Super Mario Galaxy (2007)

Each new major Mario entry always shakes up the core Mario formula. This is often defined by how Mario moves through the game world, which impacts level design. Mario 64 revolutionized not only the 3-D game but the platformer genre as a whole. Showing how movement and level design can elevate an experience. Mario 64 still, IMO, has the best overall moveset for Mario. Giving him rapid movement and great horizontal and vertical movement. Still unrivaled by Mario to this day. This created a move set with a low floor and a high ceiling in terms of skill. After replaying Mario 64 recently, it still feels great to play. It feels like the Nintendo 64's controller was designed with Mario in mind.

Super Mario Sunshine was a great follow-up to the move set of Mario 64. Flow allowed Mario to have faster horizontal movement (though not jumping) thanks to the enhanced dive using the flow to create a water trail. The vertical (and jumping horizontal movement) was slower but you had far greater control thanks to flow. This impacted the level design where often you had larger gaps between platforms since you could move further both vertically and horizontally, albeit slower compared to 64. Either way, the movement in Sunshine felt great. The major flaw to Sunshine was how it felt unfinished. A significant chunk of challenges in the game felt copy and pasted. Such as the Shadow Mario challenges for each level (which were required for the end game) or the large chunk of stars tied to the blue coin collections (which I honestly didn't bother with because it felt more tedious than enjoyable for me). I still liked Sunshine in spite of its flaws.

Ironically, it seems like both Luigi's Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine would have made way more sense on the Wii given the controller and how both used a tool (the vacuum or Flow with a Wii mote honestly would have been very immersive and they probably could have came up with some clever mechanics). That said, Galaxy is still a great addition to the series.

In contrast to Sunshine, Galaxy feels very polished. It still has flaws, mind you, but it does so much right and is importantly a lot of fun to play. Mario's movements feel restricted. You are much slower and have less vertical and horizontal movement. But this isn't a problem because the game more than makes up for this with creative level designs and a great aesthetic. This game still looks good thanks to its coherent and heavily stylized aesthetic. It feels more like Mario 64, with a good variety and surrealist approach to the themes of levels. Sunshine felt hamstrung by it's decision to stick with a tropical theme. And the more surrealist levels were the pipe challenges which looked pretty dull aesthetically. Galaxy feels like the best of both worlds. Everything is colorful and bright.

The use of planetoids never feels repetitive or lazy. The game keeps challenging your perception of the level and makes great use of the camera to highlight important features and give direction to the player. Often times, the camera will position itself to emphasize your immediate goal, such as a Star above you, a lever or platform. The camera overall works great, though it is restrictive. You have very limited and sometimes no control of it at all. But the game is balanced around this restrictive camera and most of the time you have a good view of what you need to see. The camera does seem to kind of fall apart when you are either flying or swimming, but both of these scenarios are pretty rare in terms of game time. Swimming is pretty good too, thanks to the addition of using shells to increase your movement speed.

Another thing this game does that I appreciated was up the difficulty of the game. Early on you get introduced to bottomless pits and I found myself dying far more often than in either 64 or Sunshine. You also only have 3 hit points. It's by no means punishing nor as hard as a Dark Souls game, but I liked the increased challenge. The game has plenty of coins to pick up and there's a great design decision where most enemies can either give you star bits (a new currency used to unlock stars/new levels/stun enemies) or a coin. You either spin attack them to get star bits or jump on them (which is slightly harder) to get a coin. Thus you can make the decision based on what you need. Coins have a significantly diminished value compared to most previous Mario games. They aren't used to get stars anymore, making star bits overall more valuable unless you need health. I don't mind this change since I never really liked the coin challenges. That said, as a late game challenge, 100 purple coin challenges do start to appear in earlier levels. Not a bad thing, given in 64 you could potentially choose a star that would make the coin challenge impossible. So having a set stage for this challenge is a good change. The bad bit is how you unlock all these coin challenges at the same time, thus you need to basically tackle them all at once which could feel monotonous. Also the comet challenges can be a bit annoying since you are kind of forced to tackle them in order as they appear. You can pay to move them, but overall this feels like a needlessly stringent approach.

