Nintendo has this incredible knack for “inventing” games, and damn-near every single level in this game has some sort of unique twist that’s built upon as the game progresses. But apparently they were fixed in Galaxy 2, and now I can’t wait to try the sequel. The physics being a little weird and the camera angle being a bit unhelpful at times were common enough for 3D games at the time for me to forget about these issues completely. The whimsy and charm of Mario is ever-present in Super Mario Galaxy, and despite some flaws (that as I understand, were heavily addressed in the sequel), I had a blast running around and exploring Mario “ in space.” I don’t even want to spend the time complaining about what I didn’t like about htis game, because all of those moments were quickly overshadowed by something making me smile again. The levels themselves were really a ton of fun. Yeah, you might imagine I skipped over those. These include the “Speedy Comet,” which sets a short time limit on how fast the player needs to complete the level, the “Fast-Foe Comet,” which speeds up the movement speed of enemies, or my absolute least favorite, “Daredevil Comet,” which lowers Mario’s life to 1 hit. Depending on the type of prankster comet, it will affect the level different, and have you chasing down the Star with some sort of insane modifier. Once in a blue moon (or perhaps triggered by something that I have not yet come to figure out), a “prankster comet” will inhabit a planet. Woops!Īnother nice modifier that I found really cool was the Prankster Comets. The Hungry Lumas actually prefer Star Bits, but this is the closest screenshot I could find. You collect the Star Bits in each level, and then find “Hungry Lumas,” feed them their desired bits, and they transform into a planet with some fun mini-game type of thing, before being rewarded with a (hidden) Star. Much like Mario 64, this is by far one of my favorite parts of this game. In Galaxy, Nintendo continued with the “pick which Star you want to go for” approach, but while in the level you could divert from the original plan and find secrets, if you were so inclined. After all, if all stars are secret, then none are actually secret. Playing Odyssey made me realize just how much I missed the “Star select” screen before entering each level, because that removes any real ability to have secret stars. What I always saw as one of the defining features of Super Mario 64 is the hidden stars within each level. Not only that, but pushing B on the Wiimote to throw Star Bits at bad guys is so much fun. To add to the effect, the vibrations in the Wiimote are excellent – they respond arguably better than Super Mario Odyssey and they utilize the little speaker on the controller, making this twinkling sparkle sound every time you pick one up. This seems aggravating at first (although, you can still run into them with Mario and that also picks them up), but it’s stupid satisfying to wave your Wiimote and see Mario chased down by a flood of these things. Star Bits are basically the currency of the game, but you pick them up by pointing the Wiimote at them. JumpingSpeaking of entertaining, something that aggravated me when I first saw gameplay of Galaxy was the forced motion control to pick up Star Bits. What’s even more satisfying is if the planetary body you are standing on is small enough, you can absolutely abuse the gravity, sling-shotting your way across the planet. The vast majority of Galaxy‘s Mario moveset is borrowed straight from Super Mario 64 and I found myself “beeyoohoo”ing around (that’s when you are running, and you hold Z and press Jump, and he pelvic-thrusts through time and space, making the sound “beeyoohoo!”) with a big fat smile on my goofy bearded face. The game controls just fine when you are calm and collected, but it still requires a steady Wiimote hand. Even in terms of the swinging and flailing around, I started to realize that my bodily animation was not only unnecessary, but detrimental to the precision of the controls. Putting aside my decades-long aversion to motion controls was by far the hardest thing for me to do, but once I found a comfortable way to play and to position the Wiimote, it started to feel pretty much like second nature. The controls were, in the case of all things Wii, the biggest barrier to entry for me. Much fun was had, along with some mild frustration. One of the more interesting sections, where the gravity direction is dependent on the arrows.
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