Super Mario Galaxy

So I finally got around to buying and playing SMG (Mario Galaxy), even though I was a bit weary of how this new gameplay was done. However, after playing and completing the game, I can say that I really enjoyed it.

Even though the Wii is not as powerful as the 360 or PS3, Nintendo has taken what they have and made SMG look lovely, all the way down to the minor characters too. Peach is rarely seen but her model looks just as detailed, well as detailed as Ninty's Mario cartoon style is, as Mario or Bowser. The same goes for the "planets" that Mario goes to, I use the word planets losely as some times they are rather small, and have a few holes in them.

Gameplay wise its just as amazing as playing Super Mario 64, although I prefer the content of SM64 to that of SMG. All of Mario's jumps are there from the 64 game too, his triple jump, wall jump, long jump, his crouch flip, and lastly the jump you can do when you quickly change direction when running.

Now some of the power ups could have been better, we seen a reintroduction to the awesome Fire Flower, and we also see its cousin the Ice Flower which lets you walk on water, as it turns to ice as you run accross it.
Other power ups take the form of power Mushrooms, we have a mushroom that doubles your life, but only for that level. Then we have the Bee, and the Boo Mushroom.
Yes thats right I said bee, when you get the Bee Mushroom, Mario gets a Bee suit, he can fly for a short time before tiring and can stick to Bee things like honey. However if you touch and water he loses the suit.
The Boo 'shroom is quite similar, you can "float" along, and can go transparent to go through walls (but not all walls), just as Boos dont like light, if you go into a light as a Boo it will cancel and you lose it.
Now possibly the wierdest power up is the Spring 'shroom, when you see it, it looks like a metal Mushroom. I was kinda hoping that it was similar to the Metal Cap from the 64 game but no. With this powerup you get a metal spring wraped around Mario, and you can spring jump, which makes you jump really high. Although you dont see it that much in the game.
Anoyingly all power ups wont last forever, the Fire and Ice flower run out rather quickly, the Boo, Bee and Spring, will run out just they take a while to do so.

Boss battles are almost always on a small round planet, and they usually take about 3-4 hits to defeat them, just like the old Sonic games. Each boss is unique, apart from the sometimes recuring Bowser fights, altho the last time you fight him it is a good fight that last a while.
I found some of the other boss a little bit hard, I had to take a few goes at them before I figured out how to defeat them

With most games the thing that lets it down is the camera, and SMG is no different. There are times you wish the camera would just move behind Mario so you could see "wtf" you are doing, but no, when you hit the camera reset button nothing happens and your left to figure out which way to maneuverwhile trying to jump upside down. For the most part the camera will stay behind you, or sometimes the game will go into a classic 2d side scroller, but when it does mess up it is rather anoying.

When I finally finished the game, not getting all 120 stars, I was treated to a rather great ending. I wont spoil anything about the story, if you could call it a story. "Oh noes Peach got kidnapped by Bowser.......Again..." but you'll just have to play it and find out.

Music, now this is really really good in SMG. When you pick up the Ice or Fire flower, I really enjoyed the music, it made me fell like Mario was unstopable while he had the power up. Also when your riding around on a ball the music's speed and loudness is determined by how fast your rolling it. Which kinda makes you wanna roll really fast as the music makes it even more fun.

Over all I give Galaxy 8/10, camera lets it down in places, and some of the levels get a bit samey.