Super Mario Galaxy

Genre: 3D Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 bundle, along with Super Mario Galaxy 2. There is also a different version of this game included in Super Mario 3D All-Stars, along with Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine.)

More than any other game company, Nintendo has a way of doing the “monkey’s paw wish” thing time and time again. They’ll deliver something wonderful, only to saddle it with flaws that are horrible, all in one package. And then, I need to figure out how the heck to review something I dearly love and also kinda’ hate, all at the same time.

This was the case when Nintendo released Super Mario 3D All-Stars in 2020, which packaged together three legendary 3D Mario games on Nintendo Switch, and then priced them at $60, didn’t include any extras beyond a music player, and made the decision to prey on FOMO by making it a limited time only release. How do you review a package that contains some of the greatest games of all time, but stuffs them into such a nasty package?

Well, that’s a question I’ll have to answer a second time, because in 2025 they did it again with the release of Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2, which once again presents players with a bundle of a few of the greatest games of all time, but with some pretty nasty caveats. And with each of these games also releasing individually on the Nintendo Switch eShop, I’ll also look at how well both individual components of this package hold up.

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Nothing Short of Stellar

If it weren’t for the fact that Super Mario 3D All-Stars is now unavailable for purchase (unless you want to shell out an absurd amount of money buying it on the secondhand market), Super Mario Galaxy’s 2025 release on Nintendo Switch would be largely unnecessary, because that 2020 bundle already included this game. However, players who missed out on Super Mario 3D All-Stars are getting another chance to get this game, and one that comes with a few added changes and improvements… improvements that are frustratingly unavailable to players who did get Super Mario 3D All-Stars. You know, just to make sure everyone is getting a raw deal here.

For those who aren’t familiar with this game’s history, Super Mario Galaxy originally released on the Wii in 2007. After many players were disappointed with Mario’s prior 3D outing, Super Mario Sunshine, Mario’s new galaxy-spanning adventure seemed like not only a return to form, but an absolute triumph. Many said this was the greatest videogame of all-time. Some undoubtedly still feel that way – on Metacritic’s list of the greatest videogames of all-time, Super Mario Galaxy ranks #4, behind only Grand Theft Auto IV, SoulCalibur, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. So when I say this game is absolutely outstanding, know that if anything I’m understating how good this game is.

Super Mario Galaxy continues the Mario series’ cartoony art style in 3D, but brings added spectacle with its spacey theme, with some really nice effects, nice-looking water, good textures, wonderfully-creative character designs, and some truly imaginative level concepts. In addition, this game boasts one of the greatest videogame soundtracks of all-time, using a full orchestra for the first time in a Mario game to truly deliver on the epic feeling this game is aiming for.

Beyond the presentation, the space theme brings Super Mario Galaxy its signature feature – its gravity-warping level design that has players exploring the game’s 3D spaces in ways unlike any 3D Platformer had ever done before. This made for some truly outstanding level design that is a joy to play through and discover just what’s around every corner, with well-crafted gameplay to match. Mario had never before felt so amazing to move around, and had never before such a fantastical playground to move around in.

This was partly due to more focused level design, parting from the “sandbox”-style design of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, with levels that were mostly linear in nature, albeit with exceptions here and there that gave players diverging paths or a bit of exploration. This also included sections with more unique self-contained gameplay styles, like levels where you turn the Wii remote on its edge and move it like a joystick, or levels where you point the cursor at the screen to “grab” points for Mario to be pulled toward in a zero-G vacuum. So beyond just being a great game, this was also a showcase for the Wii’s unique motion controls. This added a visceral element to the game too, as Mario’s absolutely vital spin move was activated by quickly shaking the Wii remote’s numchuck attachment, and further enhanced the gameplay by having the sounds you make when firing star bits at the screen using the Wii remote come from the Wii remote’s own speaker.

This game also helped to popularize a form of asymmetrical co-op multiplayer, something Nintendo has sometimes called “Co-Star Mode”, and that many players have taken to calling “girlfriend mode” (as problematic as that term is), where players can hand a second controller to a friend who assists them by aiming a cursor to fire star bits to help (or possibly hinder) Mario. It’s a nice addition that players with young children have found they appreciate for being able to involve those kids in their play even if they’re not quite able to wrap their head or hands around how to control Mario himself just yet.

In addition to all of this, Super Mario Galaxy introduced us to two of the Mario franchise’s more beloved characters, Rosalina and Luma, now frequent participants in every Mario spin-off game, and Captain Toad, who has since come to receive his own spin-off game.

