If you're new here and you like what you see, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed, and browse around for more fun stuff. Thanks for visiting!

This game isn’t brand brand new, but I’ve decided to review it. Not everybody buys video games on the day of their release and plus - if I wanna review a game I’m gonna do so dammit! So if you have yet to experience Super Mario Galaxy and are wondering whether or not it’s worth your time and money, read on. Dark Diamond’s got ya covered.

I’ll kick start by saying that Super Mario Galaxy is the absolute shit. A master class in platforming. A long love letter to all Super Mario fans across the globe. So much is right about this game it’s unreal. Nintendo approached this game as though Super Mario Sunshine didn’t exist. It’s almost difficult to imagine that the same team that brought us that water spraying, holiday themed bullshit actually managed to deliver a game that is out of this world. Literally - with all puns intended.

Many folk cite Super Mario 64 as the best 3D platformer ever. Whilst I wasn’t a huge fan of the game and found it quite boring, there’s no denying that it had a major impact on 3D platformers and that every game that came after had tried to mimic it to great extents and in some cases, flat out rip it off. Given Super shitty sunshine’s lukewarm response it would’ve been easy for Nintendo to have just pretty much re-created the essence of what made Super Mario 64 a success: make it look better, tweak the stages a bit and play it safe. But thankfully Nintendo decided to come completely different and offer a Mario adventure that plays unlike any other Mario game and any other game period.

Whilst so much is new about this game, there is a great sense familiarity. The observatory acts as the main hub of the game and is to Galaxy what Peach’s castle was to 64. It’s a nice looking place and easy to navigate, but there isn’t that sense of exploration you got with Peach’s castle. Jumping into paintings, finding the secret entrances to worlds and so on. That said, the observatory is much more compact due to things not being spread all over the gaffe. The observatory is home to several rooms which allow access to 4 - 5 galaxies and you have a map showing which is where. So you’ll no longer have to wonder where that room with that painting is anymore. Also continuing the line of familiarity we also see many familiar faces and power up’s that were missing from Sunshine - Invincibility stars, Fire flowers, Goomba’s, Koopa-Troopa’s… Super Mario is back in full effect, make no mistake of that.

The stages however are as removed from Super Mario 64 as you could get. The only similarity between the galaxies in Galaxy and the stages in 64 is that you get a star at the end of them and there are coins dotted about the place. Everything else in-between is new. Many of the galaxies play around with gravity. Mario can run all the way around on the underside of platforms and planets and can also jump and have himself be pulled by the gravity of a nearby planet or platform. Some stages even allow you to change the center of gravity at the flick of a switch. It’s a simple concept, but it works so well and allowed the developers to really think outside the box when it came to the structure of galaxies. When accessing each galaxy you’re given a cool sequence of Mario flying towards through it. Stages look HUGE and sprawling, but in actual fact are quite compact and linear. Linear doesn’t always mean bad and here, it certainly doesn’t. Where-as Super Mario sunshine and Super Mario 64’s stages were often just a huge sandbox style area that had a star somewhere, Galaxy has a real sense of actual progression and moving forward - just like the classic side scrollers. You’ll often start on a platform, solve a little puzzle, do what needs to be done, blast off to a new planet, do a little platforming, blast to another planet and so on and so forth. You’re constantly being pushed from one area to the next and you’re never kept in one place for too long. It helps keep things fresh and keeps you on your toes. Even when you have to re-visit a galaxy to get another star, you’ll often take a completely different route than you did previously. Every galaxy has something new to see and rarely will you do the same thing twice.

The boss battles in Galaxy are some of the finest to grace a Mario game, rivaling the likes of those you’d find in Ocarina of time and Twilight princess. All but one stupid boss in the ice themed galaxy delivers in a mix of unique designs and original methods of beat down.

And of course I have to mention the graphics, which are easily some of the best on Wii. Videos and screenshots do not do this game justice. Many folk are already saying that this game doesn’t look any better than Sunshine. F**k ‘em! You have to play some of the stages to appreciate how great this game looks. Specular shine, reflections, fur shading, real time lighting, particle effects, insane draw distances - it all looks brilliant. Despite all of this, you do get a sense that the Wii isn’t being pushed all that hard. This isn’t a diss to how Galaxy looks. Far from it. But it’s a sign that the Wii is a much more capable console than some give it credit.

The audio in this game is also stellar. Neat little audio touches make this one of the best sounding Mario games. When you blast Mario off from a launch star a melody will play in perfect synchronicity  to the music. When you move the cursor to highlight a selection in the file select or galaxy select screen a note will play in time with the music in a corresponding key. When a coin appears it’ll jingle in time with the music playing at the time. All subtle touches that add to the overall polish and experience of the game. The music is also top notch. Some classic themes do make appearances, but they’ve been given great new twists and overhauls. Galaxy is the first Super Mario game to feature an orchestral score which gives the soundtrack a very grandiose sound, causing many galaxies and boss battles to feel incredibly epic as a result. Way may epic than you’d ever expect for a Mario game.

Super Mario Galaxy is as near to perfection as you can get, but it does have some short comings. The galaxies run out of steam towards the end of the game. The last few galaxies themselves aren’t terrible. But once you’ve experienced blasting from planet to planet, fighting oversized piranha’s, buzzing around as a bee, traversing the depths of space, surfing on a manta ray and battling Koopa’s and Goomba’s on air battle ships - the obligatory ice, fire and sand themed stages just don’t cut it. Had they been dotted between the more original galaxies stages earlier on in the game they would’ve fared better. But to be thrown into such fresh setups early on and have things progressively get better, only to have a couple of pretty boring galaxies hit you toward the end feels bittersweet. The camera in this game is spot on for the most part, but goes a tad awry when swimming underwater and also when flying. You have very little control over the camera, but it’s rare you’ll find it an issue.

It’s pretty difficult to pin point specific aspects of Super Mario Galaxy and how it manages to gets things right, because the whole package itself is just so well done. Everything just clicks and feels like it should. You can’t quite figure out why or how - you just accept that it does and enjoy every moment of it. Super Mario Galaxy is a defining moment on Wii and in my opinion shits all over Super Mario 64. It’s without a doubt in the top tier of best Mario games, worthy of sitting alongside Super Mario Bros. 3 (which is my personal fave Mari game of all time). I’m scared for Nintendo as to how they’re going to top this game, because it really does out do itself. It’s going to be hard to go back to the normal style Super Mario stages after experiencing the galaxies in Super Mario Galaxy. As if you couldn’t already tell, I think this is a fantastic game and a must own for all Wii owners. Even if you’re skeptical about buying this game - buy it. All doubts will be removed upon playing it. The perfect gift for Christmas if you haven’t been treated to this game already.

9 / 10