A great game that borrows elements from past games, but never feels like a rehash of those games.
In this new game, Mario once again has to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, who has lifted Peach's castle from the ground and brought it to a distant galaxy. Anybody who has played a Mario game before will be all too familiar with the story, since it's the same one that's been used in so many Mario games before, and the only twist to it is very similar to the one that was used in the original Paper Mario game. There is an optional story that people can read that explains a bit more about new characters which are introduced within the game, which is set up in a kind of story book structure. It's a pretty interesting idea that adds to the fantasy of the setting even more, and is a pretty good story for people who like that kind of story, but anybody who doesn't care about it can just continue playing. This is a good way to have the story, because it keeps the focus on the gameplay, which is what a Mario game is all about.
The game itself is set up in a similar structure to the last two games. The game has a central hub area where you can run around and access the main levels. This hub area is a lot smaller than the previous games, which can be disappointing to anybody who loved to explore the castle in Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine, but it does serve its purpose, which is just to get you into the levels. Each level has a different number of stars to get by completing different objectives.
However, despite the similar structure to the previous games, Mario Galaxy is actually a very different kind of game. Mario 64 and Sunshine were focused on exploring the levels. In order to get the stars, a lot of times you had to explore the levels, and complete different objectives within those areas. This game, however, is much more similar to the 2D Mario game, where the objective was to get from the beginning of the level to the end. It's a lot more obvious what you have to do in order to get the star, so there is much less focus on figuring out what to do, and more focus on the obstacles between you and the star.
The game does take different elements from previous games. For example, there are some free-roaming areas, similar to those of Mario 64. There are also 2D platforming areas, which are not quite up to the platforming of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, but are still very interesting, and don't really feel like it's out of place or just a fan service to the fans of the 2D games. There are also areas that kind of mix the two kinds of games, where it is a 3D area, but has simple, but challenging platforming. And there are also some areas that try to do something new. For example, there are these things called Pull Stars, and if the player points at the Pull Star and presses the A button, Mario is pulled towards it. These Pull Stars are sometimes in a small part of different missions, but then there are also certain missions that are centered around that idea, and really help to flesh it out in order to help make the game feel more unique.
Mario games often have different ideas which are expanded on throughout the game. For example, in Super Mario Bros. 3, it was all the different kinds of items, as well as the more complex platforming that couldn't be done in the previous games. In Mario 64, it was a complete redesign of the series' structure to fit the move from 2D to 3D. And in Sunshine, it was FLUDD. One of the main ideas which is focused on within Mario Galaxy is the use of gravity. Gravity isn't used in a way where one world has heavier gravity that most worlds, and another has lighter gravity. Instead, gravity is used in a way to try to make you constantly re-think how to do things. There are some small planets where you can go all the way around the world, on its side, and on the bottom. This is probably the most used example within the game, and it takes a little while to get used to the way this works, but not so long that it ends up hurting the game. This is also used as a way to have certain puzzles, hidden secrets, and other things which really take advantage of this idea. There are many other examples of twisting gravity within the game. For example, some platforming sections have where the gravity switches from one area to the next, so that you can switch from walking on the floor to walking on the ceiling or the walls. This idea hardly ever got old throughout the entire game, and really helped to make the game feel fresh.
This game also has a lot more boss battles than the previous Mario games had. The bosses in the last two games have been really easy, and this doesn't really change in this game, unfortunately. However, what the bosses lack in difficulty, they make up for in complexity. Many of the bosses are the usual kinds of platformer bosses, which have a weak spot that you have to hit a certain amount of times. However, hitting the weak spot on the enemies is often a lot more complex, and fun, than the bosses in 64 and Sunshine were. For example, one of the earlier bosses is a giant octopus creature, which spits hot rocks and melons at you. In order to beat the boss, you have to use your spin attack in order to toss the melon back at the creature, and it results in a strange kind of tennis match between Mario and the creature until it's defeated.
The game also makes use out of the Wii remote in interesting ways. The most used out of the motion controls is the pointer, and specifically the fact that it can collect these things called star bits, which are spread throughout the levels, and can be shot at enemies. While this may seem like it would get a bit tedious collecting the star bits throughout the levels the entire game, it actually becomes almost intuitive, and adds another dimension to the game, where you look for the star bits to collect, while focusing on trying to get past the enemies and obstacles. Another way the remote is used is by shaking it in order to launch different star pads, which launch you either to another planet or to a different part of the same planet.
There are also, many more interesting uses to the remote, which are only used within certain parts. Sometimes it's used in order to draw the player into the game at certain times, and others are used in a mini-game-like way, which might not be good to have too much of, but in the limited amount that they do have these controls in (usually just 2 or 3 missions) it gives a unique and pretty fun way to change things up. Overall, the motion controls aren't used too much, but they are used in effective ways. And the normal controls should be pretty familiar to people who have played the previous games, but now the controls are much better than the previous games. Wall jumping, diving, doing back flips, doing a spin move, and pretty much everything is a lot better than Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine.
