Super Mario Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy is a video game released for the Wii. It is an entry to the series of Mario's 3-D platformers, after Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. It had 700,000 copies preordered in Japan, and 400,000 in the U.S.

Super Mario Galaxy, unlike other Mario games, takes place in deep space. Most of the game's levels consist of many small planets and planetoids, however some are as big as real life planets. The game has 121 stars to collect, although the player will have to go through the first 120 stars twice (once as Mario and once as Luigi.) to unlock the final star.

Story
Every hundred years a huge comet(Grand Star) flies by in the skies above the Mushroom Kingdom. One year, that comet filled the entire sky, and from it fell a stream of shooting stars. The Toads scooped up the Star Bits and brought them to the castle, where they where reborn as a great power star. The one night Mario received a letter...

"Dear Mario, I'll be waiting for you at the castle on the night of the Star Festival. There's something I'd like to give you." From Peach

With invitation in hand, Mario headed off to the [castle] just as the Star Festival was getting into full swing. Surrounded by Toads gleefully trying to catch falling Star Bits, Mario was looking forward to the night's festivities.

But then something happened...

Bowser attacks the Toads with his airships and freezes them in crystals. He "invites" Peach to the creation of his new galaxy and warps into space with her castle to the center of the universe. When Mario tries to save her, a Magikoopa breaks the airborne path to the castle causing Mario to fall onto an unknown land.

Mario later wakes up on a small grassy moon and meets three Star Bunnies who promise to tell Mario where he is if he catches them. When he does so, they take him to meet Princess Rosalina, who tells Mario that the universe is in great peril after Bowser attacked her "ship", the Comet Observatory, and stole the Power Stars, including the seven Grand Stars. Without these, the Comet Observatory is doomed. Rosalina asks him to rescue the Grand Stars in order to defeat Bowser, who took Peach to the center of the universe. Mario then starts his journey across the galaxies, freeing Power and Grand Stars. Once five of the Grand Stars are collected, the Comet Observatory becomes a starship and takes Mario to the center of the universe.

Here he defeats Bowser in his brand-new galaxy, retrieves the last Grand Star, and rescues Princess Peach. Without this Grand Star, the sun of Bowser's near-complete galaxy undergoes a supernova and becomes a gigantic black hole. Everything in the universe begins to fall in. The Lumas from the Comet Observatory, including the Luma who had faithfully accompanied Mario, sacrifice themselves in order to neutralize it. The Lumas attack the black hole's singularity, and then it soon disintegrates in a massive explosion. Mario appears in front of Rosalina, who had somehow managed to save him from the cataclysm. She tells him that this is not the end, but a new beginning for the universe, and that the universe is an endless cycle, but one that never repeats itself exactly the same way each time.

Mario later awakens in the Mushroom Kingdom near Peach's castle. He sees everyone he's met throughout his adventure celebrating, while Bowser and Peach sit next to him. When he looks in the air, he notices a green light of a new galaxy. "Welcome! Welcome new galaxy!" Mario exclaims, as the camera zooms out into space, revealing that the whole universe has been merged into one giant galaxy, but the galaxy Mario saw in the sky is not shown. If the player continues with the file, Rosalina will say if all 120 Power Stars are collected, the player can travel the new world. If the player has finished the game with 120 stars, after the credits Rosalina and a group of Lumas appear on the planet Mario started on at the beginning of the game. Rosalina says "I'll be watching you from the stars," and flies off to the Comet Observatory. Then the white Luma is shown to be alive, now residing on the small planet. Finally, if the player has just beaten the game with 120 stars with Mario, a Luigi tab will appear with him saying "Super Luigi Galaxy!".

The Luigi Story goes exactly the same as Mario's. Even the Luigi in Mario's story is still Luigi. When the player has defeated Bowser and continue with the Luigi story, Rosalina will again say if Luigi collects all 120 stars, the player can travel to a new world. When the player collected 120, the player can travel to Grand Finale Galaxy, the new world and the same new galaxy Mario saw in the ending movie. This galaxy is parallel to the Mushroom World. This explains why there are two Luigis. The last 121st star can be found here.

Luigi Comparisons
In Super Mario Galaxy, also in its sequel Super Mario Galaxy 2, Luigi is a playable character. (See Luigi Story above) Comparing Luigi with Mario and his "Twin", Luigi runs faster and jumps higher than Mario does. But a disadvantage about him is that he has lower traction than Mario. He is also taller than Mario, but shorter than the Non-Playable Luigi.

Transformations
Super Mario Galaxy introduces new transformations and only reuses the Fire Flower powerup from previous games (Rainbow Star replacing the Star from other games).
 * Fire Mario
 * Ice Mario
 * Bee Mario
 * Boo Mario
 * Spring Mario
 * Flying Mario
 * Rainbow Mario

Trivia

 * This is the first Mario game where the Fire Flower is 3-D.
 * This is the first fully 3-D Mario title to spawn a direct sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2.
 * This is the first fully 3-D Platform Mario game to feature a Starman power-up.
 * It uses parts of the canceled Mario game for the GameCube, Super Mario 128.
 * Had a completely new game engine made for it.

Reception
Super Mario Galaxy has received universal commercial and critical success. By May 2010, Nintendo had sold 8.84 million copies of Super Mario Galaxy worldwide. Super Mario Galaxy is the second highest-rated game of all time on the review aggregator website TopTenReviews, as well as the second highest of all time on review aggregator website GameRankings. 1up rated the game A. GamePro stated that the title "raises the bar in terms of what can be achieved on the Wii" as they gave the game 5/5 stars. GamePro gave it 5/5 stars as well and Euro Gamer gave it 10/10. IGN called Super Mario Galaxy "Wii's best game, and an absolute must-own experience", and "one of the greatest platformers ever played." GameSpot praised its gameplay and level design stating: "if ever there were a must-own Wii game, Super Mario Galaxy is it." They gave the game 9.7/10. Below is a round up of the games reviews.
 * 1UP.com A
 * Allgame 4.5/5
 * Computer and Video Games 9.5 out of 10
 * Edge 10 out of 10
 * Electronic Gaming Monthly 9.5, 10, 10 out of 10
 * Eurogamer 10 out of 10
 * Famitsu 38 out of 40
 * Game Informer 9.75 out of 10
 * GamePro 5.5
 * Game Revolution A
 * GameSpot 9.5 out of 10
 * GameSpy 5.5
 * GamesRadar 10 out of 10
 * GameTrailers 9.8 out of 10
 * GameZone 9.8 out of 10
 * IGN 9.7 out of 10
 * Nintendo Power 9.5 out of 10
 * Official Nintendo Magazine 97%
 * Play Magazine 10 out of 10
 * X-Play

Trading Cards
The game featured its very own Trading Card game. It was an expression of a celebration for the game's release. The card game features 5 types of cards Regulars, Trivias, Foils, Standees and FunTats.

Mistakes
A few misprints were made in the cards, that includes:
 * One of the cards has a misspelling, on the Home to Dino Piranha card, it reads, "Home to Dino Pirahna".
 * Another one of the cards has a misspelling, on the Baron Brrr card, it reads "Baron Brr".
 * Another one of the cards has completely misnamed Kingfin, naming him as "Bonefin".
 * The artwork on the Piranha Plant Card is actually a Prickly Piranha Plant due to there being no artwork for a regular piranha plant in the game.