Unlike 64, Galaxy feels more restricted by the Wii mote rather than the Wii mote being designed with Mario in mind. Galaxy does still use the Wii mote, such as using it to collect star bits or shoot them at enemies to stun them which work well, or using the Wii mote to target blue star points to navigate the level, or using it to blow a bubble through the level. I didn't think controlling the surfer manta ray or the ball movement felt good with the Wii mote controls. Tilting the Wii mote to control your movement just felt awkward and more difficult without any benefit. Fortunately both of these challenges are fairly limited, so it didn't bother me too much, but using a joy stick would have made both play better.

Still its hard to be upset or too critical of this game. It's a lot of fun to play. Creative level design. Constant shake ups to gameplay. Good experimentation in the challenges and some of the best Mario music. Mario 64 may still be my favorite, but this was still a great time.

Miten Marion äärimmäisen arvostettu ekskursio tähtiin maistuu viisitoista julkaisustaan? Erittäin hyvältä, etenkin Switchin Super Mario 3D Allstars -lisämausteilla.

Super Mario Galaxy on kauttaaltaan laadukas sekä kenttäsuunnittelultaan ja peli-ideoiltaan luovuutta hersyvä kokonaisuus. Sunshinen puolivillaisuudesta ei ole tietoakaan ja Mario 64:n antama etenemisjärjestyksen vapaus on tuotu jossain määrin takaisin. Musiikeissakin on heitetty hedonistisempi vaihde silmään ja palkattu orkesteri soittamaan biisit. Tästä lienee kiitos Nintendon valinnalle luopua vähän tallennustilaa sisältävistä kikkailuformaateista Wii-konsolin kanssa.

Pelattavuus on pääosin erittäin hyvä, mutta paikoitellen myös kaoottinen ja tökerö. Pienten planeettojen ja näiden painovoimien pohjalle rakennettu kenttäsuunnittelu ei aina pelaa yksi yhteen kameran ja kameraan sidonnaisten kontrollien kanssa. Onneksi tämä ongelma ei ole jatkuvasti läsnä. Osa pelin kentistä ja tehtävistä menee myös hieman puuduttavuuden puolelle pituudessaan tai toisteisuudessaan, mutta taaskin kyseessä on melko pieni miinus.

Super Mario Galaxyn Switch-versio toimii mukavasti perus peliohjain Pro Controllerillakin, vaikka Wiillä kontrollointikeinona oli Wiimote + Nunchuk -combo. Wiimoten kanssa ruudulle osoittelu on korvattu gyro-kallistelulla, joka on olosuhteisiin nähden paras valinta, mutta ei todennäköisesti istu aivan kaikille. Kontrollien muuttamisen lisäksi resoa on nostettu FullHD-tasolle ja peli pyörii sulavat 60 kuvaa sekunnissa. Näiden ansiosta peli näyttää edelleen ihan mukavalta.

Super Mario Galaxy on sanalla sanoen hauska peli. Siinä on omat ryppynsä, mutta toisin kuin Super Mario Sunshine tai Mario 64, Galaxy on vanhentunut hyvin ja ei vaadi retronsietokykyä sen nauttimiseen. Legendaarisesta maineestaan huolimatta, Galaxy ei kuitenkaan onnistu vallanvaihdoksessa vaan Oddyssey pysyy silmissäni edelleenkin Mario-pelien kuninkaana.

This is hands down one of the best Mario games I've ever played and probably one of the best games overall. The concept is unique and really fresh and controls are (90% of the time, with the exception of really small planets or when underwater) a joy. It is not a hard game after you get used to the constant change in your point of view, but I definitely believe that this game was not intended to be particularly challenging but to have a new experience, something new and breathtaking (similar in a way to Okami for me). And Rosalina's backstory is lovely.

