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Nintendo Businesses Wii

Iwata Explains Mario Galaxy 108

Posted by Zonk from the itsa-me dept.
The British Gaming Blog has links to articles on the official UK Wii site exploring the title Mario Galaxy . The first explores the game's origins and gives us a peek behind the scenes of the game's voice acting. The second looks at Mario's essence, and the benefits of the 'planetary gameplay'. The last is all about the sound of Mario: "This time, we recorded with an orchestra of about 50 or so members. Of course, they were not very good at first because they were playing music they'd never heard before, and they are also seeing the score for the first time. But as the day went on, their performance improved dramatically, and the process of recording each track in its final form was actually a very fast one. This surprised Miyamoto-san, who was glued to the glass wall looking at them from the other side. He was saying 'So, sound is something that really changes too!'"
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Iwata Explains Mario Galaxy More

Iwata Explains Mario Galaxy

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    • i hope not (Score:3, Insightful)

      by unity100 ( 970058 )
      Star Control 3 was such a shame compared to 2.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's daktaklakpak

      And maybe it'll be like star control II, which was actually a good game.

      By good I mean amazing.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Pootworm ( 1000883 )
      Meaning maybe I can get a cameo in a Mario game, or that Mario has to build slave shields to protect the sentients from the OTHER Terrible Secret of Space?

  • I am so glad (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rnmartinez ( 968929 ) on Friday November 02, 2007 @01:00PM (#21213919)
    That I pre ordered this! I can't wait! I have enjoyed every Mario game I have played (yes, even Luigi's manions although it wasn't awesome) and Sunshine. I think that the graphics will also raise the bar, so that hopefully the Wii stuff doesn't look so bad in the future. I know that graphics aren't everything, but when you look at RE4 and Metroid 3, the excuse of "Its not an xbox 360 or ps3" shouldn't be an out.

    I hope Luigi is playable too!

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by semifamous ( 231316 )
      I read on the Intarweb that when you beat the game, you get to replay it, except it's Super Luigi Galaxy [google.com]!

      w00h0O!!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cromar ( 1103585 )
      I am really excited about this title as well. Mario was the shit even back in Wrecking Crew :) The problem for me is that I really miss the feel of the Mario games from the platformers era (Super Mario up through Yoshi's Island). Mario Sunshine had a little bit more of that feel than 64, but I was still not too impressed. Just my 2 cents...

      If this title has more of that old Mario feel, there won't be any stopping me from getting a Wii... if I can find one!

  • M.U.L.E. (Score:2, Funny)

    by MatrixManiac ( 448609 )
    When I first saw the title I read "Irata Explains Mario Galaxy" as in the planet where M.U.L.E. happens is talking! :-/

  • ...and gives us a peek behind the scenes of the game's voice acting.
    I so wish I could be the guy who gets to go "It'sa me, Mario!" and "Woohoo!"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SQLGuru ( 980662 )
      I saw the clip from an interview with him.....I believe it's on YouTube, but I can't search it from work.....I think it was an excerpt from a G4 show.....

      Layne

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sciros ( 986030 )
      Charles Martinet -- big jolly guy who wears Hawaiian shirts. Believe me it's *weird* hearing him do the Mario voice in person. I met him 2.5 years ago at a Nintendo-hosted party. Then later he was at E3 promoting Animal Crossing for DS where he sat behind the scenes and occasionally did the Mario voice while playing with everyone.
      • I met him at E3 a few years back at the unveiling of the Nintendo DS. They filed us into a small theater space, and all of a sudden, Mario's head appears on the screen in front of us and starts talking. He welcomes us, and then starts making comments about people's clothes and appearance, and asking audience members direct questions. It was really wild! After a minute or so, a small curtain opens up, and like the Wizard of Oz, Charles Martinet steps out. They had hooked up facial recognition to him so Mario

  • Rule 34. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02, 2007 @01:09PM (#21214039)
    > The second looks at Mario's essence, and the benefits of the 'planetary gameplay'.

