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15 Years of Super Mario Galaxy!

Hello everyone, how are you? 5 years ago on this day I wrote my thoughts on Super Mario Galaxy which was 10 years old at the time. I'm not the best writer out there nor do I claim to be, but I really gave it everything I had when I made that post. If for any reason you want to go and check that out I'll link it here. Now that that's out of the way, Super Mario Galaxy is now 15 years old. It's amazing how time flies, kinda fitting since you are flying through space.

                                                  Going strong 15 years later

So yes I've written about Super Mario Galaxy before, what am I going to do this time? Write about it again this time as well of course! Though honestly it feels hard writing about a game you have written before, especially when you said everything you wanted to say about it, a game that you gush over a lot for. But I'll try my best and try to not to retread old ground, as in say stuff I had said about the game before. Again, that'll be much more harder than it looks but we'll see how that goes. Well with that out of the way let's jump into a Launch Star to the next Galaxy...

Since the release of Super Mario Galaxy back in November 1, 2007, there has been 4 3D Mario games released till now, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Super Mario 3D Land, Super Mario 3D World, and Super Mario Odyssey. And if you want to get technical, we got the Super Mario 3D All-Stars Collection which has 3 games, and a re-release of Super Mario 3D World with a new mode called Bowser's Fury. So if you count those games individually, that's 8 games, 9 if we count Bowser's Fury as its own game. But for the sake of this, I'm only counting original releases and Bowser's Fury. And I'll be using the 3D All-Stars version of the game for this, so that will be interesting.

The start of Super Mario Galaxy is just phenomenal. It starts you off playing the game right away, like every game should. I always appreciate it when a game lets me get into the gameplay as quickly as possible. You get the feel for the controls and the gameplay. Granted you don't get access to the main/core mechanic of the game at the beginning, but I like that they didn't give you access to everything at the start. The cutscenes in the game, especially the first 5-10 miutes are amazingly well done, it feels like I was watching a movie of sorts. Yes, the plot is the same as usual, Bowser kidnaps the Princess, but the setup and everything leading up to that was incredible.

 

                       All I wanted was some cake from Peach. Is that too much to ask?

Mario is stranded in a small planetoid in space but he meets a mysterious woman named Rosalina. Rosalina then lets Luma partner up with Mario, which grants him a new ability that let's him travel through space and I guess an extension of Mario's abilities. With this newfound power, Mario can do a spin attack that allows him to attack his enemies when Mario's mighty stomp isn't enough. You can also perform a spin jump in the air if you jump which gives Mario's already world class jump an extra boost. With the spin attack you can also break crystals, these crystals often have something encased in them, like an important item or even Toads. Yes you read that last part right. There's also a lot of surprising uses for the spin attack, like it's such a simple move/mechanic but it's really effective and used really well. Nintendo knew what they were doing.

The Galaxies are the levels that you'll be Wahoo-ing throughout the game and the level design for the are really stellar. The first few Galaxies you'll be travelling to are to get you acquainted with the mechanics and show you what the spin attack can do. The level design for them are just fantastic. At times they make sense like going through levels that would feel at home in a Mario game. At other times you go through some space-themed levels, which makes sense given the name of the game. And at other times you get into some really wacky stuff that I've come to expect from these games. Heck at one point I'm in a space mansion on a mission to rescue Luigi. At other times I'm on floating apples and I have to get some worms to help me get to the next apple. If that sounds absurd because it does, but I love it all the same. One thing I loved about the game is you never did the same thing twice. Like yes you revisit the levels a number of times but you are doing a different objective and you get to explore a new portion of the level as well. It never got boring at all and this is one thing I feel both Galaxy games did right that later Mario games didn't. 

The music, the music is just incredible. I know Super Mario Galaxy isn't the first Nintendo game with orchestral music, but I feel that the soundtrack made the levels, well everything about this game impactful. The levels have these really amazing set pieces and the music just adds to that. Sometimes a great soundtrack really elevates a game to new heights and Nintendo and all the composers did a fantastic job with it. I still stand by Gusty Garden Galaxy as the best song Nintendo has ever given us, it's a masterpiece. Years later the music in this game just gives me chills at how amazing it is, some of the songs even bring tears to my eyes because they remind me of this game so much, and a bygone era. I hum or whistle these songs from time to time. They're that good.

As for the story, yes the game has a story. Like I mentioned, the story is the same as pretty much every Mario game, but except this time there is more at stake since Bowser plans to take rule the entire universe. That's the main story, but there is in fact a hidden story. This hidden story focuses on Rosalina, or at least it implies that it is about her. It's really sad and tragic, it deals with loss, among other things. But what I like about it, besides the fact that I like Rosalina, is that the story isn't in your face or anything. Like every now and then when you get progress in the game you get notified that you unlocked a new chapter for her storybook. But that's really up to you if you want to go and take a look. The game doesn't force you to do so but it does give you more insight on who Rosalina is, what her overall role is, who are the Lumas and why she takes care of them, and why it's important to get the Grand Stars back.

