Super Mario Galaxy Member Review for the Wii

The Good: Bright, colorful graphics, revolutionary game play ideas, charming music, tons of galaxies to explore

The Bad: Occasional frustrating platforming segments, ho-hum co-op mode, uninteresting story, not enough "Wiiness"

SMG disappointed me a little and YES it did. It just didn't have enough...Wiiness if that makes any sense. While there are wonderful ideas and elements in the game SMG is nothing original. The game has you flying across planetoids and what not to save Princess Peach from Bowser once again. With the addition of collecting star bits by using the cursor of the Wiimote and using them to stun enemies and feed Lumas, this is just one of many elements that makes SMG great. You can flick the Wiimote to make Mario spin, and the controls are very well thought out. It's not really the controls or anything that makes SMG unique but it's the style of the game. For example there is a galaxy where you'll have fruit planetoids and you need to smash wood plugs to make a worm come out of the apple planetoids to cross to the next. With this coupled with bright colorful (and actually somewhat next-gen) graphics its total eye candy (for the Wii anyways). The game also sports charming and wonderful music.

What also makes the game unique is how you explore the levels. The game uses gravity tricks a lot such as switching gravity on you at certain points, using gravity spotlights, being able to walk around a planetoid instead of falling off etc. You can also change into Bee Mario, which lets you fly and cling to walls, there's Fire Mario, Rainbow Mario, Ice Mario etc. All these things are just so cleverly crafted together and it gives you that warm fuzzy feeling inside. There's no way to express how cool this all is unless you just play the game.

While this is good and all it does have its flaws. There are occasional frustrating platforming segments that have too much action going on, or things move to fast for you to figure out what to do. While the game does sport a co-op mode it's nothing really special or interesting. The story is the same as every other Mario game and has a confusing and disappointing ending etc. The only people who don't see this are the Nintendo fan boys and die hard Mario fans. I wouldn't consider this a winner for GotY but definitely for best Wii game of the year. If you have a Wii please pick this up and if you don't then this is a good enough of a reason to.