First of all, I should mention that I've played nearly every outing the little Italian plumber has been on since his arcade debut (where he was chasing a huge gorilla up a scaffolding, jumping over oil drums and trying to save a girl called Pauline). From there, Mario has gone on to stomping on vaguely fungus-shaped creatures wearing shoes, eating mushrooms to grow bigger, riding on magic carpets, growing a racoon tail and taking to the skies, befriending a weird green dinosaur who can eat anything, doing some Final Fantasy-styled turned-based combat against a giant sword and – in his last SNES adventure – shrinking in size and age so that the aforementioned dino could take him on his back and help him get back home.

Mario was also the pioneer behind 3D platforming. When Super Mario 64 came along it redefined an entire genre. When Super Mario Sunshine turned up it was supposed to be something entirely new and unforgettable.

That was not exactly the general opinion of Super Mario Sunshine.

Having ploughed through most of the game, generally screaming with frustration at every turn, at the part where the final battle was about to commence yours truly had had it with Mario and that silly green dinosaur.

So, what would come next?

It would be quite some time before Mario and friends finally made their return. It has happened at last, and thus we begin the review.

 
Peach is missing - again

We’re familiar with the idea by now. That darn pink-clad damsel simply can’t stay away from distress. Mario barely has time to walk toward the castle on the evening of the Star Festival when the object of his affection is snatched away by Bowser – again. Boom, bam, and we’re transported to a whole new place. And now we understand that we can not only walk in every direction on a flat plane – we can walk around the world we’re standing on.

After some initial struggle with this new revelation, Mario retrieves a power star and is transported to an astral laboratory of sorts, where a girl named Rosalina tells him that to get to the center of the universe – where princess Peach is – the Italian plumber has to gather stars to power up the observatory. Go figure. You can almost see him heave a sigh. He has to collect stars. Again.

From the observatory, the player can access several worlds (called ”domes”) and from there ”galaxies” are accessable. This works a lot like the paintings in Peach’s castle in Super Mario 64 and the Delfino Plaza in Super Mario Sunshine. In fact, you will probably feel a familiar sensation creeping up on you if you’ve played those other games. The collecting of stars is nothing new – how to do it, however, is something entirely different than we’re used to.

Before I dive deeper into what makes this game tick I should make it clear that it is my intention to keep this review as free from spoilers as possible for those who haven’t played it yet. I will only discuss things that are neutral, so to speak.

That said, let us go into detail.

 
Controls

Well, there isn’t much to be said about the controls, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. You control Mario with the nunchuk. By pressing the Z button you make Mario crouch (or pound the ground if he's in the air), and the C button will cause the game to attempt to center the awful camera behind Mario (more on this later). The wiimote acts as a sort of crosshair that is visible on screen when you point at it. A quick press of the A button makes Mario jump. With the B button the player can shoot ”star bits” – small, glimmering objects that can be gathered just about everywhere in the game’s stages and serve as a way of unlocking new galaxies and various other goodies – at enemies or objects. These star bits can be collected by simply moving the crosshair over them (they zoom right to the player). The up/down/left/right keys ”control” the camera. + and – act as pause buttons. By giving the wiimote or the nunchuk a quick shake, the player can make Mario twirl. This move is important, as it both acts as a sort of extra jump and also knocks many enemies out.

The controls are generally tight and responsive. Collecting star bits is very satisfying, and in nine times out of ten, Mario actually twirls when the player shakes the wiimote or nunchuk. Sometimes the control stick on the nunchuk doesn’t quite manage to translate what the player expects Mario to achieve; this is especially true on planets where Mario can walk upside-down or on the side. It works most of the time, however.

One annoying thing that can happen a lot when switching between different camera angles on a planet is that holding the control stick in one direction will cause Mario to run around in a circle. While it is easily remedied by letting go of the stick, it is still irritating.

 
Graphics

This is where Super Mario Galaxy really shines. While not being the most beautiful game ever made, Galaxy somehow flows along better than any game I’ve played in a while. It is probably the best-looking game on the Wii to this day. There is generally no slowdown whatsoever, there is just the right amount of bloom on character models, the lighting is extremely well done and everything just feels very polished. There are a few ”wow” moments in the game – one being the very first galaxy you are able to visit (mostly due to the new concept of planets) and another one being one of the last – and the bottom line is that Super Mario Galaxy is a feast for the eyes.

 
Sound

"Woo!” ”Oomph!” ”Wooaaaaaaa….”