         Rosalina is the adoptive mother of the Lumas and she cares for them so much 

Final Thoughts: There are only a few games that I consider perfect in every sense of the word. Super Mario World for example is a game I consider perfect. Nintendo has released a number of 2D Mario games after Super Mario Word but it's so perfect that Nintendo has yet to release a 2D Mario game that surpasses it. Nintendo even decided to say "Fine, do it yourself" with 2 Mario Maker games. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a game I consider a perfect sequel. It improved upon everything from the first game and more. It was definitely a love letter to fans of the first game and fans of Mario in general.

But what about Super Mario Galaxy? At the time I thought that it was a perfect game. At the time it took everything from all the previous 3D Mario games and improved upon all of that in every single way. Movement, physics, mechanics, gameplay, everything was improved upon. But we've gotten more 3D Mario games since where all of that has been tweaked and improved. Super Mario Odyssey's controls for Mario feel buttery smooth, just perfect. It's a shame Nintendo didn't make another game with Mario like this where they go all out crazy like they did with Galaxy 2. But despite that, Odyssey isn't my favorite Mario game. It used to be my most favorite Switch game, but it has been dethroned. By what exactly? By a game that released this year, but that's the only hint I'm giving.

So where does that leave Galaxy? Well it's safe to say that after all this time I still love it. It's like when you fall in love with someone, you see them, you think about them, and you are reminded why you fell in love with them in the first place and why you still love them after all these years no matter what has happened since then and now. You may have met so many different people since then but they are still the one you love the most no matter what. I suppose that describes my relationship with this game. I loved it when it originally released on the Wii, and I loved it when it was re-released on Nintendo's botched collection of Mario games on the Switch. On the Switch I tried it without motion controls, and it plays really well without them, but it just felt unnatural to me if that makes any sense. Maybe because the game was built around the Wiimote and motion controls or maybe I'm just so used to playing the game with them. The motion controls never bothered me and they never felt intrusive or anything. But that's just me.

 

     The very first level I ever saw in a magazine is still my most favorite level in the game

But to me, Galaxy is still perfect after all these years. Galaxy 2 blew it out of the water in every way, but I feel Galaxy just had much more impact in general. Not just in gaming but to me personally. To me, this game changed everything and the perception I had about gaming in general. In every console generation that I was a part of in my life I thought of games differently. During the N64 era I got into games. But I didn't have many games at the time and you can only play the same games so many times. So toys filled that void that games didn't. Then for the Gamecube era I started to get more into games in general, they were really fun and had improved upon in every way from the N64. I thought they couldn't get any better than that. But that changed with the Wii.

One thing Super Mario Galaxy taught me that games can be so much more than glorified time-wasters. They can make you feel all these range of emotions, happiness, anger, sadness, any kind of emotion at all. They can have such a long-lasting impact on you in a way you never thought a video game could. They can give you such an incredible experience like you've never felt before. When I finished the game the very first time, it gave me a sense of "Now that I've finished the game, what do I even do with my life?" So I did the next logical thing any person would do and I replayed through the game again. I even cried at the end of the game, no other game has ever mananged to pull that off before Galaxy came along. Imagine me feeling all of that, not from some story heavy game like an rpg, but from something like Mario out of all things.

I've been told that I have a really good memory, it often feels like a curse at times. But if I had the option to erase one game from my memory permanently so I could experience it all over again for the first time, it would be this game. That first time was just incredible. If I could experience the game all over again with a clean slate then I would jump at the chance no questions asked. I'd be falling in love all over again for the same person... errr I mean same game. 

                                                     She isn't wrong but we'll see...

One thing I do find interesting is the release day for this game, November 1st. For those that don't know, November 1st is Dia de los Muertos, or for you non-Spanish speaking people, Day of the Dead. So not only will I be remembering the anniversary of the game that changed my life, but I'll also be remembering those who have passed away, people who were very important in my life. Something else that changed my life. This year especially, it feels a bit bittersweet. Honestly I don't know how to feel about this. Even the song I used for this was quite fitting for this. If you know the name of the song, then I tip my hat to you.

If you would of told me that I would be here celebrating the 15th anniversary of the greatest game ever made, I don't know if I would believe you. I honestly didn't think I would last this long to see it. Maybe I'll see you all for the 20th anniversary of Super Mario Galaxy, but hey, Super Mario Galaxy 2's 15th anniversary is in 2025. Will I make another post for that? Depends if I'm still around for it, life works in mysterious ways after all. But at the very least I was happy to live long enough to see the 10th anniversaries of my most favorite games. For that I am grateful.

So those are my thoughts on Super Mario Galaxy, 15 years later. I also want to say that I have a few more things planned to post. I don't really know when they'll go live but I'm working hard on them and I want to have them up before the end ofthe year. So look out for that. That's it for this one, hope you all enjoyed reading this and Happy 15th anniversary Super Mario Galaxy.

               Sometimes this is the best we can do for those we say goodbye to...