Super Mario Galaxy, the first nonpaper Super Mario game on the Wii, and the first installment in the 3D Mario franchise since 2002. Anticipating Super Mario 128, I was at first displeased to discover that it had been canceled in favor of a "Mario goes to space" game. But my faith remained in Nintendo and after seeing the e3 gameplay on the Internet (as well as hearing that lovely orchestrated music), I was very pleased and anticipated the game very much. Unfortunately, emotional and financial circumstances prevented me from gaining a console by which the game could be played until last week.

The controls took a day to get used to but that might be because it was my first Wii game besides Wii Sports. But after that, the game was very enjoyable.
Numerical rating: 9

story
The intro was nice in that it gave the origin of the Power Stars, which is interesting despite the fact that I never wondered about it before. Then we came to the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Peach's castle which hasn't been seen in a 3D iteration since 1996. The best part was the appearance of Bowser's ships from Super Mario Bros. 3; they even decided to have an updated version of the music that was present in those particular SMB3 levels. The music in many of the levels, like most Mario games, was very lovely. Speaking of the sound, I am so glad they got rid of that HORRIBLE voice actor for Bowser; mumbling with subtitles is better than that voice...
Numerical rating: 9, 10, 9

gameplay
Now, I will explain all of my gripes with Super Mario Sunshine and how Super Mario Galaxy fixed them. First of all, the back of Mario's overalls are no longer constantly covered with a clunky water pump. While in Super Mario Galaxy he did gain an empowering item, it conveniently merges within Mario like those animals that go into people's ears in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The point being, Mario looks more ergonomic. Second of all, I hate how in no place in Super Mario Sunshine did we ever find a Goomba or other traditional Mario enemies. But Goombas are a staple of Mario games and I missed them very much. Apparently, Isle Delfino is one of the few locations in the universe where Goombas do not inhabit; strange, since Goombas apparently inhabit several different galaxies in space. You'd think Goombas would want a vacation some time. Third of all, powerups. While Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine both had respective powerups, all the powerups in those games were missing something... something like mushrooms. I mean, who's brilliant idea was it to make different "caps" give him powers. How unoriginal that is compared to mushrooms, flowers, stars, leaves, feathers, and various costumes. Also, the powerups wore off after a period of time; and the powers were lame. Super Mario Sunshine's powerups all centered around his permanent powerup, F.L.U.D.D. I was so glad to see powerups like mushrooms that turn Mario into Bee Mario, though I was slightly sad to see that being hurt while powered up lowers your health as well removing your power. Speaking of health, it is interesting how Galaxy lowered Mario's health meter from 6 to 3. I personally find that rejuvenating. It makes the game more challenging and more like the original Mario games where he only had 1 health point. I was also happy to find a mushroom that temporarily increased Mario's health from 3 to 6, just like the super mushrooms in Super Mario Bros. 1 and 3 that doubled Mario's health of 1. The thing about Super Mario Sunshine's plot is that it starts off trying to be different (This time, Princess Peach isn't kidnapped; this time, Bowser's not the antagonist.) and then it ends up being the same as the other games with Peach getting kidnapped and Bowser being behind it all.
Numerical rating: 9

controls
The game featured a nice utilization of the Wii remote without being overly annoying. You only have to waggle the thing when you want to spin right round. And then you got to use the pointer to collect star fragments which was cool and then in an interesting twist, you could shoot the fragments at enemies to stun them, not unlike the water in Super Mario Sunshine, the difference being that this can be done without forcing Mario to carry around a heavy water pump with him everywhere. My favorite part was shooting the star fragments at the star creatures to feed them and watching them become very happy.
Numerical rating: 9

graphics
I have heard that these are some of the best graphics on the Wii and use some of its full potential unlike all these crappy third party companies that invest only the minimum in graphics so they can have bad controls as well. The graphics of SMG are pretty nice, though they do have a lot of bloom, which is nice of course, but I noticed it becoming pixelated in a couple places.
Numerical rating: 8

"Flaws of the game?" you might ask. Well I do have a couple. I always find it annoying seeing Mario flying through space. I mean, it seems like he'd need some sort of vessel or something; instead he looks like an arrogant ______ who thinks he's too cool to have a spaceship. Another major flaw (possibly a plot hole) of the game is How can they breath in space? Another annoyance about the game is how 'topsy-turvy' it gets, with things going upside-down and whatnot. While I do have a sense of how the gravitational balance flows in the game, I fear for onlookers who will surely be nauseated by such seemingly chaotic gravitation; of course, if you are in control, you are less likely to be nauseous.

Keep in mind that these are only my first impressions of the game, having only played about a fraction of it. And based on these impressions, I'd give the game a 10 out of 100 (all of the numbers above are out of 100).

On another note, Super Mario Galaxy 2 looks great and it's nice that they're gonna break their tradition of only 1 3D Mario game per console (hopefully :).

I hope you just copied and pasted that and didn't spend your time formulating that yourself.

I've never played Super Mario Galaxy. Looks...interesting-ish.

Since I have dedicated my life to crushing your hopes, I'm afraid I spent my time formulating that myself. But not for the good of this forum, God no! I did it for personal reasons and such text can come in handy in the future.

*hopes crushed*

You belong to some online game reviewers blog or something?

My own, but you never know, I might submit that text somewhere else.

The main point is I just had to get that off my chest.

Otherwise, you'll just burst if you can't get out your reviews of videogames?

No, worse, it'll go right to my thighs.

And then you'll blow up?

:P

First Rtheone tried to steal my job... then you... why?