REVIEW: Super Mario Galaxy

There are a few things in life that are constant. Death is one of them. Taxes are another. The final thing is that whenever Nintendo launches a new console, a Mario platformer will be there to push it. Super Mario Galaxy, a game that’s been out for a while but I’ve only recently had a chance to sample, has been earning much praise from the critical community, snagging more than one “Game of the Year” award and getting near perfect scores in the press. After playing it, I can see what they mean, but I’ll warn the few people just emerging from their bomb shelters that haven’t had a chance to play it to not take this game as a golden calf (or in this case, a golden Koopa). It is good, but not without its flaws.

Super Mario Galaxy is the game that was meant to showcase what the Wii is capable of. I will say that the graphics of the cutscenes and even of the gameplay itself are pretty impressive for a machine that is graphically last-generation. The colors are vivid and pop out of the screen at you as if to say “screw you, realism!” It accents the playfulness of the tone, less like a feature film and more like a Saturday Morning Cartoon.

The controls, however, are a different story. Few games in the current-gen are able to get motion control right. The “point-and-grab/shoot” mechanism works great, but the shaking mechanism can fail you at times. Perhaps this is just operator error, and I will admit that I’d rather have a shake mechanism with a high threshold for movement rather than a low one, so that way I’m not accidentally spinning my butt into the nearest black hole whenever my wrist gets a nervous twitch. The camera also isn’t flawless. I like the way it follows Mario most of the time, but there are times when it gets a case of “Resident Evil Syndrome” i.e. the camera will not allow you to see what’s in front of you and so you are walking blind into an area that could possibly be bogie-infested. By the same token, it takes some time to learn how to control Mario around a spherical object. By that I mean that I’ve effectively finished the game and I still haven’t gotten it. I’ll run in one direction and find that I’m running backwards when I want to run forwards, up when I want to run down, etc. In the midst of a boss fight, this is highly frustrating, but I figure that playing so much that you earn a doctorate in Super Mario Galaxy would be enough to correct this problem.

And just for the record, the swimming levels still suck. If you’ve played a water level in Super Mario 64 it’s kinda like that. Here, we get the added bonus of shell propellent and spinning in mid-water. Again, I have to decipher between bona fide flaw and simple operator error. For the record, I’m terrible at games with inverted directions (up is down, down is up). My monkey brain isn’t evolved enough to handle complex instructions like that easily. So, when swimming through the water, trying to avoid obstacles and hitting the air bubble before you gargle your last precious breath can be frustrating. In fact, I’m already looking at a new HDTV because I’m anticipating throwing my Wiimote through this one during a water level.

I’m not going to even get into the story, because Mario stories, even the one for the feature film, can be generated by computer. It goes a little something like this:

1) Princess Peach is kidnapped.
2) Bowser is probably behind it somehow.
3) Mario must save her going through various theme-based levels and collecting Mushroom Kingdom contraband that have different functions but are always shaped like stars.

Everything else on top of this is meant to misdirect from the fact that we’ve been here before, but probably during a different season or driving in a different car, so the feeling of deja vu isn’t as strong. And at this point, Bowser has essentially turned into a Batman villain: not very conspicuous and everything he does is a crime somehow. At least Batman villains have the explanation that they go to jail and somehow escape! In the Mushroom Kingdom, the average attention span is so short that once Bowser taps out and Princess Peach is supposedly safe, everything is hunky-dory. By this point, you’d think that even the most liberal of Toad would be calling for Mario to pull one of his Smash Bros. moves and bring Bowser’s head back on a stick. And Princess Peach must have some (metaphorical) balls! Few people can overcome even ONE kidnapping! After the umpteenth time you’ve been abducted by a huge spiky turtle with a mohawk, you’d either barricade yourself in a reinforced bunker or grab a Fire Flower and turn into Sybil. Yet Princess Peach can withstand one kidnapping after another and still be the same smiling patriarch. 20 bucks says that it isn’t long before the Mushroom Kingdom News finds her huddled in the corner, caked in blood, clutching Mario’s severed head in her arms and mumbling over and over, “Your princess is in another castle… your princess is in another castle…”

For my final story point: at first I wasn’t enthusiastic about sending Mario into space. It seemed like a step backward to me. Do you remember in the ‘90s, when every sitcom either had a newborn baby in it or sent its cast to Disney World in order to boost its ratings? I feel the same way about sending Mario into space. It’s trying something new, but feels like the Idea Well is starting to run even more dry than it already is. Like Ben “Yahtzee” Crowshaw said in his review: “After you’ve gone into space, there’s really no place to go unless your next adventure teams you up with Freddy Krueger.” But, playing the game, you don’t care one little bit that it’s in another galaxy; the level design makes up for it, making Mario feel more fresh than he has in years.

Final Verdict: 4.5 Italian Plumbers out of 5

Super Mario Galaxy is super fun, and perhaps a must if you own a Wii. It’s bright and easy enough to be accessible to young kids, while people who’ve grown up with Mario will find it a spiritual successor to the shining moments of the franchise and challenging enough to not breeze through it. It’s a rule of math that if you keep repeating the same action enough times, it will surprise you at least once. After the dirth of Mario Party games, Mario Kart, and the Super Mario Sunshine debacle, Super Mario Galaxy has taken the formula and created something cool with it.