Super Mario Galaxy

 Super Mario Galaxy is a 2007 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the third 3D platformer game in the Super Mario series. As Mario, the player embarks on an extraterrestrial mission to rescue Princess Peach and save the universe from his arch-nemesis Bowser, after which the player can play the game as Luigi for a more challenging experience. The levels consist of galaxies filled with minor planets, asteroids, and worlds, with different variations of gravity, the central element of gameplay. The player character is controlled using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk and completes missions, fights bosses, and reaches certain areas to collect Power Stars. Certain levels also use the motion-based Wii Remote functions.

Nintendo EAD Tokyo began developing Super Mario Galaxy after the release of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat in late 2004, when Shigeru Miyamoto suggested that Nintendo commission a large-scale Mario game. The concept of spherical platforms originated from Super Mario 128, a tech demo for the GameCube shown at Nintendo Space World in 2000. Nintendo aimed to make the game appeal to players of all ages, and the team had more freedom in designing it compared to other Super Mario games because of the outer space setting. The game was directed by Yoshiaki Koizumi and the soundtrack was composed by Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo, using a symphony orchestra for the first time in the series.

Super Mario Galaxy was a critical and commercial success, hailed as one of the best games in the series and one of the greatest video games of all time. It was the highest-rated game of all time on review-aggregating site GameRankings at the time of the site's closure in 2019. The game's graphics, gravity mechanics, level design, soundtrack, setting, and story all received high praise. It won several awards from top gaming publications, including multiple "Game of the Year" titles, and became the first Nintendo title to win the BAFTA Award for Best Game. The game is the ninth best-selling Wii game worldwide with sales of 12.80 million. It was released as a Nintendo Selects title in 2011, as a download via the Wii U's eShop in 2015, on the Nvidia Shield in China in 2018, and as part of the limited-run Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection for the Nintendo Switch in 2020.

A sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2, was released for the Wii in 2010. An enhanced collection of both games was released for Nintendo Switch in October 2025, with the games also being available separately on the system's eShop. In addition, elements from both games will appear in a feature film, titled The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, serving as a sequel to 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, scheduled for an April 2026 release date.

Super Mario Galaxy is set in outer space, where Mario travels through different galaxies to collect Power Stars, earned by completing missions, defeating a boss, or reaching a particular area. Each galaxy contains planetoids and orbiting structures for the player to explore. Each astronomical object has its own gravitational force, allowing the player to completely circumnavigate the planetoids, walking sideways or upside down. The player can usually jump from one independent object and fall towards another one nearby. Although the main gameplay is in 3D, there are several areas in the game in which the player's movements are restricted to a two-dimensional plane.

The game's main hub is the Comet Observatory, a spaceship which contains six domes that provide access to most of the game's 42 available galaxies, with each dome except one holding five. Five domes end with a boss level in which the objective is to defeat Bowser or Bowser Jr. and earn a special Power Star, known as a Grand Star, that gives the player access to the next dome. The player only has access to one galaxy when they begin the game; as more Power Stars are collected, more galaxies and Stars become available. The player is awarded the ability to play as Luigi after collecting 120 Power Stars as Mario. Once 120 Power Stars are collected with both characters, the player is rewarded with one additional challenge. Completing this challenge grants the player the 121st star and a commemorative picture that can be sent to the Wii Message Board.

Controls

The player-character is controlled via the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. While most of Mario's abilities are taken directly from Super Mario 64, such as the long jump, wall jumps, and a variety of somersaults, a new feature called the Star Pointer that uses the Wii Remote's motion sensor is included. It is a small blue cursor that appears when the Wii Remote pointer is pointed at the screen. The Star Pointer is used to pick up special konpeito-shaped objects called "Star Bits", which can then be shot to stun enemies, manipulate obstacles, or feed Hungry Lumas (star-shaped sentient beings). The pointer can also latch onto small blue objects called "Pull Stars", which can pull Mario through space. In certain levels that encase the player in a floating bubble, the Star Pointer is used to blow wind and maneuver the bubble.

