REVIEW - Mario's Game Gallery | PC | 1995

GENRE(S): Compilation
RELEASED: February 23, 1995
AVAILABLE ON: MAC, PC
DEVELOPER(S): Presage Software
PUBLISHER(S): Interplay Productions

Mario's Game Gallery is the last Mario game to date to have been produced without Nintendo's direct involvement, and the first Mario game ever to have Charles Martinet voicing Mario. I guess that kind of makes the game worth a look for the most serious Mario fan. At least it's not an educational game; it's a compilation of classic board and card games, with some serious issues that prevent it from being too fun even in its harmless nature.

"Mamma mia" this

Checkers. Not really within my comfort zone.

Mario's Game Gallery includes Mario-themed versions of five games: checkers, Go Fish, backgammon, dominoes and Yahtzee, all of which you play against Mario himself. All the while, your opponent spews out lines that will make your children happy and drive you out of your mind. Well, at least there's close to no music, the game is completely harmless, and a couple of the games could almost be considered fun, if it wasn't for some certain strip-downs and the fluffy A.I..

Mario's Game Gallery is kind of a last hurrah from some of the same people that plagued consumers with totally unnecessary and way less than lackluster educational Mario games for a good deal of the 90's; a truly harmless children's game, or rather a compilation of minigames which even adults could almost enjoy, provided they're in the right mindset (read: drunk). However, they always sucked at this job, and that reflects on the whole set in a lot of ways. The A.I. is shoddy, the mouse is a little on the non-responsive side, and my favourite game in this bunch, Yahtzee ("Yacht") is a very frustrating, stripped down version of the real thing.

"MARIO, GO FISH!" Ggghhh.

There's really not much more to say about Mario's Game Gallery, so this might very well be my shortest review ever. It's useless to make it sound any more complex than it is in reality. I've already summarized all the important bits multiple times: it's harmless, but it bends the rules in the wrong direction, and the CPU acts like a retard - not to mention that it sounds like one (sorry, Charlie) - especially in the case of checkers. Well, at least I can finally win at that game.

UPS
+ Finally, some decent children's entertainment

DOWNS
- Bad A.I.
- Stripped rules and Yahtzee criteria
- Mario never shuts up

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