Super Mario Galaxy is the best Mario title in over 15 years. It may very well be Nintendo’s finest achievement in video game creation. It is certainly the best game available on Nintendo’s Wii and is reason enough to justify owning the system. The game adeptly captures the essence of what makes video games fun and does so without compromising gameplay variety, difficulty, or control scheme.
I wasn’t originally planning on writing a review for this game, but my time with Super Mario Galaxy last week quickly transformed from a perfunctory interest into a burning desire to fully complete every level and obtain every star. And obtain every star I did. I write to you now the triumphant collector of all 120 stars in Galaxy and feel adequate enough in writing a review on the game.
The essence of Galaxy is 3d platforming, similar to the seminal Super Mario 64. However, Nintendo’s EAD Tokyo studio takes every notion you have of 3d platforming, flips it on its head, twirls it around, flips it again, and flushes it down a black hole. Using gravity, platforms, and space in crafty and ingenious ways, the game will blow your mind with the situations that Mario is placed in. Some levels will have you ride a sting ray in an F-Zero meets Waverace racetrack. Others will have you in a traditional 2d platform jumping situation. Still others will be large enough 3d arenas to feel like Super Mario 64. You will fight a wide variety of bosses where half the challenge is figuring out how to defeat them. They are every bit as rewarding as fighting a boss in a Legend of Zelda game, but at the same time are much simpler, given Mario’s limited number of moves.
Galaxy’s sheer variety of goals and environments mean that nothing ever gets stale. In fact, the game feels fresher as you progress through it. At no point will you feel beat over the head with a gimmick or groan “not one of these levels again”. You will encounter moments early on in the game that will literally make you go “wow.” Get used to it. Because you will have those moments again and again as you unlock new galaxies to explore. It got to the point where I was half expecting Mario to be given the Portal gun and asked to platform while thinking with Portals. Some of the most mindblowing sections of the game contain several distinct gravities, meaning Mario will be walking up walls, on the ceiling, under the floor, and back again. All the while you are jumping over bombs, goombas, and holes. Don’t worry, this sounds much harder than it actually is. You’ll pull off some amazing things that will make you feel awesome in spite of seemingly impossible odds. Therein lies one of Galaxy’s crowning achievements: the perfect difficulty level.
Rare is the game that can give an overwhelming sense of accomplishment to both a non gamer and a hardcore gamer. Galaxy is one of those games. Obtaining the requisite 60 stars to “complete” the game is wholly within the reach of the casual gamer. Nintendo is very aware of its casual gamer audience and the game has a nice difficulty curve for those who don’t play video games with every free moment. While I wouldn’t consider myself a platforming master, I will readily admit that I am a gaming veteran. I found the main stars of the game to be pretty easy for the most part. However, Nintendo kept people like me in mind as well because the other 60 or so stars are another story. There are some devilishly difficult stages that tested my patience and my neighbors’ tolerance for fuckwords being yelled at a television. However, at no point did I feel completely and utterly overmatched by artificially generated bullshit. Too often are games made more difficult by artificially spawning more enemies and making them virtually gods (Call of Duty on veteran I’m looking at you), or by putting the player in situations where he has little control over his own destiny (Hello Guitar Hero III). Galaxy’s difficult stages are carefully crafted such that they feel doable if you just tried a little harder. The hardest stage in the game for me, Luigi’s Purple Coins (spoiler alert if you don’t want to know the level), seemed daunting at first, but after some practice I finally completed it. And boy did it make me feel like a man.
Nintendo did a great job of creating a control scheme that feels both familiar and new at the same time. You’ll control Mario’s movement with the nunchuk analog stick and you’ll make him jump with the A button on the remote. Essentially that’s most of the button pressing you’ll do in the game. Shaking the Wiimote will make Mario do a spin attack (much like Link’s sword spin). This is initially used to attack any enemies you may see nearby, but as you grow more adept at the game you’ll incorporate it into your jumping to make you reach harder to reach places. If you own a Wii you’re familiar with this “waggle” maneuver and in practice it becomes second nature. You’ll also use the Wiimote pointer to collect items on screen called star bits. Star bits are another form of collectible in Galaxy and actually are more important than collecting the famous gold coins as you’ll use star bits to unlock new galaxies and new paths in levels as well as attacking enemies by shooting them. All you have to do is point at them and Mario will collect them. It feels very satisfying and natural.
Super Mario Galaxy also features a cooperative play mode that is perfect for family members, significant others, or friends to contribute to the adventure without having to have any video gaming skills at all. Player 1 controls Mario as normal, while Player 2 can point another remote at the screen to collect star bits, shoot them at enemies, and make mario jump by pointing at him and pressing A. It’s a great way to get someone invested in the game rather than just sitting and watching the game being played.
Once you start Galaxy, make sure you’re not playing other games at the same time because it will feel inadequate in comparison. I made the mistake of starting Assassin’s Creed 30 stars into Galaxy and the game just felt boring in comparison. Super Mario Galaxy is the reason why we play video games. It is fun at its most primal essence.