Nothing feels like a chore at all. Well, probably Luigi but that's because it's a complete repetition of what you did. I got every star in my first run and I have to thank that to the smart decision of having slightly different environments for everything. Picking up 100 coins feels lighter when there is a separate and kind of new stage for that. Same with the other comets: slight variations in the stage that creates, in the end, a new playing experience.

I'm sort of confused about why everyone likes this game so much. I played it for the first time in the 3D All-Star collection. 64 and Sunshine are two of my favourite games, but I guess Galaxy came out around the time I stopped playing video games as much.

What I really don't get is why anyone would love this game and hate Super Mario 3D World--which seems to be a lot of people, as this game is fairly universally loved and 3D World was, until recently, universally slept on. As much as Galaxy pretends to be a successor to 64 and Sunshine, it's basically a course-clear game. As in, almost every level simply has you traversing from one end of the stage to the other. The courses are just explained away by saying they're all planets in different galaxies, while traditional course-clear Marios put each stage on an overworld map. While some levels are more open and let you explore a little bit, the same could be said about 3D World.

I did enjoy some of the creative level designs that came out of the gravity theme, but I found a lot of the levels to be dull and repetitive. Any level that had me traversing various tiny spheres was a thumbs down for me. My favourite levels were the platforming-oriented ones. They reminded me a lot of the secret levels in Sunshine.

I think what I really didn't like about this game was just the controls. They never felt comfortable to me. Side flips rarely worked, and Mario was difficult to control in underwater and tiny planet areas. On the tiny planets, the camera would often get all confused, and you'd have to look at a sideways Mario for a while. Even in flat, open areas, the camera was fixed a lot of the time, which seemed completely unnecessary. I'm so glad Odyssey finally gave Mario a functional camera. All in all, it was remarkable that on a collection with Super Mario 64, Galaxy somehow had the worst controls. In my opinion.

I would give Galaxy a two-star review, but some of the levels were fun, so I'll give it a three. Once I hit about 30 stars, I started just doing all the optional and challenge stars, and I enjoyed those a lot more than the main galaxy stars. As a result, the back half of the game was a lot more enjoyable for me.

This is my personal favorite Mario game. I love playing it today on Switch just as much as I loved playing it when it was first released on Wii almost 13 years ago. It's such a charming, beautiful and polished culmination of the Super Mario 64 template with a theme that unifies its concepts without diminishing its variety.

I even dig the things I've heard others criticize over the years: I find the occasional motion control segments fun; I like all the power-ups (yes, even the Spring Mushroom); I prefer the elegant simplicity of the Comet Observatory's various rooms to Starship Mario's planetoid with a map; and its approachable difficulty level is a great fit for my admittedly modest reflexes.

There are seven different 3D Mario platformers to choose from as of this writing, all with different strengths that will make them somebody's favorite. I find all of them fun, but this is the one I completely lose track of time playing. I'd give it six stars if I could.

PROS

• Gorgeous art style and presentation
• Features some of the best tunes in any Mario game
• Detailed, and frequently adorable, character designs
• Highly polished controls and physics
• Creative levels are packed with satisfying mechanisms
• Fun boss fights are a huge step up from 64 and Sunshine
• Fewer busywork objectives than those games as well
• Defines the modern Mario tone that all entries have followed since

CONS

• The vast majority of the objectives are brainlessly easy to complete
• Highly abstracted setting and linear levels push Mario towards children's game territory
• Boring hub world compared to earlier games
• The camera controls still ain't great, especially underwater

An unexpectedly good game. Not sure why I wasn’t expecting this but I really wasn’t.

Note: I’ve played this through an emulator, full HD, 60fps and an xbox one controller.

The game looks great. Everything's pleasantly colourful with great character models and varied interesting worlds to travel. No complaints here.

The soundtrack is really top tier quality and fits perfectly with the game.

And the game itself. A 3D mario game. But it's not a straight up platformer. The game experiments quite a lot with gravity. Most of the levels are little planets you can walk around in seconds. This adds a specific layer of mobility. And while at first I disagreed with the camera movement which a lot of times make you control the character upside down with a sort of reversed controls. Not the best choice in my opinion but you do get used to it.

