(andPOP) - Why does the galaxy hate Mario? Why is it that no one ever hands him a star directly but only after he completes their demeaning tasks then they throw it a few feet away from him, making him crawl, skulk to the shiny star and pick it up like a slave groveling for a morsel of bread.
Everyone's favourite feisty Italian plumber is back for another romp in Super Mario Galaxy, exclusively for the Nintendo Wii, naturally. Released in November of 2007, Galaxy returns to the basics fans love after Mario's stint as a janitor in Super Mario Sunshine for the Nintendo Gamecube. Expect platform jumping, star collecting, and costume changing a-plenty in this all-new adventure across the universe.
The story is as classic as can be. While celebrating the centennial star festival, Bowser attacks the mushroom kingdom and kidnaps Princess Peach. A tested and true Mario story, but here's where things get a little different. Bowser's not alone this time as he comes flying in not only with his airships, but also with a giant UFO. As the entire castle gets lifted into the outer reaches of space, Mario is slung off the castle steps and finds himself on an observatory deck surrounded by astro-puff people known as Lumas and a mysterious woman named Rosalina. As it turns out, this observation deck runs on star power and, is stranded in space as Bowser stole all the stars to power his own evil plans. It's once again up to our favourite underdog to collect the stars, stop Bowser, save his friends and rescue the princess. All in a day's work for a servant of the pipes.
Super Mario Galaxy utilizes the Wii's next generation capabilities to the max by taking 3D one step further. Gone are the majority of flat levels and introduced is the concept of gravity. Most levels take place on multiple small planets where Mario can be launched from gravitational field to gravitational field, more often then not using the momentum and force to his advantage in unique and intriguing ways. As well, each galaxy contains a specific theme, from the Good Egg galaxy to the Honey Hive galaxy, and each theme usually creates a diverse set of scenarios Mario must overcome to collect the stars and bring a little power back to the Lumas' observatory. Some of these planets have special mushrooms unique to their world and as we all know, Mario's a sucker for a 'shroom. These special mushrooms are more than flavorful fungi, they transform Mario into one of eight special suits including bee Mario, ice Mario, and invincible rainbow Mario. Much like Super Mario Brothers 3, these dress up additions do more than improve the Italian's fashion sense and help him proceed through treacherous galaxies and eventually save his princess.
Nintendo did an amazing job creating innovation with a system that is nothing close to ordinary. They take the aspects that make the Wii unique and exploit them to new levels. Take for instance when Luigi goes missing in search for a star, turn on your Wii and you have Wiimail from Nintendo saying Luigi is missing and gives you a hint on how to find him. Or another great example is on one of the boss battle stages you traverse on multiple moving platforms with different sections of the world having different gravitational pulls, in all directions so you constantly have to jump to a different side of the platform to avoid being sucked into a black hole. Sometimes you have to use your Wiimote as a joystick while others as a target. Mario Galaxy offers a lot of variety in getting to the end of the game, with a number of different meteors that change up galaxies such a meteor which gives you one life on a mini-boss battle, or a meteor that forces you to race against a space Mario clone, or one that speeds up the bad guys. As well, when you achieve certain goals, specific one star galaxies open up that seem more like fun mini-games than new stages. Some galaxies even contain secret stars that can only be obtained by feeding a hungry Luma enough star bits (which are found throughout the galaxy and are used to feed Lumas or stun bad guys) or using a specific item in a novel way. Nope, not done yet, You can also gain new stars by finding Luigi when he gets stuck in older galaxies get red stars or green stars that affect the game in different ways, collect purple coins on secret stages, or find Lumas hanging around the observatory looking for a snack to open new secret galaxies. There's plenty to explore like the library where Rosalina tells her back-story or getting high coin scores. Once you get ALL the stars, you can play the game all over again using Luigi, who plays a little differently than Mario and changes the story up a little bit.
While Galaxy lures players into the game with a subtle but effective tutorial system near the beginning of the game, gradually adding in new aspects, differently controlled gameplay, unlockable features and intense boss battles keep the player in for the long haul. The only times I find myself annoyed with Mario and his friends are when the gravity becomes too much for me, jumping from the tops to the bottoms of surfaces often disorients me for a little while and I still find myself having trouble controlling Mario underwater. The controls are amazingly simple yet robust and even with changing gravity and camera angles, you still have the option (most of the time) to change your angle of viewing to see what's around you, maybe find a way to a new secret star or some out of reach star bits.
Mario Galaxy is by far one of the best looking games out there for the Wii and offers special particle and lighting effects rarely found outside of a Nintendo brand title. Glitches and spazzes are few and far between and through the chaos of gravitational pulls, multiple bad guys, coins, star bits and flying Bullet Bills – I have not experienced the slightest sense of slow down or even as much as a hiccup in gameplay. Small details in gameplay such as Mario's hat popping up and down, or Goomba facial reactions give the simplistic art style extra flair in a title that prides itself on simple complexity. Super Mario Galaxy pulls off the toughest feats by sucking the player into a world so obscure it has to be fantasy driven, in space no less.
The game sounds amazing, from the first time you hear Mario utter the title to the epic and familiar background music. Utilizing Dolby Pro Logic II, Mario sounds the best he ever has. With the amount of things going on all around him in the more chaotic stages, it definitely helps to be able to hear enemies waddling towards you from whichever direction the sound is coming from. There really isn't much voice acting in this game, but true fans wouldn't want it any other way. Instead as always, he lets his fists do the talking with a random 'Yahoo' thrown in for dramatic effect. The music is orchestrated on such a level that in certain galaxies, you may feel a strong sense to survive, not because if you die you let down the princess and the Lumas, but because you just cannot allow for such intense music to die along with you.
In terms of lasting appeal and gameplay, you can play this huge game twice before replaying anything, once as Mario and again as Luigi. On top of this, if you're one of those people who can't stop playing when friends come by, don’t fret, Nintendo provides players with a great little addition that changes the way people will look at single player games for years to come. Now a second player can join in at any time with a second Wiimote. Although player two doesn’t control an actual character, they can use the Wiimote to grab and hold enemies and projectiles, shoot and gather starbits, help Mario jump further and hold moving platforms in place. At times it feels like this type of help is required for some of the tougher stages (and believe me, the stages can get pretty hard). If your buddy gets bored he can change from a helpful addition to the antichrist, forcing you to jump when you don’t expect it, wasting your starbits and being a nuisance over all. The only real problem I have with the Mario Galaxy game is that every time you turn on your Wii you lose all the lives you had saved up in your previous session. Fortunately, you are given a letter from Peach every time you start up, offering you five extra lives right off the bat. In the end all these free tries and resets make the concept of having a certain number of lives pointless as you can always just go get more lives if you start to run low.
All in all I would say that after the somewhat disappointing Super Mario Sunshine for the Nintendo Gamecube, this title is more of an apology to gamers who miss their Mario the way he used to be. Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii is by far the best platformer for the Wii, the best platformer in the history of next gen systems, quite possibly the best platformer ever created to date. With innovative controls and design, the basic yet required story, and familiarity to those who had an original NES system, Super Mario Galaxy is one of those games that make you want to go out and buy a system for that title alone.
Graphics: 5.0 / 5.0
Gameplay 5.0 / 5.0
Sound 4.5 / 5.0
Replay value 4.5 / 5.0