    I do not avoid princesses, but I do deny them my essence. Wait, she's on another friggin' planet? Aaw, to hell with it!

  • The Orchestra (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Riddler Sensei ( 979333 ) on Friday November 02, 2007 @01:12PM (#21214081)
    As for the music, it's actually not uncommon for the orchestra to only need one, maybe two, takes from complete scratch. Impeccable sight reading coupled with an innate sense of what a piece is musically saying are the makings of the first call musicians that get called to these sorts of jobs. And it can be fairly rough too. If you DO blow it and they have to re-record on the account of you more than once, well you suddenly become the SECOND call guy.
    • I would imagine video game music would be fairly easy for a musician who is used to playing Beethoven, Prokofiev, and Strauss.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Riddler Sensei ( 979333 )
        Actually some of the most challenging stuff I have ever seen has been movie and video game scores. One reason being that it can be terribly sporadic and unnatural to play since much of what IS being played has to double as a sound effect. Anyone remember "We 3 Katamari"? Heh, well the Warsaw Philharmonic is listed in the credits as having recorded for the game.
        • I imagine it would also be difficult to play, because historically it has been played by computers via synthesizers. With synthesized instruments you can go a lot faster than any human could, as well as do things with the instruments that would be impossible for any human to accomplish. Even watching the original Mario theme [youtube.com] shows that playing it is no simple task. Granted the video shows someone doing it blind folded, but I don't think that makes much difference to a talented pianist.

  • My son and I played this at EB games on Sat (Score:5, Informative)

    by ACK!! ( 10229 ) on Friday November 02, 2007 @01:12PM (#21214089) Journal
    I thought using the two controllers would throw him off and such made me personally think twice about the wii for Christmas we planned on.

    Then he got ahold of it and just ripped into the game.

    This thing if it has legs to keep the game interesting in the long term is on face value and after a few minutes of playing really fun and engrossing - it really sucks you in. I had to basically drag him off so other kids could get their turn and to get him a milk shake.

    Considering how much he loves ice cream and such that is a pretty big endorsement.

    He wanted to keep going.
    • Technically it's stil one controller, just split up. Look at your standard Gamecube controller and then look at the Wii controller. Minus a button or two and a joystick, it's all there. Just split up. I love it, it feels a lot more natural and I don't have to hold my hands inches apart from each other at all times. I can play in nearly any position I like.

      Also, I find that the younger the player, the more easily grasped the new controller is. Kids are ridiculous at adapting.

  • This is the game... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Enderandrew ( 866215 ) <enderandrew&gmail,com> on Friday November 02, 2007 @01:19PM (#21214211) Homepage Journal
    ...this is the game that might force me to buy a Wii. Mario 64 convinced me to buy a N64, sadly I'm not sure a better N64 title came out after that, save for Zelda: OoT.
    • You must have some pretty serious brain hemorrhage or something, so I'll forgive you for forgetting Goldeneye.
      • Goldeneye's multiplayer was imbalanced in the characters you could use, and it was a decent console shooter, but I don't think it compares favorably with PC shooters. I know everyone raved about Goldeneye, and I bought it, but I just didn't love it. I don't think I even bothered playing past the jungle level.
      • Am I the only one who thought Goldeneye sucked? As far as FPS games from that era on consoles go, it was pretty good, but that isn't saying much. Compared to any FPS on a computer, the control utterly sucked, and there wasn't much else going for it either. I'd rather play Quake 2 than Goldeneye anyday.

