2026 April Media Post
April Grove
This is another game I likely would've never bothered with if I didn't become a Colorgrave fan, I generally find cozy games boring and tedious, but I was able to enjoy this. The game ain't didn't do anything crazy to get me to stick with it, it can totally be described as repetitive, but I enjoyed the vibe. It did help a lot with the repetition though when I realized a trick to swing my axe faster. The skill involved in trying to swing the axe as fast as possible actually got me trying too hard, I took occasional breaks because I was (in real life) wearing out my hands. The game in total took me 5-6 hours which felt like a good amount for me. There's not a lot of NPC interactions which was a little disappointing since I feel like this Colorgrave game would be best suited to them. There's a bit of a strange feeling that looms over the game, it doesn't poison the wholesome vibes for me, but there's a couple of things throughout that contribute to a darker tone than usual.
There's a notable update coming to the game sometime in the future, presumably soon. I might get back to the game when that releases.
The Super Mario Bros Galaxy Movie
Nintendo discourse in general has seemed pretty toxic since the first Switch 2 Direct, so I'm not surprised there's been a lotta negative hubub around this movie. The first movie had similar divisiveness, but I didn't hear people who didn't like it calling a scam and a disgrace to the franchise. I'm not super interested in discussing why I don't think it's disgraceful, but it got me thinkin' about how media, art, and entertainment. Why is narrative so important for movies? Generally rather than a direct explanation, I hear rebuttals to idea along the lines of "well if a movie was just a bunch of flashy lights that'd be boring". Light shows are a thing though and people enjoy them. I think the difference is that light shows aren't considered art (within general public consensus), but movies are considered art, and art comes with expectations. Art is seen as a form of connection, and people strongly connect with stories, so people want stories in art. Not every medium can tell stories effectively, people don't expect grand narratives from paintings, but movies can, so I think that's why they're expected to. I don't think it's wrong to think The Mario Galaxy Movie would've been better if its story was stronger, I would agree with that, but I don't think the movie needs to be better. (There was gonna be another paragraph with thoughts like this, but I forgot what else I wanted to say.)
For my direct opinion, I mildly enjoyed the movie. The trailers had me worried that this would be a completely broken hodgepodge of differing Mario franchise elements, but it turned out to be less of a problem than I expected. There were still couple of scenes and "plot relevant" characters that felt shoehorned in. I didn't feel the movie drag though, the casino scene for example, a secondary antagonist is introduced and promptly defeated which wasted time in the plot, but it featured an incredible locale and the action was really fun. Probably my largest plot issue was Rosalina's backstory, it's glaringly vague, leaving more questions than answers, and it recontextualizes the already strange intro into being outright bizarre. It doesn't feel mysterious in a way that invites question though, it just feels unfinished. When it comes to the characters, most from the first movie feel about the same, Luigi getting to be around was simply nice, Rosalina feels more generic compared to the original game, but Bowser got a bit of a neat arc. Bowser's arc didn't feel earned in the beginning nor end, but I thought there was endearing emotion during the middle of it.
Also wow, I'm kinda surprised that I was even surprised that Nintendo spoiled the biggest reveal of the movie like 3 days before its release. I was so mad back when Nintendo did the exact same thing when Mario Odyssey was releasing. I'll try not to be surprised when Nintendo does this again in the future.
| 2026 Media Posts |
Comments
Post a Comment