Super Mario Galaxy – Reviewed – Wii

By Philip Dunkley

When I started playing the Nintendo Wii, I was disappointed in some respects, mainly because of the consoles I was used to playing on, namely the 360 and PS3. These powerhouses overpower the Wii in so many ways, that I thought it would not be possible to recreate the experience I had been achieving on these units. Oh how wrong I was!!!!!

Super Mario Galaxy is probably one of the greatest games ever to grace this planet, and this could even be an understatement. If you ever had any doubts about buying a Wii, I can put your mind to rest right now. This game is so good that it’s worth spending R3000.00 for the console and R599 for the game alone, and if that was the end of your Wii experience, it would have been worth the money.

Everything about this game is perfect.

Let’s start with the story. It’s the Star Festival in Mario Land, and Princess Peach has called you to the palace to give you something. A happy time for all, until Bowser comes along and ruins on everyone’s parade. Once again he ends up kidnapping Mario’s beloved, and the adventure begins so that you can chase down Power Star’s to finally end up pursuing the buggers who took Peach. Sounds very Marioish (My new word for the day, added to dictionary).

So Mario in now thrust into a Galaxy, where he needs to collect these stars just in order to unlock new planets and Galaxies, so that he can hunt the baddies down by powering up the Ship. This happens by being teleported through launch Stars, which are activated by a spin move achieved by shaking the Wii Remote. This spin move is also the basic attack for Mario and works very well, especially making it a bit challenging, as you need to wait a second before it will work again.

Now you begin moving from galaxy to galaxy, each one with a collection of planets (Well to call them planets is a bit of an exaggeration, as they are more like spherical puzzles, but they are so well designed and so much fun, that each one provides a new challenge. This brings me to Level Design. How Nintendo managed to come up with such perfect levels, blows my mind. They are vibrant worlds created with such amazing colours and mind blowing physics, that everything fits perfectly together, and besides one or two issues with certain mechanics, and these are to minor to even comment on, they are just great.

To give you an idea, imagine a sphere, which gravity works as per normal, and Mario can run all over these “Planets”, using all the gravity, and sometimes change of gravity, to progress to the next Sphere, fighting his way through hordes of baddies and collecting Star Bits, the currency in the game, and also used to get extra life. But these Start Bits can be used against enemies, just by aiming the Wii Remote at the screen and firing them, stunning the enemy, and allowing Mario to run into them finishing them off. But another twist is thrown in, don’t use these Star Bits to abundantly, you’ll need them to get past certain points, cause the Luma (Sorry these are the folk who you are helping through game, and they are helping you) love these tasty little treats.

From a Graphics point of view, this is the best game I have seen on the Wii yet, and along with vibrant colours and fantastic looking levels, this game runs at such a great pace. Camera Angles are good too, with it taking on an epic feel, showing so much of the action.

Audio is also a great element of the game, brining a nostalgic feeling back to all who have played any Mario title before. It recreates a lot of old Mario tunes that we all know, just with an orchestral score and a wide array of sound effects. You’ll be tapping your feet in no time.

Multiplayer is kind of limited to a very dumbed down version of Co-op, allowing another player to use a Wii Remote to gather stars and help you fire them against enemies, and it also allows you to do a double jump when your friend points at Mario on screen, and you both hit the jump button at the same time.

Controlling the game is seamless, though kind of difficult to explain, have faith in the fact that this is the best control scheme I have encountered on the Wii.

In conclusion, I don’t even know how explain to you how good this game is, you’ll just have to take my word for it. I always thought that Mario games got great reviews just because they were Mario titles, but I apologise to anyone I have ever met and laughed at because while they were playing some silly children’s game like Mario 64, I was playing something completely cool like Quake. I am a convert, and to anyone who has done the same to “Us’ Mario fans, take this game for a test drive, and you’ll see what I mean. This is THE title to own on Wii, and one of THE titles to own period. I think I want to be buried with this game!!!!

BUY IT NOW!!!!

We’d like to thank The Core Group for providing us with the game, we really appreciate it.

Scoring:
Graphics – 95%
Playability – 100%
Originality – 100%
Tilt Factor – 100%
Overall – 98% (You don’t need me to tell you what this means)

Last Updated: March 17, 2008