Oh my god, I finally made it, I wrote blogposts about all 100 of my favorite games. This project took so much out of me, at least over half a year, and that's excluding the games I skipped because I already had full posts written about them. But now, it's finally time for me to talk about my two favorite games of all time, the seminal Super Mario Galaxy duology.
Super Mario Galaxy 1/2 are two of the first platformers I've ever played, and in hindsight, I really took the both of them for granted. There really aren't many, or any, other platformers with this kind of consistent creativity, and while antigravity mechanics are usually relegated to a single gimmick stage, there aren't many other games that made them the crux of their gameplay loop like the Galaxy games did. Let's start with the first game, which I generally prefer more than its sequel.
Super Mario Galaxy doesn't quite have the same freeform movement that the more open 3D Mario games have, it's a more contained and linear experience, but it's not less impressive. The fact that Nintendo was able to make consistent sphere-walking physics that feel good to use is a genuine technical achievement, and Mario still moves with so much fluidity and grace. It's a joy to just run around a planet, and Nintendo knew this because the first level has you run around a planet chasing bunnies. Even the Wii Remote's motion controls are super well-implemented here. The feedback for grabbing collectibles with the cursor is super satisfying, and shaking the remote to do a spin feels intuitive and natural. The level design in Super Mario Galaxy is fantastic, really using the sphere-walking tech to toss a ton of unique, memorable, and varied planets at you. Many levels even have you travel across multiple planets in quick succession, so even within an objective, you're experiencing constant variety. Galaxy also toes the perfect line between linearity and exploration, with some levels taking place on large open planets that wouldn't feel out of place in Mario 64. There's so many useless hidden coin secrets and strange easter eggs scattered around too, to the point where it feels like I'm still learning new things about the game over 15 years later. Did you know you can do a homing ground pound by ground-pounding right after a spin jump? Did you know about the secret train in Toy Time Galaxy? Did you know that there's a giant coin hidden right underneath Gold Leaf Galaxy?
But I think what really makes Mario Galaxy's level design so stellar is just how surprising and unpredictable it is. Pretty much every galaxy introduces a bunch of original enemies, mechanics, and assets that don't appear again throughout the game. Each planet you visit offers you something entirely new. Some may argue that this is not great game design, that every mechanic introduced should be fully explored and iterated upon, but I don't really agree. Tossing a ton of unique mechanics at the player can be exhilarating as long as the mechanics in question are intuitive and enjoyable, and 99% of the time, Galaxy 1's stages are genuinely fun. It makes me want to keep playing and exploring this massive galaxy just to see what else is around the corner. It also helps to generate this really naturalistic feel to Galaxy that its successors don't quite have. As much as I love Galaxy 2 and 3D World, their levels often feel like their specifically-designed to be video game levels. Galaxy's areas, on the other hand, feel a lot more organic. Mechanics aren't meticulously introduced to you, they're just... there. Some galaxies look like an absolute clusterfuck of different planetoids pasted around and you're just expected to find a way to navigate them.
The boss roster is also easily my favorite in a 3D Mario game. Mario is often accused for having fairly derivative three-hit bosses, but the fights across both Galaxy games don't feel nearly as restrictive, and you often have to fight them in some really creative ways. Bouldergeist is an obvious highlight, slinging Bomb Boos into him will never not be satisfying, but I also love the tennis matches against King Kaliente, the Shadow Of The Colossus-esque battle against Megaleg, the shockingly good underwater fight against Kingfin, and probably one of my favorite final Bowser fights in the series. Skipping ahead, while I don't think Galaxy 2's roster is quite as strong, it also has some serious standouts like pretty much all of its Bowser Jr fights, most of which rank among the best he's ever had.
However, for as good as the gameplay is, what I think elevates Super Mario Galaxy to my favorite game of all time is its story and atmosphere. Most mainline Mario games don't really put much emphasis on the story, but Galaxy was a unique exception, being headlined by, of course, Yoshiaki Koizumi. After his incredible work on Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask, he aimed to take Mario in a more emotional direction, and he absolutely succeeded. Super Mario Galaxy feels uniquely epic for a Mario game, Bowser's initial assault on the Mushroom Kingdom is so cinematic and devastating, it really hooks you right from the start. Even in gameplay, Galaxy is conveying so much. The camera is often pulled way back, with Mario looking like a speck compared to the vast expanse of space. The colors used are often really dark and cold, it gives off an incredibly isolating and contemplative atmosphere that always stuck with me. This, of course, fits in perfectly with the focal character, Rosalina. There is so much to unpack about Rosalina, she's easily one of the most complex Mario characters ever made. Her backstory really delves into the effects of isolation as Rosalina leaves Earth to help the Lumas (while also having been revealed to be coping with her mother's death), and as you explore the hub, the Comet Observatory, you get to learn how Rosalina deals with this isolation. From visiting Earth every 100 years, to taking care of the Lumas like family, to building a serene garden in the top of the observatory that may or may not be based on hills where she grew up. And seeing her slowly open up to Mario, the first human she meets in a long time, is really heartwarming to watch. Koizumi really is a masterclass at wringing deep themes out of simple Nintendo IPs, and I didn't even mention the tearjerking Luma sacrifice ending and how it uses the cyclical nature of the Mario series to tackle the cycle of rebirth. Most games don't make me cry, so the fact that a Mario game is able to make me tear up multiple times is truly something special.
