I remember the first videogame controller I ever held.
It had a simple, rectangular design that featured a large d-pad on the left, two
small pill-shaped buttons in the center, and two larger, circular buttons on the
right. The word “Nintendo” was prominently inscribed on the top right of the controller
in red. It was hardly ergonomic by today's standards and looked generic and dull
with its ugly gray and black finish, but aesthetics and comfort weren't all that
important to me at the time. As I sat in front of my television, I was consumed,
if not seduced, by colorful lights and pixel representations of a world that existed
in a reality that was distant, yet near. It was distant because I couldn't reach
my hand through the glass panel of my television and join Mario on his quest to
save Princess Peach from the clutches of Bowser and his Goomba minions. And yet,
the world was near because I didn't actually have to enter the Mushroom Kingdom
to help Mario. I
was Mario.
I felt secure playing videogames as a child because I knew that I was the one in control. If I wanted Mario to jump, he jumped. If I wanted Mario to run, he ran. And the best part of it all? When he died, he came back to life. I was like the driver who could go faster than the speed limit without facing any real-world ramifications for my recklessness. I was like the soldier who fought the most exciting battles without the risk of losing any of my limbs. I was like the president of the United States who, with the issue of one order, with the press of one button, could dispatch thousands of nuclear weapons and either save or end the world.
With each new console release after the Nintendo Entertainment
System, I noticed monumental leaps in technology. The virtual worlds that I explored
became more and more lifelike. By 1996, when the Nintendo 64 launched, the virtual
world was no longer confined to a two dimensional plane, but rather to a three dimensional
space that resembled my own reality. There were landscapes with their own textures,
enemies with their own artificial intelligence, and objects with their own physics.
In 2001, when Xbox launched, I was introduced to even more realistic worlds and
for the first time ever, to an online community of like-minded, trash-talking gamers.
The same year, my parents also subscribed to high speed internet, which changed
the way I played games forever. Online gaming, with the possibility to play with
real people, and to actually communicate with them via voice, closed the gap between
the virtual and the real. I was not just playing in a world that felt artificial;
I was playing in a world that simulated reality.
Super Mario Galaxy” has a special power. It’s a game that balances old and new with confidence and expertise the way Nintendo only knows how. In one moment, the nostalgic musical score bring back sacred memories of when you held the NES controller for the very first time. And in the next moment, as Mario zooms through the lush atmosphere of space, you are reminded that you’re not exactly playing the original “Super Mario Bros.” anymore; but you’re having just as much fun.
The story is your standard Mario fare. It begins in the Mushroom Kingdom after Mario receives a party invitation from Princess Peach. As the celebration gets warmed up by fireworks, it’s interrupted by a fleet of flying ships commanded by the treacherous Bowser and his son, Bowser Jr., who are both intent on stealing the princess. Mario heroically sprints toward the castle as Peach waits atop the balcony and helplessly cries for help.
Aside from the main plot (man saves princess), there is an additional story time segment that serves as a gap-filler and provides an explanation how all the new characters Mario befriends, like the Lumas and Rosalina, got to where they are in space.
Thankfully, story time is optional. Though it is somewhat of a chore to sit through. Had the player been forced to sit through them, it would have ruined Super Mario Galaxy’s nearly flawless presentation and flow. Luckily, complex stories have never been the main reason why gamers continue to play and enjoy Mario’s adventures.
As far as controls, for those who have played either “Super Mario 64” or “Super Mario Sunshine,” you’ll feel right at home with executing many of Mario’s special somersaults and long jumps. However, in order to take advantage of Nintendo Wii’s unique motion sensing technology, Nintendo has given Mario some new moves that help him maneuver through space.
To jump from planet to planet, for example, the player only needs to gently shake the Wii remote when Mario is near a shooting star. When Mario isn’t near a star, shaking the Wii remote will initiate his new spin move, which is used for stunning enemies, breaking glass and flipping switches. Additionally, the Wii remote’s pointer allows the player to control an on-screen star known as the star pointer, a useful tool that helps Mario collect star bits. These star bits can be used to shoot and stun enemies by pointing the star pointer at them and pressing the B button.
Because the game is set in space, Nintendo has created a physics system that features individual planets, each with their own gravitational pull. Thus, Mario can walk on surfaces sideways, backwards, forwards, upside down, etc. The physics system rarely gets in the way of the game-play thanks in part to the camera system.
