3 out of 3 people found this review helpful:
4.5Overall
5.0Animation
4.0Storyline
3.5Characters
Gameplay:Like Mario 64 and Sunshine before it, Mario Galaxy is a 3D adventure in which Mario will have to travel to a series of mini-worlds in search of Stars, of which we'll need a certain number out of 120 in order to access the final area. As in Mario Sunshine, when Mario enters a world you'll have to select the Star he wants to quest for off of a menu, and then only that Star will be available as the world will change accordingly. Each world is made up of missions, and to access a later mission you'll have to clear the previous ones, so each world has a definite progression. Unlike in Mario Sunshine, where Mario needed to collect the first 7 Stars in all 7 worlds, Mario is free to collect any of the Stars in Galaxy until he has attained the necessary number, so while some Stars may remain inaccessible until you collect previous ones, you won't be stuck in this game if a particular Star remains out of your reach. This gameplay mechanic, of being able to collect the Stars you want, returns from Mario 64 and is very much welcomed back.
The Star-collecting concept may be familiar, but the mechanics of going about doing so are quite different. Mario 64 and Sunshine typically threw Mario into large worlds and challenged him to find the Stars that were scattered around. Oftentimes the act of actually reaching Stars was not too difficult, but figuring out where they were and what to do once you'd found them was the bread and butter of those games. Mario Galaxy takes a much more linear approach. Much of the time, there's only one path that Mario can take. This path may be riddled with challenges and obstacles, but there's little question of where he was to go. If he can overcome the barriers in his way, he'll get that Star, with no search time involved.
Those gamers looking specifically for an open-ended treasure hunt will be disappointed by this, but the fact is that this style of gameplay more closely mirrors that of the older titles like Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario World than Mario 64 did. The older titles were also linear; it was primarily a matter of jumping over pits and enemies as you moved left to right, level after level. Mario 64 is a classic in its own right, but by removing many of those challenges and replacing them with a "figure out where you need to go" atmosphere, it really changed up the series formula. I think the case could be made that if the familiar characters were removed, Mario 64 would be difficult to identify as being in the same series as older Mario games.
Not so with Galaxy. It doesn't often require the same kind of precise sequences of jumps that the older Mario games did, but it does mostly have gamers following a set path. The game does a great job of masking this fact, though. Even though Mario is funneled along in a particular direction, the game still feels very 3D... in fact, possibly even more 3D than any other game. Not only can Mario move left and right, to and from the screen, but he also can run completely around platforms in many of the worlds, each one of those platforms being its own tiny planet. It's a very creative and well done gameplay mechanic that also serves to disguise the fact that ultimately there is only one direction you can progress in. Even with my pointing it out to you, it still is going to feel as though Mario Galaxy is large and full of possibilities. Super Mario Galaxy may just be the ultimate combination of 3D and 2D adventuring, with the grand expanse and wonder of a 3D world, but the careful guidings of a 2D sidescroller.
Mario Galaxy combines many familiar concepts with new gameplay mechanics. In addition to being able to run all around platforms, there's the new Star Spin move, activated with a simple shake of the controller, that just seems to fit like a glove with the Mario series. There's also special control schemes such as when Mario is riding on a manta ray down a water slide and you must use the Wii-Mote like a joystick, new and returning power-ups, and Star Bits. And oh, those Star Bits... For such a relatively minor element of the game, I could spend a lot of time talking about those. These are essentially little glowing lights that can be collected simply by pointing the Wii-Mote at them, which is super convenient and never a hassle. They're attractive, often forming delightful constellations in the distance, and are rewarding to collect. In addition to being able to fire them as projectiles or feed them to certain characters, Mario also will receive an extra life each time he collects 50... which should be pretty often. The bottom line here is that all these innovative gameplay concepts work well with the game, rarely feel forced, and combine to create this great package. Just the fact that I can gush about a minor element like Star Bits, while almost entirely passing over power-ups, just shows you how many wondrous things are held in this game.
Storyline: One day as Star Bits are falling from the sky, Bowser comes 'round in his airship and kidnaps Peach, taking her into space. Oh, and he stole all the Power Stars from this Cosmic Observatory thing and wants to rule the universe. Mario is blasted into the nether-regions of space by a Magikoopa, and ultimately makes it to this Observatory. Then he spends the rest of the game collecting Stars so that he can power the Observatory, confront Bowser, and rescue Peach... and save the universe or whatever.
It's the same story once again, even if it is on a more epic scale, so I can't give it a great score. It certainly does serve to get the player going, so it's functional. Despite the linear gameplay, there's not a lot of checkpoints Mario has to pass through where Nintendo could've done things to expand the story, like could be done in a game like the recent Zelda titles where Nintendo knows where the player will go and in what order. Mario is required to clear stages belonging to Bowser and Bowser Jr. in a fixed order, so the chance for story-furthering cutscenes did exist, but that's just not what these Mario games are about. I wouldn't play this game for the story, but it's not a deterrent from the fun in any way.
Graphics: The terrain and backgrounds are just beautiful, and there's a ton of color in the game, not the least of which is those brilliant Star Bits that can be found everywhere. The character models don't seem to have been updated very much since Mario Sunshine, and in the few scenes where you get a super closeup, Mario looks fuzzy, like his skin is actually skin-colored fur. I took off a point to denote the imperfections in the character models, but really, there's not much to complain about here. It's as close to jaw-dropping as I've seen on the Wii.
Music: Well, I'm very tough on the music section because I'm always looking for great videogame songs. Mario Galaxy has excellent sound quality and orchestrated music, but it doesn't have many really great songs. It does have some, most notabley the final Bowser stage and the Bowser battle theme, but for most of the game the songs I actually enjoyed most were the remakes of classic themes, like when I accessed the Sweet Treat Galaxy early in the game and was greated by the obstacle course theme from Mario 3.
All the music fits the area where it plays really well, and there's a lot of variety. As opposed to Mario 64, where four of the worlds all had the same theme, most of Mario Galaxy's 15 major worlds have a theme that does not play in any of the other major worlds. There also is a number of songs that will play in specific spots in the major worlds, so the music changes on the fly, or in the many minor worlds that you'll come across.
Characters: Mario Galaxy has a better cast of characters than either of its predecessors. Mario 64 had a bare-bones cast that really did not include very many returning characters just due to having a general lack of characters overall. Mario Sunshine had a larger cast of characters than Mario 64 and gave us series mainstays like Bowser Jr. (though that's a bad thing), Toadsworth, and Petey Piranha, but replaced familiar characters like Goombas and Troopas- big mistake! Galaxy returns to using familiar characters in addition to new ones, and has more familiar characters than Mario 64 did, including characters like Magikoopa and Dry Bones in their first 3D adventure.
Unfortunately, those characters I just named, who I knew about before playing from the promos, are pretty much the only familiar characters making their first 3D adventure appearance. I was disappointed that there were not more such characters. There's a decent cast of newcomers, but I don't know how many of them were interesting enough to appear again. Rosalina, guardian of the Cosmic Observatory, already has made an appearance in Mario Kart Wii, but I actually don't care for her as I think she bears too striking a resemblance to Peach, both in appearance and in her pure, noble character. She was decent enough in Galaxy, but she's not especially interesting and I'd be fine with her not appearing again.
On the bright side, Galaxy does include a certain character who has been conspicuously absent from this game's predecessors. I knew about this, too, before playing, but still was very happy to see this. Big yayz for that.
--oops, I got a bit carried away on this review. It's really long. I just wanted to give my whole opinion on this game. ;D
