They will hand out copies of this game in heaven.
lol Family Guy reference aside
As soon as I started playing again I realized why this game was such a critical success and such a joy to play. There's a simple story, but it takes a back seat to the gameplay. Mario has to rescue Peach IN SPACE! To do so he has to acquire 60 stars and some Grand Stars to power up the ship to fight Bowser. It's a standard Mario story and is good for one thing: setting up the game.
The reason Super Mario Galaxy is so much fun is the amazing level design and tight controls. But this has been a staple of 3D Marios since Mario 64. What's new?
Well it's in space....
And while I'm sure that sounds like a gimmick and a lame answer it really is a big part of why this game rocks. The different gravities of worlds and different sizes of planets help make already fantastic gameplay more varied. It also makes the game just more fun to play around in.
As far as motion control gameplay goes there isn't a whole lot of it, but what is there works and does not feel tacked on. The most obvious inclusions of motion control are Mario's spin move which you will be using often either to reach high places or as an attack and an IR pointer to collect star bits. A second player can even join in and take over the IR. Motion control pops up in a few other instances such as ray surfing which is really a lot of fun.
Just as impressive are the game's graphics. I can't say anything that a screenshot or video would better demonstrate, but they still are the best graphics you will find on Wii. Artistically and technically. The music is great as well. It's all very catchy and it's orchestrated. It sounds beautiful.
A lot of people say this game is too easy and I just can't agree. Sure if you are going to just go for saving the princess and call it a day at 60 stars then you will probably have that mindset. But you are not getting the whole experience. It isn't till later in the game where you are playing the comets where the difficulty really jumps. I am almost sure I died over 50 times on the Toy Time Galaxy Purple Coin Challenge. Of course in many of these challenges you can prevent Game Over because there are just so many 1-Ups to get the rewarding feeling of beating these are still great. I swear I dropped the controller and threw my arms in the air after beating a few of them. Embarassing to admit, but hey I won't deny it in my review.
The presentation is better than any Nintendo game I've seen as well. Or was until Brawl. But there are some nitpicks that keep this game from being perfect. The Hub world is boring and a step back from Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine. You can't really do anything there except fall off and get brought back. Later you get a flying powerup to cruise around in but it's all pretty lame. You also have to keep paying this one star to move the comets around every time you get one. Obviously this isn't really a big deal and is the smallest of nitpicks but would have been nice anyway.
The slinky powerup seems unresponsive and is just not fun to use and the water levels are more annoying and frusturating to control as ever. The one glaring flaw though is the camera. It's workable, but I just don't understand what is so tough about making a 3D Mario with a full 360 degree camera. The camera will be unadjustable most of the time and it's really frusturating when you're trying to look in all directions or just see a platform you are facing. It's something that could definitely use improvement in Galaxy 2.
This is the greatest game on the wii and arguably the greatest Mario game ever. It's one for the ages. The presentation is superb and the gameplay is better than ever. It is a near perfect game. I didn't want to give it a 10 at first because I havn't given one and I don't know any games that deserve 10s, but with gamespot's old rating system gone it would just be a shame to give this game a 9.5 so here it is. 10/10