Morgan Webb thinks Mario Galaxy is for kids

By Jason Leavey by Oct 28th, '09 at 9:24am CST

Appearing on G4′s Attack of the Show to promote Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time,  Webb claimed that the game has a more expanded audience than Mario Galaxy.  Webb continued, Super Mario Galaxy is aimed so much at kids that it’s insulting for an adult to play. Wow.

The conversation started when Webb and co-host Blair Herter discussed the fading action platformer as a dying genre, saying only Galaxy, although inferior, was the only other recent title in that genre. The interview is above, and the conversation boils my blood starts around the 2:15 mark.

GoNintendo

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Categories: PlayStation 3, Wii
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About the Author: Jason Leavey

Baltimore, MD

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  • Hax0rz

    Haha Morgen Webb can think what she thinks, but Mario Galaxy is a game for everyone just because you don’t have a gun doesn’t make it a kids game. Its people constantly saying nonsense like that, that puts a stigma on people to think they shouldn’t play great games like Galaxy and as a result a lot of people are missing out

  • guppy06

    This has been going on since at least the N64 days. It’s not worth getting worked up over any more.

  • http://www.gamergrrlz.net Holly Green

    And we care what Morgan Webb thinks….why? ‘Cause she has a vagina? Not a very good reason.

    It sounds like she’s making an excuse. Who picks up a VIDEO GAME and then acts like its beneath them because its “for a kid”? If I remember right, the entire industry is TOYS.

    Also, if she’s willing to so easily dismiss a game because of a snotty first impression then maybe she isn’t in the right industry and shouldn’t be doing this at all. Especially when those “kids” the game is supposed to be for could probably beat her ass at any game she chooses. Regardless of her personal preferences, its her job to sum up a game for its merits and flaws. “Its for kids” is not a very in-depth analysis.

    Its the same sort of elitism and “I’m a girl so I’m above all this kids stuff” that earns women the reputation of being hoity toity and “too good” to just relax and be real. Its what keeps women out of gaming.

  • http://bananapixel.com/ rickytheleaf

    What a shame, not only was Super Mario Galaxy a great platformer, it redefined the genre with the unique gravitational gameplay. Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time may be an awesome platformer, but it only has some minor upgrades meaning not much has changed since the conception of the franchise. I lost a lot of respect for Morgan Webb, I thought professional reviewers are supposed to base their opinions on how fun a game is and not how ‘kiddie’ it looks or feels.

  • http://brhefele.brainaxle.com Brian

    Holly – While Webb is clearly an entertainer first, and she likely only ever entered anyone’s mind because of her looks, you do answer the question of why we care what she thinks – “it’s her job.” Like it or not, she has been in the games journalism scene for a while now, and I honestly don’t think it’s solely because she’s attractive or simply because she’s female. She has a decent command of language (though lately, perhaps not so much…) and she seems to have genuine enthusiasm for gaming. Not going to say that I agree with her on this matter (I don’t – though as guppy06 mentions, this is nothing new), nor on most matters (again, I don’t). But just because she happens to be a typical nerd-male fantasy doesn’t mean she has no other merits.

    Topic at hand, Sunshine wasn’t a good game. I’d go so far as to say that Sunshine was for kids, if only for the fact that they likely wouldn’t be nearly as disappointed as I was when it all started to fall apart…

    But Galaxy was clearly a return to awesome.

  • http://www.gamergrrlz.net Holly Green

    Considering this wouldn’t have been a story if it’d been *anyone* else’s opinion, I can’t really see your point there Brian.

  • http://brhefele.brainaxle.com Brian

    Okay, point taken. When I read your comment, I misinterpreted intent.

  • guppy06

    Gee, Holly, don’t be so hormonal! Can’t you learn to relax a little? You don’t have to be so fri–

    No, wait, half of you still haven’t figured out that my whole “Does playing Peach make me gay?” thing was a joke. Let me start over…

    Yay, a flame war! Maybe I can make things more awkward by adding my two cents!

    It’s “newsworthy” (though I still say stuff like this isn’t really news) because someone in the self-declared “gamer press” is saying this stuff. Don’t ask me to name specific past examples because I’ve long since moved past caring enough to pay attention to when these things happen, but I’ll still guarantee that she’s not the first person, male or female, with “credentials” (be they being on G4 or the Spike awards show or what have you) to look down upon a Mario game specifically or any game that the ESRB recognizes as being aimed at “Everyone” in general as “kids’ stuff.” Remember: “Mature” doesn’t mean you should be mature before you play it, but that playing it makes you more mature! It’s just like beer!

    Now, how she got her job in the “gaming press” to begin with, that’s where the vagina angle comes in: she’s a news bunny, plain and simple. She isn’t the first and she won’t be the last (have you looked at CNN or Fox lately?), nor is she the first news bunny to say to say something completely stupid concerning her supposed field (Maria Bartiromo, anyone?).

