Super Mario Galaxy/ System: Wii/ Publisher: Nintendo/ Price: $49.99/ Rating: E (Everyone)
An acquaintance of mine recently said he can’t wait for Nintendo to sell the rights to the Mario franchise so Sony can do something with it. However, this is as likely to happen as a genie flying out of my ass and granting me three wishes. Mario is not only Nintendo’s biggest money maker, but also they’re their longest -running franchise, and, possibly, also the longest longest-running videogame franchise ever. Mario is one of the main reasons people keep buying Nintendo’s systems.
When I first heard of Mario Galaxy, my first thought was that it was just going to be “Mario in space.”. Then I saw an early game play video for it and changed my thought to “Mario in space jumping from asteroid to asteroid.” From the looks of it, it seemed like it was going to get pretty old pretty quickly. My other concern was how they would adapt the Wiimote to a Mario game, and how the whole game would even work. Let me say: it’s It’s much, much, much better then than I thought it would be.
Forget Super Mario Sunshine,. Super Mario Galaxy is the true successor to Mario 64. In Eevery way Mario Sunshine failed, Mario Galaxy excels. Wonky camera? Fixed. Funky, difficult- to -navigate level design? Taken care of. Levels are now quicker with more action. Bowser as a credible boss, and Bowser Jr. not being an annoying little prick every time he shows up? Bowser is bad-ass again. Mario once again kicks ass and looks good doing it.
Once again, Mario is on his way to visit Princess Peach, and once again Bowser kidnaps her, this time, by using a flying saucer to cut her castle out of the ground and flying off into space. Mario tries to follow,, and falls off one of Bowser’s ships, ends up taking out an orbital weapons platform under Bowser’s control and wakes up on a floating interstellar observatory under the control of a mysterious girl. The observatory acts as a hub for the game, being where you go between levels (or galaxies as they’re referred to in-game).
Every time you enter a level you are given a mission, like in Mario 64, which completingthe completion of which will earn you a power star. As you collect more power stars, more galaxies become available, and each grouping of galaxies has one that is just a major boss battle, for which you receive a large power star for after completing. Large power stars power the observatory, and by receiving them, you open up new areas of the observatory, allowing access to more galaxies and eventually allowing the observatory to move to where the princess Princess is being held captive.
Mario has all his signature abilities plus a few new ones, like being able to skate, carry and throw objects, and perform a spin attack, to name a few. The cool part is how the levels work, ; typically they’re a collection of floating asteroids, planetoids, and “man-made” objects, all with their own gravity. You can run to the edge of a platform then continue to run on the bottom side of it, . iImagine a Mario game where you can’t fall off the edge.
I could go on, but it’s better for you to just go out and play it yourself. The controls seem difficult at first, but are actually rather intuitive., the only problem is that your arm may get tired from keeping the Wiimote pointed at the screen the entire time., tThis may be a sort of built in play-time-limiter-thingy to make you take a break once in a while. Mario Galaxy is my favorite game for the Wii right now, and we all know the main reason you buy a Nintendo system is for the Mario and Zelda games, so go and get this game already, or rent it for a long weekend and take your phone off the hook.