By Hugh Milligan
When Super Mario 64 was released in 1996, it turned the gaming world upside-down. True 3D graphics were an innovation the likes of which had never been seen, and Mario, already an international icon, finally leapt beyond the confines of his wafer-thin world to roam free in expansive environments.
It was perfect timing. The game appeared just as platformers were reaching their climax – simply getting from A to B with a series of well-timed jumps was still an immensely enjoyable endeavour. Mario 64 eventually sold over eleven million copies and went on to become one of the most influential games of all time.
It’s been over a decade since then, and Mario, despite his enormous popularity, is having a hard time of it. Gamers are growing up – survival horror games and first-person shooters have shown us the joy of killing zombies, aliens and Nazis, the Dead or Alive series has developed a physics engine devoted entirely to animating enormous jiggling breasts and World of Warcraft is soon to become a major world religion. Most true platformers have either mated with other genres to produce bastard offspring or died out entirely.
Mario’s last major platform title was released over five years ago, and since then he’s kept his hand in by playing golf and tennis, racing go-karts and competing in the Olympics, but it’s been a long time since he returned to his roots. Thankfully, Super Mario Galaxy is here, and it’s every bit as awe-inspiring as its ancestors.
As its title suggests, Galaxy is set in space. There’s a brief introductory sequence that leads to this, and as usual it involves Bowser kidnapping a terrified Princess Peach with the intention of making her his trophy wife. This time, however, her entire castle is ripped from the ground and whisked into the heavens, and Mario is sent hurtling into the far reaches of the space.
Soon he encounters cosmic princess Rosalina, whose spaceship has just been ransacked. Bowser has stolen its power stars (though, despite his proclivity for ditzy blonde royalty, left Rosalina herself behind) and, just as in Super Mario 64, Mario will have to recover them all if he is to restore the ship’s functionality and rescue Peach.
The premise of collecting 120 power stars, the exact amount collectible in Mario 64, is the first of many overt references to previous titles. Mario mainstays such as warp pipes and goombas make re-appearances, his original array of long jumps, back flips and somersaults is much the same as it was and many of the levels serve as obvious allusions to those of past Mario games.
Galaxy is a game that draws upon the very best elements of its predecessors and takes them in a whole new direction – or, more appropriately, every direction. Mario is no longer restricted to a dozen planar ‘worlds’, but is instead launched into forty wildly diverse galaxies, each a collection of smaller planetoids with their own gravity and physics.
This allows for almost limitless creativity, as Mario is alternately pulled and propelled by sling stars and gravitational fields, walks on walls and ceilings, and swims and surfs over turbulent water flumes floating in space. Many planets are completely spherical or have a strong gravitational pull so that every available angle and surface is traversable. Every puzzle is both utterly ridiculous and fiendishly logical.
The camera system has been finely tuned to follow such bizarre fields of movement as efficiently as possible, but there are naturally some instances where this becomes difficult. The whole galaxy spins upside-down when Mario leaps onto a planet’s underside so that he remains visible, but those of you particularly susceptible to motion sickness may not appreciate your point of view being skewed so suddenly. The movements of the nunchuk’s analog stick are also relative to Mario and not the player, so that if he is standing upside down, pushing the stick to the left will make him run to your right and so on. This can be awkward and takes a little getting used to.
The game’s learning curve is fairly gradual – only 60 power stars are actually required to finally confront Bowser and it’s not difficult to collect these. The bosses and mini-bosses are also fairly simple to defeat and even Bowser himself is a pretty cheap date – it’s easy to get him on his back.
The real challenge that extends Galaxy’s playability is in collecting every single star, a far more comprehensive effort that involves some nightmarish tasks and is rewarded with a handful of unlockable features. The game thus has something to offer both casual and veteran gamers alike.
There’s no multi-player to speak of – the ‘co-star mode’ feature is negligible to say the least – but you can revisit any of the game’s galaxies at any time to replay your favourite moments.
In addition to its solid gameplay, Galaxy is also exceptionally well polished. The galaxies are brimming with character and the effects, be it amorphous columns of water, volcanic eruptions or glittering ice, look gorgeous. Mario’s adventure is also heightened by a stunning full orchestral score.
Super Mario Galaxy is a monumental achievement and proof that Mario is still the undisputed king of platformers. It’s the Wii’s finest title to date – buy it, and party like it’s 1996.
4.75 out of 5
Comments on this entry are closed.