News

• Reviewed on: Nintendo Wii
• Also available for: N/A
• 
  
• The Good: Superb, highly creative level design; intuitive control scheme; interesting new power-ups
• The Bad: Jumping in space is occasionally awkward
• The Verdict: The definitive platformer for the Wii
• 
  

A fair chunk of my childhood was spent engrossed in a brilliant platformer called Super Mario Bros. 3. There was one particular point in the game where you encountered a Goomba riding in a big green shoe. With a well-timed jump, you could muscle the Goomba out of the shoe and take it for a joyride through the level, bouncing around to your heart's content. It was a one-off occurrence, but it was a magical moment — one of many that helped make Super Mario Bros. 3 a classic.

Super Mario Galaxy is full of those magical moments as well. After the gimmicks that made both Luigi's Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine feel strained, Galaxy brings the Mario legacy sharply back into focus. The idea of transplanting Mario into outer space might at first seem as gimmicky as strapping a waterpik to his back, but it's not. The concept of gravity — or lack thereof — has simply become the latest platforming boundary to be pushed by the Mario franchise.

Space, the final frontier

The results from a visual and a game design perspective, are stunning. Mario now has the ability to walk upside down and sideways on 3-dimensional objects as they rotate in space, completely abandoning the concept of a horizon line.

The question of why Mario is hurtling through space travelling to one galaxy after another should come as no surprise to people who know the series. Princess Beach gets captured by Bowser, who has mastered intergalactic travel after stealing the power stars belonging to a race of space travellers called the Lumas. With just enough power to travel to the nearest galaxy, the Lumas ask Mario to help them get more stars to power their ship and pursue Bowser. It's a mutually beneficial relationship: the Lumas get their stars back, and Mario gets the princess back.

When Mario discovers a new galaxy to explore by using the Luma's observatory, he is launched towards his destination by a giant star-slingshot, and can use smaller slingshots to fly from structure to structure in space. Each galaxy usually has more than one star to find, but for each star the galaxy will either be subtly different or require discovering a new route.

Unbridled creativity

Some of the larger planets offer more of a traditional platforming experience where Mario is upright at all times and runs and jumps in the traditional way — some of the interior levels are even flat levels that reference Mario's 2-D roots in earnest. But even then, "traditional" must be taken with a grain of salt because these levels are some of the most creative in the game. Shimmying up a bee's honeycomb, following a trail of music notes that spit out the title theme one beat at a time, riding a manta ray along beams of water suspended in the sky, fighting a giant spider by using a piece of its own web as a slingshot to launch Mario into its weak point, and navigating a precarious route as blocks assemble right in front of you are just small tastes of what to expect.

Then there are the new power-ups: trusty items that temporarily allow Mario to take on the attributes of another creature or thing, such as Bee Mario which allows him to hover for short distances, Boo Mario which lets him pass through grates as a ghost, Spring Mario that lets him jump extra high, and the especially cool Ice Flower that allows him to walk on water by creating a trail of ice under his feet.

The truly impressive part of Super Mario Galaxy is not just the staggering display of creativity that's on display, but the fact that it's constant and consistent throughout the entire game — even with 25 years of games under its belt, the Mario franchise can still surprise. It's visually appealing as well, thanks in part to the sheer inventiveness of the worlds, and also, to give credit where credit is due, due to the Wii's ability to pull off some very impressive textures — notably, ice, fire and metal.

A Wii must-have

Moving Mario around in the strange gravitational pulls of space is occasionally awkward when trying to jump at an angle. The rest of the time, the Wii remote and nunchuk function comfortably as a set, with the nunchuk used to move Mario and the Wii remote performing a variety of motion-based tasks including throwing items, grasping and pulling objects, triggering switches, performing spin jumps, pointing at the screen to collect "starbits" that can then be aimed and fired with the B button.

Truth be told, it's hard to find even nitpicky faults with Super Mario Galaxy. After 25 years of setting new precedents for platform gaming, it's safe to say that the franchise has done it again and will no doubt go down in history as one of the definitive classics for the Wii. The only question that remains is, how the heck is Nintendo going to top this one?