Revisiting Super Mario Galaxy

During the course of the past months, I have happily been waiting for the Wii U to arrive, and I am still gripped by that childlike anticipation of a new toy to unwrap and discover. Recently however, I've been slowly realising that there's one thing I'm sorely missing in the list of launch games. It's something the previous two Nintendo consoles have been lacking on their days of birth as well but which they have delivered eventually, particularly the Wii. And how it has delivered.

I'm talking 3D Mario. I love 3D Mario games. Sunshine took its getting used to, but the two Galaxy games are masterpieces of three-dimensional platforming, and 64 more than solidly paved the road for its successors to paint golden. In fact, it seems I am missing a 3D Mario game so much that I'm finding myself unable to wait for Nintendo to finally announce one for the Wii U, not to mention release it. So a couple of days ago I briskly headed for my humble game shelves, snatched Super Mario Galaxy off them and frisbee'd the disc into my Wii. The last bit may be somewhat exaggerated.

My first and thus far only playthrough was in 2007, right around when the game was first brought upon the world. It filled me with the kind of intangible fleeting joy the vast majority of games doesn't quite manage to summon, not even the really good ones. It's just perfect platforming gameplay. Every single level is an utter blast to whirl through, and the love for detail is so palpable it keeps dragging the corners of my mouth dangerously close to my eyes. Okay, that bit may be exaggerated as well, but I'll be damned if I'm not enjoying the hell out of it! Even now, five years later and with the memories of all those star-collecting tasks not quite faded, it's as much fun as it was when things were still fresh.

With that, I've covered the second point already: incentive. Simple to explain, not so simple to accomplish. For a game to be fun, you need to want to keep playing it. If I knew a simple solution to this problem, I'd probably be in a different line of work, but judging by my own preferences and how Super Mario Galaxy satisfies them, this is probably best achieved by devising a core mechanic that works and intrigues the player and then bombarding him with tons of new little gameplay elements to stack upon the laid foundation and keep things fresh. Super Mario Galaxy quite literally does that in every single level. While those gameplay elements are re-used every so often (which they have to be, of course—you can't just introduce something cool and then throw it out the window again), there's almost always a twist to them, making them feel both familiar and new. This, I think, is what keeps things rolling.

Scrolling up, I see I've been indulging myself in quite a bit of chatter already, but hey, I don't even know whom I'm writing this for, so who cares! Rather than singing eulogies and going on about the game's genius, I'd like to talk about a couple of things I like a lot in Super Mario Galaxy. Oh, more eulogies after all, then.

Look to the right. I've embedded a video of the piece of music that accompanies the Gusty Garden Galaxy. The game's musical compositions are amazing from the get-go (being a composer myself, I readily admit that I have been a little envious of how some of those tunes manage to be catchy, complex and captivating all at once), but back in 2007, this one piece here actually made me stop in my tracks shortly after entering the level, just so I could listen undistractedly, mouth slightly agape, with goosebumps all over. I don't know what exactly it is that fascinates me about it—whether it's simply the fact that it's extremely pleasant-sounding or that it gratifies my artist's soul with how easily its melodies travel across nearly every note an octave has to offer. Anyway, just listen to it. It's a lovely tune.

Then there's these little maniacal black ghosts which you can grab by their tongues and swing around you in circles. And when they hit something, they explode. It's hysterical. It makes the boss fight against Bouldergeist one of the best ones the game has to offer. I can only shake my head at what brainless fun it is to have an explosive ghost orbiting you, and even more so if you're in luck and get a hold of more than one.

Sure enough, there are things in Super Mario Galaxy that I enjoy doing more than others—for example, being Ghost Mario is a smidgeon too slow an affair for my tastes—but there's nothing here that I'd say isn't any fun to me. A game that is consistently and constantly fun is the very definition of a perfect game for me, and there's only a handful of other games that I'd put on the same level of awesomeness. Maybe I'll get to those some other time!