I Like My Sugar With Coffee and Cream
by Zen
Posted on Monday, December 3, 2007
I'm joking about the failures. Some kids are going to complain that it has colors and big noses and shit, but honestly the only problems I can pick out about this game are very personal quibbles, and everything else about it makes me want to shout its praises to the world from my window. I get sort of used to thinking of Miyamoto as a kind of gaming artisan, a genius of concept, design, and execution. Miyamoto makes a bunch of Citizen Kanes or whatever. The idea is by this point so oversaid and underrepresented that it feels totally bogus. After enough of this you start to forget something important: Shigeru Miyamoto is a fucking visionary.
Every single aspect of Super Mario Galaxy is absolutely refulgent with polish, insight, care, and grace. The learning curve is so natural you can't even tell that it's happening, and every challenge the game presents feels difficult without punishing the player. This balance has not been seen since Yoshi's Island, where the game challenges you to explore its depth rather than its continue system. The most difficult stars to get in the entire game, the ones I look back on with any kind of frustration, took me about five to ten tries to nail down, and I got them the same day I started trying. This isn't bragging--it's a learning curve that applies to each level, each ability, each challenge you're presented with. It's absolutely stunning.

A lot of Galaxy's success is that it is exquisitely paced. There's nowhere near as much exploration as there was in Sunshine, but the game has plenty of it for those of us who want it. There are speed challenges, no-hit challenges, puzzles, platforming, races, and bosses, all in perfect quantities. Even the gimmicky Wiimote levels are a blast, with the most polished control I've seen of its kind and tough but reasonable expectations of the player. The levels are even completely optional, tucked away beyond the realm of casual play.
All of this contributes to a sense of momentum, the feeling that the game can't wait for you to see what's next. Most importantly, even after getting all 120 stars I sometimes fire it up just to play around and see what I can skip past, jump on, or fly to. Super Mario Galaxy may be one of the best examples yet of a "sandbox" game: there are many solutions to problems, the levels are fun to explore and push to their limits, and you can play it as deep or as shallow as you like.

Super Mario Galaxy may just be one of the most important games ever made. Play it, or else you may not be prepared for what's coming next.
<2D>
Daikai10
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