Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

...title of the year - Super Mario Galaxy. Not only is the internet been buzzing since the games release of how it is the best game on the Nintendo Wii console right now, but there is also a lot of discussion on whether or not this is the single best game ever (a title that would usually fall to the hands of Zelda: Ocarina of Time). Gameranking's, a website that collects reviews from all over the world and then accumulates them is worth a look as well, ...
...time.

Super Mario Galaxy has been a long time in the works, apparently, ever since the world was wow'ed by Mario going into 3D in the Nintendo 64 classic 'Mario 64'. Ever since that game was made people have been buzzing about a possible sequel known on the internet for a long time as 'Mario 128'. When the Gamecube, Nintendo's previous console, was first being publicised there was a video that showed many mini-Mario's wondering around ... more

One of the benefits of not reviewing video games for a living, is that when you get a new game you don't have to rush through it and judge things on first impression. Of course, they do have the added benefit of receiving a must-have a while before the rest of the public, but do they really know what they're talking about? Take for example, the latest big name game to be released and Wii's title of the year - Super Mario Galaxy. Not only is the internet been buzzing since the games release of how it is the best game on the Nintendo Wii console right now, but there is also a lot of discussion on whether or not this is the single best game ever (a title that would usually fall to the hands of Zelda: Ocarina of Time). Gameranking's, a website that collects reviews from all over the world and then accumulates them is worth a look as well, seeing as there has been an ongoing battle at the top spot between the two games in question. Each to their own, I guess..

Now have Nintendo just been splashing the cash around, and rather than just putting out an elaborate television campaign for the game, decided to leave some big money sacks on the desks of say - IGN and Gamespot? Just recently a story emerged of how Ubisoft had put a lot of cash into Gamespot to advertise their new big game, 'Kane & Lynch', only for when the game received a bad review for them to campaign to get that reviewer the sack. And it worked. No fears here though, as Nintendo haven't given me any swag bags to put up this review, in fact - they refuse to speak to me in general. Nevermind aye, I guess the benefits of not being one of the guys that has to do this for a living is the pure joy you can get from working through a game. I think it's time.

Super Mario Galaxy has been a long time in the works, apparently, ever since the world was wow'ed by Mario going into 3D in the Nintendo 64 classic 'Mario 64'. Ever since that game was made people have been buzzing about a possible sequel known on the internet for a long time as 'Mario 128'. When the Gamecube, Nintendo's previous console, was first being publicised there was a video that showed many mini-Mario's wondering around a sphere and though I heavily doubt this was a clue to Super Mario Galaxy, I think Nintendo took the idea of Mario walking around 360 degrees and applied into a space age situation. Of course there was a Nintendo game to fill the gap between 64 and Galaxy, and that was known as Super Mario Sunshine - although to many this could never be known as a sequel to the first 3D outing as it was too gimmicky.

Now what's flying around from planet to planet if it's not gimmicky?

I was someone that followed the build-up to this game, and my main concern was that it would ignore the large scale worlds we are used to in platforming games for the sake of just having a lot of mini-planets. I wasn't far off to be fair.

Beginning the game you are in the village where you can see Princess Peach's castle off in the distance, and reminiscent of Mario 64, she has invited you round (and no, not for a bit of hanky panky). The village isn't all that exciting, in fact there's only one way through it and the fact that it's packed with toads is the only thing that might stop you running through it in about 30 seconds, and also I suppose you may want to see what exactly the Wii controls are like with this game seeing as it is the first time you take the reigns. In general all the moves from past Mario games are there, so if you've played previous Mario games you will probably have no trouble doing the basic jumping from wall to wall to get higher up. The new controls come where you shake the Wiimote to attack, and also you use the pointer of the Wiimote to collect 'star bits'. I think it's true what everyone has been saying about the controls to this game, they work almost too well, and all the worries of the Wiimote being just for party games and not large scale games are gone. That proves just what a great controller Nintendo have created, and of course the Wiimote also harbours a speaker internally, and it was this game that they used to promote the individuality of that speaker.

Bowser kidnaps the Princess, and Baby Bowser is with him (I don't think I'll ever get on board with that new character, but they keep throwing him down our throats..) The castle, that looks the spit of how it always does, is then lifted into the air and you know you are going to have to save her. Enter Rosalina and the Lumas. Rosalina pretty much looks exactly the same as the Princess, so it shows how much money they invested into character models there. She takes you to the observatory that acts as the 'hub' for the game (how the castle did in '64', and Isle Delfino did in 'Sunshine'). To me the hub looks incredibly cheesy, and is another step in the wrong direction although something you would come to expect from Nintendo. It is a bit of a hassle to negotiate your way around it sometimes, which is only annoying based off how small it is, although as the game progresses you do open new areas and easier ways to get to them. Not that I realised these easier ways were there until I completed the game. The observatory looks like a widened rocket, which makes it no surprise when it starts flying off to the 'centre of the universe'. Give me the castle back any day, although as I look out my window right now I do wonder if there is some fat Italian plumber somewhere racing off to save his Princess from a giant turtle.

I would have loved for them to have just given us perhaps a revamped castle to explore, and whilst I did come to accept the observatory, I wouldn't have minded some reminiscing like them recreating a section of the castle for the final battle. I think the fact that once you've completed the game you can't revisit the village that you started in is a bit weird as well, although as I said earlier - it's not like there's anything in the village. The fact that when you talk about an area in the game though and say, "there's nothing to do there," shows that sections of the game are missing Nintendo's magic.