Yeah, we’ve heard it before. Mario voice actor Charles Martinet has provided some new sounds for our hero, but it’s nothing we haven’t heard before (aside from a remark the plumber makes at the end of the game, which is horrible enough to make me want to mute the volume every time I hear it). The other characters have very little voice work, the dialogue being written out on screen. Sound effects are nice, even though the little ”ping”s and ”gwoingg”s coming from the tinny little speaker on the wiimote can get on the annoying side rather quickly.

The music in Super Mario Galaxy is, on the other hand, mostly excellent. Two people have composed the score for the game: Long-time composer Koji Kondo and the new and talented Mahito Yokota. Also, Nintendo seems to have finally woken up from its slumber, realizing that music in games doesn’t have to be composed singuarly for tinny MIDI sounds – this time around there is an orchestra playing, and to great effect. Not all pieces are especially memorable, however, and even though it is fantastic to hear a symphony orchestra in Galaxy it still feels underused. Most battle themes (with the brilliant exception of the Bowser battle music) is in MIDI still – albeit a well-programmed MIDI – and that is a shame, as a fully orchestrated soundtrack would be awesome. Also, expect to hear many rehashes of the old Mario theme along with the water music and underground music from the first NES game. The new theme written for this game is overused to the point of being ridiculous. Also, there is a notable formula to the orchestral music – it usually consists of the same rhythm in different tempos and key signatures. However, it is great that the developers have found a way of making orchestral music dynamic. Now, if they would only do this to the next Zelda game yours truly would be a happy camper.

Bottom line when it comes to the music: Great, but not excellent. The orchestrated music is well written and well performed, although it gets slightly repetitive at times and I, at least, kept wishing for more original work. Kudos for trying though, Nintendo.

 
Gameplay / Mechanics

This is where the bad starts, unfortunately. To start with the worst, it has to be mentioned that this game features one of the most atrocious and obnoxious cameras ever. It will swing wildly around you at times, or sometimes it will zoom in on something you definitely weren’t interested in looking at. Also, the game likes to give the player the illusion that he/she can control the camera at will to suit the situation. Let me be the one who breaks your hopes and dreams here: It ain’t gonna happen. The game rarely lets you control the camera at all, and when it does, you are probably better off nudging it to the left or right as the first person camera is a complete and utter joke (you can only look around in a very limited radius, so to be able to look around you, you essentially have to pop in and out of first person view several times). There are many areas in the game where the camera is completely fixed, in which case it will resolutely prevent you from seeing anything of interest (and you can almost never use the first person camera in these instances, either). The awful camera is probably an effect of the planet perspectives, but still… Nintendo, you should know better than to give us this utter crap.

The game is reasonably well balanced when it comes to difficulty. It starts out friendly, ramps up in the middle and becomes fairly devious at the end. There are a few instances where some players may be tempted to either destroy their Wii, their television or something else that is nearby, but these are relatively sparse. Yours truly only had severe problems at a few areas, but many out there complain about the game’s huge difficulty so I suppose everyone is different. To make things easier and more enjoyable, Super Mario Galaxy virtually vomits extra lives at you from every possible angle. You get one 1-up for every 50 star bits, one for every 50 coins, and the stages are littered with them. If that wasn’t enough, your little damsel in distress will periodically mail you new ones. You won’t run out of them in a hurry, and it isn’t unusual to have 40 or 50 of them after completing a few galaxies. To sum it up, the difficulty is nowhere near the frustrating heck that was Super Mario Sunshine, but still a lot more demanding than Super Mario 64.

There is a great deal of replayability in this game, due to a certain thing you unlock after beating the game with every single star. The perfectionists will be happy to know that time records and coin high scores are saved with the player file, so you can always go back and try to improve.

 
The final word

Super Mario Galaxy is a finished product, and that is not something I thought I would say about a Nintendo game  nowadays. Everything is polished and well thought out, even though there are rough edges and a few frustrating issues. If you love Mario and grew up with him like I did, you are going to love this little gem of a game wholeheartedly, if nothing else then for the wonderful nostalgic warmth that comes with all Mario and Zelda-themed games. If you are new to Mario’s adventures you will very probably enjoy this nonetheless, though you may be frustrated by the difficulty in some stages and the steep amount of things to do.

This game is a great achievement, and it will remain so for years to come. It’s not perfect, but it is certainly close. Great work, Nintendo.