Super Mario Galaxy Is Finally Here (In Japan at Least)

It's-a-me! Mario!

Mario has such a unique voice, and tonight, he finally welcomed me into the much-anticipated Super Mario Galaxy. And I must say it is quite amazing. The controls are brilliant, and easy to use. The smaller planets are still a little disorienting, what with walking upside down and just generally going pretty much anywhere you can see. Plus, most importantly, it's a ton of of fun. I love it already, and I've already gotten about 10 stars out of the reported 120 total stars. I've played through the Good Egg Galaxy (Egg Planet here in Japan), which is a nice, simple introductory level. I've also played the Honey Bee Galaxy, and Mario just looks very kawaii (cute) in his little bee outfit. The biggest challenge so far is that sting-ray surfing galaxy that's already been previewed. It took me several tries to beat it, although there was a 1UP on the course, so I didn't really lose any lives. One of the nice little things I like so far, that hasn't been touched on much in reviews yet, is the remixed classic Mario songs that frequently play. This is especially true on some of the "bonus" or "extra" galaxies, the smaller ones that only have 1 star to get. It's a nice touch, and I can see Nintendo really pulling on many gamers' nostalgic heartstrings. Last, I don't know if this is in the English version, but after getting a star in the Japanese version the screen proclaims, "Star Get!" Beautiful. I'll post more impressions at another time, while hopefully avoiding any new revelations, since the game isn't even out in the U.S. yet.

On a side note, today I began keeping a log of how much time I spend playing video games. Since I just got Galaxy today, I expect the playtime might be slightly exaggerated, since I'm still itching to play it some more, even though I know I need to go to bed. So, here's what I played today.

1. Tetris DS - 5 minutes (while waiting to leave for school this morning)
2. Super Mario Galaxy - 2H30M over 3 play sessions (you'll probably see a lot of this game over the next few days/weeks?

Grand Total: 2H35M, almost all of which was Mario