This is a difficult review to write. It’s a strange thing when you have been gaming for twenty-two years, nestled comfortably within your relatively static range of preconceptions of the quality and creativity of each new title, and then, suddenly, one game comes along and shatters even your most basic notions. It’s a bit intimidating to try and define a game that itself redefines the concept of a genre. Rarely does a high-profile title meet, and exceed, all expectations set by the astronomical hype that predates it. My friends, Super Mario Galaxy is that game.

The true-to-life sequel to 1996’s Super Mario 64, Galaxy challenges its predecessor in just about every venue—and succeeds. It is a platformer through and through, and yet it plays like no platformer before it. It embraces the delicate balance between challenge and fun that is typical of the greatest of videogames. And it possesses such a sense of imaginative freedom and outright inspiration that playing it puts one in a state of almost constant euphoria.

This all may smack of fanboy embellishment; rest assured that it is not. Super Mario Galaxy is just that good. Having said that, what is it that makes this game so amazing?

Where to begin…

Unbridled Imagination

One aspect of Mario games that has never been emphasized is storyline. Galaxy’s plot is, as usual, intentionally dreamy. The toads are celebrating their traditional Star Festival, a party which takes place directly in front of Princess Peach’s castle grounds, in the center of town square. No sooner than Mario arrives, however, does Bowser’s portentous fleet of airborne battleships begin firing upon the festivities and laying waste to the town. Mario, in all his heroism, makes a mad dash for the castle to protect Peach. But before he can reach her, a UFO appears and carves a circle around the perimeter of the castle, lifting it into the sky high above the Mushroom Kingdom. To make matters worse, a Magikoopa blasts our bewildered hero off the floating land mass as the castle flies into space, princess and all. When he awakens, he finds himself on a tiny planet, where three bunnies promise to reveal where he is if he can catch them all.

Before long, we learn that Peach has been taken to the center of the universe, and that in order to travel there, Mario will have to help the peaceful Luma people, a species of living stars, repair their mobile Comet Observatory (which, ironically, was also incapacitated by Bowser). The Observatory is powered by—predictably—Power Stars, which Mario must collect from throughout the numerous galaxies. Once enough Power Stars have been gathered, the Observatory will once again be able to function, and Mario can travel to the center of the universe to save the princess and the world once and for all.

In case you couldn’t tell by the plot summary, Galaxy is unapologetically imaginative, and while it makes for a silly and contrived storyline, it is perhaps the game’s greatest asset overall. The outer space theme serves as a perfect thread for tying together the designers’ vast assortment of outlandish ideas. There are dozens and dozens of galaxies in the game, all spanning different environments and styles of gameplay, and none of them ever feels monotonous or tedious. Why worry about the details? Why bother with logical explanations? Super Mario Galaxy doesn’t, and it shouldn’t. The game knows it is set squarely within the realm of fantasy, and it cherishes that position to allow for some truly wild concepts in gaming. It is this foundational principle that makes Super Mario Galaxy such a remarkable achievement.

Seamless Gameplay

Before we dive more into the rare creativity that fuels Galaxy, though, let’s talk about how it’s played. If you’ve experienced Super Mario 64, you already have a strong grasp of the style of gameplay found in Super Mario Galaxy. Many of the controls are the same, and nearly all of the techniques remain, from the long jump to the backflip to the triple jump. There are a couple of new ones as well, such as the ability to walk while crouching, as well as a spin attack (which replaces the traditional punch). The spin attack is a vital addition to the formula because it sidesteps inevitable problems with “aiming” your punches while trying to deal with the wicked gravity-centric challenges that make Galaxy so enthralling. To perform it, you simply shake the remote or nunchuk—and don’t worry; it never feels silly or inconvenient.

Spinning is a useful attack, but it also serves other purposes. Most notably, if you run across a Launch Star, you can spin while standing inside of it to launch Mario off the current planet, sailing through space toward a new destination. This is how you’ll do most of your travelling throughout the various galaxies, and it’s indescribably fun.

