Super Mario Galaxy
This games is flat-out fun. Every second, every minute of it. I was skeptical when I first was watching preview videos, because I’m not a big 3-D platformer fan. In fact I am not that big a fan of Mario 64, and I was nervous when this game was being hailed as its “spiritual” successor.
This game addresses one of the major flaws of Mario 64 and most 3-D platformers – the camera. The game is presented in a more zoomed out over-the-top view instead of an over the shoulder type shot. And the camera follows you intelligently around the galaxy. This is all important when the gamespace that you move in is literally 360 degrees. It takes a few minutes to get used to moving around on the planets but after you do it becomes second nature.
As pretty much every review and game of the year article has mentioned each level in Galaxy is an almost completely different type of challenge than any other level. There are multiple planets to visits. Each planet has one to five stars for Mario to obtain on it. Each planet has its own theme, but each star on the planet is a different challenge. There might be a platforming challenge, a collecting challenge, a race challenge, a mini-boss challenge, and a daredevil challenge on the same planet. Even though there only five basic types of a levels to play each feels unique because of the theme of the world, the powerups Mario can use, and because on the same planet the paths, gravity, and bad guys might be different.
This game is quite honestly my favorite Mario game of all time, and my favorite game of all time.