Gamer are probably aware that quite a few games have been released in the month. Among them are Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare, Crysis, Gear of War, Need for Speed ProStreet, Super Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles and a whole bunch of others. In the recent years all the Need for Speed series games are released in November, including Carbon, Most Wanted and probably Underground 2.

Among the recently released games, Super Mario Galaxy (SMG) is, by far, the most notable of all. Major game reviewing websites unanimously gave this game incredibly high scores, in the range of 95% to 100% of the highest possible. SMG received 9.7/10 from IGN, 9.5/10 from Game Spot, 9.8/10 from Game Trailers, and comparable scores from other reviewers. Despite the fact that some reviewers from the above sources have been cynical writing game reviews, SMG seems to have pleased everyone.

Along the decades of Mario game evolution line, I only owned two consoles: NES and Wii. Before the emergence of SMG, I only played Super Mario Brothers and Super Mario Brothers 3. Super Mario Brothers was such a legend that memories of playing the game have imprinted into millions of minds. Super Mario Brothers 3 was a push on the hardware capabilities of the NES console to the extreme, and still remained as a highly enjoyable game even under today’s standards. I missed Super Mario World, Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine because I did not have the corresponding SNES, N64 and GameCube consoles. Despite of the over-a-decade gap in my intimacy with the Mario series, I still find the plot of Super Mario Galaxy as easy to understand as before: beat Bowser and other cute enemies, and then rescue Princess Peach. Yes, the overall story has hardly changed, yet it always works.

The original Super Mario Brothers game employed a serial world-by-world system, which meant you would need to finish each world (and sub-world) one by one before you could fight the final boss. But, there are wrap zones as short-cuts. Super Mario Brothers 3 used a map system in each world, making some sub-worlds mandatory, some completely optional, and some under “one or the other choice” scenarios. Short-cuts are given by way of magic whistles, a toot on which would bring you into a wrap zone.

Taking a different approach, the new Super Mario Galaxy employs a “star collecting” mechanism. Once you complete a new mini game, you collect a star. As the number of collected stars accumulates, new mini games, or galaxies, are unlocked, giving you the chance to collect even more stars. Under this system, you can always skip a few (but not too many) mini games that seem to be killing you and you can still unlock further galaxies. As for myself, I am not particularly good at swimming and complex jumps, so I skipped the galaxies that placed a high demand on such skills. Luckily I still have enough stars to travel to the farther galaxies. The maximum number of stars you can possibly collect is 120, however you need only 60 to see the final boss Bowser. So if you are only a casual player, you can accumulate only 60-70 stars and then try Bowser. If you make it, you can justifiably go and buy an “I’ve beaten Bowser in Super Mario Galaxy!!” T-shirt for yourself. Also it’s not rare to find a hard-core player spending hours before the screen for the very 119th and 120th stars.

The graphics is spectacular in most aspects. The screen is 720 by 480, or 480p, if you use a component cable. It’s DVD quality, good enough for those who haven’t seen any HD-DVD or BluRay demonstration, and those who just don’t care. My reasoning for the screen resolution of the games is, a well-made game scenery rendered in low resolution overrides a poorly-made one rendered in high-resolution, just like a 1200x800 photo (1M pixel) from a DSLR camera with a decent lens is superior in quality over a 3200x2400 one (8M pixel) from a cell phone with a tiny camera. The graphics in SMG is obviously carefully done with many artistic merits, such as vivid facial expressions, shining stars in the universe, colorful floors, reflections of light on metallic surfaces and refractions over crystal faces. Most of the game scenes will be able to wow a person who just happens to walk by. Some of the fluid objects, like water or smog, do not look perfectly realistic due to hardware limitations, but are good enough for a fairytale-like game scene.

One notable fact about the graphics in SMG is that, it is more of a work of art than that of high technology. Do not expect those fancy techniques such as HDR, physical engine, ray-trace rendering here. SMG did not rely on latest computer graphics techniques to generate realistic scenes, however it was the artistic human work that made the game scenes shiny, colorful and vivid. The halo effect of the stars is a good example: it does not look perfectly realistic, however it looks just beautiful.

The controls of the game are designed in such a way that the learning curve barely exists. The analog stick in the nunchuck controls movement: up, down, left and right, which are very simple and intuitive. The direction of movements are relative to the screen. I've come across other coordinate systems such as character coordinate, which means the direction of movements are relative to the protagonist himself/herself. The Resident Evil series are good examples of such a coordinate system: if the character is running toward the screen and you push the analog stick to the left, the character makes a left turn and runs to the right-side of the screen. Although such a coordinate system provides better in-game feelings, it can be very confusing or even frustrating to new players. For quite a few times I've made a wrong turn and ran into a zombie in Resident Evil games. ApparentlySMG does not want to daunt light players by a confusing controlling system, therefore Nintendo wisely chose the more intuitive game-play for the players. Other bottoms and gestures, like the round A bottom to jump, a shake of the remote to swing Mario, B bottom to fire, and the Z bottom to duck, are intuitive as well and can be familiarized with in just a few minutes, and you are not likely to make mistakes with the controls.

Finish one galaxy, and fly to the next one. That is the basic route of the game. Each galaxy contains a few stars or planets, with all different shapes far beyond even the wildest imagination of yours. Some are spherical, like the real world, and some are cubic, cylindrical or even pyramidal. Still some others are in shapes strange enough to hinder text-based description. I've played one planet in the shape of a surfing channel, and the light-blue world filled with water indeed impressed me. Having collected a quarter of the total number of stars, I believe it's safe to say a great enjoyment lies in exploring the amazingly creative ideas you will see in the game, and I guaranty it's very frequent.

Almost every game contains boss fights from time to time in the story line, and SMG is not an exception. Thanks to the not-bad hardware power of the wii console, many bosses are made huge, occupying over half of the screen size. Although they are bosses, or enemies, they are still cute and adorable. Did I mention I like the final bossBowser ? And I once came across a giant flower with a funny fluffy spherical tail. The design of the boss was so lovely that I hesitated to kill it. However it turned out that I didn't need to worry, because for most enemies, you don't kill them -- instead, you just defeat them. This is in accordance with the apparent goal of Nintendo to make this release a game for everyone: no violence. Frankly speaking I don't mind if a game contains violence or gore, as I've been a player of Resident Evil, Call of Duty, Red Steel, Delta and so on. However I am glad to see this game is targeted to all audiences, therefore more people will like it and consequently enjoy it.

As a closing comment, it is absolutely a must-have game for virtually every wii owner. So if you have a wii and the bundled Wii Sports starts to bore you, it's high time to invest another 50 bucks in this unbelievably wonderful game. Super Mario Galaxy supersedes similar games such as Super Monkey Balls,Kororinpa Marble Mania and even Rayman Raving Rabbits. If you are on a tight budget, buy SMG only and forget about the others. The total of 120 stars will keep you busy for quite a while, and there are other unlockables (hint: Luigi). Once you have collected several stars already, you will be re-convinced that the game is worth your bucks.

原唱是张信哲哈，从一首日本歌改过来的。。。

品冠的《我以为》，大家随便拍砖，注意别忘脸上拍！