Super Mario Galaxy

Date Acquired: 11.12.2007
Date Completed: 5.10.2010
Thoughts: I don't know why it's taken me so long to finish Mario Galaxy. I've had it since it came out and I've played it off and on, but always got pulled away from it. I don't remember why I stopped playing it originally. Probably due to the girl I was dating at the time (Funny how many more games I play when I'm single). I remember I got back to it last year in the summer when my Aunt and Uncle and their 10 year old son Nicholas came to visit. My Aunt and Uncle went to the ballet and I offered to stay home and watch Nicholas. It turns out his obsession is Mario games, and he didn't have Mario Galaxy, so He started up a new save file and played it for hours. I played with him, we'd trade off but I let him do most of the playing of course. When he left he had about as many stars as I did, after one night. That got me back into the game though, and I added another 20 or so stars to my total before getting pulled away from the game again. This time I know for sure it was because of the girl I was with at the time.

What got me back into the game the third time was, unsurprisingly, the sequal. I'd known for a while the sequal was coming, but Mario games always come out in the fall, so I assumed I had plenty of time. Then came the press conference earlier in the year when Nintendo announced the release date for Galaxy 2: May 27th, and Metroid: Other M would be coming out a month later. Since then Metroid has been delayed 2 additional months, but Galaxy 2 is still on schedule and has already been paid for. So it might be nice if I 've already finished the original.

It's a shame I didn't play this game more, because it's fantastic. Far from just Mario 64 with a fresh coat of paint, this game really impressed me with it's variety and inventiveness. In previous Mario games you'd get 12-15 levels, and you'd have to go into each level 8 times or so and do something different to get the stars. Not so here, there are TONS of levels, and none of them you would need to visit more than 4 times, and many of them you only visit once. It almost feels wasteful to see a whole level used one time then tossed away as I move on to the next level. But the creativity is what really stole the show for me. The concept of gravity and what Nintendo did with it was brilliant. The last level where you meet Bowser is incredible The powerups were good also. Boo Mario and Bee Mario were fun additions to the powerup repertoire. I can't say I was real impressed with the game's attempt to add a story. It was uninteresting, but it's like watching porn, you have to put up with a feeble barebones story to get the good stuff. And like porn, I could overlook it.

To do: I finished the game with the minimum 60 stars, I would like to go back and see some of the levels I missed. I probably won't try to get all 120, but it's weird 'finishing' the game with only half the possible stars. Galaxy 2 has 240 stars, so I wonder if 120 will be required to finish that game? That will make it looooong. Which is fine with me.