Super Mario Galax-Weeeeeeee

When I first heard about a new Mario game for Wii, I wasn’t too enthusiastic. First of all, I don’t own a Wii, and WiiSports, while fun and often addicting, struck me as a novelty that was wearing thin. Second of all, nothing since Super Mario World for SNES had truly captured the spirit of Mario for me. I’d never played a minute of Mario 64, or Sunshine, or Paper Mario.

Then my brother did a crazy thing: fed up with its absence in stores, he paid a premium to purchase a Wii online. Then, for Christmas, he got Super Mario Galaxy, which looked like a hopelessly convoluted and complex game that I’d never consider playing. How wrong I was.

While Galaxy is intuitive and controls are easy to pick up and learn, I feel the game does not cheat you by being too easy. Like the old NES and SNES games, there’s stuff that will stump you, and you’ll die a lot, and because you have limited lives, you do have to worry a little bit about starting over at the beginning. That’s a Mario game.

The game has impressive graphics and audio and is easily the best-looking and sounding Wii game there is. Nostalgic sounds and themes abound throughout the game, but don’t feel tacked on, but are integral to gameplay. When I inserted the disc and heard Mario yelling the game title in his high-pitched voice, I sighed, but when I first heard Super Mario 3’s “Airship Theme”  brought to life by a full orchestra, I knew I’d love this game, no matter how frustrating it would get.

It’s a true 21st century video game: challenging but not impossible, informed by video game history yet steeped in advanced technologies and new ideas, and nearly as addictive as the 8-bit stuff.

My Wii eyes have been opened. Now, if only Sega could get it this right for poor Sonic…