#06 - Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
As guessed by no-one (wow you guys, wow. I offer up a clue for 90% of the posters here and none of you take it! Psh... :P)
Anyway, Super Mario Galaxy is a gem of a game and... brace yourself for this... the first 3D Mario game I have played!
Picking up my Wii on the back of the phenomenon that was Wii Sports and on the promise of Pikmin 3, I found myself at a bit of a loss of things to play for a while. Then Mario came along and I thought "what better game to play than a 3D platformer from videogaming's mascot?". And what a great purchase it was.
To keep it brief, SMG is just the perfect fusion of new ideas (all the gravity stuff) with some sublime 3D platforming and some really enjoyable minigames too. Yes, some of them sucked, but none of them did anything to hurt the whole package. I liked the original a lot better than the sequel for the inclusion of the hub world (which was a lot of fun to run around) and surprisingly, Rosalina's side story. Yes, it was a bit of a downer, but I found it rather touching and grew to quite like heading to see her read more of her story to the lumas every day.
Of course, the game is absolutely beautiful and features a killer orchestral soundtrack, some incredible level design and really enjoyable boss fights. Basically, it's the whole package. I've loved 3D platformers since I begun gaming on the PS1 but SMG is up there with the best and most polished I've ever played. If I ever had any doubts about buying Wii there were dispelled by this game alone. Truly worth owning the console for, and a game I suspect I will return to many times in the future.
