Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
Pub: Nintendo/Dev: EAD Tokyo
ESRB: E/Players: 1 – 2

After Sunshine’s spottiness, Nintendo decided to send Mario’s next 3D outing into the hands of relatively new developers – EAD Tokyo, who had one game  under their belt, the DK Bongo-driven Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.  That game was well-received (save the hardcore DK fans clamoring for more of Rare’s DKC universe to be involved), and Nintendo threw what could be the greatest gift/challenge at them for their next project – making the next 3D Super Mario.  Luckily for us, EAD Tokyo rose to the task, and delivered a solid beginning to a whole new mini-franchise.

The game’s plot is pretty standard Mario fare – Peach invites Mario to the Star Festival at the castle, which he gladly accepts and begins meandering over there like a lovesick bird that can’t fly (that’s how I interpreted his happy run at the beginning :p ).  But before Mario makes it there, Bowser shows up in his airship (loved the SMB3 reference!), hi-jacks the castle and, utilizing amazing talents stolen from space, rockets Mario out of the atmosphere.  Luckily, our bedazzled hero lands on a planet, and discovers the galaxy surrounding the Mushroom Kingdom.  He meets up with Rosalina, the “Queen” of this galaxy, who agrees to allow Mario to explore her observatory (the game’s hub) in order to rejuvenate its Star power (which Bowser usurped)…and sit in on her Storytime to her Luma friends (who consider her to be their mother).  Yep.  Anyway, in the end, Bowser is defeated, Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom are rescued, and Rosalina leaves the intrepid hero and his Princess to return to their home deep in space.

Before leaping into the gameplay, let’s focus momentarily on Rosalina, the third official member of royalty to enter Mario’s canon.  Peach remains the most notable, naturally, and Daisy continues to serve as an accessory to Kart/Sports/Party games, but Rosalina has had the distinction of being in two main games to the series, supplanting Daisy’s lone appearance (and in Super Mario Land, at that), given her more clout.  She’s definitely more important to Galaxy than its sequel, which pushes her into the game’s conclusion and Super Guide aspects and ignores her otherwise.  Here she’s the head of the game’s hub world, protector of her children Luma and to the universe itself, and has yet to be captured by some spiky turtle dictator.  So, she’s a bit more empowered than Peach.  Her design comes from a very similar cloth to Princess Toadstool’s, save a large clump of hair covering her right eye, the blue dress that is different in style, and her wand waggling.  But I like her character, and think she’s a solid addition to the line-up.  It’s nice to see a princess who is NOT constantly threatened of being the victim of kidnapping, and she certainly has some power buried within that wand of hers, if my memory of Mario Galaxy 2 is any indication.

Okay, tangent over.  Mario Galaxy is a far superior product than Mario Sunshine was.  For one, it feels far more polished and creative, channeling a lot of Mario’s past into its design.  The levels are more linear than Mario 64 or Sunshine’s, feeling much more like one of the 2D Mario titles but done in three dimensions.  There’s alternative paths to take, which may lead you to hidden stars.  But Mario’s platforming is radically different than before thanks to the spherical nature of the planetoids he’s running around on.  Being in space opened up several gameplay possibilities that Nintendo keenly capitalized on (and its sequel perfecting, but that’s the next article), making this feel both similar and distinctly different from Marios of old.  These spheres, for example, are not flat – Mario can gallop all over them, and by doing so is able to run underneath some platforms, a mind-bending exercise that takes some adjustment to get used to.  “Falling” into a pit is also a change, as there are holes all over these globes to avoid, and not all of them lead downward.  It’s a fresh spin on the Mario model.  The game also breaks things down to smaller chunks – there’s rarely a huge field to cover ground on, but far more often it’s a small planet with its own unique task, and then Mario leaps through space to the next challenge, and so on.  It’s a refreshing break from the more straightforward approach the prior 3D Marios took with enormous areas to explore, and while it sort of strips away some of the discovery Mario 64 pioneered so well, it’s well-executed and rarely becomes a thorn.

I’ve felt that Mario Galaxy was attempting to channel the aura of Super Mario Bros. 3 at times, and one reason why I feel that way is the reintroduction of suits to the Mario power-up catalog.  There’s four in total, on top of the Fire Flower, Ice Flower (making its debut) and Starman – Bee, Boo, Spring and Flying Mario.  Bee Mario lets you hover for a bit, as well as stick to honey panels.  Boo Mario allows you to float around like a Boo, turn invisible and pass through certain walls.  Spring Mario, probably the most reviled power-up in the franchise due to its iffy controls, gives Mario some spring to his leaps and allows him to jump incredibly high, but is frustratingly difficult to control, since he’s always bouncing.  Flying Mario revisits Mario’s SMB3 colors and gives him the ability to soar around like Mario 64′s Wing Cap, but it’s more a bonus than anything else.  Galaxy 2 would expand upon this, but I’ll cover that in the next piece.  The Fire Flower and Ice Flower were timed, compared to before when the Fire Flower lasted until Mario was hit by something, mainly to minimize abusing their powers.  Ice Mario also could skate on the water, and looked like Metal Mario but frozen…which was kind of cool.

Beyond Rosalina and the Lumas, a Toad Brigade was introduced in Galaxy.  These intrepid Toads would follow Mario into the levels, often leading themselves to the platforming at hand, and offer advice or suggestions on where to go next.  They kept this for the sequel, which I liked – it’s nice to see Nintendo using the Toads for more than mere Bowser fodder.  Another nice thing about Galaxy is that it brought back a rather prominent Mario character who had been squeezed out of making an appearance in Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine for inexplicable reasons, and would have this aspect thrown in his face in cameos in the Paper Mario series…

That’s right!  Luigi FINALLY returned to the fold after skipping out on Mario’s prior quests, and even was playable for those dedicated players who conquered the game with all 120 stars.  You could play Super Luigi Galaxy and try to redo that feat with Luigi, who was much more agile in the air but had terrible traction.  It was really nice to see Luigi come back – I’ve always liked him more.

Galaxy also had a dynamic final encounter with Bowser, one of my favorite fights with him and is probably the one aspect the original game has over its sequel.  The final brawl with Galaxy 2′s Bowser, unless it improves significantly with having all of the game’s stars before tackling him, is a very unexciting rehash of what you did before, plus one extra step.  I was rather disappointed.  Galaxy’s, meanwhile, was quite epic and awesome.

All and all, the first Galaxy was a fine return to form after Sunshine’s mediocrity.  However, Galaxy 2 is a far more refined and incredible game that really took the building blocks behind this game and reimagined them beautifully as an ideal sequel, making this effort seem more conservative, which works against it at times.  The hub world was bloated and a chore to hike around, the worlds are less inspiring than the sequel, and the Spring power-up makes too many appearances.  I like Galaxy, but the sequel is far superior.