Super Mario Galaxy Reviews - Page 5

The first 70 stars in Galaxy are pretty darn easy to get, it just takes putting in the time to get them. It also only takes 60 stars to be able to get to and beat the last boss. 100% completing the game with all 120 stars is super hard though. As I said earlier in this thread, anyone can beat this game, but few will master it. That's a good thing! It let's you get as much of an experience out of it as you personally want.

I am sure even fewer will master it without a guide, which I usually refuse to use unless I flat out have no choice and am close to banging my head on a wall form being stuck so long on some game.

I haven't seen anything that requires a guide yet. All the stars seem to be pretty well guided. They vary in difficulty from giant arrows that say "RIGHT HERE!" to to rather bizzare. As long as you have the patience to sometimes fiddle around in a level, it pretty much just dawns on you what needs to be done. I haven't seen any that are super-mega-secret like in Mario 64. Galaxy is nice to the player that way.

After playing Mass Effect, this game is a pure joy! I beat Mass Effect yesterday and was really less than impressed.

I decided to start my copy of Super Mario Galaxy and it was like a breath of fresh air. The environments just come alive. The colors and graphics are bright and beautiful. Nintendo is really a class act. They have put out so many great games this year, with consistent graphics, frame rate, and gameplay. I'm very happy to be a wii owner.

Metroid Prime 3 and Mario Galaxy are easily the two most polished games of the year. It's amazing what happens when stuff isn't rushed out the door to meet an artificial deadline.

Wondering if I should get MP3 too then. Hmm. I have no metroid prime game. Should I even get the first for GC since those can of course be used on here? Is the stroy in MP3 dependant on understanding past metroid games?

I wonder if the original Metroid game itself even HAD a story other than it ending up being a female. lol I don't remember much from the game.

MP3 is a must-have. I played all the MP games, and to me, the story isn't it's strong point. You should be able to pick up 3 by itself and enjoy it.

Corruption is really an awesome game. I reccomend that you pick it up. It is a contender with Bioshock, Mario Galaxy and Uncharted for Game of the Year.

I second that! The colors on my 51 inch sonyhdtv r simply gorgeous!

Good to hear that I can adjust the camera using the D-pad. My question is: which finger should I use to do this as a bee when I'm using my L thumb to fly and my R thumb to steer and I'm trying to land on some tiny rock and the game decides this is the perfect time to say OOO LOOK AT THOSE CLOUDS!!

i have yet to run into problems with the camera (anything major anyway) the camera isnt completely free and most of the time all u have to do is give it quick tap of "C" and itll be right back behind you.. its really a smart camera and it doesn't become and issue like other rushed crappy game.. A+++ on Galaxy Nintendo!!

This is a slight nit pick, for 100% completion you will have to get significantly more than 120 stars. If anyone wants more details drop me a private message.

BTW this is clearly the GOTY in my eye's a truly marvelous game. Proving once again that death, blood and gore are not required to make a top tier game.

Started this on Sunday and have got up to 30 stars thus far.

Absolutely loving it thus far. Level design is great, especially how each star (at least of the 3 main stars in each main galaxy) sends you on a different path through the world. Much better than Mario 64 and most 3D platformers where you just keep exploring the same area doing some different fetch quest until you get all the stars.

Makes it feel more like the old 2D marios with their short levels in each world--and that's a good thing!

Too early to say if it's my game of the year. With all the good stuff that's come out lately, it will probably be nearly 2009 before I play them all and can make a fair choice!

Been a great couple of months for gaming though. I've played and finished Metroid Prime 3, Bioshock and Halo 3 recently, with some Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on the side and now on to Mario Galaxy. And have The Orange Box and Mass Effect waiting in the wings, not to mention stuff like Guitar Hero 3, Rock Band, Call of Duty 4 etc. that I haven't even picked up yet!

Great time to be a gamer!

Dude, are you in for a treat when you get to Portal. But you've already heard that and it's now grievously off topic for a Nintendo forum.

I'd put Bioshock right up with them. Halo 3 is close, but some online issues hurt it a bit in the polish department. Single player/coop campaign was amazing though.

Again, just a great time to be a gamer!

I have to plug MP3 while there is conversation on it; that is my second favorite Metroid game of all time, second only to Super Metroid: Redesign. Super Mario Galaxy is awesome also.

"This is a slight nit pick, for 100% completion you will have to get significantly more than 120 stars."

What, getting all 120 stars again with Luigi to unlock the mythical "Final Mega GALAXIE!!!11" to get the imaginary 121st star? You mean like star #121 that was in Mario 64? Or playing as Yoshi in Mario 64 (N64)? Ya, fake.

EDIT:
Uh oh. I may be crazy here. I have now seen video of the Grand Finale Galaxy...

I couldn't resist throwing in my opinion here.

I love Mario. I was really geeked to get this game...just for background.

Anyway, I agree with the poster on the first page of this thread. It's a fun game, but it's just, I don't know off somehow.

-The camera is generally terrible. Half the time I end up fighting with it just to get where I want to go. I guess I don't know the secret some of you are using to make the camera be perfect in most cases.

-The controls are not intuitive, at least for me. I can't really describe it but they're just wrong somehow. Moving through a 3D space should not be this frustrating. I find swimming to be the worst offender.

-Graphics are mediocre at the very best. Mostly they look like they could have been in an N64 game, with some places that bring it up to the GameCube's level. I'd love to hear some suggestions on how to make it look better from those of you that claim it has the best graphics on the Wii. I have a 56" Samsung 1080p DLP. I have the Wii set up as 16x9, 480p. The TV is also set up as 16x9. The image doesn't look stretched or anything, just really ugly.

The game itself is fun and I'm enjoying it. I certainly don't think it's GOTY material, but I liked Super Mario Sunshine, so what do I know?

