I play this game once a year from front to back every year due to how much it means to me. Growing up as a kid who primarily played GBA and PS2 games before getting Galaxy, you can imagine how monumental of a leap a game like this can be to me..

The levels are all a blast to explore in whatever pace I desire, the music is absolutely spectacular, the Rosalina story bits always hit me in the heart, and the game overall such a wonderful package with next to no low moments. Thank god for 3D All Stars existing in time so that I can play Galaxy on Switch with even better performance

i didnt really expect this going in , but mario galaxy - with it's bombastic opening and incredibly typical saving princess peach plot - ends up being a very thoughtful and often melancholic rumination on both the wonder and loneliness of space.

this is in large part due to the incredible score, which delivers on all fronts. the majesty and unbridled joy of "Gusty Garden Galaxy" has been praised to the center of the universe and back, but the soundtrack also explores space in a more melancholic way. the theme of "Space Junk Galaxy" is a standout here, it really captures the beauty and loneliness of the universe's expanse.

of course this stuff goes beyond just the soundtrack. it's in how the game frames mario Galaxy's planets, clustered together, but still hanging adrift in space. it's in the domesticity and liveliness of the hub world, how all of the individual "observatories" in the game are actually the rooms of a house. and it's in the return from a level when you collect a star, and are rewarded with a moment of downtime.

at the end of the day it's still a mario game, it's still about saving princess peach, it still has an ontologically evil antagonist, and it still has dumb minigames and poor underwater controls. the gameplay - while being far beyond serviceable - didn't really do it for me either. but that's okay! because mario galaxy is an incredibly special game, and is so so much more than just the sum of its parts