Meanwhile, you can use your Wii-mote to control a star-shaped pointer on the screen (since you’ll always have it pointed at the television anyway) which can be used to pick up Star Bits, small colorful prisms which serve as food for the game’s inhabitants and ammunition for your pointer. Yes—I said ammunition; you can aim at the screen with the Wii-mote and pull the B-Trigger to fire Star Bits at enemies to stun them. These Star Bits are also a form of currency throughout the game, used to feed Hungry Lumas, which grant you access to new galaxies and secret stars. Don’t worry about having to collect them, though; it’s never tedious (always fun by contrast, in fact), and you will always have an abundance of them provided you’re taking your time with the game. In that sense, they’re almost more for spice than anything else—as you fly from place to place, they’re strewn beautifully across the skies, beckoning for you to point at them and collect them during your travels.

Somewhat similar to Mario 64, in Galaxy, Mario has a life meter that can be replenished by finding coins. However, now you’ve only got three hits to work with, making things considerably more challenging. In fact, Galaxy’s difficulty might be one of the most refreshing things about its design. Sure, it’s pretty tough, but it’s designed so that even casual gamers will not give up too easily. With enough persistence, nearly anyone can prevail, but the game is hard enough to challenge even seasoned players. This is something that is common to the best Mario games of the past. Meanwhile, the game’s phenomenal soundtrack (which I’ll discuss at length later), stunning variety, and generous helpings of extra lives keep players interested, even as they’re eye to eye with the most daunting tasks. This is one of very few games where I actually caught myself smiling when I died—a rare thing indeed. That alone should be a testament to the meticulous balancing that went into perfecting Galaxy’s gameplay, and from which its fun factor so richly benefits.

The only tiny issue that blemishes Galaxy’s gameplay is the very occasionally problematic camera. The designers elected to implement an automatic camera system that (usually) intelligently assumes the best view of the action to ensure that the experience is immersive and the control is smooth. However, as with all automatic camera systems, you will sometimes see it wrap around to an inconvenient angle or shift in the middle of a critical moment. These mishaps are thankfully (and surprisingly) infrequent, and for the most part, the camera work feels natural and appropriate. There are also some situations where camera control is left (optionally) to the player, and in this event it’s easy to press C to zip the camera behind Mario or rotate manually with the D-pad. The only complaint about manual control is that sometimes it’s hard not to wish that you could do it more often. But for casual players, the predominantly automatic approach greatly simplifies the gameplay, and even for us more serious gamers, the camerawork is done well enough where for every time we frown in discontent, we also smile with acceptance at how well it actually works in spite of these niggling issues.

Rejuvenating Innovation

But let’s go back to talking about creativity. Super Mario 64’s legacy was the elegant transition of classic platforming gameplay into three dimensions. Now that we’ve seen countless copycat titles seizing upon Nintendo’s initial design, it’s getting harder to look forward to each new 3-D platformer, most of which merely introduce marginal improvements, if any at all. Super Mario Galaxy breaks the cycle and changes all of this. Somewhat similar to how Super Mario 64 introduced a new dimension to platforming gameplay, so does Galaxy. But rather than progressing from 2-D to 3-D, Galaxy transcends the conventional “static” gravity approach, and instead transitions to dynamic gravity on a macroscopic scale.

Mario encounters both large and small celestial bodies throughout his adventure; some levels see him traversing typical platforming environments that resemble those of previous Mario games, but many others find him zipping through space from one small rock to the next. You can usually circumnavigate these small planetoids, meaning that Mario actually ends up upside-down. Better yet, if there are numerous small celestial objects nearby, you can actually jump off one body with the necessary escape velocity to exit its gravitational field and be sucked to the surface of another. This concept is made obvious very early on in the game, and the effect is mind-blowing. As it was once fun to simply run and jump around the grassy plains aimlessly in Mario 64, it is now fun to simply toy with gravity, long-jumping around the perimeter of an object, launching from one planet to the next, and leaping through space at your heart’s content, governed only by the gravitational field. Just avoid the black holes—as Galaxy’s new bottomless pits, they’re very unforgiving.

Clever Design

There are just around 40 galaxies total in the game, with most of them being minor, one/two-star affairs and the rest (say, fifteen or so) being the “major” galaxies. Each of these major galaxies hides anywhere from four to seven stars (three of which are traditional, main stars), meaning you’ll revisit them a number of times throughout the course of the game. Unlike in Super Mario 64, however, subsequent visits to the same area in Galaxy are often completely different from the previous encounters. For the three main stars in the major galaxies, the paths you take through the level are always entirely unique, and nearly always the familiar parts of the level morph enough to where not even they feel all that similar. The rest of the stars are a blend of secret and comet stars. Secret stars are found along one of the three main routes, but their presence is unremarked until you complete the three main stars first (though you can find them anytime).