There’s much debate over Super Mario Galaxy’s place in the hierarchy of the series. Which is better between it and Super Mario Galaxy 2? Was it topped by Super Mario Odyssey? It seems like the answers to these questions are down to personal preference more than anything. However, one thing is certain – this is absolutely one of Mario’s best games ever, and in turn one of the greatest games ever made.

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Switching Gears…

This 2025 release of Super Mario Galaxy on Nintendo Switch copies many of the necessary changes that were made to the game for the Super Mario 3D All-Stars Collection, including its one added bonus – As an option accessible from the main menu, you’re given the option to listen to the game’s soundtrack.

The game lets players use Joy-Cons, a Pro controller, or even the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode while still making use of the game’s gyroscopic motion-controlled pointer, but since none of these forms of motion-control have the same accuracy and sensitivity as the Wii remote, players also have the ability to re-center the pointer with a button press, and the spin move can now be activated with a button press as well, if you prefer.

For players in handheld mode who don’t want to wave around their Nintendo Switch, touchscreen controls have also been added to let you directly tap on the screen to send star bits shooting where you want – perhaps not an ideal solution, but a sensible one given the needs of the controls when playing in handheld mode. Additionally, some of the aforementioned motion-controlled minigames have been altered so players can still control them regardless of what input method they’re using. There’s an argument to be made that by doing this, the game loses much of the charm it had on the Wii, but again this is clearly a necessary evil – in order to get the game to work on Nintendo Switch, the controls had to be adapted for a game platform where players won’t have access to a Wii remote, and depending on how they’re playing they may not even have the ability to wave around a Joy-Con controller.

The visuals are also greatly improved, jumping up from a 420p resolution in the original Wii release to a dynamic 1080p resolution on Nintendo Switch (720p in portable mode), while retaining the original game’s 60FPS framerates. All of this was true in the Super Mario 3D All-Stars release of the game, and is true as well in the 2025 release of Super Mario Galaxy. But now we turn our attention to new changes and additions to this 2025 release…

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That’s One Small Step For a Plumber…

In addition to the improved resolution on Nintendo Switch, the 2025 release of Super Mario Galaxy also features improved textures throughout the game, making it look even better. It’s a more subtle change than the boost to resolution, but it’s an improvement all the same.

This release includes a new “Assist mode” that’s basically an easy mode that gives players more health and keeps them from plummeting to their deaths in areas with bottomless pits or black holes.

This release adds additional pages to the game’s in-game “storybook”, one of the few (but well-liked) bits of narrative storytelling within the game. There’s also new Amiibo support, though the effect here is minimal – depending on which Amiibo you scan, you’ll get a life mushroom, a 1-Up mushroom, or star bits. That’s it.

There are also additional improvements if you’re playing this release on Nintendo Switch 2, but… well, I’ll get to those farther down…

However, overall, if you’re looking to play this game on the original Nintendo Switch, the difference between this release and the Super Mario 3D All-Stars release of the game is minimal. This is absolutely the best version of Super Mario Galaxy we’ve ever had… but only just, and if you already have Super Mario 3D All-Stars and don’t have a Nintendo Switch 2, I really don’t think you’ll want to spend $40 to get this release.

Oof, yeah, we need to address that. Buying Super Mario Galaxy on its own will cost you $40. Just $20 shy of what it cost for the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection that also got you Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. That’s $40 for a game that’s almost 20 years old. And while this release has polished the original game’s visuals to look great in the modern day, this isn’t a remake, it’s largely an upscaled port, and one where apart from the changes needed to make it work on Nintendo Switch, every other change here is extremely minimal. And those changes to make it work on Nintendo Switch were pretty much all done in Super Mario 3D All-Stars 5 years ago.

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A Shining Star, or A Black Hole?

So pulling everything together… how do I even rate this? On the one hand, this is one of the greatest games of all-time, one that has aged extremely well and is still magnificent to this day, and one that is at its absolute best in this release. But on the other hand, it’s also an overpriced upscaled port, one that we already more or less received on Nintendo Switch five years ago in a Compilation that contained two other games, and whose improvements over that release are minimal. How do I rate this?

