Super Mario Galaxy
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 Welcome to the Galaxy!
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Super Mario Galaxy (known as Super Mario Wii in South Korea) is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It was released in November 2007, is the sequel to Super Mario Sunshine, and is the third main 3D installment in the mainline series of the Super Mario franchise. It was followed by a sequel Super Mario Galaxy 2 in May 2010, and has been re-released on Super Mario 3D All-Stars, alongside Super Mario 64, and Super Mario Sunshine for the Nintendo Switch on September 18, 2020. The game is set to be having footage from the game used in the Nintendo Museum on October 2, 2024.
Plot
Every hundred years a huge comet (Grand Star) flies by in the skies above the Mushroom Kingdom. One year, that comet filled the entire sky, and from it fell a stream of shooting stars. The Toads scooped up the Star Bits and brought them to the castle, where they were reborn as a great Power Star. That night Mario received a letter:
"Dear Mario, I'll be waiting for you at the castle on the night of the Star Festival. There's something I'd like to give you." — from Peach.
With an invitation in hand, Mario headed off to the castle just as the Star Festival was getting into full swing. Surrounded by Toads gleefully trying to catch falling Star Bits, Mario was looking forward to the night's festivities.
Before he reached Peach's castle, Bowser attacked the Toads with his airships and froze them in crystals. He "invited" Peach to the creation of his new galaxy and warped into space with her castle to the center of the universe. When Mario tried to save her, a Magikoopa named Kamek broke the airborne path to the castle causing Mario to fall into an unknown land.
Mario later woke up on a small grassy moon and met three Star Bunnies who promised to tell Mario where he was if he caught them. When he did, they took him to meet Princess Rosalina, who told Mario that the universe was in great peril after Bowser had attacked her "ship", the Comet Observatory and stole the Power Stars, including the seven Grand Stars. Without them, the Comet Observatory was doomed. Rosalina asked Mario to rescue the Grand Stars to defeat Bowser, who took Peach to the center of the universe. Mario then started his journey across the galaxies, freeing Power and Grand Stars. Once five of the Grand Stars were collected, the Comet Observatory became a starship and was able to take Mario to the center of the universe.
There he defeated Bowser in his brand-new galaxy, retrieved the last Grand Star, and rescued Princess Peach. Without this Grand Star, the sun of Bowser's near-complete galaxy went supernova and became a gigantic black hole. Everything in the universe began to fall into the black hole. The Lumas from the Comet Observatory, including the Luma who had faithfully accompanied Mario, sacrificed themselves to neutralize it. The Lumas attacked the black hole's singularity, and it soon disintegrated in a massive explosion. Mario appeared in front of Rosalina, who had somehow managed to save him from the cataclysm. She told him that "this was not the end, but a new beginning for the universe," and that "the universe was an endless cycle, but one that never repeats itself exactly the same way each time." She then rewinds history and creates a New Era for the Mario universe.
Mario later awoke in the Mushroom Kingdom near Peach's castle. He saw everyone he'd met throughout his adventure celebrating, while Bowser and Peach sat next to him. When he looked into the sky, he noticed the green light of a new galaxy. "Welcome! Welcome, new galaxy!" Mario exclaimed as the camera zoomed out into space, revealing that the whole universe had been merged into one giant galaxy (although the galaxy Mario saw in the sky was not shown). If the player continues with the file, Rosalina will say if all 120 Power Stars are collected, the player can travel the new world. If the player has finished the game with 120 stars, after the credits Rosalina and a group of Lumas appear on the planet Mario started on at the beginning of the game. Rosalina says, "I will watch over you from beyond the stars," and flies off to the Comet Observatory. Then the white baby Luma is shown to be alive, now residing on the small planet. Finally, if the player has just beaten the game with 120 Stars with Mario, a Luigi tab will appear with him saying: "Super Luigi Galaxy!".
The Luigi Story goes the same as Mario's. Even the Luigi in Mario's story is still Luigi. When the player has defeated Bowser and continues with the Luigi Story, Rosalina will again say if Luigi collects all 120 stars, the player can travel to a new world. When the player collects 120 Stars, the player can travel to the Grand Finale Galaxy, the new world and the same new galaxy Mario saw in the ending movie. This galaxy is parallel to the Mushroom World. This explains why there are two Luigi's. The 121st, and final star can be found here.
Why It's a Sky Full of Stars
- Tight and responsive controls since the game can read your inputs well when moving and jumping, as well as shaking the Wiimote to spin attack (when you shake the Wiimote to do the spin attack, the game reads your wiimote motion well).
- Creative-level design that makes good use of gravity-based platforming. At the same time, not every level is based around planetoids.
- The plot; not only is it more complex than other in Mario platforming games (outside of Sunshine and the sequel), but it can be heartbreaking at some points:
- Rosalina's storybook, parts of which are unlocked throughout the game and the final one is achieved by completing Galaxy, tells a story, when Rosalina was young, she spotted a broken spaceship with a star child named Luma who was searching for her mother, so Rosalina was waiting with Luma for that; additionally, they scattered a comet that became their shelter. After that, Rosalina and Luma built a house on the comet and found other lonely Lumas; however, Rosalina was sad that he never found her family, but Lumas appreciated her efforts because Rosalina became their foster mother, and even with that, the princess of space still wants to see her old family and still visits her home planet once a century. The saddest chapters are 4th and 7th; in the fourth, Rosalina sees her mother in a dream, but she starts missing her mother, and the seventh tells about Rosalina's homesickness about her home planet and the fact that Rosalina's mother passed off wasn't good for her either.
