The Shrine

9.5 from 1up.com's Jeremy Parish
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3164124

5/5 from Gamepro.

IGN, Gamespot reviews pending.

And the stooges at Famitsu gave it a 38/40, if Famitsu reviews mean anything to you.

There's a pretty lengthy feature on this week's 1up Show (http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/15948) which should be available seperately on http://gamevideos.com also.

This was the game I was waiting to get a Wii for. The wife has been vocal in wanting to play Galaxy, and she can't really play anything aside from Guitar Hero, so I think I'll get her a Wii for Christmas.

It is supposed to be that damned good. I hope it's close to being as good as the sites are hypin'. I'm also really curious to see the legs this game will have in sales.

As I remember, Mario Sunshine had similar figures. If there's Mario or Zelda in the title, it will sell millions and be rated as such. Not to say that it might not be accurate, but I wouldn't trust reviews on such games.

Mario Sunshine was actually quite lowly rated among reviewers for what the game actually is: it averaged out to a score of 88% from the main review sources (IGN, Gamespot, and Famitsu).

Mario Sunshine was an excellent title, many of those who critisized it obviously didn't even play the game; saying stuff like their biggest reason being: "It was too easy, much easier than Mario 64" which is the equivilent to saying "Resident Evil 4 is an awesome example of how awesome first person shooters are." Sunshine turned out to be one of my favourite games from the past few years. I disagree with the reviewers generally, as I felt the game deserved somewhere in the region of 95%.


Famitsu gave it a 36 (90%), Gamespot gave it an 8 (80%), and IGN gave it a 9.4 (94%).

http://cube.ign.com/articles/365/365240p1.html
http://www.gamespot.com/gamecube/action ... lt;title;0
http://cube.ign.com/articles/368/368539p1.html

Sunshine sucked. I got bored with it very quickly.

SineSwiper wrote:Sunshine sucked. I got bored with it very quickly.

Which illustrates your terrible taste in games. That's about all you've really achieved with such a statement.

I have to agree with Seek on this one, I really, REALLY enjoyed Sunshine. I have played through it a couple of times now.

I got fairly bored with sunshine. Then again, mario 64 wasn't my bag either. Something has really rubbed me the wrong way with the 3D Marios. Maybe I should pick sunshine up again.

Dutch wrote:

SineSwiper wrote:Sunshine sucked. I got bored with it very quickly.

Which illustrates your terrible taste in games. That's about all you've really achieved with such a statement.

It is a preference thing too, Seek. You could just not like 3D platformers as Sine has clearly indicated he doesn't

The jump from Mario 64 -> Mario Sunshine wasn't huge in my opinion.

HOWEVER I did enjoy Sunshine alot, hell I enjoyed Majora's Mask >_>

Eric wrote:The jump from Mario 64 -> Mario Sunshine wasn't huge in my opinion.

HOWEVER I did enjoy Sunshine alot, hell I enjoyed Majora's Mask >_>

That's because Majora's Mask was a whole bunch of different kinds of awesome. One of my fav Zelda games

Apparently there's a noticable jump to Mario Galaxy, at least that's what the two reviews I read are saying.

I never owned Mario 64 nor did I ever beat it. I did enjoy it what I played of it. Sunshine, which I did own, didn't thrill me. It was good, but not great.

Zeus wrote:

Dutch wrote:

SineSwiper wrote:Sunshine sucked. I got bored with it very quickly.

Which illustrates your terrible taste in games. That's about all you've really achieved with such a statement.

It is a preference thing too, Seek. You could just not like 3D platformers as Sine has clearly indicated he doesn't

There is a difference between preference and a statement of quality. Particularly when there is no justification given. And, no he didn't indicate in that post that he didn't like 3D platformers.