Early in the game, the player learns a new ability known as the "Spin" technique, which has appeared in varying forms throughout the Super Mario franchise. In Super Mario Galaxy, the "spin" is primarily used for melee attacks to stun enemies and shatter objects, as well as triggering special propellers called "Sling Stars" or "Launch Stars" that launch Mario across large distances through space. The "spin" utility is also used for climbing vines, ice skating, flipping switches, unscrewing bolts, and for activating several power-ups. Other Wii Remote functions are available for smaller quests, such as surfing aboard a manta ray or balancing atop a large ball and rolling it through an obstacle course.

Power-ups and lives

From left to right clockwise; the interface displays number of Power Stars, life meter, number of coins and Star Bits, and number of lives.

Seven power-ups grant Mario temporary abilities. For example, special mushrooms bestow the player with a Bee, Boo, or Spring Mushroom. The Bee Mushroom allows Mario to hover through the air, climb on honeycombs, and walk on clouds and flowers; the Boo Mushroom allows him to float through the air, become transparent, and move through certain obstacles; and the Spring Mushroom allows him to jump to high areas that would be otherwise inaccessible. The Fire Flower allows Mario to throw fireballs at enemies, and the Ice Flower grants flame attack immunity and allows Mario to create hexagonal ice tiles to cover any liquid surface he walks on. The Rainbow Star grants Mario invincibility and lets him run faster, while the Red Star allows him to fly for brief periods of time by shaking the Wii Remote as well as attract nearby coins and Star Bits.

Mario's health consists of a three-piece health meter, which is depleted through contact with enemies and hazards. When swimming underwater, Mario has an air supply meter, which quickly depletes his main health meter if it runs out. Mario's health and air supply can be restored by collecting coins, or through touching bubbles if underwater. When the health meter becomes empty, the player loses a life and must go back to a predetermined checkpoint. The health meter can temporarily expand to six units through the use of a Life Mushroom. Instant death can occur by being swallowed by quicksand or dark matter, by being crushed by hazards, or by falling into black holes or other bottomless pits. The player can obtain extra lives by collecting 1-Up Mushrooms, 50 coins without losing a life, or 50 Star Bits.

Multiplayer

Super Mario Galaxy has a co-operative two-player option called "Co-Star" mode, in which one player controls Mario while the other uses only the Wii Remote to control a second Star Pointer on-screen to gather Star Bits and shoot them at enemies. The second player can also make Mario jump, and the height of Mario's jump can be increased if the first and second player press the A button at the same time. The second player can prevent some enemies from moving by aiming the pointer star at them and holding the A button.

Plot

The centennial Star Festival is held to watch a comet pass by the Mushroom Kingdom. On the night of the Star Festival, Princess Peach discovers a star-shaped creature called a Luma and invites Mario to the festival to show it to him. As Mario approaches the castle, Bowser attacks the Mushroom Kingdom with a fleet of airships and a massive flying saucer, which he uses to lift Peach's castle into outer space. Mario attempts to enter the castle but is attacked by Kamek, one of Bowser's minions, and cast loose into space, with the Luma following after him.

Awakening on a small planet, Mario is introduced to Rosalina, a guardian of the cosmos and caretaker of the Luma and his brethren, who resides in a starship called the Comet Observatory. Rosalina explains that during a centennial visit to her home world, Bowser attacked the Observatory and stole the Power Stars that act as its power source, rendering it immobile. Bestowed with the power to travel through space by the Luma that Peach found, Mario sets off on a journey across the universe to reclaim the Power Stars and restore power to Rosalina's observatory. Along the way, he finds friends from the Mushroom Kingdom such as Luigi and the Toads while fighting Bowser and Bowser Jr. at certain points.

Upon collecting enough Power Stars, the Comet Observatory flies to the center of the universe, where Bowser is holding Peach captive. While confronting Bowser, Mario learns that he plans to rule the entire universe with Peach at his side. Mario defeats Bowser and frees Peach, but one of the galaxy's planets collapses on itself, becoming a supermassive black hole that begins consuming the entire universe. The Lumas sacrifice themselves and jump into the black hole to destroy it, causing the black hole to collapse into a singularity; the universe is recreated entirely as the singularity explodes in a supernova. Rosalina appears to Mario, revealing that dying stars are later reborn as new stars, allowing the cycle of life to continue. Mario then awakens in the recreated Mushroom Kingdom alongside Peach and Bowser, and he celebrates the new galaxy that has emerged in the skies. If the player collects 120 stars, Rosalina will thank the player and, with the reborn Lumas, leave aboard the Comet Observatory to travel the cosmos again.

