Super Mario Galaxy

After a pretty good, but not great GameCube Mario 3D platformer, Mario Sunshine, the newest Mario plaformer,Super Mario Galaxy, is the best Mario game since the legendary industry changing Super Mario 64.

So, in Super Mario Galaxy your mission is to... what other than save Princess Peach. Galaxy's story isn't anything new by any stretch of the imagination. The story of the game follows the same formula and concept as most of the other Mario games in the past. You've been doing this since the NES days. Mario is at a festival when Bowser shows up in his big old ship and takes Peach away from everyone and Mario seeks out to find her. Then, a girl you meet, that looks really close to Peach, Rosalina, tells you to out and find stars to refill the power to the observatory, and as you collect them, the more power the observaroty obtains, and once you fill it up you will be able to go to the center of the universe.

When you starts the games main adventure you'll be in the huge observatory, which is basically just a huge HUD world. In this HUD world you will be invincible and can not die. In this HUD world there are about six rooms that lead to different galaxies in the universe. Once you collect enough stars in a particular galaxy you will be able to unlock the next galaxy. Though you only need sixty stars to beat the game, there are one-hundred-and-twenty in total. So, when you collect enough stars, you can move on to the next galaxy or you can stay in the current galaxy and collect the rest of the stars. In each of the galaxies, there are a bunch of planets. Each planet will have a few stars that you will be able

to collect. All the stars you collect on that planet are in the same area, but the game just doesn't say, here's an open space, go find three stars. It doesn't work that way. There will be three different levels, which, at first will seem identical, but the different levels of the planet will vary differently taking you to different areas of the area.

Another way to earn different stars is to go to planets that have comets orbiting them. These comets randomly appear on the planets that you have completed. These comets will change the levels a little bit. Either they will have you racing against dark Mario, and you will have to get to the finish line before he does, or you will have to get through a certain section of the level with all of the enemies attack speed increased.

The main difference between the other two 3D Mario platformers, 64 and Sunshine, the majority of the gameplay of Super Mario Galaxy is on a spherical 3D plane. This is mostly fun, but the controls of it can be a little bit weird. When trying to walk onto the bottom of a planet, you might find yourself walking in circles a lot. Also, not all planets are like this, and might try jumping, and expecting the gravity to suck you into the bottom half of the planet, you won't, b ecause the level won't be spherical, and the game really doesn't give you any way of telling how the level is built. But it is always funny when you punch a goomba and he goes flying and lands on the other end of the planet.

When I refer to "planet s" the levels aren't just one huge gigantic planet, but more or less a lot of smaller planets. You jump into these orange stars and waggle your Wiimote and Mario will blast off to a set location. This is how the game maintains linearity rather than just being a huge open world.

The level design in Super Mario Galaxy is definitely it's strong points. The variety in the levels is just phenomonal. You will have the levels that are a bunch of small planets. You'll have levels where you turn into ice Mario and when you walk on water you'll turn the water into ice. You'll have levels where you will be able to throw fireballs, not that that is a new feature to Mario games. Other levels will have Mario turned into a bee and having the ablility to fly. In other levels you will be able to stand on a huge big ball and roll on it, using the Wiimote to roll around and control the ball. You'll also get to ride on a Manta Ray in a huge water track, again, using the Wiimote to navigat

e the Manta Ray. And finally, in my opinion, the funnest and best levels of the game are the classic, nostalgic levels. Basically they are old-school awesome two dimensional levels just like the ones in Super Mario Bros. And Super Mario World but with new features like gravity and some other crazy, wacky, awesome things.

The game still has coins, but they don't work like they have in the past in other Mario games. Rather than having to obtain 100 coins to get a 1-UP they will give you health. You have three health points, and any hit you take will decrease it by one, and getting a coin will increase your health points by one. You can collect special m ushrooms that will double your health points to six. But coins aren't really the major thing you should aim to collect in the game, that would be star bits. These star bits can be used for a bunch of different things. First, they can be shot at Mario's enemies with the B button on the back of the Wiimote. Shooting your enemies with these really doesn't do much, but it can stun them. They can also be used to feed these... "things" that show up in Super Mario Galaxy. Some of these will appear in levels, requiring you to feed them to advance. When you feed them they will turn into a planet and you will be able continue that way.  Other of them will appear in the HUD world and you will feed them to unlcock whole new galaxies that will appear in the sky.

The most used attack in Super Mario Galaxy, surprisingly, is not really stomping all over goombas and koopas. Rather you will be shaking your Wiimote and Mario will do a spinning punch. You can still definitely jump all over your enemies to eliminate them, but it is not as strong as spinning around and doing a punch. You can also jump and d

o a butt stomp, usually stunning the enemies in the area. Then you can run over and jump on them or spin around.

Super Mario Galaxy is one of the greatest looking Wii games out there. As much as I high saying "for the Wii," I'll say it anyway. For the Wii, Super Mario Galaxy, technically, is great. It looks phenomenal. The lighting, shadows, and everything else is very good.

Also, the soundtrack of Super Mario Galaxy is a very, very good mix between new orchestrated stuff and remixes of some of the great orignial songs from the older retro 8 and 16-bit Mario games.

There is a half-ass two player mode, I suppose. At any point when you are playing the single-player game you can turn on the second Wiimote and hand it to a friend, which will bring another cursor up on the screen. What that other player can do is collect star bits by putting there cursor over them, and they can also make the player double jump, by clicking on them after they have already jumped. They can also click on enemies, and stun them, giving the first player the chance to jump on them, or do a spinning punch to the face. Once you collect all 120 stars you can unlock Luigi. Sadly, you can't play with him and Mario at the same time. Just one playing Mario or Luigi, and another collecting bits.

Final Decision
Obviously we don't see that many AAA titles on the Wii, unfortunately. But, fortunately, Super Mario Galaxy is the best Wii game out there, and possibly one of the greatest Mario games ever made. Everything about it is just incredible. The amount of levels, and some of the greatest level design you have probably ever seen in a video game is here in Mario Galaxy. Here's Nintendo's response to everyone yelling at the lack of hardcore games on there console. Sadly, we don't know how many of these hardcore awesome games are to come.