Finally, comet stars, on the other hand, can only be acquired when a special comet is passing by a galaxy. The comet’s passage has strange effects on the galaxy; it might speed up your enemies, limit your life to a single hit, force you to complete the level within a certain time limit, or even pit you against an evil Shadow Mario in a foot race. Most of these comets see you replaying one of the stars you’ve already acquired, so in a sense, this is the designers’ way of artificially extending the game length. However, the comets are strategically placed (one per major galaxy) such that each of the missions feels unique enough (and sometimes quite challenging). Besides, it beats Super Mario 64’s random 100-coin stars and Super Mario Sunshine’s countless blue coin scavenger hunts any day. (Later in the game you will revisit the levels one final time for another challenge, but it’s still much more exciting than any of the “filler” stars in 64 or Sunshine).

One property that is common to many 3-D platformers is their tendency to devolve into mere scavenger hunts—“collect-a-thons,” as they’re not-so-affectionately referred to (see: Star Fox Adventures, Super Mario Sunshine)—where the player searches seemingly endlessly for some widespread treasure in order to complete the game. The end result is a game that is fun to beat, but tedious to complete. Galaxy bravely dispatches this now-commonplace design shortcut and instead substitutes its comet challenges (which are, at least, unique and riveting) and a more limited (and cleverer) version of the 100-coin challenge. This makes for a game with very little filler and a strong sense of variety, all the way up until the very last star. Suffice it to say that, unlike with Super Mario 64, even most casual gamers will probably continue playing after collecting the requisite 60 stars and defeating Bowser. Few will probably make it all the way to 120, however, as gathering the last several stars is very challenging.

One final consideration that benefits Galaxy is a restoration of linearity throughout the game’s worlds. With the standardization of 3-D gaming came an unfair stigmatization of the idea of linearity in games; while it’s true that some games benefit heavily from nonlinear design, such an approach should not be unconditional. Most people equate modern 3-D platforming games with heavy exploration and nonlinearity, but that does not have to be the case—and Galaxy proves this. While it’s true that more exploration equals a lengthier play time, the emphasis on wandering around and keeping track of one’s steps doesn’t have to be a staple of the 3-D platformer. In a way that is somewhat more resemblant of two-dimensional Mario games, Galaxy’s design doesn’t allow for aimless wandering and “wrong” paths. It’s a game that celebrates its linearity by decorating the experience instead with the foundational elements of a great platformer. Even when you’re blasting around the galaxy from one launch star to the next, your previously-traveled paths are marked with a blue streak, a feature which takes the guesswork out of navigating the tangled networks of flight paths between the celestial bodies, and thus keeps the focus on action and platforming—the principles which made Mario a star to begin with.

Depth and Variety

The focus on these aforementioned foundational principles also includes an implied selection of new power-ups. Galaxy offers a number of interesting suits to help Mario on his quest, though none of them is anywhere nearly as widespread as, say, the ones found in Super Mario Bros. 3. Regardless, throughout the course of the game, Mario will don a Bee suit, tangle himself up inside of a spring, phase through walls as a ghost, walk on water while made of solid ice, spit fireballs, and… well, there’s one more suit as well that’s very cool (but terribly underutilized) that you’ll have to find for yourself. In similar fashion to Super Mario 64, normally when you find a power-up, you need to use it to progress—and all of the suits are timed as well, so you’ll have to use it quickly. Rarely are there any random supplemental power-ups, as seen in the older Mario games.

