The Justoid Review #2.5: Super Mario Galaxy First Impressions

Contains spoilers.

I'm calling it first impressions but I've put 5 hours into it and got 30 stars.

OK so 5 years after Super Mario Sunshine we are back with the latest in the tubby plumber's adventures.

When I first started the game I got that feeling in my stomach that I got with Super Mario 64, that sense of grand adventure. Just playing with Mario after not touching Sunshine so long, along with the intense music (gotta download the offical soundtrack) just made me realise why I fall in love with the Mario games everytime.

From the start I realised that Galaxy wasn't going to be a generic Mario game, for example, when running towards Peach's castle, a Toad told me "Going to my happy place, blah blah blah" while meteors were raining down on the Mushroom Kingdom. I never expected Nintendo to have something like that in the game, but there's alot of these moments that made me chuckle.

Galaxy is a very pretty game, with Mario being very shiny in space, but not PS3 over-shiny. The backgrounds are amazing too, with space looking breathtaking at moments.

Galaxy is also a very nostalgic game for Mario fans, with certain stages having the tune from the first level from SMB3 (I think), a return of the penguins from SM64, having pictures of scenes from SMB in the background of special galaxies and etc.

Control wise, the game is pretty much perfect with the game playing pretty much how 3D Mario games have always played and the spin feature being incorporated with ease, never feeling out of place. The wiimote is also used to control stars that can pull Mario along a path, collect bits for later use, to fire Mario from cannons and etc.

The camera, may be unusual for those who have played 64 or Sunshine but you adapt to it quickly, realising how unnecessary a fully movable camera is.

The new idea of running around planets quickly grew on me, with me feeling the need to do long jumps across tiny planets and landing on the other side. It's all very fun.

One thing I really liked is "Rainbow Mario" (which is just Star Mario), when Mario gets the Star the infamous music plays, with a slight speed increase in Mario and Mario turning all colours of the Rainbow. Another thing I like is the comet feature (which I won't go into) but make's replayability a lot better than usual. Also spinning through the water at a fast speed while shaking the wiimote is fun also (wait that didn't come out right).

One thing I dislike though, is the easiness of the game, I figured after 10 stars it would get a bit harder, but alot of the 5 hours I spent playing the game was spent just messing around with Mario. There is a LARGE ABUNDANCE of 1up mushrooms everywhere.

Overall I think this game will go fairly quickly, but it's definitely going to be a classic for me forever.

I'll write up a proper review when I finito the game.


The Justoid Review #1: Super Princess Peach

The Justoid Review #2: Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll