eGames07: Galaxy, Umbrella and Link’s Crossbow Impressions

While many of the games at this years eGames are out today, we have impressions for three games that are not, they are the legendary Super Mario Galaxy, Link’s Crossbow Training and Capcom’s Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. It’s been a year and a half since we last played Galaxy so we were keen to get our hands on it again, we also got our taste of the Zapper as well. Impressions on all of this inside.

Super Mario Galaxy

What can we say about this game that hasnt already been said before and in the near two years that I have played this, there should be no doubt in your mind regarding the brilliance of this game. Today the new water sled level was sampled in which Mario rides a ray down a path similar to the old castle slides in Mario 64 but obviously with water. This section uses motion sensitive controls and they work a treat, you simply tilt the Wiimote to move Mario around the course can be unwieldy at first but after a couple of seconds down the slide youll get it.

The general controls for the usual gameplay are simply a joy to use, the Galaxy twisting nature of the worlds and the camera moving around automatically takes a few seconds to get used to, youll probably be tilting your head trying to see around the corner but obviously you cant. The game has significantly improved since E3 2006 the last time I played the game, it still looked like an awesome game then but now it has so many effects going on making it look a lot more polished, this was indeed looking like the final version of the game, and its the first Wii game to really look like a step up from GCN level graphics. The game is so vibrant and lively such a joy to play.
And in space no one can hear you scream, because Galaxy leaves you speechless.

Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles

I went into this game with no expectations, the Zapper some on rails Resident Evil? And the game didnt do TOO much to wow me. The game works fine, the graphics look alright replicating the train level from Resident Evil 0 (the section I played) and it sounded the part (as best as you can tell in the environment of a game show) but the Zapper itself? I was just not feeling it. It is sturdy enough, but it lacks a feeling of satisfaction in pulling the trigger making the firing on semi automatic weapons feel lifeless. This is certainly not a Light Gun no matter how much Nintendo will tell you. The other problem is your holding the thing with two hands, and during the game youll have RE4 like context sensitive moments which pop up but some times its the a button requiring you to pop up your finger to hit or take your hand off to hit it, which takes time and by then you might be dead. Clearly UC was not designed with the Zapper in mind originally, we recommend playing the game using simply the Wiimote and Nunchuk in your hands the traditional way. Though the rest of the movements using the Zapper do work well, Ill reserve final judgement on the game once I crack the thing out of the Zapper, however my complaints about the Zapper above are not valid with Links Crossbow Training as that game uses it great.

Links Crossbow Training

Maybe it was the Wii Remote, maybe a different Zapper but when I played Crossbow Training with the zapper is was good, admittedly Links uses a untraditional weapon (guess which) so it doesnt feel gun like, I played all three of the game modes but Ranger was the best using a over the shoulder type view for link and in this mode you can move around with the nunchuck, Z button zooms in to take out those far away enemies. From what I saw of the menus it wont take much to get through the game but there is the opportunity to shoot for high scores. For $50 with the Zapper thrown in, it is pretty good value.

Look out for impressions of Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Pokemon Battle Revolution, Mario Party DS tomorrow.