I haven’t been playing much of Super Mario Galaxy since I got it for Christmas because I’ve mainly been occupied with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. It was during this time that I loaned my copy of Galaxy out to my girlfriend. I’ve since temporarily got it back from her so I can clock up a couple of hours over the week (assuming I don’t watch too much of ).

Well I’ve finally got to grips with this game for around an hour or so clocking up around 15 stars and I must say that it really is quite breath-taking. When you start you are shown a brief summary of the ‘Star Festival’ I won’t go much into detail about this as it forms the main plot. Eventually Mario wakes on a small planet, which is a tutorial for the game. Here you are shown the basics of the game and asked to catch some rabbits. It is only after this that the game truly begins.

Well, there has been alot of rumour circulating around this ‘game’. Things like ‘Does it really train your brain?’ make this game interesting to say the least. When you turn it one you can do a quick test to see how your brain is or just go straight into the training. You could also do some Su-doku which is quick relaxing to say the least. When I turned it on I thought I would do a quick test to see how old my brain was. It was a speaking exercise, say the name of the colour that came up on screen. Of course the best time to do this was certainly not during ‘present time’ on Christmas day, certainly not. Needless to say, I failed, so I turned it off and came back to it later.

This time last year we were making our arrangements. We would be queuing up soon. Waiting to get our hands on the console that we all so desperately wanted. With big name games like. The legend of Zelda Twilight princes on the menu one third game party dared to try and make the perfect shooter on the day of the release. One year on does it stand the test of time?

Games and the media aren’t the best of friends at the moment. Games like Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt getting ridiculed for “provoking children to be violent”, and it is ridiculous. I was watching a report on a news show about PSN, where people were abusing other people over the headsets, and they were actually blaming Sony for this. Im sorry but why is it Sony’s fault that some people just can’t be civilised. They were basically condemning PSN to hell. I just don’t see the point.

Well, ever heard the expression “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”? Well this is the perfect line to sum up Nintendo-an old company with some franchises that have been around since the dawn of the NES/Famicom. So I have one simple question:Why are these franchises still here? Yes, they are awesome games and I love them to bits but really I think that we need something new and fresh that instead incorporates new characters, environment and personalities that we can get to grips with.

Whenever one of Nintendo’s triple A titles come out it will be a big deal. If any Zelda or Mario games come out it will be a big deal, hell if a Kirby game comes out it will be a big deal. And the same goes to Metroid Prime. For those that don’t know what Metroid Prime is trilogy of first person shooters developed by Retro Studios and Published by Nintendo. And if it is one thing the Wii needs right now it is a good old FPS. The Wii is practically made for first person shooters, so why cant anyone execute it properly. Farcry Vengeance was appalling, Call of Duty 3 was alright, nothing special and Red Steel had potential but it failed. The previous Prime games were exceptionally good, but will Corruption follow the same fate as the other FPS games on the Wii, or will it be a perfect send-off to the Prime series.

As many people may know, The Sims is a classic game for PC. Made in 2000 by Maxis. Then The Sims 2 also made by Maxis. These games have no definitive goal, you create a Sim, and basically control their lives. Build their houses, get them a job and even tell them to go to the toilet. Maxis is a division of EA. So when it was decided that The Sims 2 would be released, EA would have a crack at it. And it was terrible, every thing about it was wrong. But the thing is they kept on doing them for home consoles and handhelds. And they have done it again, for Wii. But this is different, this isn’t the Sims at all, so could it work?

Games are expensive.  This is an unfortunate truth.  But does it need to be?  Why is it that games are so expensive?  Some would argue that they’re expensive because of the costs involved in making games, to which I answer why aren’t films prohibitively expensive to go and watch?  Yes I know I’m performing the cardinal sin and comparing films to games again but there is a good reason for it (honest!).  Films regularly cost more than even the biggest games to produce yet a film ticket only set you back £5 at most, not counting popcorn and drinks.  If the film industry can flourish on charging £5 per viewing then why is the games industry forcing us to pay £30-£50 per a game?

MySims is a game for people who look for in a game what an artist may look for in a painting: whatever they what. you see, MySims is a game that is VERY open ended. People may argue that it isn’t as open ended as, say, Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing, but i would disagree. It’s more open ended. However, it is shorter. Quite a bit shorter actually. The formula of MySims is to have a town that is populated by people you like. Sound familiar? There are all different types of people who turn up in the Hotel everyday and you just select the people who you what from in there.