Review: Super Mario Galaxy

So you take one of the most famous video game character and stick him in space, sure that sounds cool but what if that character is a red overall wearing Plumber? Well you know what? It's still pretty damn cool in fact it makes for probably the best game on the Wii and probably one of the best games of all time at that. Of course I'm talking about Super Mario Galaxy which was the well known plumbers first adventure on the Nintendo Wii and it showed us what the Wii was truly capable of.

At a first glance at the game play of this game would give you the indication that the odd camera angles and 360 degrees of running across sphere like planets would be a bit disorienting and sure it may be at first but you quickly get used to this aspect of the game since it is one of the main aspects of the level design in the game. Of course gravity also plays a huge role in the game as at times many different objects are given separate gravitational pulls then other surfaces allowing you to jump from one sphere to another just by jumping into that objects gravitational pull.

The storyline in the game is very linear as the game works much like many of the previous Mario games for the N64 and Gamecube as you'll be collecting stars which are in fact almost identical to those from Super Mario 64. The main story of the game is that Bowser once again attacks the peaceful Mushroom Kingdom raining fire down upon the kingdom as he rips Princess Peach's castle right out of the ground taking it into space with him where he plans on creating a galaxy of his own. Of course Mario is right there trying to stop him but Mario only ends up getting blasted out of the castle and into space. He soon wakes on a small planet where he meets a group of creatures called Lumas which oddly enough look like stars themselves. You will eventually get a Luma partner of your own as well that will allow Mario to perform all new moves that he's never been able to do before including the basic attack in the game, the spin attack which I'll talk a little more about a little later on. You will be traveling to distant galaxies using the observatories located in the main over world, the Comet Observatory. These galaxies go from being different themed worlds to being nothing more then small planets and debris floating in space.

The controls in the game are really quite simple and not much different from those in previous games. The control stick on the Nunchuk will allow you to control Mario's movements while the A button on the remote will allow you to jump. Of course they utilize the motion controls of the Wii giving Mario the ability to preform a spin attack just by shaking the remote or nunchuk slightly, this will be the primary attack through the game but you will quickly realize that there is a second or two delay between each spin attack which will leave you vulnerable during those instances. Another new mechanic to the game is the ability to both pick up and shoot what are called star bits simply by pointing the remote at the screen and directing the star like curser over them, to shoot you simply need to point the cursor at the target and press the B button on the remote. Other then that the controls are more or less the same as in previous games as the Z button on the nunchuk allowing you to crouch as well as perform the long jump with a combination of running, crouching, and jumping in short succession. With the Z button you will also be able to do the butt stomp when you press the Z button in mid air, this move proves to be quite useful throughout the game. The camera angles at most time cannot be changed but at times you'll be able to change them using the control pad on the remote although these instances are quite rare.

Of course a Mario game wouldn't fell right without the unique forms that Mario is known for acquiring and Galaxy takes this aspect to a completely different level giving Mario all sorts of new forms including Bee Mario, Boo Mario, Spring Mario, and Ice Mario. Of course there will also be returning forms like Fire Mario and of course Rainbow Mario which is the new form of Mario with the invincibility star. Each of these forms present new abilities to Mario which will enable him to collect the stars which were unreachable without them.

After each group of galaxies Mario will of course have to fight through a boss stage which will more times then not be against Bowser and Bowser Jr. who are the main villians in the game. Of course there is a boss in almost everyone of the levels which most of them turn out to be all new enemies which had never been seen before as well as a few that are returning from previous games.

The graphics this time around look better then ever as I mentioned before that this may be the best looking game on the Wii so far. The sound effects really haven't changed from previous games but then again would we really want them to? The music throughout the game is amazing and probably the best music we've seen in a Mario game since we first heard that catchy Mario Bros. theme back on the NES.

Overall Super Mario Galaxy is the closest thing to Super Mario 64 that we've seen so far as it takes many aspects from previous games as well as all new Wii specific additions. The story may be lacking but hell when has a Mario game ever had an innovative story so we really couldn't expect anything special this time around either. of course sticking to the basics of Bowser kidnapping Peach could never be a bad since that has been the basic story since the beginning and it never gets old. The graphics and music in the game are top par and maybe some of the best music to appear in a Mario game to date. The story in the game seems a little short but that's only because you only need half of the stars to reach the final level which leave sixty more stars to collect in order to unlock something let's say, special. Mario's return to the 3d platforming scene is in no way a disappointment as Nintendo obviously still knows how to crank out a good Mario title, when they want to that is.