Super Mario Galaxy Review

Console: Wii
Players: One to Two
Rating: E for Everyone

Introduction: Mario has been know to have many awesome platformers. For example, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. Three and Super Mario Sunshine. Despite his success, some may say he's been falling behind in the pack of new and more modern or even futuristic heroes such as Master Chief, the protagonist to Microsoft's Halo series. I, however, believe he's just getting started and this is his second coming. Continue reading to find out why!

SUPER MARIO GALAXY!!!

Storyline: The base of all games, and the backbone that could wreck a game, the storyline. Playing a game without a prior explanation could be bittersweet. This is not the case with Super Mario Galaxy. Although we are plunged into the game with a vague and brief explanation of the story, we are immediately thrusted into a compelling, but simple storyline. Although this is very similar to the previous storylines of Mario games, we are mostly familiar with it and love the "damsel in distress" scenario. The final ending to tie in all the ends of the storyline is great and the 100% completion ending is even more stunning.

Soaring to new heights...

Gameplay: If a game isn't fun or intuitive, people won't be interested. This isn't the case in Super Mario Galaxy. With lots of galaxies to explore and many missions within each unique galaxy the gameplay of this title will keep you more than occupied. You will be dazzled at the wealth of challenges you'll face and how radically different they all are. This does however exclude the monotonous 100 coin challenges that are to be done on all complete galaxies. These have you scouring the galaxy, usually set on the path of one of the main missions on the galaxy, looking for 100 purple coins. Most have exactly 100 coins so it can really get frustrating finding that last coin if you don't know where to look.

I don't believe he can tell me where the last purple coin is...

Sound: Nintendo certainly isn't know for voice acting. Just look at Link and Mario; they barely give a grunt. They do however have a fantastic music composition team, making great music to fit the situation. Deep in techno-space, you hear strange celestial noises and beeping sounds, you can easily picture it reading this and listening to some of the music in Super Mario Galaxy in my opinion. A lot of game soundtracks these days are pure rubbish. I personally think Nintendo is going the right way in terms of music and should keep moving forward. I'm not one for music, but who doesn't remember good the ol' "Super Mario Bros. Theme". The reason this is so addictive is because Nintendo got the right music and stuck with it. The same way this is true for Super Mario Bros., it's true for Super Mario Galaxy. With it's vastly different music tracks, you'll be mesmerized by the deep and wonderful sounds of deep space and foreign galaxies not known to man.

What the heck is this, you ask? This is one of the very unique missions in this game.

Graphics: Graphics are usually the first thing people notice. A lot of people might look at a game and say, "These graphics suck! Why would anyone like this?!" Personally, graphics are one of the smallest portions I use to decide if a game is good. If I were to rate Super Mario Galaxy against other Wii games, I'd say it's in the top three. Maybe it's outclassed by Metroid Prime Three, but more than likely it's the best for the Wii so far. The graphics in this game are like sugary candy, leaving you wanting more of their lush pleasurable appeal. When you look closely you won't see any graininess. I just hope 3rd party developers will be able to make such eye pleasing graphics in the near months, otherwise I'll be kind of disappointed.

Come on, this game isn't that dull...

Longevity: This is simply how long the game will keep you occupied. May I just say this is a real opinion factor. I know all parts of a review are based on opinion, but what sends a player back to play a game again is even more so opinion based. In my opinion, were you to play this game front to back getting everything possibly you'd have yourself a good two and a half month game. This is nice, but it's really hard to know if you will be able to play the game front to back as it was made. There are, as I said those long and annoying collect 100 purple coin missions. These severely drawback the longevity of the game. However, if you can chug through them and gain the 120 stars, you are halfway done. You then have a hard mode playable as another character, who is classified. The longevity of this game, in my opinion, is much longer than any other on the Wii system thus far, and will keep you interested for at least one month.

This game is hot hot hot!

Overall: Super Mario Galaxy is a highly rated game and was able to overthrow the king of games, The Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time. However, in my opinion a lot of this was just hype. I'm not saying that Super Mario Galaxy is a bad game, it just doesn't live up to expectations for me. However, it is in my opinion the best game on the Wii and is definitely a game you shouldn't pass up.