Back in the beginning days of video games, a little Italian plumber stole the hearts and imaginations of millions of people across the world. The concept was simple: Jump on bad guys, collect coins, run and leap on platforms to get to end of the level, and finally defeat a huge turtle/dinosaur/fire-breathing bad guy who has captured the princess. Nowadays, Mario isn’t content to be the video game superstar of the world -- he's going for the entire galaxy.

It's obvious that Super Mario Galaxy is shooting for "the Greatest Mario Game Ever Made" -- not to mention "the Supreme Platformer Game of All Time." Does it surpass every one of Mario's wacky adventures that went before? Does it take the somehow insanely fun concept of jumping from one platform to another and tune it to perfection?

Yeah, it does.

Mario 64 dropped our favorite plumber into a completely three-dimensional world and forced gamers to think in terms of 360 degrees. Super Mario Sunshine did an admiral job of adding new concepts to a similar formula, but it lacked the freshness and ingenuity found in its predecessor. Something dramatic had to happen for Galaxy to stand out and push the franchise beyond its own boundaries. So those wise developers at Nintendo took Mario and turned him on his head. Literally.

Galaxy doesn't really break the laws of gravity -- it manipulates and bends them. Many of the galaxies that Mario travels to throughout the game are combinations of any number of tiny planets, floating platforms, asteroids, etc. The twist is that Mario can't actually fall off of many of these platforms. Run to the edge and leap and Mario will fly around the object that he is standing on and land on the bottom, upside down. At first it might seem a little nauseating, but the brilliance of this gameplay mechanic quickly becomes apparent. The game's creators took this ingenious concept and exploited it in hundreds of ways that are thrilling, complex, hilarious, and just plain fun.

Under the processing constraints of the Wii, the graphical polish doesn’t begin to touch other high end games out there -- but once again Nintendo has proven that the best graphics don’t make the best games. That’s not to say that Galaxy is anywhere near ugly, you’ll just find that reflective surfaces don't actually reflect much of anything, and most of the textures belong in next-gen land. Despite all this, I still found myself thinking more often than not how nice this game actually looks.

Despite the sometimes-limited camera, Galaxy's controls are perfect. Mario's movement is orchestrated with the analog stick on the nunchuck, and the remote is used for jumping, stomping, and a few other interesting actions. The most clever of which is the star pointer -- a little blue star on the screen that represents where you're aiming. You can use this to pick up star bits, which can be used for a number of things -- such as shooting enemies like in a FPS. There are a few levels where you will utilize the motion controls of the Wii. Thankfully, none of these feel like a gimmick and all of them actually work like they're supposed to.

Mario games have never been strong on story. Even though he has moved from the Mushroom Kingdom into the greater reaches of space, he still has little time for a plot. There is an optional side story told in picture book form, and though it's cute, it won't do much to move you. But who plays a Mario game for the story anyways?

In terms of difficulty, there are times when Galaxy feels easy, maybe too easy -- but at other times it will push your platforming skills to the limit. Somehow though, it never feels out of balance. Each star is certainly achievable, and those more difficult ones just give you a greater sense of accomplishment rather than the urge to butcher your cat with the Wii remote.

In the end, you're still running around collecting coins and stars and trying to save that hopeless princess, but this feels like a completely new game for the pipe cleaner. Super Mario Galaxy is such a supremely polished game that any faults are miniscule particles of space dust in a universe of squeaky-clean fun.

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