One interesting note for any fan of the older Mario games is that this game's items are much more along the lines of the items in the 2D games, specifically Super Mario Bros. 3, in terms of their inventiveness. In the 3D games, the items were different kinds of caps in 64, and different attachments to FLUDD, which weren't as inventive as a frog suit, or a raccoon suit, for example. However the items in this game are much more interesting than those. Although, in this game, they are used in a different way than they were in previous games. Some suits are only used for a limited amount of time, and then disappear. These are used within certain sections of levels, in order to get a specific task done and move on in the level. Then there are other suits which don't have a limit in how long you can use them. These often have specific levels designed around them, which take advantage of their specific uses. This is definitely a great idea, because the items often do reach their full potential. However, unfortunately, since the items have specific uses within the levels, that also means that those items won't be seen much, if at all, outside of the levels that make specific use out of them. Also, the one item which could have been the best, and the most fun flying item from any Mario game, is completely underused, and is the biggest wasted opportunity in the entire game. Also, one of the items, which turns Mario into a spring, is a very annoying item to control, and is one of the few things that I actually hated in the game.
An interesting twist in the game are something called Prankster Comets. These take some of the stars that you've gotten in different levels, and add some kind of twist to them. Sometimes there are time limits to them, and you have to get it done in that time. Other times, you only have one health bar, so if you get hit even once, you have to start the level again. My favorite kind of comet is one that has purple coins appear, and you have to collect 100. After Sunshine, I got really annoyed at the thought of any kind of coin collecting in any more Mario games, but these actually weren't that bad. Some of them were pretty much longer, more drawn out versions of the red coins from the previous games. These were sometimes pretty fun, but other times seemed more boring than anything. But then there were other purple coins missions which have more of a challenge to it, due to a time limit, and being more platforming-based than the ones that weren't timed. These were often my favorite stars within the game, mainly due to their challenge.
One of the main complaints I have about the main game is the difficulty. You only have to get 60 stars in order to beat the game, and many of these stars will be very easy to complete. However, if you go beyond the required amount, and get all 120 stars, then there will be a decent amount of challenge. This is probably due to the fact that the series has been around so long, and Nintendo is struggling to get the right amount of challenge in order to appeal to a new generation of customers, while keeping things challenging enough for the older fans of the series, who have been gaming all their lives, have improved a lot in those years, and still want the same amount of enjoyment out of the series as they have had since they were young. Considering this struggle to find a way to satisfy both the younger generation and the older generation, I believe that they've done a good job with the amount of challenge in the game, especially when compared to Super Paper Mario, but it still is bound to make a few of the older gamers disappointed.
One thing that is improved on over the previous games are the camera angles, and the controls to fix them. The camera angles in the previous 2 games were one of the worst aspects of those games, and often resulted in me dying. However, there was hardly any time that the camera angles in Galaxy were anything less than perfect. There were a few awkward camera angles, and a few bad positions, but none that were even close to the level of annoyance of the other games' cameras, and none of them ended up in me getting killed.
Outside of the gameplay, the best aspect of the game is the music. I have always loved Nintendo's music, and especially loved the music in the Mario games. This game shows that they can not only still come up with some great music, but also far exceed their previous work. As usual, they do have some remixes of older songs in the game. This includes the usual songs from the original Super Mario Bros. game, as well as some music from other games. These are mostly versions which remain very true to the originals, only making it sound better, although there are a few songs that are redone in order to fit the themes of the levels. Although these are all great, it's the original music that makes the game's music stand out above the others. The songs in the game are fully orchestrated. This allowed them to do a lot more with the songs than they could otherwise do, and it shows. The range in the music is absolutely amazing. There are some light-hearted songs, some epic songs, and some subtle songs. Most of the songs in the game are absolutely brilliant songs which could stand by themselves, but end up being even more great when playing throughout the levels. There are some songs that aren't as great, and if I were listening to them outside of the game, I wouldn't care for them, but even these work very well within the levels that they were created for. In addition to the great songs, there are some really nice effects in the game. In a few levels, there is a ball that Mario stands on, which he has to guide to the end of the level, and depending on how fast or slow you're going, the song slows down or speeds up. In some water levels, when you go under water, the song gets distorted to sound as if you're actually listening to that song under water, and it still sounds nice. Also, in some of the levels, there are some music notes which play one note of a classic Mario song at a time, until you've gotten all of them, and get some kind of reward.
The sound effects in this game are also very good. Specifically, the speaker within the Wii remote is put to very good use. While some games suffer from trying to put too complex of a sound, rely too much on it (like Twilight Princess did), have poor quality, or whatever the case is, this game has just the right amount of use for this feature, and it's not nearly as poorly done as some games that use this feature, mainly due to the simplicity of the sounds that come from the speaker. The in-game sounds are also very well done.
The graphics in the game show that, while the Wii can't make graphics quite as good as the 360 and PS3, it can still produce some very impressive graphics. The game uses a mixture of art style and technical graphics in order to create the most colorful, and visually stunning graphics on a Wii game yet.
The replay value is not really that great, unfortunately. After getting 100%, there is a bit more replay value due to the reward of getting all the stars, but that only lasts a little while longer. After that, there are a few missions that have time limits, which records your best times, and some people can replay those trying to get the best times. Then there are other kinds of challenges that some people could decide to do if they wanted to go back and try to do it. But this is more of a game that people will beat, and just come back to it every once in a while just to play it again because it was fun.
This game shows just how creative Nintendo can be. The game has lots of interesting ideas, which are used in such a way that fully explores the ideas, but never causes them to get old. The music, controls, camera, and graphics are all very well done, and adds to the overall fun factor of the game. Unfortunately, there are some problems in the game, and the game isn't quite as good as Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Mario 64 (although it's very close), but it's still an amazing game, and can already be considered among the many great classics within the Mario platforming series.