UPER MARIO GALAXY
The latest 3D Mario adventure doesn't look much better than Super Mario Sunshine, which came out eons ago on the obsolete Gamecube. There: that's the first and last bad thing we're going to say about Super Mario Galaxy. (Okay, at times, it also has the tendency to make you feel dizzy and give you wrist cramps, but these are positives because they're symptoms of Galaxy's innovative, Wii-enhanced game design.) Mario, you see, has to save Princess Peach — we gotta say: her constant need for rescue doesn't say much for female empowerment — and this time around, he has to fly from planet to planet and, later, from galaxy to galaxy in order to collect enough Power Stars to force a final showdown with Bowser, who's never met a damsel (or mustached plumber) he didn't want to distress.
Galaxy smoothly integrates the Wii's motion-controlled controller in ways that legitimately compliment the gameplay (instead of interfering with it, like so many other Wii titles). Mario can now do away with enemies by waving the Wii remote, which makes him spin around and stun them. You can also use the remote as a pointer to collect stardust flotsam and shoot it at Bowser's minions (another player can do the same by picking up a second Wii remote — not exactly co-op play, but better than nothing). Many Mario games have had a flea-circus sensibility, chock full of moving parts and obstacles, Galaxy expands on that tradition by introducing vertigo-inducing levels that can leave you hilariously disoriented. While circumnavigating a globe, for example, your viewpoint might flip rightside up when Mario crosses the equator — or it might not, causing you to move about ''upside down.'' And a wacky candy-themed world, features a series of moving platforms that alternatively rotate clockwise, counter-clockwise, left, and right — all at different speeds. Puzzles like these are tons of fun to navigate and despite its Wii-nnovations, Galaxy still feels like a classic Mario game, which is to say it is charming, brilliantly-conceived, and utterly capable of making you feel like a kid all over again.
CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE
Modern is the operative term in the latest chapter of the Call of Duty series, which up until now was known for its harrowing recreations of World War II battles. In their place: intense — dare we say FUBAR — combat scenarios that unravel in the present day, the kind that might've been ripped from a Tom Clancy novel. And no where is this updating more obvious than in the hardware: CoD4's high-tech weapons — sleek and lethal — are a far cry from the clunky MP40s and M1s from previous CoD games. Our new favorite: a devastating shoulder-fired guided missile called the Javelin that and can skewer a tank like a shish kebab.
Modern also describes the underlying technology behind CoD4's marvelous visuals, sound effects, and gameplay — simply put, this is one of the best-looking console games around. While the graphical environments are often startlingly realistic, the in-game sounds (like an incoming RPG that whizzes over your head), do an even better job at teasing your brain into thinking you're in the middle of a firefight. Just two examples of the intricate code-crunching happening under the hood are the "bullet penetration" system that will make you reconsider shielding yourself behind a rickety wood fence (bullets go right through it, but are stopped by harder objects like cement barriers) and the artificial intelligence guiding the movements of your fellow soldiers, who (unlike in most combat titles), can autonomously take out enemies without you having to bail them out all the time. CoD4's technology doesn't always triumph, however: M.I.A. is a cover system that enables you to hide behind a wall from an enemy's gunfire and then partially lurch out to return fire. A game this advanced should also have a co-op option that allows you to play through the campaign with a friend over the Internet. Most won't care about these faults because the single player experience and the elaborate online multiplayer modes are exceptional reminders that war is a lot less hell-like when played out on big-screen HDTVs in 5.1 surround sound.
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