Super Mario Galaxy Review: Out of This World or Out of Its Mind?

Mario, the short little plumber who has brought joy to millions of gamers for years. Is Galaxy worth the Mario title, or is it a way to make a quick buck? Well, compared to the other two 3D Mario games, Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine this is the best, by far. Super Mario 64 was quite possibly the best game of its time, with a simple story and friendly atmosphere. Sunshine was fun but didn't feel like a Mario game with the absence of any real recognizable characters and Mario relying on an oversized watering hose instead of his own moves. Still it was one of the best on the Gamecube. Galaxy on the other hand, takes all of your original ideas about Mario and throws them out the window.

For the majority of the game, you are on some distant galaxies flying, jumping and swinging your way to a star, just like good old times. But instead of being on a solid earth like in the previous games, there are situations where you will be floating through space to reach planets, blasting around planets and doing some very interesting and new things that have not been seen in any other videogame before.

Super Mario begins with our favorite hero heading for a festival in the beautifully redesigned Mushroom Kingdom,when all of a sudden, Bowser, the long time nemesis of Mario, barges in and steals Peach's castle with Mario hanging on. Mario falls back to earth after hanging on for a while. Eventually, Mario reaches the "main menu" of the game, a giant spaceship. This is equivalent to Peach's Castle in Super Mario 64 and Delfino Plaza for Super Mario Sunshine. Its where you can choose which star you want to go for and interact with your friendlies. Once you jump into one of the 40+ galaxies you are immediately in outer space.

Each galaxy is a contained world with as many as six or seven stars. You will blast into space, jump to platforms, float across huge gaps, use star slings (which involves the Wii Remote), walk beneath planets,explore different gravities and fight bosses making this game extremely unpredictable and endlessly fun. But the game is still fairly easy, even easier than the Super Mario 64, which is a problem. There are 120 stars overall (60 being required to beat the game). if you go for the minimum 60, you should not have any problem at all, but if you try for th 120 you run into some major obstacles, so if you are an experienced gamer, I suggest you make your goal the 120. The game does use the Wii Remote well, with races and challenges that require you to use it. Another aspect of Super Mario Galaxy that is amazing is the soundtrack. This soundtrack is possibly the best I have heard in a long while, miles better than any of the previous Mario games combined. Sure you miss the original Mario Theme music but the Orchestra used in Super Mario Galaxy is phenomenal.

To put it plainly Super Mario Galaxy is one of the greatest platformers I have ever played and an absolute must-own. And to me, this is the first Mario game that involved more than just Princess Peach, you are also out to save planets and creatures. Galaxy isn't perfect, that would be a major overstatement. There are some minor issues. There's the camera, which works well most of the time, but sometimes it is annoying to try to get the exact angle you want, only to find that the camera wont let you. The difficulty is a little too easy to 60 stars and to defeat bosses for my tastes. Also the lack of voice acting is an extremely annoying theme that is carried throughout all Nintendo games. But even with these minor drawbacks, Nintendo has made a Mario game that deserves to be name the best Mario game ,and best Wii game, to date.