        • Am I the only one who thought Goldeneye sucked? As far as FPS games from that era on consoles go, it was pretty good, but that isn't saying much. Compared to any FPS on a computer, the control utterly sucked, and there wasn't much else going for it either.
          You pretty much just described every console FPS, ever. That said, I loved Goldeneye.
          • Although technically, Metroid Prime wasn't an FPS, although I'm not sure why not, it's first person perspective, and I'm shooting, apparently it's some action adventure that happens to be from the first person point of view, I enjoyed it a lot. My major problem with it, (and the reason I never beat it) was the save system. There was one point that was really far between save points, and I could never make it to the next one. Playing for 1/2 an hour, only to be killed and having to replay that section ov

            • Although technically, Metroid Prime wasn't an FPS, although I'm not sure why not, it's first person perspective, and I'm shooting, apparently it's some action adventure that happens to be from the first person point of view, I enjoyed it a lot. My major problem with it, (and the reason I never beat it) was the save system. There was one point that was really far between save points, and I could never make it to the next one. Playing for 1/2 an hour, only to be killed and having to replay that section over

    • I'm not sure whats up with me, but I honestly didn't care for galaxy when I played it at GS the other day, something that very much surprised me. Graphically it was decent, but looks a little bloomy and hazy, like they were trying to cover up some flaw with a filter. The gameplay was decent as well, but not the mind blowing experience people keep making it out to be. It was better than sunshine, but not the return to awesomeness for the series that I keep hearing about.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bloomy ( 714535 )
      In my opinion, Banjo Kazooie was better than Mario 64, just as Majora's Mask was better than Ocarina of Time. Neither were as ground breaking, but they were better games.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by edwdig ( 47888 )
        Banjo Kazooie had a glaring flaw where you had to collect all 100 notes in a level on one life. Towards the later part of the game, that just sucked all the fun out of it, as you could waste an hour collecting notes, slip somewhere, and have to do it all again. Fix that, and it's a great game. But as is, it's extremely frustrating.

        Majora's Mask was much better than Ocarina of Time though. Ocarina was way too linear.

        • Banjo Kazooie had a glaring flaw where you had to collect all 100 notes in a level on one life.
          I thought that was brilliant, raising the difficulty level way up! It took hours, but I still thought it was well worth the time once I got all 100 of them.

  • Interesting insight on the audio aspects (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Krozy ( 755542 ) on Friday November 02, 2007 @01:24PM (#21214291)

    <sarcasm>

    A well known site offering news for nerds references a blog, that in turn references a subsite of a major gaming console revealing the obvious: Sound is an important element of games, and there is a correlation between the quality of sound produced and the amount of practice by those performing.

    </sarcasm>

    Ok. So I read the articles. And really, there are more interesting things about the music. For example, this gem:

    When Mario shoots off from the Sling Star, for example, harp music plays as a sound effect. If you listen carefully, this harp will sound in perfect timing with the background music. This kind of technique rarely gets noticed however.

    I imagine now knowing that special effort was applied to accomplish this will increase the appreciation I would I have for the game. But probably most revealing is this

    "Yokota-san, if somewhere in your mind you have an image that Mario is cute, please get rid of it."... "Mario is cool"

    Playing various Mario games over the years, it seemed that Mario had gone from some kind of rugged savior, to a fun plush toy. But embracing the notion that Mario is more then a cute character, and has some cool charm is also fitting considering the changes to have occurred to the Nintendo console over the years. The Nintendo 64 and GameCube seem more like toys. While the Wii isn't a "powerhouse" next to its brethren, I definately think its cool.

    The impression that the music was slavishly trying to be like previous Mario music had disappeared. Before that, many of the pieces felt like they secretly wanted to copy the Mario sound, and the presence of elements like that made them sound unnatural.

    This is a key element for innovation. Recognizing where you're just copying and doing something about it forces changes that result in raising the quality bar. Overall, I see this as a good thing.

  • If this interview was a dish... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Laxitive ( 10360 ) on Friday November 02, 2007 @02:30PM (#21215321) Journal
    Then it was too sweet. As I was eating it, morsel by morsel, I realized that they had used too much honey, and the taste not bearable. The cooks who prepared this oversweet meal cared too much about honey, and too little about meat. Also, the tea was bad, since it was mixed with rocks from the garden of overused fucking food analogies for christ's sake STOP. I am no longer HUNGRY.

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