Super Mario Galaxy begins with our Italian plumber being invited to the princess Peach's castle. The Mushroom Kingdom was holding a centennial Star Festival to watch the stars and the comet passing by.
Before Mario made his way to the castle, Bowser decides to crash the event with his army. His army of airships keeps the Toads away and with a use of a flying saucer he pulls the Castle off the ground. Mario who
was near the castle tries to stop him but Kamek appears and throws him off the land falling to his demise. Princess Peach had a star shaped creatured called the Luma which was something that she wanted to show Mario. The Luma
abandones the Princess and rushes to save Mario.
Mario wakes up on a small planet and meets with Rosalina, a guardian of the cosmos and the one who looks after the Luma and the rest of the star shaoed creatures. Rosalina explains that they re on her starhip called the Commet Observatory.
She proceeds to explain how Bowser attacked the Observatory and stole the Power Stars that re used as the starships power source. Rosalina then tasks Mario to team up with the Luna in order to bring back the Power Stars and restore the energy to the Observatory in order
for them to stop Bowser and save his friends. Mario accepts and he is off to save the people of the Mushroom kingdom, his brother and ofcourse the Princess.
Will Mario Stop Bowser?
Will The Mushroom Kingdom be saved?
Who is Rosalina and the Lumas and whats their role?
The story of the game felt freshed but also familiar. Its not that complicated on its narrative but a platformer doesnt need to have a complicated story to make it work. I personally enjoy the tale as it was not just another case of saving Princess Peach again but this time in space. I personally always liked Rosalina design, but never knew her story. Now that i know, i would argue i like her even more. The idea of travelling around the world and seeing other Galaxies was amazing. New worlds, new NPCs design and many more which are more directed towards the gameplay re always welcomed. Its a Mario game that doesnt need to go the extra mile with its story.
Super Mario Galaxy can be played on both handheld mode and on Tv mode. I personally tried both versions and i gotta say, TV mode with Joycons take the cake. For those unaware, playing on TV with Joycons is the closest experience to the Wii
back in 2007. The main difference between the two modes is using one of the joycons as a"mouse" on the screen where as in handgeld mode the player will have to use the touch screen. Furthermore, there are alot of Galaxies or mini-games where
the player will have to tilt the joycon in order to manuver or trigger an ability. On handheld mode these levels can be played by tilting the entire console. Honestly those levels as well as the "Blue stars" were the main reason as to why i decided
to stick with the Tv mode till the end.
Once the game begins, Super Mario is placed in a dark shady Starship that acts as the game Hub World. The hub world is filled with a couple of Lumas and Rosalina. Rosalina then points a realm in which the player can walk in and find all the
Galaxies that contain the playable levels. Once entering the level, the player can click the blue star and then select which planet they wish to visit. Each level hides a star and upon completing it, the same Galaxy will unlock a second star and
then a third which allows you to visit the level and play it from a different angle. Behind Rosalina, theres a screen with map layout. Each realm has a certain ammount of Galaxies who re marked with a symbol. If the symbol is a crown it means that Galaxy
in that realm is fully completed in terms of getting all the stars. With each level completed more Lumas will become available in the Hub World which bring more Light to the Starship and unlock further realms to visit. Last but not least the hubworld has
some hidden collectables (1Ups) and the Toads who will give you your mail.
Uppon entering a level, Mario will fly towards the galaxy/level. Sometimes whilst Mario is flying the camera will show/point the main objective where as sometimes is completely random. There are always NPCs which inhabit the Galaxy that will point you towards
your objective. For example, some Penguins may say that the giant fish is preventing them from swimming, thus making you reach out to the fish, or bees complainning about the wild beetles. You will always know how to proceed in the level and what your target is.
Sometimes, you might encounter a random side path towards a hidden 4th star. Once the player obtains the super star the level will finish and Mario will leave the Galaxy. Some planets are minigames such as racing, others are small puzzles, others require to get
certain star bits and others are a boss fight.
Mario Galaxy was among the first Super Mario 3D adventures. The player moves around on a an area and have limited movement options in comparisson to games like Odyssey cause keep in mind, even though the remaster was released in 2025 the mechanics are the ones used back
in 2007. Mario can move around the world and jump. When jumping back to back Mario gets higher and higher. There is a groundpound/crouch button. Crouching and jumping will cause Mario to Jump very high backwards but it doesnt cover long distances and if the player moves, press
the crouch and the jump button will cause Mario to jump longer distances. A new ability that Mario has by default is a Spin Jump with the help of the Luma that escorts Mario. The spin jump is Mario's main way of attacking an enemy(aside from jumpin on top of them). Jumping and
spin attacking can cause a double jump like ability. The spin jump is also the way Mario can interact with Star launchers and flowers. Last but not least the player can use the joycon as a "mouse". When the star symbol turns into a hand, Mario can be pulled towards the given destination.
Similarly, the player can aim the target towards enemies and shoot Star Bits. The enemy shot will be stunned allowing Mario to kill them with a spin attack or by jumping on them.