In addition to his power-ups, Mario will have to master many different styles of gameplay throughout his adventure. The sheer variety of activities in Galaxy is something that contributes greatly to its longevity. From one level to the next, you’ll nearly always encounter some sort of new idea or modification to the gameplay, whether it’s tackling two-dimensional gravity-based puzzles or platforming upside-down on a sinking tower. The gravity-based mechanics are twisted and squeezed in every conceivable way to produce a neverending supply of fresh ideas. Apart from these extraordinarily creative variations, there are even a few “mini-game” style levels during Mario’s adventure that have you using the Wii motion control to surf on the back of a manta ray, blow a bubble through a hazardous maze, or roll on a ball through a Monkey Ball-style obstacle course. Thanks to this rare assortment of truly diverse, top-notch gameplay permutations, Super Mario Galaxy stands with the select few action, adventure, and platforming titles that relentlessly tease the mind and arouse the senses, right up until the very end.

And that end takes some time to reach, too. The first 60 stars and your trip to the final fight with Bowser will probably take you anywhere from eight to twelve hours, and if you’re going for 120, expect to spend twenty-five to thirty. Galaxy is one of those games you will want to last forever, and yet you will probably find yourself so attached to it that you won’t be able to quit playing. As you approach the 120 mark, you will also approach the edge of your seat, as the gameplay becomes extremely heated near the end. You will need to master everything in Mario’s arsenal to make it to the special ending—which, by the way, is well worth the effort.

If you run into a snag and are in need of assistance (or if you’re playing with, say, your significant other), you’ll appreciate the cooperative mode, where the second player can wield another Wii-mote to control a second on-screen pointer. This pointer can be used to collect and fire Star Bits, as well as stun enemies, destroy boulders, deflect projectiles, and even make Mario jump. The general consensus seems to be that the cooperative mode is vapid and unnecessary; on the contrary, I actually found it to be quite clever and entertaining. My wife never would have made it as far as she did on her file if it weren’t for my support, and let me tell you, contributing (even ever-so-slightly) to the success of whomever you are gaming with is much more gratifying than simply cheering them on.

Polished Presentation

Not only does Super Mario Galaxy play better than nearly every other game on the Wii, it also looks like a million bucks… interpolated and upscaled from lowly 480p, of course. The graphical technology used is nothing new—some bump mapping here, a few specular highlights there—but coupled with the invigorating art style, the end result is visually thrilling.

The soundtrack is equally impressive. For the first time in a Mario game, Nintendo has chosen to supplement a solid MIDI soundtrack with a number of magnificent live orchestra tracks. Recorded in studio by a 50 piece orchestra, Super Mario Galaxy’s musical score sounds every bit epic as it should. Although strongly melodic tunes are still the emphasis here (as they should be), Galaxy’s orchestral tracks possess enough complexity and dynamism to be featured in a big-budget Hollywood action film—and anyone with even the most basic background in music will immediately appreciate the investment. Confident strings and driving percussion cheer our hero through the tribulations of space wars in Battlerock and Buoy Base, while the comforting waltz of the Comet Observatory slowly builds throughout the game from a simplistic flute-and-bells duet, to a quartet of strings, to a full-blown symphony as more Power Stars are collected. Gusty Garden Galaxy’s theme alone is probably one of the most amazing I’ve heard in any videogame—the word magical comes to mind.

If Super Mario Galaxy’s larger-than-life soundtrack isn’t evidence of the importance of live orchestra and inspired composition in videogames, I don’t know what is. Nintendo is late to the party on this one, but one thing’s for certain; when they finally do step up to the plate, they nearly always hit a homerun… and that’s precisely what they’ve done here. I just can’t say enough about the quality of Galaxy’s soundtrack. When you hear it for yourself, take a moment to appreciate the work that went into producing such a tremendous musical presentation.

One Terrific Game

All of these ingredients add up to one of the most magnetic and enchanting gaming experiences in years. Super Mario Galaxy is surely Miyamoto’s new magnum-opus; it is the best of the Mario series, and one of the best titles ever to emerge from Nintendo. That alone should be evidence enough that you need to own and play this title. When the unbridled imagination, seamless gameplay, rejuvenating innovation, clever design, depth and variety, and polished presentation coalesce, we’re left with one of the most thoroughly joyous gaming adventures ever known; this is one terrific game.

Twenty-two years ago, when I started playing videogames, it was the magic of Mario that captivated me. Today, it is the brilliance of games like this one that makes my position as a humble critic seem worthwhile. It is the opportunity to experience such inspired creations as Super Mario Galaxy that is the very reason we all play games to begin with. And when a game can bring me back to the sensation I felt those twenty-two years ago, what a truly special game that is.