Excellence. Perfection. Innovation. Nah... the word that really defines Super Mario Galaxy is content. Pretty much as the content from this year on Wii could have been three years on GameCube, Super Mario Galaxy presents such an absurd amount of content that it could have been three Mario games.

You played with him in a World, in 64 Bits, had some vacations and now he’s ready to return to its throne, ascending to the galaxy. Super Mario Galaxy does for the platform genre what no one else can. It revitalizes, make we don’t believe what we’re playing, breaks old rules and write new ones in stone.

In a recent interview, Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, said that asked Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario’s creator, to do what only he could do. That could seen a little too much, but it’s just common sense when talking about a genius.

Describing Super Mario Galaxy is no easy task, cause any detail can be missed when we’re talking of such huge proportions. The main theme is space, galaxies, and with that, Mario will fly through the most diverse places, the most recent excuse that Miyamoto got to take us on a trip through different worlds that breath with creativity all of them.

Of course, Nintendo’s genius is not alone on this mission, the Tokyo studio, also responsible for another favorite of mine, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, were on the move, proving once again their talent beyond any doubts.

The story is still the same, Bowser kidnaps Peach and Mario gives chase, there are new side characters like Rosalina that brings a whole other story going on in the background.

Everything else is unbelievable, a formidable mix of the best Mario gameplay with the most pleasant level design ever. Something that we saw a lot before the game came out, was Mario flying through small planets, and each one of them had its own style, even tough they were so small.

Now, how much were we surprised when we knew that small planets are not more than half of the game and that there are several big stages to explore, but without empty spaces like Super Mario Sunshine. Everything in Galaxy hides a purpose, be it completing the game or just get some extra Star Bits.

Star Bits are one of the news on this new version, small pieces of stars that can be found on a series of situations, where you can just point at the screen to catch’em. They can be shot like a gun to stun enemies or to feed characters that will take you into some extra challenges.

The level design is something that scares me, I seriously think that everyone who worked in this game has to be put in a sanatory, but please don’t stop, I want more insanity. It’s such an absurd amount of contet that a normal person may not be able to absorb everything! It’s a game that keeps surprising you from the beginning to the end.

We also have the power-ups, adding even more variety to the gameplay. Some are old  timers like the Fire Flower, but new ones come, like Bee Mario, Boo, Spring, and one that makes the most of the brilliant level design, the Ice Flower, that allows Mario to walk on water by freezing wherever he steps, and even skating.

The closest thing to an issue that you’re gonna find in this game is the camera, sometimes even worse than Super Mario 64. The automatic camera in small planets work wonders, but at sometimes, on bigger planets, there are some fixed cameras that can really get confusing, and even tough you have camera control on the D-Pad, is not always available, something that made it worse than in the Nintendo 64.

The graphics are the new limits on the Nintendo Wii, and just like other next-generation, if you want it to look as good as in videos, you’ll need high-def. With that out of the way, it’s still prettier than anything you’ve seen on the videogame, being easily in the same level as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games, showing that the pit is not uncrossable yet, everyone else have just not been trying enough.

There are so many techniques going on at the same time, like normal map, that you could expect them to get careless in other points, but Galaxy fill all the spaces. The game has beautiful lightining, reflexes, unbelievable fur shading, fantastic effects, a water that’s even prettier than the already incredible one in Super Mario Sunshine, that make us be marvelled when underwater, we look at the sun and see the surface bright and full of life.

Life is another keyword to the graphics in this games, not only the technical part is brilliant, but the unmatched art manage to add incredible living worlds all around, overflowing with charisma on characters, friends or enemies. There’s a lot of bosses in the game, creatives and fun.

The sound sector is the traditional way for classic Nintendo games, mixing new tunes with old remixes. You can easily notice that the team got a lot of inspiration from Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World, but the new songs are not far, being the main theme, specially beautiful.

Like as evertyhing else wasn’t enough, the game also has a cooperative mode, pretty different than most, where a casual and a hardcore player can achieve more than they would by themselves. The second player uses a Wii Remote, without the Nunchuk, pointing at the screen, catching Star Bits, helping against enemies, or even combining efforts with the other player to make Mario jump higher than usual.

Just like in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, you’ll be on a hunt for one hundred and twenty stars, being that some resolve areound minigames that reminds us of the old challenges without Fludd on Sunshine, and some others that were specific challenges of time, skill or competition agains another character controlled by the CPU. With sixty stars you can already finish the game, meaning that any player can finish it, but hardcore players will want to get all of them.

Super Mario Galaxy is one of the most perfect games nowdays, considering the usual cliché "if not the most", and possibly the best thing on the next-gen, symbolizing more than just an incredible game, it’s perfection. I’m really disapointed that you’ve read until here and still don’t have this masterpiece in your hands! Bad reader! Bad!