Another new mechanic is the use of the little stars as a weapon. You see those little crystal-looking star things that are everywhere? They were previously collected just to gain an extra life (nab 100, of course), but can now also be used as projectile weapons, shot at enemies with the Wii Remote pointer.
And the mixed gravity aspect has been revealed to be so much cleverer than we'd previously seen. One box room in the demo has ramps that change the gravity dimension - you can walk up a ramp onto the wall, at which point that wall becomes "down," but only in the sense of gravity. The camera doesn't rotate with you so you have to run Mario around on the vertical wall, then onto the ceiling and back down again.
Another section of corridor has arrows on the wall that indicate changing gravity fields. You'll be stuck to the floor with "down" arrows behind you one minute, then walk into the "up" arrow field and Mario "falls" to the ceiling. It's platforming in a whole new light.
And there are loads of sections simply featuring dozens of little platforms, pit holes and obstacles - it's old-school-style Mario gaming like those bonus areas in Super Mario Sunshine. Totally awesome.
We don't need to tell you how stunning the game looks. You can see for yourself in thetrailer we mentioned earlier.
This is the game your Wii is crying out for. Reggie says it's the first worthy successor to the almighty Super Mario 64. We totally agree.
July 13, 2007
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