As for Majora's Mask, Zeus, I thought you hated that one? Or did you play it and realize something? =P

I really enjoyed Majora's Mask (I think this is the last game that had sword beams in it, even though they are significantly more devastating in this game =P), and in my opinion is probably the second most underrated game in the series. Though, now that Link's Adventure is on VC and people are playing it, minds are changing. A lot of people disliked Link's Adventure because of the 2D sidescrolling, though when they pick it up and play it now they are realizing that yes it is a 2D sidescroller, but also one of the best available, and one of the most solid gameplay experiences on the NES... In addition a game that stands out very far among the 2D sidescrollers of the era and has a lot of secrets. Also, the game brought tons of elements to the Zelda series that would become standard once the 3D era arrived: IE, all of the Sages were named after towns in Zelda 2.

Black Lotus wrote:I never owned Mario 64 nor did I ever beat it. I did enjoy it what I played of it. Sunshine, which I did own, didn't thrill me. It was good, but not great.

A lot of 64's amazingness was the unbelievable wow factor at the time. It was a real huge jump forward from the SNES and early PSX or Saturn stuff. It's still arguably one of the best 3D platformers, but losing that wow factor would definitely hurt. I'm actually amazed how well it holds up. Even back then it had an irritating camera you just learned to live with. But everything else is was so damned good you ignored it.

Seek, I've always praised Majora's Mask. I loved it from the very first time I played it which is a few months after it came out. I've very much enjoyed every Zelda game I've ever played (Link's Adventure was great back in the day). Wind Waker I never have other than the first hour. It felt like Ocarina with a new coat of paint.

Zeus wrote: A lot of 64's amazingness was the unbelievable wow factor at the time. It was a real huge jump forward from the SNES and early PSX or Saturn stuff. It's still arguably one of the best 3D platformers, but losing that wow factor would definitely hurt. I'm actually amazed how well it holds up. Even back then it had an irritating camera you just learned to live with. But everything else is was so damned good you ignored it.

I know I am in the minority here, but I liked Banjo Kazooie and Conker more than this one.... Though in both cases it was the later levels of Banjo and Conker that really won me over. The earlier portions of the Rare titles were fairly generic feeling at first. Mario 64 had some great levels within it, but it just felt kind of bare bones to me for some reason. It felt like it was missing a lot of the meat that the Rare titles had. Mario 64 does not control well on DS, though it was an impressive attempt. Though I do recall the wow factor that Mario 64 had, the first time I saw water in this game impressed me =)

Dutch wrote:Mario 64 does not control well on DS, though it was an impressive attempt.

Did you play it with the D-Pad or by using the thumb piece and using the touch screen to simulate an analog stick? I used the latter and it was amazing. I was doing those crazy backflips and everything without a problem.

Would this be an example of that "preference vs. statement of quality" thing that you just lambasted Sine over? hehe

I did use the control pad, actually.

I found Banjo Kazooie boring as sin.

Eric wrote:I found Banjo Kazooie boring as sin.

I borrowed a friend's copy and only ended up playing it for an hour. Nothing special.

And sinning is fun, Eric. Not boring.

Oh, I LOVED Banjo-Kazooie. Such a fun game back in the day.

Dunno how well it's stood up...Banjo-Tooie was pretty disappointing...

Black Lotus wrote: I borrowed a friend's copy and only ended up playing it for an hour. Nothing special.

The first hour isn't anything special really; you have no skills and you are on a fairly generic seeming level. Though judging the game by its first hour is as much a mistake as judging Terranigma by its first hour (Terranigma doesn't seem like anything special until around Bloody Mary, and then you see why the game is indeed VERY special =P). Though, it could work in the opposite, if I only played the first couple of hours of Final Fantasy 7, I would be convinced that it's the best RPG of all time =P Breath of Fire 3 would also be among my favourites =P

And yeah, Banjo Twooie, that game was more along the lines of DK64 than Banjo Kazooie. Conker's BFD was the last good platformer by Rare. It is actually strange that Rare came out with such creativty in their level design with Conker because it wasn't really showing up in much of their other games from that period.

Sounds like SquareSoft knows how to write a good hook into the story. That's key to making people stay with the story.