Sunny Man’s Blog

June 17th 2008

(0) Introducing Extraordinary Paraphernalia

Blogging, Internet, News

Head on over to Extraordinary Paraphernalia and subscribe to the RSS feed!

April 16th 2008

(2) Chinese Patriotism Rears Its Misinformed Head

Life, News, Politics

Several blogs today report on a current trend with the popular instant messaging program MSN/Windows Live Messenger. Chinese internet users are adding a “love China” icon to their screen names in support of their country and in protest to perceived Western bullying seen in recent Olympic protests.

From SushiPanda, linked above:

Over half of my Chinese-Chinese friends on MSN have put the badge on their contact names, in defiance of all the anti-China bullying that they’re undoubtedly reading about in the Chinese newspapers, watching on the Chinese news, and scouring over on the hundreds of blogs and BBS’s peppering China’s cyberscape and devoted to propping up this country’s national pride.

I’ve no problem with patriotism, within limits of course, but we all know that information is manipulated in an unprecedented way in China and it’s a shame that the people - the good people of China - don’t realise why foreigners do protest. It’s nice to see that Chinese internet users can rally together like this, but just a shame they seem to have a misguided view.

November 29th 2007

(2) Content Aware Image Resizing

Blogging, News, Technology

A friend sent me a link to a video (seen here) of a program by a bloke called Ariel Shamir that provides a unique and new way of resizing images, keeping their quality and important features such as faces and people’s bodies. I believe I have seen something similar very recently but it obviously wasn’t that memorable. This however just struck me as cool.

November 23rd 2007

(1) Super Mario Galaxy

Gaming, News

We’ve known Super Mario Galaxy has been a long time coming and although the hype surrounding it may have only been contained to a small circle of Nintendo and Mario faithful, the game has certainly made a splash since being released in an unprecedented way.

Super Mario Galaxy is the latest instalment in the Super Mario game series and brings the traditional quest to rescue Princess Peach from his evil nemesis Bowser. This new title takes place in a series of galaxies within each is a series of planets and other objects like asteroids and space ships (among the other usual objects you associate with Mario). The object of the game is to collect stars which further your reach into the Universe allowing you to reach ever distant galaxies and eventually harder and harder enemies.

I’ll admit to you now that the only Super Mario game I’ve played before was Super Mario Sunshine, on the GameCube, which didn’t really create any buzz within me. This game was an impulse buy because my Wii was starting to gather dust and I wanted it to have some company.

Graphics

Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Playstation 3 and PC gamers don’t have a reputation of praising the graphical power of the Wii. I myself am the owner of an Xbox 360 but Super Mario Galaxy produces some of the best graphics I’ve seen on the Wii. Whether or not it is the case, it seems to me that anti-aliasing has been turned on and textures look really nice. Water and ice effects are used heavily throughout the game - at least throughout the part I’ve played - are are put to good use.

Gameplay

This title makes use of the Wii’s motion sensing capabilities in a number of ways. Throughout the game you use the Wiimote to point at the screen and collect gems, or star bits, as well as some other novel uses. These include ray (as in sting) surfing and a hamster ball-esque riding mini-task. Basic controls are well layed out and intuitive enough that as you learn them you always remember them. For example, spinning Mario to disorientate enemies or break up crystals to free your friends is initiated by flicking the Wiimote from side to side. It is surprisingly good at differentiating unintended flicks from intended.

From what I’ve played so far, there is a small amount of puzzle solving (as you would expect) that you experience on your adventures. So far they’ve been simple but still manage to make the game fun. Unless you play the game non-stop, you can expect to get some pretty decent time out of this game. When you’ve completed the game - spoiler alert here - you get to play it all over again but as Luigi. Luigi acts and behaves differently to the environments so you’ve got to play differently. I would say that you could play many levels over again, just for fun.

Throughout the game, Mario is able to transform into things that provide helpful skills that allow you to complete the level. For example, there’s Bee Mario which can fly, Rainbow Mario which is invincible, Fire Mario which uses fire and more.

A Few Niggles

I would say the game is perfect but not for a few niggles, as with any game. The camera can be controlled to a limited extent in limited parts of the game. Sometimes this is understandable but other times, such as when Mario becomes upside down, it becomes rather uncomfortable tilting your head to see where Mario is going.

Super Dooper or Super Pooper?

Super Mario Galaxy is a truly awesome game and a must-buy for all Wii owners. I think that this game could just be a game on its own and do just as well on sales and rankings - it doesn’t need to be under the umbrella of Super Mario to share the same success. There is a lot of playability to this game and many levels could be played again and again and still be exciting.

If you’re a Super Mario fan, buy the game. If you’re not, buy the game anyway. Either way, you won’t be disappointed.