Since the dawn of Nintendo time there’s always been that “it” Mario game for each generation of console. That game that you really should have if you have said system, a must have game. For the original NES it was the original Mario, of course. SNES? Super Mario World. N64? Mario 64 or the start of the Mario Party franchise (2 & 3 being must haves). GameCube? Super Mario Sunshine. The Wii is no exception… though it took awhile before that “it” Mario game finally came to light in the form of Super Mario Galaxy (of which we are now presently waiting for the sequel to hit next year).

Super Mario Galaxy launches the franchise in an entirely fresh and bold move, not only by lauching Mario into space and beyond (exploring a multitude of mini galaxies and their many quirky mini moon worlds and accompanying satellites which bend the sense of perspective providing often a true 3D experience unlike which you have ever played through before), but it also puts fresh new power into Mario’s hands in this stunningly beautiful 3D environ that really works the Italian plumber for all his worth (not since Mario 64 has a 3D environ given Mario such a workout!)

Once every hundred years a comet makes it’s way past the Mushroom Kingdom (which seems to be the source of power stars), and to honor it’s timely once a century return they usually throw a festival for it (obviously due to Deep Impact level extinction concerns the comet usually RSVPs it’s regrets that it can’t attend). On the day of this year’s festival, however, it seems that parts of the comet do decide to make the festival (which turn out to be made up of bright little star bits which power Mario throughout the game, as well as act as a food currency of sort to unlock the potential of a few of the special “allies” in this game, little glowy star people called Luma) as well as a rather uninvited guest in one Dennis Hopper, still all uptight about being mocked for being in Super Mario Brothers the Movie and… oh, no, it’s Bowser and his family of Hench thugs and mid bosses (including his son from Super Mario Sunshine, because apparently… well, don’t know why he got invited) in their

Click to enlarge. We have 4 images

Image 1 of 4. Click to enlarge

fleet of airships (apparently he’s been busy rebuilding since they premiered in Super Mario Brothers 3). They go and kidnap Peach and her castle as Bowser announces his evil scheme to create a new galaxy to rule over as it’s supreme leader being thing… yeah, as if Mario is going to let that happen (and Bowser kidnapped his “We’re still not sure what kind of relationship they have” girlfriend Peach… well they did go together on what looked like a date in Super Mario Sunshine, but maybe I read too much into that).

And that’s when you find out the comet (after a tutorial world) is in fact a mini floating station (kinda like the Comet Empire only run by a hot cute lady and not crazy galaxy domination minded jerk holes). The comet is run by one seemingly long lived beauty named Rosalina (whose backstory you’re given throughout the game once you open up the story room and she begins to retell her own rather cute, occasionally sad story of how she came to be who she is today -- told BTW in very nice storybook artwork paneling, nice… hmm… so any chance Rosalina gets to join the cast of Mario Party in the future, or return for Super Mario Galaxy 2 despite the fact the game makers “promised“ that it would have less plot than the first game?… so, wait, is that supposed to be a good thing or were the makers of Super Mario Galaxy 2 just lazy when it came to story this time out? I just have to know!)

You’re told all about how the comet was drawn into too close to the Mushroom Kingdom, and how it lost some of it’s star power (which fell into the greedy hands of Bowser) and how you’re the one to regain all the stars (Grand Stars and all) in order to save the galaxy… I mean Universe.

And that’s it. Off you go into a rather set in it’s way world of levels though if you stick to each world diligently and get all the stars on your checklist before moving on, backtracking to get stars brought up by rascally comets (that set up demanding preconditions in order to earn the star, like race an evil counterpart of you or complete a level in such

Click to enlarge. We have 4 images

Image 2 of 4. Click to enlarge

a time or complete a boss fight with minimal health at the start) you’ll find later world rooms will offer abit of sandbox leeway as you’ll be ahead of the game starwise allowing you to pick and choose worlds at leisure.

The wiimote is really given a grand workout now. Besides triggering Mario’s powers it can also be used as a targeted to shoot star bits for a variety of reasons (the game will explain), as well as pick off starbits on the screen which come right to you and power you (experiment, as you can even pick them off from great distances and between moving from planetoid to planetoid so don’t be afraid, for instance, to sweep planetoids you see for star bits as you pass as you might cop off some visible or not so visible ones as you pass). The only problem with the control is it takes awhile to master controlling certain beasts (mainly the Ray in the surfing sequence) and constantly spinning the controller to swim when your not holding a shell can be a daunting task on your wrist).

And you can’t have a Mario game without powerups. Of course the big powerup everyone talks about when talking Galaxy is the new Bee suit, which allows Mario to fly and stick to honeycomb walls, but there are also other suits like the Boo suit (turns Mario into a Mario Boo), and a few more… darn, I forgot though. I’m playing the game again though so (wouldn’t you know it) I’ll probably remember once I finish this and publish this (sorry).

Replay? Of course! Vast worlds to explore, many crazy wonderfully addictive levels to dig your Mario loving heels into and ride… and then there’s the fact that once you finish the game you’ll open up a new universe to explore as well as the ability to unlock Luigi as a playable character (or so I’ve seen from you tube footage… yeah, I really have to finish this up before I dig into Super Mario Galaxy 2 next year). Then there’s the oft rumored urban myth ability (once you finish the game) that you can somehow download the game onto your DS…  I wish somebody would just either put that to rest and deny it, or say how to do it already and

Click to enlarge. We have 4 images

Image 3 of 4. Click to enlarge

get it over with… hmm… wait, didn’t they ever release Super Mario Galaxy on the DS? I have to do my homework on that and find out.

Anyway what else… oh, more on replay. Besides the comet missions (go back to previous worlds to do the challenges), you have hidden stars (clearly marked out once you finish the world by a question mark on the world the star is hiding in, some stars not hidden so well as they only require feeding a hungry Luma in some worlds in order to access said worlds hiding hidden stars)… something to look for and explore the game fully for. Then there’s Luigi rescue missions (once you rescue him from the Ghost World he’ll keep getting into trouble a few times and sending you snapshots of where he is, you’ll just have to remember what world you saw the scene from and go rescue him). Then there’s question mark galaxies (I don’t know why they’re called Galaxies when the proper name would be Solar Systems… though I guess “Super Mario Solar System” just doesn’t have that same oomph to it as Galaxy) and that’s it for extra content… but then again come on, isn’t that a ton of content already!!

No downsides other than at times I seem to get a little kerflubbled controlling Mario on the new massive 3D environs (and the mini spherical worlds which get my control senses abit mixed up) but at not point should that be considered a downer, or a point demoter, so let’s not worry about that. And so, at the end of the day Super Mario Galaxy is just one of those rare Wii titles that is the Wii’s powerhouse, and says in your face PS3 and XBox360 in the genre of quirky addictive plat formers. Sadly too often than not the Wii is a dumping ground for the worst shovel ware imaginable as I’ve seen some really bad third party stuff get thrown onto it (and the occasional gem like Puzzle Quest Wii, Order Up and so on, but those gems seem so few and far between). So it’s nice to see Nintendo occasionally put out gems like Galaxy. Looking forward to the sequel in 2010. Going to run out and get it on release. 5 Galaxies out of 5.