E3 2006 Hands-On | Super Mario Galaxy

The demo levels included at E3 have a real Sonic feel to them. The action is high for a Mario game and on each little planet you move around on, (and move on a 360 degree plane which makes for some interesting visuals) there is some minor goal to be accomplished before you, literally, blast off to the next mini objective. The boss battle is awesome, forcing you to make your way up its gigantic mechanical body dodging heat seeking Bullet Bills and timing your moves through rotating gears just right, classic Mario. Heat seeking Bullet Bills in fact play a huge roll in these levels as you'll need to constantly trick them to follow you for a bit only to have them plow in to some environmental obstacle causing it to blow up.

The game makes full use of the Wiimote and nunchaku. In fact it feels very much built from the ground up to do so as you'll be using just about every function within about the first 15 seconds of gameplay. Whatever Mario 128 was brewing these last few years I have a feeling is a shelved product in favor of Super Mario Galaxy. The nunchaku analog stick moves Mario. Buttons are still used to jump and butt stomp so you won't be doing anything like jerking the controller up for "jump" as seen in the original Wii promo video. What you will jerk the controller around for is Mario's windmill attack. In addition to baddie destruction, the windmill seems to serve some key gameplay rolls this time around. In the demo worlds available at E3, once you've solved whatever was in your way on the tiny planet your on, you use the windmill technique underneath a glowing star to rocket propel you to the next objective. The game moves so fast some times that you are doing this kind of traveling a couple times a minute.

What can the pointer do in a platformer? Umm, plenty. While its unknown what the hell they are, littered through out the planets and floating in space are rock shards that must be collected for some reason. The way you accomplish this is not by walked to them but by aiming with the pointer and firing at them with the Wiimote's underbelly B button. There is a star like cross hair that is constantly onscreen which represents what you're pointing at. It has some neat graphical touches too. There will be times when your zigzagging the thing all over the screen trying to shoot at tons of shards dancing all over the place, testing your skills with the remote. The star cross hair leaves a comet like tail behind it and the faster you move it, the longer it gets. As you might imagine, the action can get pretty intense because you're doing all this rock zapping while concentrating on a platformer of Mario proportions with the nunchaku. It could in fact be argued that Super Mario Galaxy is a good example at how all this innovative control can actually be used for far more complex gaming rather than just the simplistic line we've been sold so far.

Heck, that's not even all you do with the pointer. There are times when Mario isn't even platforming on a platform at all. There's full on floating in space sections as well. You move around the space sections by axing the nunchaku all together and shooting floating blue stars with the remote in the order that you want Mario to travel. There are multiple paths in these space sections that will let you decide which way to go next based on what order of blue stars you shoot at.

All this sound like a lot? Well, it is. Like the sound of a new and completely fresh Mario universe, something Super Mario Sunshine tried but really didn't deliver on? This is it. I'd venture to say Super Mario Galaxy is the best demonstration of the Wii on display here at E3. Its utilization of the controller to its fullest is almost chuckle inducing and is simply a blast to play. Remember when you first fired up Super Mario 64 and Latiku came sweeping down with his camera and you got the first glimpse of the Mushroom Kingdom in 3D. And then the feeling you got when the dialogue screen ended and you were actually put in control? It feels just like that.

Nicholas Kleczewski