To paraphrase Alfred North Whitehead, all 3D platformers are but footnotes to Super Mario 64. With Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo tries to reinvent the genre it defined.
"Galaxy" looks great; fantastic graphics leave future developers no room to blame sloppy visuals on hardware limitations. The game's structure involves multiple hubs from which players go to different worlds ("galaxies") where they complete missions to earn stars. The missions are brief (rarely longer than 15 minutes or so), but this conciseness is achieved through a sharp focus on objectives. Many of the tasks play out in a linear fashion as the mission keeps Mario on a particular path from one planetoid to the next until he reaches his goal. This may feel constraining to those who wish they could explore a given galaxy at will.
Besides the new gameplay, Mario now finds himself right-side up, upside-down, and sideways relative to your television screen. Though an interesting concept, sometimes-counterintuitive joystick controls make the experience more cumbersome than it should be. In addition, the computer-controlled camera restricts the field of view such that looking around an area for something particular (switches, coins, even oncoming enemies) can be next to impossible--perhaps the game's one genuine design flaw.
Super Mario Galaxy somewhat lacks the pick-up-and-play simplicity that characterized Mario 64, but there is still much to appeal to players who appreciate the gameplay style and are willing to master the niceties of controlling Mario in his new intergalactic environment. "Galaxy" is a deft demonstration of the Wii's potential and worth a look for system owners.
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Mario is Nintends most iconic charater and the charater most often thought of when some one say nintendo. A Mario game is usually shipped out with the new nintendo console but this one came a year after the launch of the wii and was worth the wait.
Story: Mario is delivered a letter to Mario from Peach inviting him to the star festival. A usual Bowser shows up and kidnapps peach and it's up to Mario to save her. There's more to the story really but it doesn't matter. If your looking for deeply involving story with substance and sub plots read "Lord Of The Flies" or Play "Final fantasy VII". The story in Mario games is the same as the "Die Hard" series, a thinly veiled excuse for our hero to jump into action and do what they do best.
Graphics: This is the wii so the graphics aren't as powerfula as the PS3 or XBOX 360 bu there great for the game. Everything is bright and colorful and cartoon like suiting the games enviroment. You'll find yourself loving the simple and straight foward designs of the levels and enemies.
Music: The soundtrack is great. So much so I wish Itunes had it aviable for download. The remixes of old songs and new orchestral pieces that fit each enviroment. Grand for levels that have you passing throught large area and slow and spooky for ghost levels.
Gameplay:The controls are great and spot on. Most of the cotrols are the same as from Super Mario 64. you have the jump, double jump, triple jump, side jump,long jump,wall jump(Now improved since when you hit a wall you hang on and slide dow it so you don't have to be absoultley perfect when you do it." the only changes are your 3 punch combo been replaced by a spin attack and the wii-mote is used to collect star bits and shoot the as an alternative form of attack. The game slowly introduces to the diffrent game mechanics so you'll master on ebefore you get another to learn. there's plenty of mission variety so you'll nevr go "I did this mission already".And if you collect every star as Marion you get to replay the game as Luigi!
Cons: Ihave alot of praise for the game but a few minor gripes. The life sytem is pointless. It's doesn't matter if when you quit you have 5 or 50 lives you'll always start with 4. Swimming under water is still a pain to do especially on missons were your reacing or under a time limit and you need to not waste and movment. The bosses are incredibly easy. Once you see and get down there pattern it will only take 1-3 tries before you can win. Even with the big bad bowser. The final boss battle is a huge let down. You faced Bowser so many times up to this point you know all he's tricks and only takes 1 try to win. I died more times gettin to bowser on the final battle then in the actual fight. Ocassionly the camera while greatly improved will get stuck behind a wall and you can't see. The mission difficulty is strange. You'll get a mission so easy your baby sister could do it foloowed by apull your hair out of your head mission that takes hours.
Bu tthese are minor thing sin a great game. While the bosses are mostly easy there much harder under Daredevil comets where you can only get hit once. And there are much harder mission that make up for them. If you got a wii this is a must have game for your collection. 5/5
I was a fan of the playstaion every since the first one came out in the 90's. I was a PS3 owner until my step son got a Nintendo WII for his birthday. I found mario galaxy on ebay and bought it used. I was hooked from day one. I sold my PS3 and all the games and bought myself a WII and this game. A must for all ages of gamers
"Tough to get coordinated at first, but once you get it figured out it is fun."
"Very hard for me to use both controllers at the same time, not very co-ordinated!"
