Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) Review - Video Games Reloaded

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Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) By: Adam Waddilove

A galaxy-full of greatness or an empty void?

When some creature escapes into space with Princess Peach, Mario gives chase, exploring bizarre planets all across the galaxy.

The ultimate Nintendo hero is taking the ultimate step... out into space. Join Mario as he ushers in a new era of video games, defying gravity across all the planets in the galaxy. Players run, jump and battle enemies as they explore all the planets in the galaxy. Since this game makes full use of all the features of the Wii Remote, players have to do all kinds of things to succeed: pressing buttons, swinging the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk, and even pointing at and dragging things with the pointer.

Shake, tilt and point! Mario takes advantage of all the unique aspects of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller, unleashing new moves as players shake the controller and even point at and drag items with the pointer.

Mario essentially defined the 3D platforming genre with Super Mario 64, and this game proves once again that he is king. Players perform mind-bending, low-gravity jumps across wild alien terrain as they experience platforming for a new generation.

Mario dons new suits! As Bee Mario and Boo Mario, you'll use these special suits to help Mario fly and turn invisible. What other suits will you find?

A new character, Rosalina, makes her debut. This Watcher of the Stars aids Mario on his quest to find her friend, the Grand Star, in addition to Princess Peach.

I’ll start this review by stating something that some of you might find shocking. I thought Mario Sunshine was actually a good game and while not clearly as innovative as Mario 64, it felt more like a stepping stone for the franchise and it now feels like that has lead to Galaxy, which is in my opinion the best Mario game since Super Mario World for the SNES. It combines classic platforming gameplay with new ideas that make an interesting mixture and a damn good game.

Let’s start at the beginning here, you’ll be walking towards Peach’s castle and then it’ll be taken from its foundations and into Space by Bowser. Kamek then hits Mario off the castle in orbit, he then awakes from being knocked out to find he’s on a small planet and thus the game begins to rescue the Princess once again. I know it’s not the most original story, but if you’re looking for a clever plot with plenty of twists, where have you been for the past 20 years? This is what Mario games have always been about and I’m glad they didn’t complicate things in that regard.

Now the aim of the game is to obviously collect Stars from around the galaxies, which are basically Worlds to Mario 64/Sunshine fans. There will be a few Stars in each Galaxy and you’ll need a certain amount to unlock more, leaning towards an enemy fortress and rescuing a Grand Star that unlocks a new area to explore. In-between these there are a few things you can do including feeding star-shaped creatures known as Lumas, the star bits you find around the levels. These are little coloured stars that you find around the levels, simply collecting by rolling the Wii Remote over them. By feeding the Lumas, you can access new Galaxies or reach new areas in existing levels.

Remember all the different things you could change into in SMB 3? Well Galaxy has taken a leaf from that book and given you a few things to turn into like a Bee, Spring, Boo, Ice and Fire Mario to name a few. All of which are essential to success in certain areas. So how do the Wii controls work? Well it’s pretty simple, you use the Nunchuk’s analog stick to move and the remote to grab onto items, throw them, collect star bits, spin to do a spin attack and a few other things like surfing, rolling. Jumping is handled just by tapping the A button. The thing about Galaxy, is that it feels like it was built for the Wii, which is perhaps the first Wii game I can say that about apart from Prime 3.

If there’s a few complaints to be had, it’s that you can complete the game with few stars instead of making you collect all 120 stars, but just like with SM64 you’ll get something different if you do that, what is it? Well you can find out by doing a little research, but you won’t find the answer here. Another issue is that boss fights are not nearly as hard as they appear, you can fight a huge robot and kick his backside quite easily. The final complaint has to be with the camera, which although improved from Sunshine still gets stuck behind objects sometimes, obstructing your view but only occasionally.

These problems aside, Mario Galaxy is really addictive. I had to literally tear myself away from it and work on some other games or I’d get behind on my quota. Is it better than Mario 64? Well that’s debatable, but personally I would say yes. It’s the best looking Wii game to date, it handles like a dream and has all the classic Mario elements along with some new ones to make it a classic of its own.

The Verdict

Mario Galaxy was always going to be hard to meet expectations, but it’s somehow managed to do it. While it has a few problems with difficulty and camera angles, they can be easily forgiven while playing. Like I said, its highly addictive and will literally consume you until you collect every damn 120 stars. There’s a whole load of galaxies to get exploring, so get to it!