Super Mario has been jumping around our screens for many decades now, first defeating angry gorillas in the arcade title Jumpman. Since then we have seen good old Mario stomping on Gumbas in the brilliant Super Mario Bros. series to playing golf and even staring in his own RPG. 3D Mario games have been around since 1996 and Galaxy is Mario's third 3D main series game. As of 2011 Nintendo re-released this game as part of its selects range, this means you can now buy this wonderful Wii game for a cheaper price!
The Story
Mario is invited by Princess Peach to attend the Mushroom kingdoms the magnificent Star Festival, as you are heading towards the castle star bits are falling from the sky in wondrous different colors. Toadstools are dancing around enjoying the festival. As soon as Mario is near the castle, his arch enemy appears. Bowser with an army of airships and one pretty huge UFO does not only kidnap the princess (again) but also takes the full castle. Mario's attempt to save the Princess is flawed and he is flung across the galaxy with the goal to save the Princess yet again. This time however Mario must travel to numerous galaxy's to collect power stars to eventually face Bowser in an epic final battle! (until the next main Mario game).
The story is more or less the same as most Mario games except with space, planets and a few new characters thrown in. The only points in the game you get a true sense of storytelling is at the beginning and the end, with very little bits thrown in during the game. If you are expecting huge plot twists and a epic story I'm sorry to say you are not going to get one. This is not a bad thing however as main Series Mario games are all about fantastic platforming goodness. This story is just here to give you a starting point and a finishing point.
You will see cut-scenes used over and over again, but you will not get board of them as they are mildly entertaining and are only shown for a few seconds at a time.
The Music
If I was to describe the music of Super Mario Galaxy in one word it would be epic. The music certainly does make up for the lack of story. This game defiantly has one of the best sound tracks on the system.
While you are at the games hub you can here a very dreamy and soft track, this song is very pleasing to the ears. This is very good as you will be hearing this song often as you go from one level to the next. The music is very varied through the entire course of the game. Before every level you will hear a epic adventure theme that puts you in the right mood to tackle a level. Also the tracks theme will match the theme of the levels. When you go through a ghost themed galaxy creepy and scary music adds to the haunted theme. Music matching the levels appear throughout the game from tropical music for beach levels to middle eastern music for the dessert levels.
This sound track adds to the game, you may end up humming some of these songs even when your not playing. You can tell Nintendo have spent a lot of time and effort producing galaxy's sound track, the music just adds to this humongous adventure.
The visuals
It is a well known fact that the Wii is not High Definition unlike Nintendo's rivals. This however has not stopped the development team from pushing the Wii's graphical limitation to a new level. The game is full of all sorts of colors and textures this makes the levels through the game different and you will enjoy seeing varied sights. Sometimes you may stop for a short time just to appreciate the out of world view.
The big thing that really impresses me is how the camera sticks to Mario, you will never lose him at all. I know this sound really simple and something that we all expect from all games. For a game like galaxy however; this is more complex as Mario jumps from planet to planet or is walking upside down, at one point you control Mario while he is in a sphere. It is amazing and Nintendo should be praised for this usually (but complex in galaxy's case) simple accomplishment.
Game-Play
The Mario series has always had to accommodate the games difficulty for the series hardcore gamer's who have played most Mario games and are need of a hard game. Also it has to accommodate for the younger and newer gamer's that are in need of an easy game. So does galaxy do this? Yes! It dose! The levels have a power star at the end, in total you can obtain 120 power stars. If you are in need of an easy game you game enter the final level with 60 power stars, this is easily done and may take anywhere between 6 - 10 hours. If you want to prove you are a true Mario gamer getting all the stars (some are quite hard to obtain) it can take 20+ hours. Collecting every power star will unlock a very cool and special Easter egg.
Power ups appear throughout the game and are a big part of the game-play. Old and famous power up like fire Mario make a spectacular return. Galaxy also introduces some new and some what controversial power ups. The biggest power up that caused a fan flamed uproar was spring Mario, yes it is as stupid (even for Mario) as it sounds. Mario looks ridiculous and the controls are frustrating. Other new power ups include my favorite from this game, Boo Mario. It is really cool to float around seeping through objects, be careful though other Boo's may be attracted to you! The other is bee Mario, this power up allows you to fly for a short time, stick to honey patches and makes Mario unable to hit water without losing the power up. Most of these power ups really do affect the game-play in a good way, they really do show off the well designed levels.
Some sections of levels include 2D/3D sections these are amazingly put together and really fun to play. The game also contains a 2 player mode. This is disappointing as the second player is only able to obtain star bits with the remote.
The game takes place like the old Mario games in some forms, you do have worlds with levels (W1-2), but instead of different worlds you get rooms. These rooms are accessible through the games hub, The Observatory.
The controls are amazing, unlike some Wii games the controls are well thought out. As ever you press A to jump and move the analogue stick on the numchuk to move around. New to the Main series 3D Mario games is the spin attack, shake the remote to spin. You also spin the Wii remote to enable launch stars. Good old controls make a return like the wall jump and triple jump. The controls are simple yet effective and suit both a hardcore and casual audience.
Verdict
Super Mario Galaxy is an amazing platformer, never have I played a game of this genre as smart and well put together. Nintendo has proved once again that Mario is king of 3D platforming.
9/10
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