I’ve said before that although Super Mario Galaxy is a fantastic game, it isn’t as good as Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. I was never able to really put my finger on why, though, until this playthrough.
There’s three main things – it’s a bit disjointed, in that each world is very small and there are so many of them so it doesn’t feel like you get to spend much time learning them like you do in the other two games. There’s fewer “goals” in each too. The other thing is that there’s not much actual platforming and most of what there is, is jumping over voids and holes rather than the acrobatics of the previous games. There’s hardly any wall jumping, for instance. Finally, it’s very easy. Yes, I know the difficulty is in getting all the stars, but unlike 64 and Sunshine you can reach the end of the game and beat Bowser with no difficulty whatsoever.
But those don’t make it a bad game, just not quite as good as the other games. It’s still a torrent of ideas that Nintendo bombard you with, it’s still clever, it’s still amazing to look at. The point control replacement (when using a Pro Controller at least) is slightly off, but it doesn’t really matter.
I beat Bowser with around 80 stars. and yes, like the other games I intend in returning for the rest!
