I am making it a habit to start my Wii game reviews with the information in the next paragraph because as a buyer, I wish I knew the perspective of the reviewer recommending the game. So if it sounds familiar, my apologies ;) Skip to paragraph 3 if you don't want our "criteria" for games.

We are a two adult, no children household. We look for Wii games that are suitable for many players (we like to have friends over to play), and that are very engaging, and fun. We don't like war/shooter games or games that are too juvenile. We also try to find games that are structured around the unique Wii experience. (Ie, we don't buy racing games and others that require you to use the Wiimote like a traditional controller--we'd use a traditional system for that!)

I will caveat my review by saying that I haven't played a traditional (Mario saves the Princess) Mario game since Super Nintendo Mario. So my review may not be the most helpful for ardent Mario fans because I don't have anything of recent history to compare this to.

However, this Mario is everything of nostalgia, and then some! The basic premise is the same--Princess has managed to again get herself kidnapped by Bowser. Bowser also kidnapped the grand stars and distributed them throughout the galaxy, depleting the power supply on the Luma (stars) home planet. You have to fly through space, defeating foes of various kinds on planets around the galaxy to collect up stars and Grand Stars. The "Home Base" of this game is this satellite planet that has several rooms and observatories in it, that each are a portal to various galaxies. As you collect stars, the power on the home planet is strengthened and you can see more galaxies. Each Galaxy has 1-5 levels to complete and each level has a star. Eventually, collecting all the stars and grand stars will give the satellite enough power to fly to Bowser's ship where you can, theoretically (I haven't yet succeeded) rescue the Princess.

The graphics are beautiful. I'm not a hard core gamer, so perhaps they aren't impressive to the strict game critic, but for the hobbyist gamer, I think they are beautiful. The characters and planets are masterfully 3D, the colors are rich and vibrant, the attention to detail is artful, the perspective is dynamic and the movements are fluid.

The sound is fun. Throughout the game little hidden areas will have new takes on the traditional Mario music. Nintendo was very masterful with the details. For example they even thought to change the way the music sounds when Mario goes under water.

The game requires both the Wiimote and the nunchuck. A second player may assist the first player with a Wiimote, but the second player is not a player in his own right, and cannot do all of the things that player one can do. So in reality, the game is 1 to 1.5 players. (The assistance of the second player is optional).

Every galaxy is different. I'm about 1/3 of the way through all the levels, and so far I've had to run, jump, float, back flip, dive, swim, fly, launch, and twist the Mario character. I know that future levels entail additional movements. The actual directional movement of the character is controlled by the nunchuck, and it took a bit of effort to adapt to using my non-dominant hand to do so, but I was surprised at how easy it was. The Wiimote is used to collect starbits (food for the luma stars), jump, and to do specific mechanics for various movements (like doing the breast stroke while swimming, etc).

The actual levels are surprisingly, easy. They're not simple, and they grow progressively harder, but I was surprised at how easily I (a novice gamer) could progress through the game. The bosses of each observatory present varying levels of difficulty. One critique I have of the game is that how to attack and defeat the bosses is not always evident, nor is it explained in the directions. Some people may enjoy "exploring" and trying to figure it out, but a few times when I gave up, I used the walk-through on mycheats.com for instructions on how to defeat the boss. I recommend that as a resource if you find yourself frustrated. The walk-through does not actually give cheats--just instructions.

Sometimes the instructions for a new type of movement are with the characters in a particular level and you have to talk to them to get the information. However, I haven't found it to always be obvious who the friends and foes are. I wish that was a little more clear in some places. Additionally, one thing that frustrates me is that on some planets, you can run around the entire planet, 360 degrees. So you can run off the side and around the bottom. On other planets, you can fall off the side and die. It's not always evident which way a level is, which leads to innocent Marios being lost to trial and error. Perhaps that's the nature of the beast of this type of game, but I wish it was more consistent.

The game is full of Easter-eggs, which is fun. Throughout the game you'll find hidden extra one ups, extra life points (one 1-up can be injured 3 times before it "dies"--the extra points bump this to 6), hidden galaxies and planets, extra coins and starbits, etc. I have many times gone back to levels to play them again to see what I may have missed. I know I've only touched the tip of the iceberg--this game is so richly detailed.

The game allows for 7 or 8 different profiles, which is nice. You can save your progress and someone else can play without damaging yours.

One thing I like is that you can leave any galaxy and observatory at any time, and, assuming you've "discovered" others, you can go play elsewhere. This is nice for when I get bored, or frustrated with one particular level or type of level, I can go play somewhere else and the game still progresses forward.

As I alluded, some of these levels are played in full 360 degree view. Sometimes the plane moves with Mario so he's always upright, with the gamer viewing him from behind or the side. But sometimes the plane remains stationary and Mario continues to run around it so at times you're playing with Mario upside down on the bottom of the planet or surface, or sometimes you are looking down at the top of his head, sometimes Mario is out the side of the plane at a 90 degree angle and sometimes you only see his shadow as he goes behind something. It's truly ingenious how Nintendo has done this and while it was initially difficult to get used to, it's proven to be very fun.

There is a lot of play in this game. Perhaps a more masterful gamer would complete the game more quickly than we have, but we have played 15-20 hours and are, from what we can tell, a maximum of 1/4 to 1/3 through the game. We appreciate that we haven't exhausted the game's potential so quickly as to disproportion the cost of the game to playing time.

My only critique is that I wish the game was multi player, for at least 2 players. However, that issue aside, we give this two thumbs up.

Recommended: Yes