The conception of Super Mario Galaxy can be traced back to late 1996, shortly after the release of Super Mario 64. Despite it having a significant foundational influence on how 3D games are made, some members of Nintendo's staff observed that the game caused a separation between potential players that did not exist during the 2D era of video games, with some people feeling that 3D games are too difficult for them to play. Assistant director Yoshiaki Koizumi believed that this perceived difficulty came from their attempts to keep the player from experiencing depth misperception, getting lost, and feeling motion sickness. The solutions created to mitigate these problems, most significantly camera controls, resulted in systems that were too cumbersome or at least intimidating for players. After Super Mario 64 was released, creator Shigeru Miyamoto assembled a team within Nintendo EAD to develop a successor–tentatively titled Super Mario 128–to address this problem.

The principles for Super Mario Galaxy's gameplay originated from ideas taken from Super Mario 128, which was later shown as a technology demonstration at Nintendo Space World in 2000 to exemplify the processing power of the GameCube. The demonstration's director (and future director of Super Mario Galaxy), Yoshiaki Koizumi, desired that one of its distinguishing features, spherical-based platforms, should be used in a future game, but was held back in belief that such a feature would be impossible for technical reasons. After the release of Super Mario Sunshine in late 2002, Miyamoto asserted that the game was unrelated to Super Mario 128 but instead a continuation of Super Mario 64, not a proper successor that built on the concepts it introduced. Koizumi later regretted preparing different camera modes that the players can choose from, since it became a burden to decide on the camera angle before going into gameplay. In 2003, before the newly-formed Nintendo EAD Tokyo started work on Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, a staff member was interested in combining their skills as a team to make the next Super Mario game, to which Koizumi later agreed after their experience of working on Jungle Beat together. Miyamoto suggested to work on the next large-scale Mario game after Nintendo EAD Tokyo finished development on Donkey Kong Jungle Beat in late 2004, pushing for the spherical platform concept to be realised.

In 2005, Koizumi prepared documents for the game–which was under the working title of Super Mario Revolution–for the Wii, which was still under development at the time. Adapting their knowledge of the Super Mario 128 project and their experience of working together on Jungle Beat, the game was set to be a 3D action platformer with Mario running around spherical worlds–which provided their own centers of gravity to prevent Mario from falling off the edge. If he kept moving forward in one direction, he would return to his starting position, limiting the player's chances of getting lost. After the project was greenlit by Nintendo's executives, Koizumi spent three months creating a small prototype with a few EAD Tokyo employees to share with Miyamoto for his feedback, setting a pattern where he would be the first one to playtest all of the game's builds. During development, the designers would often exchange ideas with Miyamoto from his office in Kyoto, where he would make suggestions to the game design. According to Koizumi, many ideas were conceived before development of the Wii console itself begun.

The idea for Mario to have a "spin" attack came during the early stages of development, when it was decided that jumping on enemies on a spherical map would be difficult for some players – at one point, Koizumi remarked that making characters jump in a 3D environment was "absurd". Takeo Shimizu, the game's producer and programmer, noted that the most basic action in a 3D action game was to simply run, and concluded that the easiest way to attack was to "spin", not jump. Prior to the development team shifting focus on the Wii and realising the potential of its different controls, the "spin" attack was originally planned to be executed by swivelling the analogue stick on the GameCube controller. The "spin" was initially activated via rotation of the Nunchuk's control stick, but after motion sensing was confirmed to be implemented in the Wii Remote, the "spin" was changed to be activated through shaking the latter. The team originally allowed Mario to spin indefinitely by shaking the Wii Remote, but Miyamoto had them integrate a delay after the spin to make the game more challenging. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata wanted to prioritise the game's "fun factor" by giving the player a sense of achievement after they have completed a difficult task; Iwata noted an increasing number of consumers giving up during a video game and thus wanted Super Mario Galaxy to appeal to that audience. In response, the development team created a co-operative mode which allowed one player to control Mario whilst the other controlled the pointer with the Wii Remote, therefore enabling lesser experienced players to enjoy themselves in the game.