The Lumas guide you through the game, and some will TRRRAAAAAANSFORM into means of travelling from planet to planet, whilst hungry ones will change into new galaxies if you feed them the star bits you collect from the game. The fact that you can be over one side of the level, and using the Wiimore still collect star bits from the other side, shows what I mean about the fun level of this. When I was playing the game I wanted to make sure I did everything I could do before moving on to the next part, and that is exactly what I did, doing each area in order. For example, you start in the terrace of the observatory which has so many galaxies in it, and then you open up other ones ranging from the kitchen to the bedroom to the engine room. What is strange is how the themes of the observatory rooms have nothing to do with the galaxies that are inside them, and in fact you find that the galaxies are really mixed up that some theme galaxies you never really get a great one.

At first it is strange finding yourself being able to walk around objects in their entirity, and to be fair after going through the whole game once I still haven't fully grasped the mechanics of it and I think you will always find yourself at least coming close to pushing the analogue stick in the wrong direction and making Mario walk the way around the shape that you don't want him too. Also, in respects to the gravity mechanics, the fact that they still haven't ironed out problems with the camera (they've had 10 years and they still haven't) means you can have further troubles getting around the game. The whole gravity aspect though is incredibly clever, and I can see why people give the game full marks just based off that, but sadly that isn't enough for me. I know some people have troubles working out the difference between which surfaces have gravity and which don't, and I know I have found myself nearly falling off into black holes on occassions, but I guess that's a risk you've got to be willing to take. On most occassions though you will have enough lives to take these sort of risks, as the difficulty of the game rarely borders on hard - although that is coming from a seasoned Mario platformer player.

I was immediately very letdown by the game, although you always were going to be if you had read the build-up, and the game is not as beautiful as it is made out to be. Infact, give me Twilight Princess graphics any day. But you do eventually get into the game, and it's one of those things where you'll be telling yourself you'll turn it off after one more star but then you won't. It would be a cold day in hell before Nintendo would truly mess up a Mario game, and they certasinly haven't here no matter what faults I can pick in it. The game is for the most part pure fun, although the fact that you can be easily rewarded by getting stars for doing next to nothing, is not an example I think Nintendo should be setting. I heard the game gets harder after 60 stars (that's the amount you need to complete the story to the game) but I didn't see that much of a rise in the difficulty. In fact, I would say that for the most part when you think a star is going to be hard to get it is usually easier than you think. What did annoy me about the game was how I knew the game consisted of 120 stars, however you can only get 104 before having to go the final battle. It is only after this final battle that you unlock the remaining 15 stars. I actually went into the final battle for the first time with 103 stars, as I didn't have enough star bits for the final hungry Luma, I think that's because all through the game I had been taking for granted having enough star bits and as the game progressed I starting seeing less of an importance in them.

What is good about the game is how Nintendo have brought back old favourites and added new mechanics to them. Take for example fire suit Mario, firing out his glowing red balls, now with added ideas like being able to walk on cold surfaces. There are some really good situations that involve these mechanics, athough they are very few and far between. I also like the fact that they've brought back enemies that I haven't seen since the SNES days, like the skelton koopers, and even brought back the same sound they make when you hit them and they collapse away to bones only to regenerate a few seconds later. And of course, after the success of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo have brought into 2D sections to the game - showing that not everything this day and age has to be pretty 3D. I would say the 2D sections are most seen in the Bowser stages, however the camera will change now and again so that the game shows you things the way it wants you to see them.

For most galaxies you will also get a comet in orbit that changes something about the stage and gives you the opportunity to get a new star. This ranges from having to complete the stage in a certain about of time to having to beat the boss without getting damaged. The fact that you normally only have three sections of life in stages, although can be expanded to six if you find the right mushroom, means that you have to be slightly more careful than usual as yellow coins are more of a rariety to come by than star bits that don't do anything for your health. There are also 'secret' stars that you have to find, but they're not usually all that secret. I think if you're a new and young Mario player this game is going to be challenging, but for anyone else it would probably be easy to speed through if you don't want to enjoy yourself. On the subject of returning things from previous games, Luigi shows up now and again, although I am still missing Yoshi so as far as I know this is still lacking from being the complete Mario and the gang experience.

I think my worry of the game just being a lot of flying from planet to planet came true, as there are no real large stages to explore that really do slightly damage my view on the game, in fact it makes you wonder what year we're in as the fact you have to fly from planet to planet makes this the most on rails 3D game ever. The only benefit of the flying from planet to planet sections are that there are usually star bits to collect, but asides from that I'm not sure whether these sections are used for loading or if they really thought they would be fun to watch every single time. Bit like how they thought it would be fun sailing around in Wind Waker. I think my Zelda references keep coming up in this review for one clear reason - this is no Zelda game, and this game shows why Mario is one step behind Zelda in popularity these days. For those that rated Twilight Princess down for being too much like OoT, I think people need to look at their reviews for Mario Galaxy and see that it is perhaps a progression backwards from Mario 64.

So, what am I going to rate it? Well, five stars of course. Most of the best things about Mario are there, and despite a lack of challenge and large stages to manuever around, there is pure fun and green pipes to go with them. Nintendo, I think you got lucky with this one, because whilst it is the Wii's must-have game, is this really what we've been waiting 10 years for? Oh, and if you don't mind spoilers...

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there is the added excitement of when you complete the game...

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unlocking Super Luigi Galaxy. 

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