Super Mario Galaxy -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. This is normally the Thanksgiving game, for us adults and teenagers anyway. It's the Christmas game for the kids. You know the one, the biggest Nintendo release of the year. The one normally launched the week of Thanksgiving has come a week early. I have played the game through the first four stars. That's through the first story based training star and the three main stars of the Good Egg Galaxy within the Terrace section of the Observatory. What have I learned so far? I've learned that I'm going to end up hating the SDTV aspect of the Wii and how that plays out via HDTV. Scratch that, I already despise it. But that really doesn't matter at the moment because of what else I've discovered so far. I've discovered that Mario is back. Already I can tell just from the little bit of the game I've played. All of the charm and wonder and excitement and joy of first playing Mario 64 is present in Super Mario Galaxy. Everything that was sorely lacking in Super Mario Sunshine is once again there. It's good to feel this from a Nintendo game again. That old magic. That old charm. At least initially. Let's hope it remains throughout the full game. As always, there is only one way to find out...