Something horrible happened today. My super Mario galaxy disk, after being dropped, clawed by a cat, and accidentally left out by my relatives, finally succumbed to its wounds and gave its final breath. I say this because this game did something that few games can do. I had so much fun playing it, that it literally meant a lot to me. This game is the best Mario game I have played, and it is even one of the best games I have ever played. This game took stride with games like "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" in that it was a revolution for the series, and the fans LOVED it. This game is one of few, and I mean few, games that have ever surpassed Ocarina of Time in ratings. This game is just that good. Super Mario Galaxy was released in 2007 by (you guessed it) Nintendo and has had fantastic ratings among critics, some went as far as to call it one of the best games of all time.

Game play: The best part of this game by far. The mechanics of the Mario series are taken to a whole new level in this game. This game makes use of "Sphere-walking" which is used in games like twilight princess in the goron mines. "Sphere-walking" is basically walking around a sphere and staying on it through some sort of game mechanic. Mario has many more power-ups than in the other games. Power-ups like the fire flower, the mushroom,  the one up mushroom, and the star are here, but new power-ups like the freeze flower, the bee and ghost mushroom, and a spring have appeared.

Mario uses gravity to his advantage as he travels all over large and small planets. The player will use the will nunchuck's joystick to move around, and he will use the wii mote to move a cursor around and collect star bits. By using the B button the player can fire a star bit at an enemy or at a luna, Mario will use star bits to get lunas to transform throughout the game. The player can use the wii mote's D-Pad to move the camera around Mario. As in nearly every single Mario game to ever exist, A is jump. 

Graphics: I will break this down in a few categories so this review will be easily followed.

Cut-scenes: The cut-scenes are impressive, but not too impressive. The characters all look really good, but the environments around the character models aren't too much. I get that its just space, but they could put much more in the background to make all of these cut-scenes look better. Good, but could be better.

Character models: The character models in the cutscenes look fine. The enemies in the game have creative figures, animate very well, and look about as well as the main characters.

Environments: This is the strongest point of the graphics. It is the best looking hub-world I've seen in a Mario game, minus Delfino Plaza. It has some garden areas that look well, and I wish it was larger. The different galaxies took my breath away, they looked so fantastic that I couldn't believe it. They make use of different environments and themes for each, and they all look fantastic. I think the ones that take place only in deep space should have had more around them to make things look better. I think they were trying to go for ominous isolation like in the Portal series, but if that was what they were going for, it wasn't executed well.

Sound: I really think the sound was used perfectly for this game. The bosses all have epic tunes for you to fight to, and each different level has its own theme. These were all very well done, as they all fight the theme for each galaxy rather well. While you are soaring through space you get a nice tune that makes you feel like an explorer.

Addictiveness: This game kept me hooked, more hooked than I can be proud of. Each new galaxy offered more fun and challenges for me to see. This game was incredibly fun, and I would be playing it now if I didn't have a staff role and if it wasn't broken. I had more fun on this game than on most of the other games I have played, and it certainly is the best wii game I've played. I know that it will have a spell on you.

Story: There is a festival every hundred years to celebrate the landing of a comet. Mario is going to see Peach (of course, she made him a cake) and then Bowser crashes the party. Bowser summons a UFO to kidnap Peach as he destroys the castle town. Mario is then catapulted to a small planet where he meets Rosalina. Rosalina is a main character, and she runs the observatory that serves as the hub-world. Mario then collects power stars and grand stars, fighting various bosses that include Bowser Jr. This eventually ends with Mario fighting Bowser and Bowser falling into a burning planet.

Depth: This game has tons of galaxies that you can visit, each galaxy has a certain amount of levels that have you in it. There are numerous power-ups that Mario uses to help him traverse the galaxy. Each galaxy ends in a boss fight, the boss fights are very inventive and they are a ton of fun. This game took me over 30 hours to complete, and it was a great 30+ hours.

Difficulty: If you are looking for difficulty, I wouldn't look for it in a Mario game. This game certainly had some levels where I died a few times, but it was no real challenge to me, and I don't think it will be for you. The boss battles are actually easier than the levels before them, and the point of a boss fight is a challenge.

Overall, this is the best Mario game I have played, and I would recommend it to anybody who has a Nintendo wii.

ender44 : Awesome review man! I really enjoyed reading this! Please make more reviews! Thanks and keep up the great work my friend!

Great review! You made it to more than 1000 words! I enjoyed reading this review a lot. I like how you broke the graphics category into different sub-categories. I've never seen anyone do that in a review before. Keep up the good work!