Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Available On: Wii

Nintendo’s natural order of things seems to have built up to a pinnacle. We’ve had next-gen Zelda. Recently Samus hit the Wii in Metroid Prime 3. Most of the other loved Nintendo names have had their big next-gen outing and now it’s time for the main moustached man to step back in and take his crown as the Nintendo king. In an intergalactic blast of an outing, Super Mario Galaxy takes the most famous name in gaming into outer space to defy gravity, journey across galaxies, and explore a whole range of worlds new and old.

Opening into a beautiful world of Mario like none before (you may recognise a lot of models and objects from Brawl screenshots) Galaxy is nothing but luscious right from the start. A brief outing in the Mushroom Kingdom leads to the inevitable capture of our beloved Princess Peach until things take a vertical twist when Bowser blasts the crew and the castle into the galactic beyond.

From here things just get better. The opening scenes show off some amazing FMV sequences with our favourite Nintendo characters looking more impressive than ever. While I’ll never expect a defining Wii title to have the graphical capabilities of competing with rival console hardware today, Super Mario Galaxy is by far the best visuals you could look for on Wii. Not only is everything smooth and polished, the visual content of the game is lavish beyond description, a world of stars (Grand, Power, Bits and more) colours and galaxies ranging across every extreme of every element. Galaxies of fire, ice, water, candy – Super Mario Galaxy did everything I hoped it would in providing an immense range of worlds to explore and the unique Nintendo charm to suit.

Half an hour or so through the opening films and sequences finds Mario again star hunting through a variety of levels, chosen from a primary hub this time known as the Comet Observatory. It is this observatory of which Mario must collect power stars for, in hopes of refueling the ship and navigating it to the centre of the universe to save our Peach girl. The story around the basic 3D Mario concept is quite nice. Pleasant, actually, is the best way to describe the happenings of this galaxy. The entire game follows a continuous… feel. A ‘groove’, if you will.

The best outlet of the style in Super Mario Galaxy is in outstanding audio production. Not only is a continual calming galaxy theme represented through numerous sound bytes and effects, the re-creation of famous Mario tunes into yet-again epic orchestral pieces never fails to impress. The curiosity of intergalactic travel and the gut-wrenchingly-adorable Lumas and star creatures are constantly themed by the large abundance of visual flairs and effects coupled with appropriate sound. Small things like a bright crash of star bits in the background play an enormous part in defining the overall presentation and outstanding quality of Super Mario Galaxy. The game is filled at all points with all the little cute Nintendo things that can’t be resisted. The stars themselves are absolutely adorable, gender-questionably adorable, sure; Mario’s occasional gay moments with Grand Stars are also quite questionable in a somewhat erotic manner but with everything so bright and happy it can slide by un-noticed.

The range of galaxies does great justice to the adventure of Super Mario Galaxy. The colour ratio is amazing, with the continual collection of Star Bits via the Wii-mote cursor providing a constant source of visual stimuli, it is always back set by a lavish world, be it a land of lava or a giant ball of water in the sky – no galaxy failed to impress. As most should have learnt to accept from Nintendo by now, a lot of creatures and worlds in Galaxy border on the extreme, questioning any potential hallucinogenic use by Miyamoto and his quirky crew.

Psychedelics aside, when it comes down to navigating the planets and stomping on Goombas, Mario is handled much the same as before. The same pound jump, long jump, triple jump moves are used as previous titles, with a swipe of the wiimote creating a circle-spin attack, as opposed to previous punch-attack methods used by Mario. A variety of new power-ups and collectibles are available, ranging from Bee Mario to Spring Mario and a whole bunch more I won’t mention to savor the experience.

The main difference to previous Mario titles is of course the use of planets, galaxies, and the manipulation of. At first trekking the planets can be a tad daunting, but the opening level serves as a good opportunity to grasp your mind around the gravitational dimensions in play. It was a shame to find that while some platforms floating in space support Mario on every surface, allowing him to walk up, down, around and upside-down; some platforms… won’t. It can be difficult at times determining whether scooting Mario off the edge of a cliff will result in him flipping to the other side, or being sucked into a black hole of oblivion. Usually the presence of a black hole will signify the potential hazard, but it’s not always easily noticed, especially with the shabby camera controls.

You’d think a game that so freely warps gravity and encourages 360 degree travel would have some better camera manipulation support. While at most times the camera will move to support the necessary field of view, any attempts at manually moving the camera will be defunct. Not always does a player have the ability to move the camera at all – or even venture into first person view. When you actually can move the camera, it’s always in pre-determined distances, and when you need to jump to the other side of a planet in one move it can be cumbersome, but such occasions are rare.

Once all the game mechanics are familiarized in a manner very similar to past Mario outings, it’s time to hunt for stars. While Super Mario Galaxy takes the raw gameplay of previous 3D Mario adventures and gives it a warranted twist, the core adventure here is the exact same as before. You have a base, you choose a galaxy, choose a world and then pick the individual star to hunt for within that world. Also as before, choosing a star will manipulate that world to a state and time that makes getting the star possible. This time around though, choosing a star seems to variate the world a lot more than before, sometimes presenting a completely different level from the word go. This creates a lot less re-exploring bigger worlds, and a lot more stars based on a direct one-off platforming path. As I’ve mentioned before the game generally is quite easy. To complete the story adventure, not one star really gave a serious challenge and were easy to locate. If any star were to give a challenge, you’ll find so many extra lives throughout the game that even if you ran out of your 38+ lives, a continue generally suffices anyway.

With little real challenge throughout the Galaxy, the 2 player support really doesn’t need to make the game as marginally easier as it does. The 2nd player support is quite questionable. Manning the 2nd Wii-mote will give you another cursor to point at things, and allow you to shoot valuable star bits at whatever necessary. When timed right, 2 players can press A together to make Mario jump higher. Fairly useless, at least it gives another person something to do while watching the pretty colours. If you can find a situation where giving a friend or loved one a Wii-mote with the abilities equivalent to attaching someone with an extra disfigured limb, then go for it.

Super Mario Galaxy is an amazing feat, a world of exploration that will keep anyone entertained for hours. The large amount of stars assure a solid length of many worlds, each as exciting and interesting as the last. The characters and Nintendo charm is immeasurable, the Luma star characters alone carrying enough cutesy charm to bring the toughest biker thug to tears. If only there was a bit more challenge, to slow the more seasoned gamers from chewing through each star one by one. Fortunately there are so many stars that the infrequent annoyances are soon clouded in wonderful presentation. Even though you’re collecting stars as before, it has never been done this way, and never will – until Nintendo redesign the gaming approach all over again.

Super Mario Galaxy

95%

The Good -

* Beautiful, lavish.
* Amazing range of worlds and new content
* Almost instantly accessible by anyone.

The Bad -

* Easy!
* Sometimes I was feeling a little TOO happy.
* It will whet the insatiable appetite for Brawl.