Super Mario Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy

As much as I didn't expect to pick up SMG on it's release day, I did stop by the Gamestop that everyone forgets about on my way home from work and bought the next-to-last copy. The luck! I'm just past the second observation dome so I've had some solid time with the game and it really does stand up to the reviews it's been getting.

The game is absolutely beautiful. In particular the segments in which you have no control as you're jumping from planetoid to planetoid within a galaxy. The fuzzy rolling hills which your Wii has just enough power to render nicely are the perfect fit for a game as cutesy and faux-serious as SMG - and somehow, this lack of realism is comfortable and authentic. If Bowser were any more real-looking than he is in this game, he'd be as fake as the live-action movie.

I'll admit, though, that the game does not get a perfect 100 from me. There's a certain small planetoid size in which you can hold the stick to the right and do tight circles around one pole, completely unintuitively. It's unfair to criticize that issue without mentioning that the game does an outstanding job of keeping you from touching the camera controls (which you don't even know exist unless you're jabbing at random buttons) and transitioning from being right-side up to wrong-side down. It's nice to have all the classic Mario-in-3D moves (backflip, longjump, triplejump, etc) plus new ones that you only realize once the game tells you they exist.

I've gotten lucky a few times and a comet has been around when I needed another level to complete a galaxy but mostly I'm crownless for the major galaxies.

How has everyone else fared? Did your preorders come in on time or did you wait in a line to pick it up?