Most of the time, the camera is fixed on the best possible position so that Mario is always visible, so the player can control him without having to worry about getting lost behind some platform. When necessary, the player has the option of centering the camera by using the C button on the nunchuk.
Take Mario 64’s superb gameplay, change the setting to space, add innovative and groundbreaking controls, and you have the essence of Super Mario Galaxy’s gameplay.
Interestingly, going back to the game’s roots, he can now collect power-ups that allow him to proceed further into his mission. Some of the power ups are classics, like the fire flower that enables Mario to throw fireballs from his fists. The game is primarily three dimensional, but there are moments in which Mario is confined to a two-dimensional space as well, which make some of the classic power-ups more fun to use.
The game also supports cooperative play. If you have an extra Wii Remote lying around, a second player can join you as he or she helps you collect star bits by pointing the star pointer on the screen. The second player can also help you impede enemy movement so that it is easier to jump on top of their heads. Additionally, the second player can help Mario jump higher by initiating a double jump while he’s in the air. Overall, the cooperative play is a welcome addition, but doesn’t add too much to the gameplay, and sometimes can be annoying if your partner intentionally tries to mess you up (as some of my friends have done).
“Super Mario Galaxy” proves that the Nintendo Wii’s hardware shortcomings don’t necessarily mean that it can’t have beautifully crafted games. “Super Mario Galaxy,” although by no means a technical showcase to the same degree of “Gears of War,” “Crysis,” “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,” still boasts a unique and visually stimulating world thanks in large part to its art direction and style. The gorgeous and grandiose spatial backdrops, shimmering stars and foreboding black holes render an atmosphere that is fresh and unlike any other world Mario has ever seen.
What’s more impressive is the sheer volume of things to see. One of my major complaints with “Super Mario Sunshine” was the lack of variation in the environments as each world seldom strayed away from the tropical beach setting. In “Super Mario Galaxy” on the other hand, each galaxy exudes its own personality and its own style. Some galaxies are filled with devastatingly hot lava, while others are filled with chillingly cold ice. It doesn’t just stop there. There are deserts, beaches, sky planets, underwater levels, and much more. The variation in the environments is astounding and brings back the much-needed flavor of “Super Mario 64” and all of its predecessors that “Super Mario Sunshine” lacked.
The variations in enemies, unlike the environments, are unfortunately uninspired and uninteresting. Most of the enemies in the game are either goombas or some variation thereof and pose no challenge. The bosses are typically some animal or plant that takes about three hits to the weak spot to kill. I was hoping that with the dramatic shift in the environment, Nintendo could have come up with some more interesting space enemies. Still, I am nitpicking here, because the enemies are not the main obstacle that Mario is faced with, but rather, the platforms are. Considering that the platforms are part of what make the environment great, the experience is not negatively affected too much by the tried and true enemies.
The sound effects in the game are simple but very appropriate. Every "Hoo" and "Ha" that Mario chants after every jump is pleasing to the ear as is every "pop" or "boop" after jumping on top of enemies’ heads. But the sound effects by themselves don’t contribute too heavily to my score of 10. The reason the sound is so unbelievable is because in Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo finally embraced live orchestrated music, and with stunning results. The truth of the matter is, had Nintendo even used the MiDi format (which is the old-fashioned, digitized format), the scores written for Super Mario Galaxy are so fantastic that I still would have given the sound a 9.9 with my only complaint being that the music wasn’t orchestrated.
I’d like the music to do the talking for me, so here’s a clip of Nintendo’s orchestra playing one of my favorite song from the Gusty Garden Galaxy in the game.
With so much to see and do, and with 120 stars to collect, “Super Mario Galaxy” should bring you more hours of fun than most other games on the market. Overall, the game should take approximately twenty hours on your first run-through; however, that’s only after collecting the first sixty stars (which are quite easy to obtain and are all that are necessary to complete the story).
The remaining stars prove to be more challenging to collect and will add at least fifteen to thirty hours more to the game-play. Achieving all 120 stars is a goal to strive for, as the reward is much better than “Super Mario 64’s” 100 additional lives.
“Super Mario Galaxy” is by far one of the more memorable games I’ve played this generation. I heralded it as the game of the year in 2007 and think it deserves a place on the top 10 games of this decade.
Look out for Super Mario Galaxy 2 coming out this May!