Hands on Super Mario Galaxy

News about Rosetta has been circulating around the internet from magazine scans, which is an odd since Rosetta was in one of the four demo stages in the Super Mario Galaxy demo. The first stage has Mario chase three rabbits on a tiny planet. Through the magic of altered gravity Mario is anchored to the planet. The controls feel sort of like the upside down areas in the Ratchet & Clank games, but if you never played those before moving Mario feels natural with the analog stick. One of the rabbits hides in a hole and Mario has to jump into a crater to grab it. There is a neat animation when Mario does this; he pops out on the other side of the planet while grabbing coins cleverly placed in the interplanetary hole. After Mario catches all three rabbits he gains a spin punch attack when you shake the remote and the ability to jump to other planets.

On each tiny, asteroid sized planet there is a yellow a star. When Mario steps into this and you shake the remote he is blasted off to a nearby planet. On the next world Mario has to collect five star chips to make golden star appear. Some of them are casually lying on the planet where they are easy to grab and one of them is encased in an ice crystal. By shaking the remote Mario can knock into the crystal with a spin punch flurry and release the star chip. The spin punch is also Mario’s primary attack when he is up against goombas aside from jumping on top of their heads.

In another stage Mario has to jump from planet to planet to face a giant, walking, prehistoric piranha plant. The monstrous piranha plant runs chases Mario, but you can’t attack it with a spin punch. On the tail end of the piranha plant there is a giant boulder. Mario can grab the boulder and smack the Piranha Plant with it to win the level. The highlight of this level was really the boss fight. Most of the planets were small compared to the massive stage in the bee level.

In the third level Mario meets a bunch of bees on a planet filled with rivers of honey. If Mario walks into the honey his feet get sticky and he can’t jump as high. The bee level has the first power up a yellow and black mushroom that puts Mario into a bee suit. When Mario dons the bee suit he can fly over the pools of honey by tapping the A button on the remote. His flight is limited, but he can fly long enough to hop from one flower to the next. Mario gets to keep the suit on as long as he doesn’t touch any water. The second he lands in water the suit comes off and you have to hunt for another mushroom. Seeing the bee suit was a nice surprise that made me curious what other suits Nintendo plans on adding in.

After a brief play session with Super Mario Galaxy I can’t wait to see what else Nintendo has in store for us when it comes out this November. I love how the worlds are more diverse than Super Mario Sunshine and how the game has a fun feel to it.