Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 Review

Much to the delight of everyone who ate up the overall-wearing, dinosaur-riding wrench jockey’s Wii-era adventures, Super Mario Galaxy has re-entered the modern Nintendo conversation. Hot off the announcement of the Super Mario Galaxy Movie coming early next year, both Galaxy and its sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2, have returned in fresh Nintendo Switch ports. Don’t worry – this isn’t another buy-it-while-you-can Super Mario 3D All-Stars situation – these are readily available, individual SKUs that occupy their own spaces on your Switch’s home screen. And they’re not going anywhere…that we know of.

Without dwelling too much on the known quantities of these games, given their core content is essentially as it was back in 2007 and 2010, it’s no secret that they’re some of the more beloved 3D Mario games around. Super Mario Galaxy’s secret sauce was the way that planetary bodies and their variable gravities informed its level design, resulting in some truly memorable stages and challenges. Plus it gave us Rosalina and the Lumas, and a high-stakes, interstellar story unlike anything the mainline Mario platformers had attempted before.

Super Mario Galaxy 2, meanwhile, seemed to follow a blueprint of direct sequels from Nintendo studios, eschewing a front-facing narrative and really dialling in on level design and a noticeable bump in difficulty. The sequel, which sees Mario ride around on a spaceship shaped like his own iconic noggin, strips back the ‘hub’ experience considerably and throws a whole bunch of new and challenging gear at you, including a rideable Yoshi with pointer-controlled tongue action. Its focus on platforming and more varied worlds wound up a winner with fans and critics, to the point where fans never seem to reach a consensus about which of the two is better.

Replaying these games, originally designed around the Nintendo Wii’s unique control inputs, is a reminder that Nintendo’s developers have always excelled at not just implementing whatever the current hardware’s central ‘gimmick’ is, but designing around any of its limitations. The lack of complete camera control in both games might feel a little jarring now that we’re working with a full suite of sticks and buttons, but it’s a crucial feature of the level design in these games, where the player is more often led by considered direction, and secrets are tucked just out of view. I would have liked to see Nintendo finally tackle the infrequent instances of Mario getting stuck in a circular walking pattern that affected both games on Wii, but alas it seems fully baked into the engine at this point.

Playing in either docked or tabletop mode, Joy-Con 2 controllers in hand, the classic acts of swabbing the screen for Star Bits or violently throttling with my right hand to launch out of a Sling Star still feel natural. And the same goes for handling Yoshi and his tongue in Galaxy 2. Handheld mode unfortunately suffers a little, swapping wand-style controls for a choice between awkward gyro movements or touch inputs that tend to put your hand in the way of the action a little too much. The first Galaxy is manageable enough in handheld, as it was in the 3D All-Stars version for Switch back in 2020, but Galaxy 2 not so much. I made an attempt at riding Yoshi around, steering and jumping while also using the touch screen to slingshot him through the air. I lasted about 15 seconds before I had to stop.

There’s obviously no perfect way to translate the original games’ Wiimote-based inputs to a typical handheld situation, and all it takes is to set the unit down on something and pop the Joy-Con controllers off for a very comfortable time, so it’s hard to knock these games for weird touch support. If you’re a Switch 2 player, you’ve got a secret bonus option in Joy-Con 2 mouse controls, although as far as I can tell, this only works in the two-player Co-Star Mode. Which makes sense, I can’t see using the second Joy-Con 2 in mouse position while also using the face buttons for platforming being comfortable, so it’s cool to see at least some implementation of the feature.

Visually, both games have received a very tidy update with some tasteful touch-ups to things like textures and UI, bringing everything up to a more modern standard without radically changing the original art. The Galaxy games have their own, distinct screen tone that’s a little darker and deeper than other 3D Mario titles, and thankfully that’s mostly been retained here. There’s also a huge resolution bump – up to 4K if you’re rocking a Switch 2 and compatible display – and much better handling of distant scenery and objects, which all adds up to a fairly impressive presence on a big telly. The package does scrub up quite nicely in handheld mode on the Switch 2 as well, the console’s display seemingly well-suited to these games’ particular palette.

But here’s the more unfortunate rub. $60 a pop for either game is a bitter bloody pill to swallow, especially for Galaxy 1 which was already available on the Switch as part of the (already kinda grubby) limited-time Super Mario 3D All-Stars package. You can find some savings by picking them up as a bundle for $90 on the eShop or even cheaper in physical stores, but the optics of charging near ‘full’ price for these remastered ports when the originals once lived on the Wii U’s eShop for a steal are…not great.

The extras are fairly anaemic too. Both titles sport incredibly basic music players where you can listen to their admittedly excellent soundtracks, but it’s nothing you can’t already listen to in more fully-featured environments, like Nintendo’s own official music app. Amiibo support is in, but the rewards are as benign as things like Star Bits and 1-Up Mushrooms, which feels like a razor-thin excuse to sell more expensive figures. The new Assist Mode option, similar to other Nintendo re-releases, helps massage the difficulty for younger or less experienced players by affording Mario more health and removing punishment for falls, and that’s great.

Easily the most interesting update is the addition of new storybook content across both games, which is a bigger deal in Galaxy 2 given it had none prior. The storybook in the original Galaxy was a welcome way to introduce a bit of depth and richness that these games typically lack, and its omission was certainly felt in the sequel’s Wii iteration, so that’s a definite win. I’m not allowed to say any more than that, but I do think a bit of new (and genuinely interesting) lore will go down as a nice addition for fans – especially with the new Super Mario Galaxy Movie on the way.

Final Thoughts

I miss the Virtual Console days, when your new Nintendo console came with a potentially vast library of classic games at very approachable prices. Now, we’re caught between paying a subscription fee for drip-fed retro catalogues, and paying top dollar at retail for games considered too new for Nintendo Switch Online but old enough that they need retouching. Thing is, I’ve been ecstatic at being able to jump back into these games – Super Mario Galaxy 2, especially – and what’s here is a perfectly fine way to play or replay them. I think we should just be glad that Nintendo is (rightly) averse to the whole Unreal Engine 5 remake path.