Super Mario Galaxy [Wii]

As another interesting mechanic to Bee Mario, he can also climb on giant honeycombs or other surfaces (a gigantic bee friend, for example) and free-climb up them. Wall climbing isn't some never-before-seen mechanic in platformers, but we sure as hell haven't seen an overweight plumber do it while in a furry suit, and it's downright hilarious. Call it immature; we call it entertainment. Bee Mario can also combine the wall climbing with jumps and hovering, making for some amazing potential for level design in the future. Yes it's a little odd, but we're a fan of Bee Mario.

Moving to the other galaxies, there's still a ton of ground to cover. As one of the highlights of our many playthroughs "The Beam Star Trail" in Star Dust Galaxy was a hit, combining tiny chunks of floating levels with the blue gravity orbs that suck Mario freely in space, tons of star warps that send him blasting from planet to planet in flight, and an awesome level-building mechanic that gives the world its own soul. During a few key moments of Star Dust Galaxy, Mario walks out onto a seemingly dead-end chunk of level. Out of nowhere gravity kicks in, and starts sucking chunks of off-screen debris into view, literally building the level seconds before Mario steps off the ledge and into a black hole.

As you run, the level pulls away behind you and is built in front of you (or on branching paths, depending on the situation). You're on a set path, but you can't see where you can and can't walk until new pieces fly in, which is again based on how close you are to the ledge. At the beginning we took this area slow, as it was freaky and pretty damn intimidating. Once we started to get the fell though, it was a dead on sprint as we went with the flow and ran though a level that literally built itself as we explored it, and it felt great. Galaxy is truly next-generation Mario because of moments like these.

And they continued on and on throughout the playthrough. In just these four levels we navigated a gravity-flipping pill-like world, fought a huge plant boss (shown in the E3 trailer), crawled around on some creepy giant bee's body to find star pieces, dropped into holes that took us through the middle of a planet only to slingshot back out the other side, traversed a cool looking (though small) pirate ship in the middle of space, and dropped into warp pipes for self-contained gravity puzzles inside of larger planetary masses. Four levels showed off all that gameplay, and for that reason we're dying to see what Nintendo has in store for us in the final version.

Even the two-player mode, which is still basic and a little buggy at this point, was a neat addition to the demo. Nintendo hinted about this one for a while, but we saw it in effect today. With just an extra Wii-mote a second player can jump into the action and take control of an additional IR pointer. The IR can be used to hold enemies down, destroy some obstacles (such as annoying rolling boulders), freeze Mario at any time, collect the mini star gems, or fire those same gems to stun enemies. The system isn't perfect, as we had player two accidentally freeze Mario multiple times in the process of aiming for an enemy or messing around in the world, but it's still pretty fun. We even got into screwing the other player over for the fun of it with the Wii-mote, freezing Mario until player one threw a hiss fit. It still seems like there could be more though, as you still can't grab coins or other items and drag them to Mario, or give the plumber a friendly grab-n-toss every now and then. It's a neat addition, but it's still kind of gimmicky too, and is more of an entertaining distraction from the main game as opposed to actual two-player co-operative play.

As a final note on our playthrough, Super Mario Galaxy is shaping up to be one of the prettier games on Wii, and this demo was no different. Subtle effects such as reflections in crystals, distortion in the water, puffs of smoke when Mario runs, and some of the best textures we've seen in a Nintendo game all help make Galaxy a simply beautiful Wii showing. The lighting is fantastic, and the world seems full of ambient animations that really add to the experience. Character models morph and stretch in classic Mario fashion, and the overall presentation is bright and crisp. There are still a few oddities with the camera, as you'll sometimes have quick glitches when dealing with smaller worlds or strange gravity changes, but we're more than confident that it's just one of those "E3" things, and that all will be well for the title's release.

We could talk all day about what makes Super Mario Galaxy a must-have title for Wii, and come review time (or future hands-on) I'm sure we will, but in reality it's about one major thing: Super Mario Galaxy is fun. When we're finished playing it, we think about playing it again. While we explore the world we're half playing, half admiring the level design and gameplay concepts. Nintendo may be reaching out to casual players and basing its new system on things like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, but the fact of the matter is that the company is still all about the gamer, and all about the games, and Super Mario Galaxy is pure living proof of that. This is the Mario you've been waiting for.

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