Nintendo's first Major Super Mario Game on the Wii is truly Revolutionary!
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Nintendo
System: Nintendo Wii
Total Score: 89/100
Value Score: 8.9/10
• Story: 7/10
o The Super Mario series isnt known mostly for its storylines, but mostly the gameplay, regardless, Super Mario Galaxy's storyline is a bit different than previous Mario games. Yes it does include Princess Peach getting kidnapped again, but there is a bit of a new storyline along with that. In mario's new journey he comes across a spaceship and within it resides a young girl who looks alot like Peach, however her name is Rosalina, who is a watcher of the stars, she uses her spaceship which is actually a comet Observatory to travel across the universe, however the power stars which is the main source of fuel for the spaceship was lost due to Bowser's interference. Mario with the power to travel throughout space is told to recover these power stars so they can move on to save princess peach, along the way however Mario saves his brother and a small toad group called the Toad Brigade from the clutches of Bowser's evil minions.
• Characters: 8/10
o The Mario series recently have added alot of new races/characters to the Mario universe, however unlike the other mario games, Super Mario galaxy introduces alot of new races and alot of new characters, most notably Rosalina, a actual original character, regardless of her design being a rehash of princess peach, she is still a original character with her own personality and her own cause. Though there are alot of old characters that re-appear, many which havent appeared since the days of Super Mario Brothers 3 which gives Super Mario Galaxy a nostalgic feeling.
• GamePlay: 10/10
o The Super Mario series have mostly been known for its incredible crisp gameplay, Super Mario Galaxy is no exception to that saying. The controls are in perfect sync with the Wii-mote, mario's movements are crisp and clean with no errors or glitches mostly seen with other games like Sonic games. Super Mario Galaxy plays more like Super Mario 64 which in a way is a blessing as many people missed the Super Mario 64 style gameplay action that Super Mario Sunshine clearly lacked.
• Graphics:10/10
o The Super Mario series never disappoints anyone in this category, regardless of what many people may say about the graphical power that the Nintendo Wii has compared to its competitors, Super Mario Galaxy's graphics are mind blowing, crisp, clean and absolutely beautiful, many people who were amazed at Super Mario Sunshine's graphics will not be disappointed at SMG's graphics, they are in the same level if not better. Every sprite, every block, is well designed and nothing looks out of place.
• Sound: 10/10
o The Super Mario series is not known for its voice overs, due to the fact that Nintendo does not use the ability of implementing voice overs in majority of their games until recently, Super Mario Galaxy has a few voice overs mostly given to Princess peach, Rosalina and even Mario. However those who played Super Mario Sunshine and were disappointed at what they did with Bowser and his son's voices will not be disappointed at this game, because they have removed their voice overs and instead replaced them with grunts like Super Mario 64. Other than that, sound effects from walking, running, to enemy grunts are clear and well sync. No complaints whatsoever.
• Music: 10/10
o The Super Mario series OSTs arent as popular as most other games such as Final Fantasy, however in the case of Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo decided to use a all out orchestral group to design the music for this game, and they succeeded with flying colors, not only did they re-produce some of the most well known mario tunes as orchestral pieces, but they have created a full OST filled with classical themed songs for players to enjoy.
• Length: 7/10
o The Super Mario Series have a moderate length in how long it would take to finish a game, Super mario Galaxy is no exception, this game is officially shorter than Super Mario 64, but longer than Super Mario Sunshine. Though the average finish time for SMG is about 15-20 hours, exploring, slow pacing around the game worlds will occupy your time.
• Replay Value: 7/10
o Not much replay value in the Super Mario series, Super Mario Galaxy is no exception to the lack of this feature, however unlike Super Mario 64 and Super Mario sunshine, Super mario Galaxy allows the players to play as Luigi to do a re-run of the entire game, nothing special though, but at least this game allows you to go back to the worlds you have cleared.
• Player Value: 10/10
o Really loved this game, as a mario Fan and a video game fan in general. Nintendo havent lost their touch with creating the mario games. Many fans were worried that this game may end up ruining the mario series, however all those were in doubt were proven wrong, not only did this game sell alot of copies but it has pushed mario to a level where he has never gone to before, pretty much, what this game has allowed mario to do is to advance to whatever his next journey will be. Bringing in old gameplay mechanics from SM64, bring back the SMS ideas, and than bring back some nostalgic characters/themes from previous mario games such as SMB3 and SMW and mix them up with a bit of a new, and you'll get Super Mario Galaxy!