mario Party 8 ( 1.1 million copies sold as of now) and Wii Fit (1.1 million copies sold as of now). Super Mario Galaxy comes in fifth place in the country, only selling a total of 843,961 copies.
It's nice when your peers recognize your work. So, Miyamoto and co. must be beaming with happiness to hear that Super Mario Galaxy got the nod in several categories for the Game Developer's Choice Awards. If our opinion means anything (it doesn't), we liked the game a lot.
Overall, Super Mario Galaxygets its hat tossed into two categories, although many* might consider them to be the best two categories: Best Game Design and Game of the Year. It's up against some tough competition, however, as undersea romp Bioshock and Portal, which has seemed to help pie's ugly cousin cake propel itself into the stratosphere of popularity, will undoubtedly give Mario a run for his coin (or stars).
Nooo, not those balls. Get your mind out of the gutter, you disgusting piece of filth. These are super balls, the kind which need no human host to survive and can freely bounce about the galaxy of your child's bedroom or anywhere of their own volition. These balls truly are super.
Of course, they won't be available until April of this year, so this is only an opportunity to preorder. Each set will cost $22, with a variety of different balls on offer.
Well now, what is this? A source of information regarding Super Smash Bros Brawlthat isn't from the dojo? We'll take it!
Apparently, Rosalina from the Wii's current most-popular game will be making an appearance in the Wii's most-popular upcoming game. She's going to be an assist trophy, as one might imagine, so she won't be playable. However, it's nice to see another Nintendo character join the obscenely large roster of folks showing their faces in the upcoming game.
Other tidbits of worth from the time enjoying the demo at Jump Festa pertain to another assist trophy in Duster from Mother 3, the Sandbag actually existing as an item during fights and playable characters Kirby and the Pokémon Trainer, who plays like his N64 version and shouts the name of Pokémon he is using, respectively.
Starting today until this Saturday, Target will have six of its Wii games for sale for only $37.00! As you can see from the list below, they're not all crap, either!
Most of these titles are already out of stock on Target's online shop, but you should still be able to pick them up at a brick and mortar location. If you've been putting off on buying Super Mario Galaxy to accommodate your Christmas budget, with the holiday now behind us and this great deal, you can make this long overdue purchase without having to feel guilty about it!
Who doesn't love the great Satoru Iwata. He's a very kind man and a pleasure to be around (this blogger knows, he met him a couple years ago). Not only that, but he has a good mind for business, as he's managed to turn Nintendo into a crazy-rich company with the hottest console and handheld on the market. Certainly, he deserves this honor.
He isn't the only person from Nintendo to be recognized, however. Next-Gen's list encompasses 25 people from the industry, and other notable Nintendo folk include George Harrison and Yoshiaki Koizumi (the director behind Super Mario Galaxy).
With the end of 2007 approaching at near lightning-fast speed, we thought it would be nice to check out what you, the excellent reader, thought about the games of this year. First up, we have the obvious: first-party games. We have a good idea which game you're going to say, but in the name of healthy debate, check out all of the choices past the break.
Now, this is just plain weird. Apparently, folks in the UK don't have enough to bet on, so they turn to the gaming industry. Bookie Paddy Power is reporting that a lot of money is riding on what game emerges as the number one seller throughout this holiday season, with the total stake coming to about 11,000 GBP. That just boggles our mind.
But, this isn't the first year this has been going down. They started accepting bets on gaming sales charts starting back in 2003, where it didn't receive many takers. Then, it had only seen 60 bets as which game would emerge on top, with this year seeing a whopping increase in popularity to 650 bets. Oh, and the favored game to come out on top is EA's Need for Speed ProStreet.
Wow. Just ... wow. That is an amazing piece of art and to think it is made from just paper. That's the kind of piece we would pay good money for, but lucky us we don't have to. See, the instructions to make our very own Thwomp (Super Mario Galaxy version) are available online.
Any of you out there planning on making your own? Any of you successfully make one?
Yes, we're still knee-deep in Mario's latest outing, despite a strong desire to pick up the latest release chock full of block-stacking. We're so busy what with blogging a lot that we've only had enough time to gather about 30 stars, maybe a few more. All of you out there in Reader Land probably could put us to shame with your own star count.
As with every Friday, we're doomed to that question that must be asked: what are you playing? Are you going to be gathering up stars or will you be stacking blocks? Are you planning on playing something else?
We figured we'd mix Dean's list up a bit and have you all pick your favorite kid-friendly Wii games. What do you think is the best the system has to offer for younger gamers?
We've managed to abstain from posting about video game-related cakes for a record seven weeks now -- mostly to avoid the hackneyed "The cake is a lie" comments that inevitably follow -- but we're breaking that streak today with this fondant-covered beauty. Chefs John Thai, Zack Ginies, and Lori Diaz baked this Boo Mario together, sprinkling the plate with 1UPs before sending him out to save his imprisoned brother. Isn't he adorable? Shake your Wii remote and float past the post break to see more photos of this haunting dessert. Make sure to avoid the swinging spotlights!
When most gamers think of that sense of amazement the certain parts of Super Mario Galaxy seem to invoke, they attribute that moment to the Miyamoto touch, a direct result of the imaginative developer's attention and care. While it's a natural assumption to make, one shouldn't forget about Yoshiaki Koizumi, the director behind the critically-acclaimed platformer!
Starting today until this Saturday, Target will have six of its Wii games for sale for only $37.00! As you can see from the list below, they're not all crap, either!
Now, this is just plain weird. Apparently, folks in the UK don't have enough to bet on, so they turn to the gaming industry. Bookie Paddy Power is reporting that a lot of money is riding on what game emerges as the number one seller throughout this holiday season, with the total stake coming to about 11,000 GBP. That just boggles our mind.
And guess what company is at the top of the thing?
