Super Mario Galaxy (2007): The Review

Overview

Super Mario Galaxy stands as one of the finest platformers I’ve ever played, easily the Wii’s best game and a must-own experience. It feels like the true successor to Super Mario 64, blending familiar Mushroom Kingdom charm with inventive, gravity-bending mechanics and slick motion-enhanced controls that constantly surprise. The levels are imaginative, the movement feels fantastic, and the presentation is downright beautiful, even if an occasionally finicky camera and a slightly easy difficulty keep it just shy of perfection. Minor flaws aside, it’s a near-perfect fusion of classic platforming and bold new ideas, an instant classic that more than earns its place among the greats.

Score: 10 out of 10

The Positives ✅

Super Mario Galaxy feels like that rare sequel that doesn’t just follow greatness, it earns its place beside it. If Super Mario 64 cracked 3D platforming wide open, Galaxy refines it into something smoother, smarter, and wildly more imaginative. From the first leap between tiny planets, it’s obvious this isn’t just another Mario outing, it’s a full-on victory lap for the genre.

The variety is ridiculous in the best possible way. One minute you’re hopping across floating space debris, the next you’re skating across ice, buzzing around as Bee Mario, or flipping gravity upside down. Every galaxy feels handcrafted, tossing out new mechanics and visual ideas so fast that repetition barely has a chance to creep in.

Controls are that classic Nintendo magic. Movement is tight, responsive, and joyful on its own, triple jumps, long jumps, spins, all chaining together effortlessly. The Wii remote enhancements actually add to the fun instead of feeling like forced gimmicks, letting you scoop up star bits or interact with the world without ever interrupting Mario’s flow.

Visually, it’s a stunner. Colorful planets, shimmering water, glowing stars, and wild gravity tricks make the whole thing look like a playable cartoon. It was one of the first games that truly made the Wii flex a little, and the art direction carries every scene with charm and personality.

And the music? Unreal. Fully orchestrated tracks swell and soar in a way that makes even simple jumps feel heroic. It’s the kind of soundtrack that sticks in your head for years and elevates every moment just a bit higher.

The Negatives ⚠️

For all its brilliance, Galaxy isn’t flawless. The early stretch toward the first 60 stars is noticeably easier than expected. Veterans might breeze through chunks of it without breaking a sweat, which can dull the tension.

Some boss fights, even a few late-game ones, feel surprisingly simple. They’re fun and flashy, but not exactly demanding. You might expect more of a challenge from such grand set pieces.

The auto-camera, while smart most of the time, occasionally stumbles. Rare moments pop up where it doesn’t quite frame the action right, and since manual control is limited, you’re stuck waiting for it to behave. It’s not frequent, but when it happens, it’s mildly annoying.

Then there’s the story fluff. Rosalina’s backstory and those storybook segments feel oddly out of place. They’re skippable, thankfully, but they slow the pace and don’t really add much to the adventure.

Finally, voice work is still basically nonexistent. It’s classic Nintendo minimalism, but some players might wish for a bit more personality in the dialogue-heavy moments.

The Experience 🎮

Playing Super Mario Galaxy felt like being a kid again in the best way possible. Every new galaxy was a surprise box, I’d land somewhere and instantly wonder, “Okay, what weird thing are they about to make me do now?”

The constant shifts in gravity never stopped being cool. Running around a planet, leaping off the edge, and getting pulled upside down onto the other side is the kind of simple magic trick that made me grin every single time.

There’s also this wonderful rhythm to it. Jump, spin, collect, soar, land. Even just moving from point A to B is satisfying. I’d catch myself messing around with jumps for no reason other than it felt good.

By the time I was chasing the higher star counts, the difficulty finally ramped up and the game showed its teeth, and I loved it. Those tougher challenges made the earlier breezy sections feel like warm-ups for the real stuff.

When it was over, it didn’t just feel like another Mario game checked off the list. It felt like one of the Mario games, the kind you look back on years later and say, “Yeah… that one was special.” The kind that reminds you exactly why this little plumber is still the king of platformers.