Now, Super Mario Galaxy 2 gets a lot of flack for toning down the atmosphere and dramatic emotional narrative than the first game had, and I agree. Galaxy 2 is all the weaker for not reaching for its predecessor's emotional heights... but I'm also kinda glad it didn't?
As I said, Super Mario Galaxy is first and foremost a game about isolation. Super Mario Galaxy 2, on the other hand, is about connection. When Peach gets kidnapped again, Mario teams up with a big luma named Lubba who's also looking for who he calls his "special someone" (who's of course revealed to be Rosalina). The main plot is driven by two characters forming a bond out of their desire to reconnect with those they care about, and it expands from there. As you play through the game, you slowly meet other NPCs across the various galaxies who proceed to hop aboard your starship. By the end of the game, Starship Mario is populated with all kinds of different species from all across the galaxy, a melting pot of everything the universe has to offer. In this way, I think Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a perfect compliment to the first game, not trying to replicate its success, but rather tackling its core idea from the opposite angle. It's a much lighter take on the concept of space, focusing on the community that you can find in such a large expanse. Maybe I am giving Nintendo too much credit here, but the parallels exist nonetheless. Galaxy 1 is about isolation, Galaxy 2 is about connection, and together, they form a perfect duology.
As far as gameplay goes, Super Mario Galaxy 2 plays pretty much identically to its predecessor, but it does bring some neat new abilities to the table. Galaxy 1 did have some fun power-ups like the Bee and Boo Mushroom, but Galaxy 2 introduces some of the best powerups across both games like the Cloud Flower and Spin Drill, both super fun abilities that are incredibly well-explored. But more importantly, Galaxy 2 introduces Yoshi who plays a pretty huge part in the game. As a Yoshi fan myself, it's very cool to see him play a major part in a 3D Mario platformer, and his movement feels great. He can flutter jump and swallow enemies, the latter having the same wonderful sense of feedback that collecting Star Bits has, and he even has a few really fun powerups of his own. The level design is also really good, possibly even an objective improvement on the first game. It's more focused and refined, with each Star focusing on fully fleshing out a set of mechanics, more like the levels in 3D World. While I do have a softspot for that Galaxy 1's aforementioned unpredictable level design, Galaxy 2 still manages to feel almost equally unpredictable through the sheer quantity of its level ideas. The first Galaxy game has only fifteen major galaxies and a number of smaller galaxies, with the prior having around six Stars and the latter having just 1-2. Galaxy 2, on the other hand, has around 30-40 major galaxies just with the Star count cut to 2-3.
And for as much as I think the first Super Mario Galaxy is a near perfect game, it does have some flaws that Galaxy 2 actually sands off. Galaxy 1 suffers from a bit of asset reuse near the end of the game, with many bosses being brought back with minimal changes and even some planets being directly recreated. Dreadnought Galaxy is basically Battlerock Galaxy again, and Gold Leaf is just mirrored Honeyhive. Galaxy 2 does not have this issue. Not only does it have vastly more galaxies than the first game, but outside of the occasional callback to Galaxy 1, it's far less flagrant in this regard. To the bitter end, SMG2 never stops tossing new ideas at you. Galaxy 1 is also pretty easy for the most part, but Super Mario Galaxy 2 is genuinely challenging. I'd even say it's one of the toughest 3D Mario games right up there with Sunshine due to the harder Comet stages and the presence of World S. I also think the postgame in Galaxy 2 is quite a bit better. The Green Stars are more fun to collect than just replaying the game again as Luigi, and Grandmaster Galaxy is a far more satisfying final level compared to Galaxy 1's cute but minimal Grand Finale Galaxy.
As far as presentation goes, both of the Galaxy games still stand as two of the best-looking games on the Wii. Not only do they look super ahead of their time for games that released on a standard definition console, but their art direction is absolutely stellar, with some stunning skyboxes and really fantastical textures for all of the planets. Once again, I generally prefer the darker colors of the first Galaxy, but its sequel is nothing to scoff at either, as I feel its levels look a lot crisper and more detailed than in the first game. The soundtracks are the icing on the cake for the Galaxy games, they're easily my favorites in the medium in how they blend sweeping orchestral pieces with atmospheric and space synths. Once again, I think the first game has the general better soundtrack with tracks like Rosalina In The Observatory, Hell Prominence, Luma, The Galaxy Reactor, To The Gateway, Egg Planet, Purple Comet, Space Junk, Waltz Of The Boos, and of course, Gusty Garden and Buoy Base. However, the second game also deserves mention for tracks like Starship Mario, The Starship Sails, Fleet Glide, Cloudy Court, Bowser's Galaxy Generator, and Cosmic Cove.
I don't mean this as a slight to the other 99 games I raved about, but Super Mario Galaxy is so above any other game I've played that its sheer existence feels almost like a miracle. I've never played another game that crams so many fun, unique, original, and creative mechanics into itself, that offers so many instantly memorable and iconic levels back to back to back. And on top of that incredible gameplay, Galaxy also manages to embue a lighthearted series like Mario with some serious emotional heft, between the sweeping score, the ethereal art direction, and the genuinely touching story. These games pretty much defined my taste in videogames, and to this day, I still hold them up as the crowned jewels of the entire medium. Gameplay, design, replayability, narrative, visuals, audio, the Super Mario Galaxy games mark Nintendo at their absolute peak and will probably always stand as my favorite video games of all time.
No comments:
Post a Comment