Super Mario Galaxy: One month on

Dec 10, 2007

It’s not easy giving out scores like 10. It’s hard to be sure you’ve got it right. Imagine it like Star Trek’s warp drive: as we gingerly wrench the score lever past the 9 mark, the ship starts shaking and rattling; the alarms wail; your crew members exchange worried looks, visibly wondering if this is really a good idea.

But when we reviewed Super Mario Galaxy, we just knew. It’s a kind of combination of the visuals, the sounds, the level design, the challenges, that Nintendo near-cliché of inventing a new idea only to throw it away a few minutes later for an even better one. But, most of all, it’s not really any of these tangible elements. It’s just that indescribable buzz of simply having fun.