SUPER MARIO GALAXY - The Ultimate Review

[oblivion252]

Super Mario Galaxy. Format: Wii. Price: £34.99. WiFi: Sort of...

We are all interested in space travel. The prospect of seeing space through our own eyes is an exciting one and shrouded in mystery. The main reason why the exploration of space interests us so much is because only a select few from the human population have been in space. And once you’ve played on the wondrous Super Mario Galaxy, you’ll soon be sending in astronaut job applications by the minute!

The game’s graphics are a key factor these days in the game industry. And since the Nintendo Wii is not as powerful as the likes of the XBOX 360 and the PS3, the graphics aren’t as stunning as, say, Halo 3. But the graphics are still the nicest on Wii and the game runs remarkably smoothly regardless of this. The fur textures are all there (the Queen Bee from the Honeybee Galaxy is a beautiful creature), the space environment is shining and everything matches the atmosphere of the game.
The characters and enemies are gorgeously varied – the various “Toads” in the game all have a different look and seem to have various personalities – running around and reacting in a hilarious way when “stomped” on. The game has more charm than Mario 64 and has got the best graphics in Nintendo history.
With a large amount of galaxies (levels), you may worry about becoming bored, but completely the opposite occurs! Every environment is different: from the sprawling green pastures of Honeybee Galaxy, the dark ominous Space Junk Galaxy, the happily themed Good Egg Galaxy, to the splendours of Loopdeloop Galaxy – a fantastically crafted manta ray race!

The audio is fantastic too, with classic fully orchestrated Mario tunes booming out of your TV speakers. The character voices are splendid, although Mario’s voice does seem a little high pitched, but this is soon adapted too after you get “into the Mario mood”. One of my personal favourite parts music-wise, is when you find a secret green pipe on the first level of Good Egg Galaxy.
After getting through the gravity fun (more of that later) of this underground joy, you find a question mark icon. Running into it activates a stream of musical notes that when ran into, play the Super Mario Bros “underground” theme. You control the music and I spent many a minute playing around, attempting to change how the music played out, adding in pauses and trying the notes in quick succession. At the end of this glorious event, a lovely sound is heard and a 1Up Mushroom appears from the original source of the question mark icon. A small part of the game, yes, but a slice of the excellent audio featured in this game.

The gameplay is soaring with originality and generally plain good fun! The small planets that scatter many of the galaxies are fantastically designed. On most of them, you can walk right around them in a 360 degrees manner; an innovation that could only really work on a Nintendo console. On the underside of certain planetoids, you can even find secrets and tasty bits of info.
However, one down point of the game is the lack of side quests: sure there are a few secret stars; but nothing as deeply hidden as in any other 3D Mario game. But in the end, this is such a fantastic game, it doesn’t really matter – every taste of originality is here and the Mario charm holds up strongly.
If the 3-D platforming gets a little boring, then other types of gameplay are thrown into the ring, such as special 2 D sections which again work fantastically.
There is one other minor niggle: the difficulty. It’s not the hardest game ever, but again it doesn’t matter! Every hour you get out of this game, you will love. Absolutely 100% love. This is an awesome game packed full of FANTASTIC ideas and charm. Some criticisms I have read about include the fact that it is hard to jump on certain planets: again, this has a clear counter: every different planet has a different gravitation field which is bloody fantastic. One key part of the game is a variety of spherical disk like planets on Battle Rock Galaxy. Doing a long jump (yes, Mario comes packed with all the great moves missed out of Sunshine) off one of these planets lands you onto another one upside down. It’s an experience that can only be described by, well, experiencing it for yourself.
So, to finish up on gameplay: every moment is intricately designed and hilariously addictive to play.

The controls are very nice indeed. It’s regular nunchuk to walk, “A” button to jump and so on, but it works magnificently and it is a fabulous privilege that Nintendo didn’t try to “revolutionise” the formula. The various Star Bits around the game are picked up with the Wii Remote pointer and the fluidity of this is spectacular. The entire game is so smooth and well running that it deserves a prize of some sort!
The game doesn’t just stop there either! Without spoiling too much, the developers added in some Remote special minigame galaxies such as precariously racing a manta ray across a watery course, moving a bubble across a precarious poisonous lake, and of course rolling Mario around in a giant ball. The latter is controlled with the Remote held in a joystick manner: fantastic!
On a quick side note: the WiFi features are to take a picture of the progress in game and to send to other Wiis but it is not really that revolutionary.

All in all, this is a flawless game. It’s like this: Mario 64 was built around the original Super Mario Bros – a great game. Mario Sunshine missed the point slightly like Super Mario Bros 2 – still a good game but slightly flawed. Mario Galaxy has won back all corners by being like Super Mario bros 3 – the best one out there.
This is an immense game and only flawed in the fact that it has to end at one point. Highly recommended for all audiences!

So for the scores!

GRAPHICS: 9.5/10
Awesome graphics: best Nintendo graphics so far and this means it gets the perfect 10.

AUDIO: 9/10
A 9 is justly deserved here for the fully orchestrated tunes and the charm it brings along with it.

GAMEPLAY: 9.5/10
Fully deserving of a 9.5, the game throws more and more great little things at you, all building up into a wondrous experience.

INNOVATION: 8/10
Not as innovative as it could have been, but the formula stays the same, and it is better to stay like this than to ruin Mario.

SCORE: 96%
Only because I like to keep some room for awesome games, this doesn’t score a 100%. One of the best games I have ever played.

Oblivion252

Did you enjoy the review? Please give feedback or your opinion of the review or the game!

[doylen05]

nice reveiw why has no one commented yet lol

[oblivion252]

Yeah that's what I was thinking!
People have read about it thouh - a pile of rep landed in my UCP earlier!

[Lepruk86]

So many reviews of galaxy around i think people have already ran off and bought it hehe

I really can't wait to play this.. I am going to be like a 10 year old (i'm 20) on xmas day as its the game I have gotten with my new wii... say hi to grandma then lock myself in my room leaving only for turkey and duck.. and even then i may take the wii mote with me and try to play :S...

+rep btw.

[Solar]

nice review!

Wish I had as much acknowledgement on mine, ah well

Anyway agreed on the audio bit especially, the old theme tunes from old mario games was wicked and nostalgic!

Looking forward to your next review!

[Ricksta7]

Wow this game is looking / Sounded more and more better by the min Its on my xmas list so fingers crossed it will be under my tree at xmas

Great review by the way mate

[oblivion252]

Thanks for the good comments - much better reception than my previous "controversial" Zelda review!
But cheers everyone and Solar I liked your Mario review!
And I've decided on the next review: Twilight Princess!
Higher or lower than Super Mario Galaxy? You'll have to wait and see!

[Vanman]

Very nice review m8. Hey! you're getting good at this reviewing lark. lol. I am now vey tempted to get this for xmas as you have made me realise it definately worth getting. Thanks again m8. !

[Venerable(ish)Bede]

Good comprehensive review. I don't know why, but I've yet to decide whether to go ahead and buy it in spite of all these good reviews (maybe I'm just not ready to disappear socially for a week.... ).

[tom1892]

I want to get this and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for my birthday in February.