It's not easy being a Mario game.  Few other franchises are subject to the same nitpicking scrutiny and sky-high expectations.  Few other franchises are required to practically redefine the genre with each new iteration.  Witness the collective whining over Mario's last big console adventure, the controversial (and let's face it, underappreciated) Super Mario Sunshine.  By all reasonable standards, Sunshine was an incredible game.   It was bright, it was colorful, it was fun ... unfortunately, it wasn't innovative enough to warrant the requisite amount of awe.  Enter Super Mario Galaxy.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Super Mario Galaxy begins on a familiar note.  At home in the Mushroom Kingdom, our hero is summoned to the castle by Princess Peach who wants to give him something.  Naturally, the Princess hasn't lost her genius for getting into trouble, and Mario arrives just in time to see her whisked into the great beyond by Bowser and his fleet of airships.  

Plucky as always, Mario hauls ass in a futile attempt to catch up with them; instead, he ends up on a damaged interstellar observatory, inhabited by a mysterious but helpful woman named Rosalina and her many star-shaped friends, known as the Lumas.  Rosalina is more than willing to give Mario a lift; unfortunately, her observatory has been drained of all its power and can no longer fly.   The solution?  Mario must help power up the observatory by collecting, you guessed it, Power Stars, one hundred and twenty of which are scattered across dozens of nearby planetoids.   

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground...

Perhaps the first thing one notices about Super Mario Galaxy is how great it looks.  The graphics are substantially improved over those seen in Sunshine, and the opening shots of the Mushroom Kingdom at night (followed closely by the arresting image of the castle being literally torn right out of the ground) are the perfect sequence with which to showcase that enhancement. 

The second thing one notices is that Mario is no longer running around on flat surfaces, at least not all the time.  Now (frequently, in fact) he's traversing planets or planetoids which are, as all good planetoids should be, spherical in shape.  Mario will run off one side of the planetoid and keep running until he's standing on the opposite side.  Gravity holds him to the surface.   Movement is awkward at first (you'll ask yourself, "Can I really walk right off the edge of this thing without falling?", but it begins to feel natural after only a few moments of experimentation.  The game is forgiving at first, letting you get a sense of the physics before throwing you to the lions.   

To boldly go where no 3D platformer has gone before...

Make no mistake, there is a lot to do here.  In the process of collecting the Power Stars, Mario will traverse familiar environments (e.g. the obligatory fire and ice levels) as well as scores of new ones, some of which are so mind-bendingly wacky and original (the Matter Splatter Galaxy, for example) that you'll wonder how on earth Nintendo came up with them.  [We have our theories but we’ll keep them to ourselves. – ED]

As if that weren't enough, Mario now has outfits that transform him into something else such as a bee or a ghost (or even a bouncing spring) or allow him to shoot fire or turn water into ice.  The outfits can be frustrating to use at times (the bee costume gets especially aggravating) but for the most part, they serve to enhance the already-riveting gameplay. 

Meanwhile, the wiimote functions perfectly for miscellaneous tasks like collecting star bits (which can then be fired back at enemies) and launching Mario into a spin attack.  This, too, seems like a fun enhancement, rather than a complete retooling of the familiar control scheme.  At another point, Mario encounters a power-up that enables him to fly.  It's pure fun from beginning to end.

And in conclusion...

Super Mario Galaxy is absolutely a must-play title for anyone who appreciates great games.  You need not be a veteran Mario enthusiast to enjoy it (though anyone seeking to recover all 120 Stars will definitely be grateful for his or her platforming skills), but if you are a Mario enthusiast, you'll almost certainly eat it up.  I found myself replaying certain levels simply because I enjoyed them so much.  I should also mention that the soundtrack (yes, fully orchestrated) is excellent throughout.  Super Mario Galaxy respresents the Wii's finest hour, finally wresting the throne from Twilight Princess.  Don't even think of missing it.