    No, this shouldn’t excuse things, but in my opinion it’s unrealistic to expect anything more from the gaming press, the folks who put the “press” in “press release.” There are people who will investigate a company’s new patent applications or domain name registrations, but these actual journalists are few and far between, and most of what you see is regurgitation of what the companies themselves tell the “press” to say. Combine this with the bi-monthly scandal of this or that game review site being embroiled in a payola scheme, and there’s really nothing of substance to go on. The void has to be filled with something, something shiny and distracting, and (as I’m sure you already know) boobs are distracting.

    Television shows about gaming are doubly damned, exactly because they’re on television, that device that gamers use to play games on instead. People who are passionate enough to want to follow some sort of gaming news don’t spend a lot of time doing other things with their television. You’re not going to make viewers out of them unless you’re either Battlestar Galactica or are showing cleavage.

    (And how do we know that Morgan Webb isn’t a Cylon?)

    In the end, this story isn’t “A woman who actually plays video games (just like guys like me!) bad-mouths the Plumber,” but “Gaming press continues to shed what little credibility it may have.” It’s like watching the recent CNBC implosion, except far fewer people held the gaming press in any esteem to begin with.

    At any rate, I disagree: Super Mario Sunshine was a good game. Its “problem” is that it wasn’t a great game or good for a Mario game. It was fun to play around with FLUDD, but simply wasn’t something to buy a GameCube over (unlike Wind Waker or Metroid Prime). Putting Mario in a game stirs up prejudices on both sides, from the Morgan Webbs who discount his appearances as “kiddy” to my fellow Nintendo fanboys holding such games to a separate standard.

    It’s bad in the same sense that The Adventure of Link was bad.

    So, to sum up, NO U!

  • http://brhefele.brainaxle.com Brian

    I think (though I didn’t quite catch it at first) that Holly’s point was more along the lines of “people have been spewing this [insert Nintendo game here] is for children nonsense for years, is there a legitimate reason to shed light to this particular instance, or are we just calling it news because the pretty lady said it?” I could be wrong, I’m not trying to speak for her, just work through this question…

    …Because I almost said nearly the same thing in my response to her, but I realized something. Obviously, at some point this was ‘news,’ or at least journalism, because it’s something a prominent games journalist said. But it has to be a pretty big deal to get spread around again. So the case becomes ‘is this story notable enough to bear repeating?’ It’s just some journalist saying something people have been saying for years. Are we repeating it because we really think she’s that high profile of a journalist, or because she’s pretty? It makes perfect sense for her to say whatever she wants, that’s her job, and she has her own audience, and it’s that audience’s job to pay attention. But, does it really merit repeating? If Brian Crecente or Brandon Boyer had said ‘Galaxy is for children,’ would any one of us have written about it? I think they’re valid questions. I also don’t really think there’s been much flaming going on here, just healthy discourse.

    On a lighter note, I think the problem with Sunshine was that it was pretty cool for a while, but somewhere along the way it just stopped being fun, and it felt like the dev team got lazy. I’d say it was a good half of a game. You’re definitely right re: not being up to the standards of Wind Waker or Metroid Prime. You know, on the whole I’d say Game Cube was kind of a let down for me. That realization is, well, kind of a downer.

  • http://www.gamergrrlz.net Holly Green

    Guppy: I’m sorry you feel that way but regardless of whether its an accepted practice or how I should “expect” it, that doesn’t mean I have to like it. “Boobs are distracting” doesn’t excuse the practice in this industry of writing and advertising as if there are only men in the room. Dismissing me as hormonal is extremely disrespectful–would you appreciate it if I told you that you only accept this behavior because you’re a big dumb entitled male who only thinks with his penis?

    I expect more of people, be they men or women. Nothing changes when standards aren’t raised.

    Brian: “If Brian Crecente Brandon Boyer had said ‘Galaxy is for children,’ would any one of us have written about it?”. Thank you, that was my point. I do not intend to take away from anything Ms. Webb has done, but I just fail to see how this would have been a story had another journalist said it.

    PS. Guppy, passing off homophobia as a joke does not make it ok. You were joking, and you think that exempts you, but its actually part of the problem.

  • http://www.TheTanooki.com Jason

    My posting of the story was because Webb’s one of a handful of TV gaming journalists, who clearly has an opinion that matters, given the heat of this comment section. Her comments were disappointing to fanboys who think Mario games deserve more credit. Since it’s been a Nintendo only site until about a week ago, seemed like a good place to share a respected journalists opinion, even if it went against the grain.

  • http://www.gamergrrlz.net Holly Green

    Oh I’m sure you did.