Like sunshine on a rainy day
The shooting stars that glide across the skies, the multi-coloured star bits that rain down on the planets and the plethora of well designed characters, which breathe life and energy into this psychedelic world, are just a small part of the diversity that awaits you in the Super Mario Galaxy universe. Around every corner there's something to savour or something new to experience; and whether it's a new enemy, the return of familiar elements from past Mario games, or a newfangled idea within one of the many levels, Super Mario Galaxy encapsulates everything that I love about the Super Mario games, including its charming characters and challenging and fun-filled gameplay.Like other Mario Games, there's a lot of collecting to be done throughout Super Mario Galaxy, including coins that restore Mario's health meter. The main bulk of collecting, however, revolves around scavenging Star bits, which serve as both a galactic currency and a weapon. Mario can use these bits to feed Hungry Lumas (star-shaped creatures), who then turn into extra galaxies or provide a gateway to a new planet. Multi-coloured Star bits are everywhere and add splashes and trails of colour wherever you go adding to the game's vibrant ambience. You'll find them when you kill an enemy, when you dive to the bottom of a lake, nestled in the branches of trees, suspended in mid-air or just floating around in space.
The simple action of collecting these star bits it the first stroke of genius from Nintendo. You see, you use the motion sensing part of the Wii-mote to point at these stars and suck them up. If you hope to pick up every stray star bit it means that you need to concentrate intensely before they evaporate. This means that you're immediately drawn into the Super Mario Galaxy universe from the outset and collecting these star bits becomes an addictive pursuit.
The Wii-mote is put to great use throughout the game. You rotate it to climb sproutles, spin it to break objects or stun enemies, shake it to throw shells and use it for a wide variety of other activities, including skating and tilting it to ride a star ball, but there's also the return of other enjoyable Mario moves, such as the backwards somersault, triple jump, wall kick and the famous ground pound, ideal for flattening enemies. Despite the abundance of moves, the controls have been mapped so well to the Wii-mote that after a short time moving around the levels becomes intuitive.
