bold and expansive, super mario galaxy presents a large-scale platforming experience that slingshots mario into the deepest, darkest depths of space. rather than wallow in its emptiness, we the player are greeted with the warmth of the comet observatory and its family.

while its linearity can leave much to be desired for old guard mario fans hungry for the 64/sunshine style of free roaming, a tradeoff was made for more focused, coherent level design instead.

even without the optional backstory for rosalina, mario galaxy is able to tell a story through its presentation -- incredible music, visuals, and diverse game design. while not every attempt at using the wii's hardware sticks the landing, mario galaxy never flies out of orbit and its usage of motion controls stands out as one of the best on the system.

Siento que son muchas las razones por las que este juego es algo único dentro del mito de un personaje como Mario y es el conseguir evocar el vacío y existencialismo que causa un ambiente como el Espacio sin olvidar que se trata de una Aventura infantil y sin dejar de lado la vibra alegre y divertida de los variados mundos que conforman una galaxia que resguarda el más vivido lamento de una niña que tuvo crecer forzosamente para afrontar un destino lleno de tristeza pero con la bendición de poder ser una madre.

It is in fact my favorite video game of all time, so it's hard to not give it the most nostalgia blinded review ever, but I'll try. Everything about this game, from its unparalleled atmosphere, tight platforming, incredible soundtrack and immensely fun and varied level design seeps personality and charm. Always a joy to play, though I acknowledge that it doesn't always have what some people look for in a 3D Mario game. Some prefer a faster and looser Mario experience, and to those I point you to Odyssey and 64.

The level design is the star of the show here, justifying the simpler moveset. We can only care about so many things at once, and where games like 64 and Sunshine put an emphasis on what MARIO could do within sandbox-y environments, Galaxy asks what the LEVELS can do with Mario. It's not a downgrade by any means, just a shift in focus.

A particular highlight for me would have to be the bosses, one of the few instances in the Mario series where they're on par with something like The Legend of Zelda in both presentation and execution.

Super Mario Galaxy is brilliantly consistent and consistently brilliant.

Super Mario Galaxy is the greatest 3D platformer ever made. Everything about it, from it's amazing level design that uses a new concept of spherical platforms to it's absolute limit, to it's epic and cinematic soundtrack paired with the space background making this feel more like an adventure than any other Mario game. It is a nearly perfect 3D platformer, the only kinda issue I have with it is that due to being on the Wii, it uses a lot of motion controls which I have never really been able to use well, and it is super easy because of Nintendo's focus on family and people that generally don't play video games. But those aren't a huge issue, because no matter how easy it is, it's still incredibly fun, and the best 3D platformer available.

Hazy, even with its most linear level design out of the 3D series and without forgoing a melodramatic framing. A planet with flourishing fauna can arise in a blink of an eye, with different worlds existing not solely miles apart via interstellar traversal, but also 90 or 180 degrees away on the same ground. The presence of a children's fable story which underlies the found environments follows with this structure; the implicit childhood desire to make the macroscale a comprehensible being (the results being, of course, heavily subjective) is replicated across almost all possible channels, whether in its contextualization of the cosmos as simply human-like beings filled with wanderlust or finding the possibility of the cosmos only possible via a curious child who stumbled into her role almost by accident.

Yet, such simplification does not remove, but, rather, enhances the operatic scale that is present here. The pinpoint curation to how these levels are experienced may never be found in a 3D Mario again (barring Galaxy 2) with Odyssey returning to 64’s open-ended structure while also removing task (or, star) separation via a level select screen. Although not the first time linearity has been found in a 3D Mario (as Pangburn would point to in Sunshine’s fledgling level design), linearity is capitalized on to an unprecedented degree relative to its predecessors, with it enabling fly-through sequences under arching waves of fire and pulsating violins in the tail of lock-on bullets. Even as planets are often scaled into miniature and comprehensible worlds where almost every square foot can be combed, they only reinforce the player being themselves a miniature speck within the galaxy subject to gravity's whims. Myth, though making the cosmos a supposed tangible phenomena that can be grasped, creates ellipses for, among other questions, what history underlies each planet in a galaxy (perhaps, a Luma's life), when will such galaxies meet their inevitable limits before they are left irrevocably changed, and how such changes will present themselves. What is then found here proves to be a unique sensory experience coming off as almost lightning in a bottle, where childhood wander that simplified yet exploited the operatic dramatics of the unknown is replicated for a brief moment before then disappearing in a flash under a blinding supernova and morphed into another everyday reality.

Welcome, new galaxy!