Super Mario Galaxy
It's Mario... in space!
By Matt Kelly
Mario's adventures in the recent years have been lacking, with Super Mario Sunshine not living up to be a true sequel to Mario 64. Though we've seen the platformer series take on a lot of different looks, at the end of the day it's always been about high paced, simple to learn but hard to master gameplay. Whether it be Mario's first adventure into the 3D world, or the original platformer debut for the Nintendo, these are the series core concepts.
And thankfully, Super Mario Galaxy is bringing it all home.
We were treated to a great introduction to the game right away, with Princess Peach inviting Mario to her castle. Heard that one before? Well this time it's not because she baked a cake, but rather to celebrate The Star Festival, an event that happens every 100 years to celebrate a comet flying across the skies of the world. So Mario arrives in town doing impressions of an airplane while he runs up the road to meet the princess. As we reached the castle, low and behold, Mario's long time nemesis Bowser flies in on a fleet on flying airboats, bombarding the down and generally wrecking up the place.
Not good, and it gets worse! He kidnaps Princess Peach. On your way to rescue Mario's maiden you will be introduced to a few new characters and also a few old classics (one of them gets around in green, hint hint).
After probably the most epic introduction to a Mario game ever, we find our selves in deep space, and the real possible-greatest-game-to-date signature game play kicks off. Rather than wide open levels as is the tradition for almost any 3D adventure action game, Galaxy has played a different card. Compacting vast majority of levels into 'micro-planets,' these planets take on all sorts of forms, from spheres of grassy fields to wreckage floating through space and for the most part you can run across them, down the sides and upside down. Though really, is it upside down when you're in deep space? Perhaps we need a physics professor to assist us with this review.
There a really two main reasons why this kind of gameplay works so well in Galaxy. Like we said in our preview a couple of weeks ago, we've already seen games that mess with gravity but it's so much more fun in Galaxy simply because it's freeform. You won't find yourself pulling switches to change the direction of gravity, you won't have to run up certain walls with metal boots. No, all you need to do is run and suddenly you're looking at the world from a completely different perspective. The best part is that it all feels so natural, so when you're on the side of a Toad (those mushroom guys) space ship stomping Gombas, you won't be feeling ill at ease with what's going on.
The way gravity plays really lends itself to the overall puzzle elements of the game. We found it a really rewarding experience to be put in a situation, attempt to tackle it like a traditional 3D platformer and then have a moment of genius when we remembered we didn't have to obey the rules anymore. You'll find very few of those 'the level ends here' type barriers in the game, so you're pretty much working with every surface you can get your plumber shoes on.
Beyond the basic gameplay, you'll find yourself leaping from planet to planet and shooting through space via starpower launchers. While the latter is a bit of a one way trip and arguably gives the game a linear feel, we found most planets had enough to do on them to warrant this kind of gameplay. Yes, it's a bit more linear than Mario 64, but not by much.
In most games with any kind of speed, you do find yourself doing the same thing a lot of the time so as to not break the pace. Galaxy on the other hand has done a nice job of keeping up the speed of play and also throw enough stuff in there that you won't find yourself in the repetitive gameplay lock. Be it gravity puzzles, being a bee or rolling around on a ball in Goomba killing version of marble racing, you will find enough action that the main game play will play fresh right through the adventure.
All of the above being said, you will still find the odd moments of
traditional 3D Mario gaming with certain Galaxies such as the bee
galaxy, which plays like the old days of Mario 64. While you will still
have your laws-of-physics-fighting moments, they serve as a nice break
between the signature gameplay without hanging around too long and
getting stale.
Your progressions through the game takes on the Mario 3D standard of power stars and unlocking stages (or galaxies in this case). Each galaxy requires a set amount of Star Power to fly to, and many stars are required to vs the boss. This is probably one of the downers of the game as while it has really amazing gameplay, we've been seeing this progression style for about 10 years now.
Controlling your red-overall-ed friend is an enjoyable experience but nothing revolutionary to write home about. Controls are simple with great pick up and play style, but beyond that you're not going to find anything mind blowing. You're given a few gestures for the main gameplay, such as shaking to remote to do a stun spin, and there are gesture controls for some of the mini-game type scenarios such as the ball rolling, but beyond that it's a very stick and button affair. You won't find yourself trying to flip around in your living room trying to do a slam for example. If anything what's great about these is they are just pure simple platformer controls that anyone can understand.
Probably the biggest thing we can fault in the gameplay is the camera,
which is the odd
hitch when running around planets. It doesn't happen often, but when it
does you'll find yourself either frantically hitting the camera control
buttons or maneuvering Mario trying to get the camera to play nice. It
does a lot of damage to the overall pace of the game and occasionally
results in unnecessary Mario death.
We've said this before with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and we'll say it even more so Galaxy as we would quite happily put this title up against the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3's current graphical offerings. Be it the colorful and varied planets, character design, or even the hair on a giant queen bee, Galaxy makes up for the lack of graphical power and gives us solid, visually exciting, crisp art direction. Cinematics wise, Galaxy goes a long way to create Mario style drama on the galactic level. You won't find yourself wanting these scenes to be over as quick as possible, instead giving you a rich visual treat as a reward for success.
Sound wise Nintendo has taken the same tack that it seems to have done with a lot of other Mario games at the moment, which is to pay homage to previous Mario sound effects and music. It's a really rich and responsive experience, even in the cut scenes which really do feel like big events are going on.
Musically, Galaxy is a combination of beautiful emotive orchestrated music, slightly more electronic based themes and finally what could be only called 'remixes' of old classic Mario tunes. We got really excited hearing the second level of Super Mario Bros. 3's music mixed into the sometimes chaotic gameplay. All the orchestrated music is great and really feels a part of the Mario universe, and elevates it to a near epic level as far as music can do by itself.
Conclusion:
It's been a long time since we've played a game this is just so constantly interesting and varied. Between it's signature gameplay, constantly changing play style and general damn near perfect presentation, it's pretty hard to fault this game. You'll find a simple story coupled with high paced 'pick up and play' engrossing gameplay. We only found a few issues with this game, such as the camera and it's slightly linear nature, but beyond that Galaxy plays like the Mario game a lot of us have been waiting for. Along with that, visually and aurally it's a real treat.
Gameplay: 9.7/10
Galaxy features real stand out gameplay, and is genuinely fun. We never really found ourselves sick of what was going on with enough variation to keep all the gameplay elements fresh. The game is a tad short but there's enough there that you'll have a fit when you've realised how much of your day has been spent infront of the Wii.
Graphics 9.6/10
A really rich vibrant Galaxy is what awaits players in this title and everything from cinematics, to characters, to the ground you walk is all beautifully detailed. You really don't need hi def gaming when you've got something like this on your hands.
Sound 9.7/10
Nintendo has taken a retro-esque meets modern gaming approach with it's sound and music. You'll find everything between cutting edge digital audio to blip blip style music calling back to the NES days.
Replay 9.3/10
Between collecting everything, unlocking secrets and general awesomeness, this is going to be something you will come back to several times.
Overall 9.6/10
What you're looking at here is a real Game of the Year possibility with simple and fun gameplay. While it's not the revolution that Super Mario 64 was, it's an evolution to what was becoming a very stale genre of gaming.
Submitted by Robtot
30/11/2007
1822
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