40 Stars Later

I remember bitching to David earlier last week when I was about 5 stars into the game. I complained about having spent more time running around outside of the levels just trying to get though the layers of crap before I was actually in a level. Though this complaint is still valid, my god.... is this game is awesome. I've spent hours now playing Mario Galaxy and every single new world I come to is new and fresh.

This game has some of the most inspired level design I've ever seen in a video game... ever. A personal favorite of mine so far was the cleverly treacherous mind-fucking 2d gravity stage right before a Bowser fight. I also like how the Wii tilt crap is used minimally in this game in terms of level design. I had to do that stupid surfing level once and hated it. Later I had to do this level where Mario was on a ball and I had to tilt to move around. Needless to say I skipped that crap. Outside of these two missions, everything else has been pure Mario platforming goodness.

The bosses have been somewhat lacking, but to be honest, most Mario games are not known for their excellent boss fights. I'll play Zelda if I want an epic boss fight; Mario is all about level set-ups. Another thing I noticed is that the stars in each world seem a lot more linear that previously. I haven't decided if this is a good or bad thing yet, but in Mario 64 I was able to stumble into other stars while on a mission to get a different one. In this game, different stars usually mean completely different parts of that world that open up during that star mission only.

I bet many of the reviewers responsible for the low Assassins Creed scores and the "too repetitive" comments were also playing Mario Galaxy at the time. Before I even get a chance in Galaxy to want to replay an awesome stage, I'm already doing something even crazier.

I shit you not.... I had a hard time sleeping last night because I kept trying to shake my hand to do Mario's spin attack. Has this happened to anyone else?

-Brad