Mario has an HP of three hits. Each hit causes one life to go down. Collecting coins will heal Mario by one. The player loses if the life drops to zero or by falling off the cliff or squashed by an obstacle which will cause all three lives to go down. Getting a Life Mushroom will give the
player double the HP with a total of 6 lives. Jumping on an enemy usually kills them and they drop a coin where as killing them with spin attack will drop Star bits. Collecting a 100 starbits will earn a 1 Up. Mario Power Ups make their way back in the game with some new original twists. Power ups like bee form, Boo form, Spin Mario, ice/Fire power and others. They re not available as often as in other games and usually the player will have to use them
to proceed. The Biggest advantage this game have, is its gravity design. The whole game takes place in space and thus gravity plays a major role for the game. Whether you walk on a wall upside down, jump from one side of the wall to the other Mario will be gravitated towards the area. The levels
are built with many traps that can kill the player if they miss their jump. The level design is made with everything in mind, that being gravity, available power ups and game physics. Genuently some of the most beautiful levels i ve seen in a Mario game.
The game does support Local Co-op however it is not its selling point. Pretty much, one player controls the Character normaly and the second player is a star point that can point onto things and collect Star Bits. They can even shoot the Star bits collected to the enemies in order to stunned them for the Mario player to beat em.
Uppon completing the game the player has a certain ammount of things to do.
First of all the player can revisit Past levels in order to fully complete them and get all the power stars. To give you an idea, the game requires about 60 stars in order to fight Bowser. In order to collect them all the player can get a total of 242 Stars in order to fully complete the game. Some stars require the player to
complete a certain level within a time where as others will require the player to find Luigi who went to find stars and got trapped. A Toad will hand you an envelop with a screenshot as to where Luigi is. Luigi will also become a playable character. Playing as Luigi is considered hard mode as Luigi is faster and has higher jumps
making the physics around him harder to manuver in. Collecting all stars as Mario and as Luigi will unlock a new Galaxy called Grand Finale Galaxy.
The game's graphics aged pretty well. Despite being a remaster you can tell its not Oddyssey level however it doesnt look bad or old. The only time where the game looks like a Nintendo Wii game is during certain cutscenes but during gameplay it looks fine both on hand held and on Tv mode. The "new" characters designs were iconic and thus we have characters like
Rosalina, Lumas and others making appearances in other games since 2007. One thing that really stood out to me was the level design. Mario Galaxy takes us to different Galaxies which are consisted of a couple of levels. The level is the same, however the paths change with each power star. Even though we visit the exact same planet 3 times(sometimes 4) the path we
take and the puzzles we solve are never the same. I love how they did that with most of the games levels. The hub world is also very nice with the Starship being unique and having more and more Lumas appearing the more Mario restores the energy back to the ship. Rosalinas backround story is given to us with her reading a fairytale like book that seems to be hand drawn.
Audio wise the game sounds very well, from the background music to the sound effects. Super Mario music was always fun and chill nothing out of the ordinary or something crazy, so the same thing is here. If you played any Mario game from the N64 era you should know what to expect. For those who played the Wii version in the past, there is an option to turn on a menu
with the old Wii sound effects on the home screen and enjoy them. There ist basically much voice acting but there are moments where Rosalina will speak a few words. One of my favorite OSTs is the one when Rosalina reads a book to the Lumas. For the classic Super Mario fans, there re some easter eggs on the sound when visiting
the Toy Galaxy or when collecting the Life Mushroom.
The game does not have a particular amiibo function. Scanning any amiibo will spawn 5 star gems.
Overall Super Mario Galaxy was an amazing game back in 2007 and still is now in 2026(which is when i played it). The game follows Mario's adventure into space in order to save princess Peach from Bowser. Bowser tries to create his own Galaxy with the power of the power stars. Mario is not alone in his quests as he meets Rosalina and her Lumas, star shape creatures. In order for Mario to stop Bowser, he teams up with a Luma in order to travel through Galaxies and collect power stars to power up Rosalinas Starship and travel to Bowser's location. The starship acts as this games hub world. The ship contains realms in which different Galaxies/planets can be seen. Upon clearing a level the player receives power stars. The more power stars the player gets the more levels become available. When Mario enters a level, he has to move around in order to make his way towards the star. This might be simply platforming, defeating a boss or solving puzzles. The levels themselves re fun to play as they vary in quantity and physics. They re fun and unique. I found it clever that sometimes you visit the exact same Galaxy 5 times but you never take the same path or solve the same puzles. In fact in some Galaxies, life goes on. One time the rocks are in place, and when you break them to get the star, the second time you visit the rocks are broken. These re small details that re well appreciated and worth pointing out. Overall this is a game you should play if you owned a Nintendo Switch. Theres multiple options for you to get the game, so try and see which options is better. You can obtain the game digitally as a standalone, however for physical bundes you ll have to get either the Mario 3D Stars or Galaxy 1 and 2.