I'm not too too far into it yet, but I like the level of difficulty it has...it's not that hard, but it is still a blast to play.

From what I can tell, to "beat" the game, it isn't that hard...to "complete" the game with 120 stars is where the challenge will arise.

Yeah, some stages are pretty hard (I'm just 33 stars in though), but it would be hard (and annoying) to get all 120 due to the timed stages, 100 coin collect-a-thons etc. that are required to get them all.

I doubt I'll bother, just trying to get all the normal stars in each dome before betting the boss, then will see if I have the desire to do the timed challeges, coins, look for all the hidden stars etc. after beating the game. But unlikely I will since I have a stack of great games calling to me to move on to.

I think you need to get to an eye doctor, and quickly...those rose-colored glasses are skewing your vision.

This is Mario 64:


This is Mario Sunshine:


THIS is Super Mario Galaxy:


SMG is running at 16:9, of course. The levels are larger, sometimes considerably moreso, the geometry is more complex and the textures are much more detailed. Sunshine is partially cel-shaded, of course, which is a clever way to hide the lesser detailed models.

If you want to see a really good comparison of how the graphics have improved, you can check out this excellent http://www.gamespot.com/features/6182581/index.html?sid=6182581&part=rss&subj=6182581]Gamespot Article which shows some direct comparisons. Just look at the Giant Piranha in Sunshine versus the one in Galaxy, for example.

See, this is the problem. I'm not seeing that. I understand that it SHOULD be better, but it's not. Do you have any settings you can recommend or just snide remarks?

Have you compared it to Mario 64 on the VC or fired up Sunshine on the GC on your Wii?

Or are you just saying it doesn't look any better based on what your memory recalls of those games years back?

No, I haven't loaded either one up, but thanks for the suggestion. I was going purely by memory of Sunshine, which I just got around to playing through a few months ago, but on the GameCube. I'll try it on the Wii. It will at least tell me if it's Galaxies or something in my setup chain.

I was a huge 2D Mario fan in the 80s and 90s, but I strongly disliked both 3D Mario games. I disliked them so much that I had no plans to buy Galaxy. Then I played it for an hour in a GameStop and fell in love.

I'll tell you why I disliked the prior 3D games. I hated Mario's bubbly personality and Mickey Mouse voice that just doesn't fit him at all. I hated the camera! I swear the true villain in those games is that f*#&#ing camera. Sunshine really proved that it started life as an N64 game when it became apparent it had the exact same broken camera as SM64. Mario also became difficult to control: his jumping mechanics were unpredictable and in SM64 he'd suddenly slide around on his belly for no apparent reason. Sunshine's FLUDD was a control nightmare. The games didn't *feel* Mario anymore because all of the powerups and most of the classic enemies were gone. Even the N64 Castlevania games succeeded in maintaining some degree of connection to the 2D games.


Super Mario Galaxy seems to fix a lot of those problems. I've played for several hours and can't remember having 1 camera angle problem. Mario's voice, while still annoying, doesn't seem as overused. Mario's jumping is either improved or I'm just used to it. Mario still feels a bit stiff though. He's never slid on me yet and I think that's because of the new gravity rules. Mario's new features (spinning) are more intuitive than that damn FLUDD, old powerups have returned, and classic enemies and other signs of the past are all over the place.

Also, the whole concept of flying from planetoid to planetoid and gravity rules make this game seem fresh and fun.


One gripe: Nintendo continues with their philosophy of refusing to allow users to customize their button mapping. Nintendo's last big title, Metroid Prime 3, used B to shoot and A to jump. This title uses A to jump and B to shoot (yes, you have a gun-like weapon). Why can't there be an options screen so that I can flip that behavior? I would like to see more control consistency between games. Retro added that simple feature to MP3 but now I'm already used to Metroid's controls!

One thing that I noticed with Galaxy is that I haven't seen any graphical glitches while those were quite common in Sunshine... Embarrassingly common in Sunshine actually. It was a little sad seeing so many glitches in a second-gen first party Nintendo game that was an entry in the Mario franchise!

I was never a Mario fan (of 2D or even the 3D games). I owned Sunshine, but never really got into it. I finally caved and bought Galaxy because of all this "best game ever" business, and I have to say, I'm impressed! It's so fun and easy to get into. I love the planets in space concept and the game has some of the best level design I've ever seen! Also, IMO it's probably the best looking Wii game out there, it looks incredible (as long as you're comparing it to other Wii games and not PS3 or 360 obviously)! I can't wait to go home and play some more!

If you really aren't seeing something like the third shot, then it'd probably help if we could see what you were seeing in a screenshot. Since you're set up at 16:9 and 480p over component connections, I'm not sure why you wouldn't be seeing exactly what that screenshot shows. Your comment sounded like many similar comments I'd heard, so I thought I'd provide some evidence, since I've heard it quite often and it's total hyperbole. My apologies if it sounded like I was being snide...it wasn't really intentional.

Do you have any sort of scaling device or video processor between the TV and the Wii? Something that might be changing or upscaling the signal, perhaps? I play it on my 43" Pioneer, and it looks pretty much exactly like that last picture.

Just the first line sounded snide. The pictures were valuable and appreciated.

I had a receiver between them, but in my further testing I removed it thinking that it could be the problem. No dice. I think I may require a focus adjustment on my TV. Notice in your screenshot that the 3 in the Life meter is crisp and clear around the edges. On mine, the 3 (and everything else) is blurry. It's like watching an SD channel after seeing the HD version, everything just looks softer and generally out of focus. I was assuming that it was due to the 480p resolution, but after seeing your shots I think I may have other issues. I made a first attempt at adjusting the focus last night, but quickly discovered that I'm going to need another set of eyes. I'll keep this updated as I find out more.