Super Mario Galaxy is like seeing your old best friend again after years apart. While he was gone, your other friends seemed like good substitutes, but now that he’s back you wonder who the hell you were hanging out with all this time. We used to be able to expect this kind of special game from Nintendo every couple years - we got Super Mario Bros. 3 in 1988, Super Mario World two years later, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past the next year, Super Metroid in 1994, Yoshi’s Island in 1995, then Mario 64 the next year and Ocarina of Time two years later. But until now, Nintendo had not released an instant classic like those games since Ocarina of Time revolutionized 3D action in 1998. Super Mario Galaxy is everything a video game should be - it’s fun, clever, joyous, and a celebration of gaming.
Virtually every part of every single level in the game is a little miracle of game design. This is the first game I’ve played in a long time where somehow it’s always clear where you should be going and what you should be doing, even if the game doesn’t give you any hint in the traditional sense. Most games, even great games, are at some point tedious or repetitive, but not Super Mario Galaxy. It’s constantly playing with your expectations; you could never even hope to imagine what’s going to be around the next bend (or on the next planet). The amount of design expertise and creative ingenuity that went into making all of these perfect levels - these perfect little moments - that Galaxy is full of, is just staggering.
The difficulty curve and control are both flawless. It’s hard but never frustrating, and while anyone should be able to beat Bowser and save Princess Peach without too much trouble, some of the later (and bonus) levels will give even veterans of the genre a serious challenge. Moving Mario around these weird shapes floating in the sky is butter; somehow even upside down jumping on Goombas and bouncing over walls off of Bullet Bills can be executed with perfect accuracy and ease. Motion and pointer control is seamlessly integrated as well, mostly having you point at star bits to collect them and shaking either the Wii remote or nunchuck to use Mario’s spin attack. It never feels tacked-on, and actually improves the gameplay.
The music, which is mostly a combination of orchestrated and remixed classic tunes from the series and new, often ballet-like classical arrangements, is fantastic, and really sets the tone of amazement and wonder for the game. You’ve never been to places like these before, and you want to explore. The pacing of the game is wonderfully unrelenting - you’ll always want to keep playing, and when you aren’t, you’ll be thinking about playing.
Super Mario Galaxy is the perfect mix of new design ideas and old friends (and enemies, and environments, and music). It’s not just a game you need to buy if you own a Wii, it’s a game that is absolutely worth purchasing the console for. It’s also the best game Nintendo, or anyone else for that matter, has made in nine years.
