Super Mario Galaxy: The Best Game of 2007

The year 2007 may be the best for first-person-shooter games, but the best game this year belongs to a familiar face.. The successor to the somewhat disappointing Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy is a masterpiece in just about every way possible.

Story
Princess Peach invited Mario to the Star Festival, a festival that is held once every hundred years. The festivities were brief, however. Bowser's forces came from the sky and begin to attack Mushroom Kingdom. His target? Princess Peach, of course! This time, Bowser kidnaps the castle along with the princess and took them into outer space. Looks like Mario will have to save Princess Peach once again.

Graphics
Super Mario Galaxy is easily the most impressive looking game for the Nintendo Wii. Everything, from the planets to the characters, looks crisp and detail. You will hardly notice any low resolution textures.

Much of the Super Mario Galaxy's great graphics is due to the classic art design. The vibrant Mario universe never looked better than it is in Super Mario Galaxy.

Sound
Headlined by the legendary videogame composer, Koji Kondo, the music score of Super Mario Galaxy is nothing short of excellence. Instead of going with MIDIs, Koji Kondo and his team made the Mario music score orchestrated. As a result, the new tunes will be stuck in the head of gamers long after the completion of the game. In addition, the remixed old tunes will bring a nostalgic smirk to gamers' faces.

Gameplay
Super Mario Galaxy's core gameplay is basic. The object of the game is the same as Super Mario 64: collect enough stars to advance. You stun enemies by shooting starbits at them with the Wii Remote. Mario will finish the job with either a spin or jump attack.

With the core elements down, Super Mario Galaxy expands beyond a traditional platformer. Super Mario Galaxy if filled with so much variety and secrets that gamers will just want to keep going to see what will happen next. You could be water-skiing in one planet, rolling a ball in the next planet and doing some old-school 2D platforming in the planet after.

Super Mario Galaxy places a huge emphasis on gravity. Each planet has a different gravity, which leads to new gameplay opportunities. For example, Mario can jump higher on certain planets. Simply jumping and flying from one planet to another planet will be an enthralling experience for many. This is because the level design in Super Mario Galaxy is some of the very best ever created.

Another strong emphasis is the power-ups. Mario can turn into a bee, fire, ice, ghost, spring and more. Each power-up has its own strength and weakness. For example, the bee power-up enables Mario the ability to fly to higher platforms; however, Mario will get hurt if he touches water while in bee mode.

Comets will also come crashing down on planets randomly. These comets provide challenges, such as faster enemies, that Mario must complete in order to gain a star.

Finally, two players can play in Super Mario Galaxy. The "co-star" mode lets another player join in and shoot starbits with their own Wii Remote.

In total, Super Mario Galaxy will last around a healthy ten hours for the story alone. Collecting all the stars will last you quite a bit longer. Not to mention that Super Mario Galaxy has one super huge secret that will make you want to play over a second time. No matter the length of your play time, you will enjoy every last second of Super Mario Galaxy.

Overall
Forget Wii Sports; Super Mario Galaxy is the real reason to own a Nintendo Wii. The game is as flawless as a videogame could be. To simply put, Super Mario Galaxy reminds us of why we play videogames in the first place: pure and unadulterated fun.