You also get a bit more classical platforming when game dynamically change between 3D and 2.5D and does it surprisingly seamlessly.

What the game surprised me with is its variety. Apart from every world feeling different on its own it adds unique mechanics here and there with unique power ups and utilising them really well. You turn into mario-bee and a whole level of possibilities opens up. I did hate the spring power up though but others were quite nice.

The game is big. You get 5 worlds each with 5 galaxies each with 1-3 stars to collect. Plus additional challenges triggered with different comets those being races, or time trials. And also bonus challenge levels. There's really a lot to do. And it's all fun to do.

Had to fight with my inner completionist to not go for every star. Though it wasn't easy. Had I more time to game that's a game I wouldn't mind 100 percenting.

The emulated controls almost work flawlessly though certain levels were quite the challenge without the wii controller. But it's definitely doable.

Overall a really great experience and a great game.

Mario races across the galaxy to save Peach once again. In this iteration of Mario we have several moves at our disposal, you have the triple jump, the ground pound, forward leap, squat jump, and side jump. New to the series are the star-bit blaster that you use by pointing the wii mote and the spin attack which can also add height to your jump by shaking the wii mote.

Mario controls pretty well and the move set is a blast to use. Some of the wii gimmicks aren't user friendly, but your rarely need them to complete a challenge. Mario travels from planet to planet collecting power stars to reach the final boss. Each power star is earned through a specific challenge. Most of these challenges are real winners but the prankster comets and Luigi stars have you go back and re-play areas that you already completed and detract from the feeling of exploration that goes along with space travel.

Once you beat the game you can re-play as Luigi but this once again will just be a rehash of what you already did. Luigi doesn't control different enough from Mario to make this endeavor worth while.

Bosses are mostly good and provide more challenge than some Mario games. They are never so hard that you get frustrated, but each one has its own feel, environment and personality that isn't always common in games. Many of these bosses you will end up fighting more than once. Subsequent fights will be more difficult and incorporate some new challenge. This is not ideal but you'll end up forgiving it.

Overall, Mario galaxy is a great platformer that will keep you engaged for hours. Each star will be rewarding and controlling Mario is simply a blast. The story included in galaxy is refreshing for Mario. Sure you are still saving Peach but at least we get some background and character development (even if the focus is Rosilina and not Mario).

Super Mario Galaxy is just the right spin a 3D Mario game needed at the time of the Wii release. Spin shaking aside, the concept sounds so wild and so original, that to base one game (and later a sequel) around it was a goldmine. The concept, platforming on small planetoids with their own gravity, got an incredible amount of runtime.

Spreading 120 stars (with a second mode with Luigi and 120 more stars), the player essentially travels from galaxy to galaxy, filling objectives to get stars. Apart from coins are Star Bits, which are picked up with the Wii cursor and help keep the player busy as they wait for Mario/Luigi to bound across space. The regular 3D Mario mechanics are on display, but the spin via shaking the Wiimote helps keep Mario/Luigi balanced when they try to make a tricky jump.

That isn't to say the game's easier though. On top of regular objectives, certain Comets change the rules of galaxy stages for extra stars, ranging from speedruns to 1-hit KOs to gathering 100 purple coins. In these lie some of Super Mario Galaxy's most fiendish challenges.

That isn't to say the motion controls aren't used as much, they're just in small stages of their own, with rolling a ball by balancing the Wiimote and leaning a manta ray side to side in a water race. While they are incredibly challenging at times, it's only the platforming challenges that end up the most brutal.

Difficulty aside, Super Mario Galaxy is a vast and entertaining game revolving around a mind-bogglingly original concept, and it revolves around it well. Time for that sequel...

At it's best, Super Mario Galaxy is as fun as a game can be. There's some wonky camera issues and the controls aren't perfect, but that's fairly minor. However, when you have to play one of the levels with non-standard movement it can become an exercise in frustration. Rolling on top of a ball is the absolute worst, but swimming is pretty bad, too.

Outside of those levels, it's great!