UberFanGirl's Blog

As I was drooling over Super Mario Galaxy 2 the other day, and wanting it oh so badly, it occurred to me that I still haven’t beaten the first one. Well, not really beaten it. I have finished it once as Mario; I saved the Princess and the unreasonably long final game sequence and end credits rolled on by. To some people, I suppose that counts as beating a game. But you and I both know that beating a game means playing out the entire game on all difficulty settings – which, in this case, would mean finishing Luigi’s galaxy too.

That I have not done. I still have 20 some odd power stars to collect. They are, of course, those same stars that made me want to shoot myself when I played as Mario. As Luigi… I can’t even get into it. Suffice to say I was reliving some of my more embarassing childhood Nintendo tantrums. (“This game cheats!” *throws controller*) I had always intended to go back to it at a time when I felt I could re-approach the Toy Time Galaxy purple coin prankster comet without having my head explode.

But then the New Super Mario Bros. came out, and I found myself unable to resist the trip down 2D side-scrolling memory lane. So I started playing the New Bros. Then I started playing the mutiplayer New Bros. With the right friends, that multiplayer experience can be fantastic. Then life happens, you are away from your Wii for a few weeks, and suddenly everyone is way ahead of you and they know all the secrets! As someone who likes to repeatedly play a level through until I can’t take it anymore before I eventually go hunting for a walkthru, playing any part of a game the first time through with someone who already knows where every thing is hiddeen, well that’s anti-fun!

So I stopped playing the New Super Mario Bros. with my friends. Then I didn’t have much time to play on my own because it was Christmas party season and I was constantly surrounded by them. (Not that I am complaining about being blessed with many friends, of course.) Then suddenly Christmas was over and I had a shiny new PS3 to play with! On Boxing Day, I cashed in some gift cards and traded Lego Star Wars (already have it for Wii; never finished it) for Arkhan Asylum, and for the first time in over two years my beloved Wii felt a few particles of dust settling. A few weeks later, I abandoned Arkham Asylum in favour of Little Big Planet, while my Wii continued to sit alone in the corner.

And now – fortunately for my Wii, not so fortunately for my PS3 – I want to dump the still unfinished LBP for Super Mario Galaxy 2. I am beginning to see a pattern.

It’s not that I have never finished a game in my adult life. On the contrary, I have a few Wii games I’ve played all the way through more than once – I’ve killed Radiant Dawn and Twilight Princess a couple times each. But that was back when I had one console and no money. I had no other options. Then, for a while, I had a bank account full of fresh student loans and it seemed new and exciting games were coming out every few weeks. This is how I ended up with a drawer full of unfinished games: Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros., Rock Band 2, Beatles Rock Band, etc, etc, etc.

Well, I decided to take a semester off school this past January, and the huge chunk of change the government usually lends me at the beginning of the term is conspiculously missing from my account. No new games for me! It made me sad last week, because I couldn’t run out and get Galaxy 2. But then you know what I did? I pulled out Mario Kart. And I finished it! Like, really, really finished it – I now have gold in every grand prix, including mirror mode. I fiiiiiinally got the picture of my mii with the entire cast of characters:

Don't I look cute in my green overalls?

I felt invigorated by my long-overdue victory at the Mario races, so I pulled out Super Mario Galaxy and got myself another power star. Then it was late and I had to work the next day. All in all, it was a super good night.

I suppose the bottom line is, as much as it stings my geeky pride that I’m not playing Wii’s most current blockbuster game offering from a franchise I adore, I still have plenty of gaming to catch up on. I’m pretty sure I have more than enough hours of game-beating left to get me through this financial slump, particularly if I set out to accomplish all the minor badge-type accomplishments / side-quests in all my games. That’s probably not going to happen. But by the time I’m back in school in September, and back to spending my hard earned loan dollars on games that will surely distract me from my studies, I hope to have seen the end credits to at least a few of the above mentioned titles. Though I think I’m going to save the end of Super Mario Galaxy for the end of August so that I can transition nicely into the sequel once school starts.