Massive Update Part II

Continuing my desperate scramble to catch up.

Super Mario Galaxy - my game-buying strategy usually involves waiting for a game to come down in price at which point I'll pick it up, but first-party Nintendo games on the Wii seldom do, unfortunately.

So I had to pick up a second-hand copy of this for £18, but I'll say right now it was worth every penny.

There can't be many people on the planet left who haven't at some point played a Mario game. My first exposure was in 1993 playing Super Mario World on my shiny new Super Nintendo. The sheer quality of the game blew me away, the ingenuity and ideas, the super-slick control. It was pure class.

Seventeen years on and that attention to detail, that quality is present in Super Mario Galaxy. I have this vision of the in-house Nintendo developers in their shirts and ties, all in their cubicles working all hours within a strict management structure, all trying to get that extra bit of class into the game.

If I have any issues they involve the sometimes-akward waggle controls, the shake-to-do-spin-jump was a tad iffy when it mattered. However I have to commend Nintendo on not forcing too much motion control on the player, instead using it for less essential parts of the game like collecting star bits.

As I write this I'm 30 stars in. Apparently the game is complete at 60, but you can go on to get the full 120 if you so feel. Unless it gets grr-inducingly frustrating I will probably be going through the 60 barrier.