Four reasons Mario Galaxy is everything a Wii game should be

1: It's beautiful

There can no longer be a real argument over whether or not the Wii can create wonderful graphics. While Mario Galaxy benefits from a ton of polish and love, the art style is as big of a advantage as the technology. The graphics feature some very nice technological polishes. As you scamper around the body of a huge bee, you'll see soft fuzz effects on her body, the water throughout the game is lovely, and you'll notice the frame rate is rock solid. While the Wii can't output high-definition graphics, the majority of gamers won't care: Mario Galaxy is a great-looking game that is simply filled with graphical flourishes and little areas of beauty.





The small planetoids usually hold a few surprises

The game is also filled with tiny details and some amazing-looking sequences: wait until you see how large, well-animated, and fluid some of the boss characters are. While many Wii developers get lazy and hope a few waggle controls will be enough on the Wii, Nintendo knows that a truly great game should look as good as possible, while also providing the game play. Sure, style never beats substance, but as long as you have the substance there, a few extra bits of style only makes everything better.

2: You won't beat this in an afternoon

We live in a time of seven-hour games, and while you can blow through the story of Mario Galaxy in maybe 12 to 15 hours, to collect all 120 stars and get the surprise at the end (which won't be ruined here) you'll have to spend a lot of time, put in a lot of practice, and master many platforming skills. I'm not going to put an hour amount on the total experience, but 30 or more hours wouldn't surprise me. If you take your time, see everything there is to see, and explore all the corners, then that time is only going to go up.

What's as impressive about the overall quality of the play is that it's sustained across the entire game. While there are galaxies I liked more than others, it never feels like the developers ran out of ideas or got bored. You'll be just as delighted with what you see in the beginning, middle, and ending levels. Some galaxies only have one star and have you finishing a single puzzle, or race, or other such diversion from the main type of game play. It's nearly impossible to get bored, and you'll never feel like you're grinding through the game to get your stars. That's a nearly impossible feat in a five-hour game, much less one of this scope.

3: The game uses the Wiimote without resorting to minigames

We get it, guys; the Wiimote can be used to make fun little games that anyone can pick up and play. But we have enough of those; we want a game we can sit down for hours and focus on, single-player style. Mario Galaxy doesn't stoop to the level of giving you a side-collection of minigames, although it does feature some nifty uses for the Wii controls. You'll be aiming cannons, slingshotting Mario off stretchy plants by grabbing them and pulling back, and there is even an odd two-player mechanic where another player can pick up a Wiimote and shoot at the enemies for you while also picking up star bits. Instead of minigames, Mario Galaxy weaves all these little gameplay tweaks into the main experience, keeping things fresh without overstaying their welcome.





Mario spends much of the game flying from galaxy to galaxy

Nintendo gives many good examples of how to use the Wiimote to its fullest without having to beat the player over the head with it, and none of the control methods felt shaky or imprecise. Compare this to the gimmicky and unsatisfying controls of Mario and Sonic at the Olympics and you have an example of how to use the Wii technology well and how to get it wrong.

4: It's a-me, Mario!

Nintendo is dependent on its franchises, and Mario has taken part of every fad and played nearly every sport, but at least in Mario Galaxy there are many clever references to past Mario games, as well as many little winks at the player. Nintendo knows some of these jokes and situations border on the ridiculous, but at least they can come right out and hint that they know we know they know. The humor isn't as self-referential as Super Paper Mario, but there are many times where we get the sense that the development team had fun with the idea that this was just another Mario title.

The game takes the characters seriously while also having fun with the idea of Mario's world.