Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

Since the launch of the Nintendo Wii, there was specifically one game that everyone wanted to play. Super Mario Galaxy depicted Mario's adventures in space. From watching demos at E3 2006, it was a game that everyone had to have. In 2007, the game was released. Super Mario Galaxy is not only one of the best platformers out there, but the new space scenario adds so many new elements to the standard star-snatching jumping and running Mario is known for.

The game begins with Peach inviting you to her castle to watch shooting stars as they fall every 100 years. Answering to this, the Mushroom Kingdom throws a Star Festival to celebrate. As Mario is walking towards the castle, Bowser along with an airship fleet kidnap her and her whole castle and drag it up to space. His plan is to create his own super powerful galaxy smack in the middle of the Milky Way. Mario tries to stop him, but is catapulted across the cosmos and wakes up on a small planet. On there, he meets an enchantress named Rosalina along with her star companions, the lumas. She watches the stars and travels across the cosmos in a ship called the comet observatory. Since Bowser took the power stars however, it is immobile. Then Mario gains the ability to spin thanks to her Luma and sets off on a journey to recover the stars.

The reason why Super Mario Galaxy is so good, is the amount of killer and creative level designs that go from topsy-turvy planets to even side-scrolling areas. The gameplay should feel familiar to fans of Super Mario 64 and Sunshine. You can triple jump, long jump, backwards somersault, wall jump, and much more. The new part is that most of the time, the rules of physics won't apply. So you can now walk upside down and on the wall. Each celestial body has its own gravitational pull and when you get near it, the gravity pulls you to the planetoid. Another new feature is the launch star. If you spin on it, it will send you flying to a new planetoid. The goal is to collect power stars. This is done by various objectives ranging from just finding it, to defeating a boss, and to solving a puzzle. Then there is even more. Sometimes you have to find silver stars, or even play little mini-games using the Wii remote which I'll get into later. This game has a wide range of things to do and it's really neat to just get out there and accomplish these goals. However it can get hard. Especially with the comet stars. Once in a while, a prankster comet will come into a galaxy and force you to do all kinds of different and unique objectives, such as speed runs, racing against a clone of yourself, avoiding faster than before enemies, collecting purple coins, and avoiding any and all damage. This prevents the game from getting stale and they throw all kinds of crazy stuff at you.

The hub world is the Comet Observatory. It is a giant ship that has a lot of rooms. When you go into a room you get access to 7 galaxies. The last one in the room is a boss for a grand star. These provide extra power for the observatory. After getting a grand star, another room opens. It can be a little tedious walking from room to room, but this is something that is easy to forgive.

The controls are spot on perfect and spectacular. It is very tight and responsive. A is to jump, B is to shoot star bits at the screen, Z is to crouch, C changes the camera angle, and you shake the remote to spin. The spin is a move that will be utilized a lot. You use it to stun enemies, use launch stars, climb vines, destroy crystals and much more. I don't want to get into the many maneuvers that Mario can do but almost the whole time, the controls will no bother anyone. This even goes with the motion controls and usage of the Wii remote. This is a platformer that uses it, but doesn't abuse it. Some titles on the Wii use too much of the motion controls and it ruins the overall game. That's not the case here. You never feel that gimmicky sense that the remote has been pushed upon you just because it is there. But then again, you will use the Wii remote in some unique ways. For example, there is a level where you have to ride atop a glass ball, and you hold the remote like a flight stick to control Mario. There is also a level where you ride atop a manta ray, and you control the animal by turning the Wii remote like a key in a lock. The motion controls that are in the game feel very and surprisingly responsive, overall.

As with any Mario game, there are power-ups. These are incredibly awesome and fun to use. We get new power-ups such as the Boo Mushroom which turns Mario into a Boo. With this, he can float and turn transparent to go through walls. If he touches light, it goes away. Then there's the bee mushroom. It turns him into a bee so he can hover for a short amount of time. If he touches water, it's gone. Then there's the ice flower. It lets Mario skate on water and fire. This is pretty disappointing. I was hoping to fire iceballs instead, but they fixed that problem in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Then there's the classic fire flower and it's not a big mystery what it does. It's also disappointing that unlike the other power-ups, the two flowers only last for a short period of time unlike previous games where the fire flower would last until you got hurt.

The soundtrack is completely orchestrated and it sounds beautiful. It is one of the best video game soundtracks I've ever heard. The music can vary from insect-like music, to swelling orchestral epic music.

The multiplayer is the game's weakest spot, though. Instead of having Luigi play at your side, the 2nd player is nothing but a pointer that can get star bits, stop enemies and make Mario jump, so it's not much of a difference if there's 2 players.

Speaking of Luigi, this game marks the first time he is playable in a 3D Mario game. After getting all 120 stars as Mario, you can replay the entire adventure as Mario's younger brother. This is a nice touch, and a good reason to keep playing till the end.

The game also has an auto-camera system that works excellently for the most part, but every so often, you'll get a camera angle that isn't ideal and it will obscure the platforming. This is just a nitpick, though.

Flaws aside, Super Mario Galaxy is an amazing game and is a must-own for any Wii owners. Mario's first adventure in space was an outstanding one and it forever changed the way 3D platformers were defined. The third best game I have ever played.