- The ending can be unsettling since it introduces not only a lamenting Bowser, whose planet creates a supernova without the grand star, but the Lumas sacrifice themselves to neutralize it and to make the player see Mario/Luigi and Rosalina explaining the cycle of stars (which means that Lumas die to create the new ones). Finally, Luigi/Mario wakes up in the place where Bowser has stolen the castle and sees a festival with characters seen earlier as Dino Piranha and Bowser Jr. in the background. Well, it's such a good ending!
- If you completed the game with both characters 100%, you will see a cutscene, where Rosalina leaves the planet mentioned in her storybook and you can see a Luma in the rusty ship on the planet.
- Gorgeous graphics that push the Wii to its technical limits, which look like they were made for a PS3, Wii U, or even an early era PS4 game.
- Throughout the level appear crystals called Star Bits, collecting them is not only a very satisfying thing to do, but also collecting at least 50 of them earns you a 1-up (as opposed to 100 coins in older Mario games). They can also be used to feed hungry Lumas and unlock levels.
- Fantastic orchestral soundtrack, which contains a lot of great themes such as Gusty Garden, Good Egg, Bowser's Dark Matter Plant/Star Reactor (which is a rearranged Koopa's Road from SM64), Bowser's Galaxy Reactor, rearranged Ground theme from Toy Time Galaxy, Purple Coins theme, and a lot of boss themes as Bowser fight.
- Rosalina is a very good new character with significantly more depth and character than most characters in the series. Most of the lore comes from a single book you can read, which is found in the library.
- Amazing boss battles, there are some of them:
- Kingfin (appears in Bonefin Galaxy as a holder of the only star; you should attack him by using shells underwater);
- Dino Piranha/Fiery Dino (Good Egg Galaxy is his home; he is the first boss you ever encounter and you should defeat him by smacking his tail to head, and the buffed version found in the Melty Molten Galaxy as the 3rd main star makes the Dino Piranha make his tail on fire and leaving hot steps after);
- Bowser is considered to be not only the best boss in the game but the best in every Mario game in general. He appears three times (Bowser's Star Reactor, Bowser's Dark Matter Plant and the final one, Bowser's Galaxy Reactor), but the last battle is top-notch since he has three phases (the first is smacking his face inside a boulder, the second is making him spin by spinning the green bulbs, and the final is simply forcing Bowser to break the glass and get his tail on fire).
- Mario has a new Spin Attack which allows him to attack and helps with platforming.
- Good use of motion controls that enhance the gameplay without feeling intrusive, notably mini-games which use the Wii Remote in creative ways.
- Proper power-ups return to the 3D games with classics like the Fire Flower and new ones like the Ice Flower and Bee Mushroom.
- Smooth frame rate by 60 FPS that never, ever dips.
- High amount of replay value, with 242 collectible stars (121 for each character), making for a game that can last for at least eleven hours.[1]
- Obtaining every Power Star unlocks Luigi as a playable character, allowing you to replay the game with him. Luigi controls slightly differently from Mario so it doesn't feel like a simple character skin change. Completing the game with both Mario and Luigi unlocks one final mini-level Grand Finale Galaxy, which is Peach's castle before it was destroyed, which is a nice reward, and in comparison to previous 3D titles (such as Super Mario Sunshine, which gives you a postcard after 120 shines).
Bad Qualities
- Despite the solid controls, they tend to mess up during gravity sections. Also, some levels force you to use motion controls (e.g. Star Ball and manta ray levels) instead of simply using the Nunchuk, which can be very frustrating.
- The Spring Mushroom is often considered one of the worst power-ups in the entire Mario franchise, and this game in general. Spring Mario is nearly impossible to control, and this form leads to cheap deaths unless used correctly. However, it is used only in Toy Time Galaxy.
- Mario's jumping moveset is rather limited compared to other 3D Mario games (e.g. you can't dive).
- There are some bad levels in the game, such as Dusty Dune Galaxy, Rolling Gizmo Galaxy, Bubble Blast Galaxy, and Snow Cap Galaxy. Also, the Daredevil levels can be frustrating to some folks since you die in one hit from literally everything.
- While Freezeflame Galaxy is not bad, when entering the frozen water in said galaxy, it fuzzies the screen.
- When you quit the game, your lives will be reset to 4, which also applies to its sequel.
- In the Super Luigi Galaxy mode, even though Luigi is the controllable character, the NPC Luigi is still here and not Mario, essentially having two Luigis in the game; therefore, this concept can be very confusing and very outputting to several gamers.
Reception
Super Mario Galaxy received universal acclaim, and has a Metacritic score of 97. It was also a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies along with an additional 8 million copies via Super Mario 3D All-Stars's sales, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest Mario games.
Trivia
- It spawned memes like "U R MR GAY YA I M R U?" and "So… Chunks, Huh".
References
- ↑ 100% game speedrun with both characters, [11h, 47m, 57s. Speedrun.com.]
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