Well, I cannot give it the glowing review I would like to, because its bloated price and lacking features need to be accounted for. However, if you have not played Super Mario Galaxy before, you need to ignore all of that and treat this game like I gave it an A++ grade after this, because this is absolutely not to be missed. As I’ve said repeatedly through this review, this is the best version of one of the greatest videogames of all time. The fact that this is a cynical, overpriced, and lazy release makes it less significant for a jaded old gamer like me who’s already played this before (multiple times now), but if you’ve never played it before you can just treat it like it’s a brand-new game and you should still be absolutely ecstatic with it. And if you haven’t played it before, you need to remedy that oversight immediately.

tl;dr – Super Mario Galaxy is a 3D Platformer that is one of the greatest videogames of all time, with groundbreaking gravity-defying physics, great gameplay, outstanding imaginative level design, an incredible soundtrack, and creative use of gyroscopic motion control. This release is also the best version of this game ever made (save for the even better version you get when you play it on Nintendo Switch 2), with smart changes made to get the game working on Nintendo Switch. Having said all of that, the $40 price tag is absurdly pricey for an upscaled port of a game from 2007, and there have been minimal changes here compared to the version of the game we received in Super Mario 3D All-Stars. If you’ve never played this before, consider this an absolute must-buy. But the questionable price and value hold this release back from getting my highest recommendation.

Grade: A-

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Super Mario Galaxy

Genre: 3D Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 bundle, along with Super Mario Galaxy 2. There is also a different version of this game included in Super Mario 3D All-Stars, along with Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine.)

When the Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 bundle was announced, many Nintendo Switch 2 players who had previously bought Super Mario 3D All-Stars inwardly groaned, because even though they had already bought the game once before in that collection, and even though most of the changes in this release were minimal, there was one change that might push them to double-dip and buy the same game a second time for the same console. Unlike Super Mario 3D All-Stars, this release of Super Mario Galaxy would be receiving a free update on Nintendo Switch 2 that brings the game’s resolution up from the docked 1080p resolution of the Nintendo Switch release to 4K resolution, while bringing the resolution in handheld mode up from 720p to 1080p. “So”, Nintendo seemed to be saying with a wicked grin, “just how much do you love this game? And how much do you want to play it at its very best?”

Okay, but is the improvement on Nintendo Switch 2 really worth it? Let’s have a look…

I’ll get right to it – yes, this game looks magnificent in 4K, and the difference is noticeable. The framerates and textures aren’t upgraded here, but even just a resolution boost makes this game look much cleaner and nicer on Nintendo Switch 2.

However, that’s not all! In addition to the resolution boost, playing the game on Nintendo Switch 2 allows access to a feature that hasn’t been nearly as advertised, though many players might not even know about it – when using the 2-player co-op “Co-Star Mode”, the second player can opt to use gyroscopic motion controls to move the cursor, or they can use Mouse Mode. Testing this out, it makes things far more accurate, and I can definitely see some players choosing to play this way. Unfortunately, there’s no way to use Mouse Mode in single player, though at the very least gyroscopic motion control on Nintendo Switch 2 suffers less from cursor drift.

Additionally, the loading times have been improved, albeit only very slightly – the game takes 18 seconds to load to the title screen on Nintendo Switch, and another 4 seconds to load a game save, while it takes 14 seconds and 5 seconds on Nintendo Switch 2. It’s not much, but it is an improvement.

So, combining all of this together, is it really worth it to buy this $40 game if you already own Super Mario 3D All-Stars? Well… no, not really. Don’t get me wrong, Super Mario Galaxy looks amazing on Nintendo Switch, and this is absolutely the best this magnificent game has ever been. but the 3D All-Stars version still looks pretty good too, and the improvements here just don’t seem to me to be worth $40.

On the other hand, if you don’t own Super Mario 3D All-Stars, you should absolutely consider this game a must-have, especially if you have a Nintendo Switch 2. Again, this is absolutely the best version of one of the best games of all time. It may be overpriced, but even with that being the case, this game is not to be missed.

tl;dr – Super Mario Galaxy is a 3D Platformer that is one of the greatest videogames of all time, with groundbreaking gravity-defying physics, great gameplay, outstanding imaginative level design, an incredible soundtrack, and creative use of gyroscopic motion control. This release is also the best version of this game ever made, with smart changes made to get the game working on Nintendo Switch (and improved further on Nintendo Switch 2). Having said all of that, the $40 price tag is absurdly pricey for an upscaled port of a game from 2007, and the changes here from the version of the game we received in Super Mario 3D All-Stars aren’t worth buying it again, especially at that price. If you’ve never played this before, consider this an absolute must-buy. But the questionable price and value hold this release back from getting my highest recommendation.

Grade: A-

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