The development team wanted the game to be enjoyed from the ages of "5 to 95", so during early stages of development, they took steps to ensure that the player would adjust to the game without difficulty. However, Miyamoto thought that it was too easy and lacked insensitivity, asserting that a game loses its excitement when it is made unchallenging.^[21] To balance out the difficulty, Koizumi suggested altering the game's "intensity factor" by limiting the number of hits the player could take to three as opposed to Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, where the number was eight, but simultaneously placing more 1-Up Mushrooms and checkpoints in the game. Retrospectively, Iwata said that the decision to decrease the health meter is "representative of the things that players do not notice that actually change the gameplay dramatically".^[21]

With the concept of gravity and spherical platforms being the central elements of gameplay, the development team drafted several ideas on how to implement them into the game. Koichi Hayashida, a co-designer of the game, initially expressed scepticism of incorporating a spherical playing field into a jump-based platform game, stating that it would be "a bad match". Shimizu also had a negative reaction to the idea, with his main concern being that the implementation of spherical platforms would be impossible to achieve due to technical reasons, and "felt a sense of danger" when the plan was eventually approved. However, once Shimizu started debugging the game he realised that the experience felt "totally fresh" and thought that he was "playing a game like nothing that's come before it". Futoshi Shirai, the game's level designer, stated that unlike Hayashida and Shimizu, he had a positive impression of the new gameplay elements. Shirai liked the idea of being able to run on different types of planetoids, and came up with designs such as planets in the shape of ice cream and  apples. Because the game was set in outer space, the team could devise ideas that would have otherwise been hard to implement in other Super Mario games. Shirai said that the benefit of working with a spherical-shaped world was that they could design and discover new things, with Kenta Motokura, the game's artist, similarly stating that the player would be continuously enjoying their adventure by travelling to new planets. Koizumi appreciated the "free and open" feel of developing the game, saying that it enabled the team to make the game more fun for the player.

Throughout development, staff members enjoyed the level of freedom the game offered, in particular the transforming abilities of Mario. Iwata noted that Mario's Bee Suit was popular with women and also stated that the titular character's other suits were designed to add variations to the gameplay. According to Hayashida, the idea to include transformations in the game came from Koizumi. One of the female members of staff who worked on Super Mario Galaxy wrote a note saying "I want a Bee Mario" when asked by Koizumi what they wanted to transform Mario into. Shirai stated that the development team always discussed their ideas together, and devised ways to incorporate an idea into the game and make it more entertaining. Iwata concluded that having the game take place in space was advantageous, as it was flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of ideas. During development, Miyamoto saw the game as a "true" successor to Super Mario 64, and surpassed the indefinitely-halted Super Mario 128 project.

During the first public showcase of Super Mario Galaxy at E3 2006, Miyamoto stated it would release within six months of the Wii's launch. However, EAD Tokyo felt it was more important to make a game they were really happy with, resulting in it launching eleven months after the Wii. After development was finished, the team reflected that the fundamental part of a Super Mario game was to make the player think about how "fun" it was to play the game itself, rather than simply finishing it. To accomplish this, Koizumi made sure that there were certain areas of the game which could be enjoyed by all types of people, including children. Shimizu added that Super Mario Galaxy's ulterior motive was to have everybody "gather around the TV", as he felt that a game starring Mario was not necessarily something which could be enjoyed by playing alone. The game was made to support six different save files – Shimizu liked the idea of one player looking at the progress of another player and seeing how they compared against their own. Iwata stated that when the first Super Mario game was released, there used to be "many more" people gathering around the television who would enjoy watching the gameplay experience. Iwata asserted that well-made video games were more enjoyable to spectate, and hoped that Super Mario Galaxy's co-operative mode would tempt someone who does not usually play video games to join.