"u can bet your life Sony rip it off for their next machine," If Sony tries to force a wii-mote type device i will just jump to the xbox 720.

How exactly would this game use dual analog controls anyway? One for moving and one for the camera? I'd assume the camera is smart enough that I don't need to guide it with my right thumb...and according to previews it is smart enough.

No way. Because its form Sony you will proclaim it the best thing ever and sony will come out with some BS about how thay invented it.

the 720 will probably have a similar device if the wii is a success. Much like rumble, shoulder buttons and the various other changes nintendo made to controllers that got adopted. Sony already tried to copy it (albeit, poorly), they'll try even harder next time.

i don't think you could, or at least it wouldn't be easy to move all the controlls over without making a hash of it, i mean you move mario with the nunchuck control stick, but control the pointer to do various things like picking up the shards/firing them/very probably other stuff too. Am i right in thinking the camera is, to an extent, controllable as well (i remember reading ages ago there was no control but more recently i heard otherwise). And i'm not sure how many actions use the "waggle".

I don't think two analogues would be enough.... any currently non-button actions could be taken over with buttons but a second analogue is no substitute for the pointer, it would take way too long to pick up star shards.....and dependant on what the Wii remote camera control is like the second analogue might have to do the camera (if it is currently just moving camera closer/further from Mario then that would be fine)

Me want. Now.

GOTE! (Game of the Eternity)

Makes me wonder though, can a game be "too good"? I guess we'll find out in a bit over a month here. :D

Edit : Here are some animated Gif's from NeoGAF. :)

And a big 6 meg Gif of Mario Galaxy's "Gravity" effects. :)

http://i22.tinypic.com/51exxt.gif

Anyone read this interview? They were thinking about this game as early as 2000, but it wasn't technically possible at the time. This game has been in their minds for a very long time.

http://www.nintendic.com/news/1232

Satoru Iwata: So first, let’s talk about how this project came about.

Koizumi: We have to go back to the year 2000, when the GameCube was first announced. We showed the Mario 128 demo, and I was the Director of that. I really wanted to use the Mario 128 system in a real game, but I was thinking that maybe it wouldn’t actually be possible to do so.

Satoru Iwata: Why did you think it wouldn’t be possible?

Koizumi: The problem was a technical one. At the time of Mario 128, we effectively had Mario walking on a saucer, but to get him moving around a spherical object demanded a really great deal of skill. I was thinking that, unless the staff’s motivation was extremely high, we wouldn’t be able to get past this obstacle to development.

Satoru Iwata: Regarding the use of spheres in a Mario game, by the way, I remember hearing from Miyamoto about this concept five years ago, but I couldn’t understand how the development of spherical play areas could be a revolutionary technique. But that’s precisely how Mario Galaxy has turned out, and at last I fully understand the significance of the concept.

Satoru Iwata: But the development didn’t go perfectly smoothly, did it?

Koizumi: No, it didn’t. With Mario Galaxy, we feel as though we’ve played the role of chefs. We showed people our recipe and said, “Look, we want to make this kind of Wii dish,” but our staff weren’t really sure what type of meal would result from our efforts in the kitchen.

Satoru Iwata: They just saw the recipe and didn’t know if it would be tasty or bland, then?

Koizumi: Miyamoto said, “It looks tasty!” But most staff members were of the opinion that we couldn’t make a great meal. Anyway, we decided to at least try our hand at some sampling food, and within three months we had made a prototype. With spherical objects, planets are the most easily understood forms, so we decided on a space setting and introduced gravity to come up with the basics of Mario Galaxy. It’s from there that the real development work began.

Shimizu: We were cooking and making him eat all the time. He was probably mortified! (Laughs)

Koizumi: Once the owner [Miyamoto] was satisfied, we concentrated on giving tasters to the public. That took a lot of time, but we were able to alter the taste while listening to the public’s comments.

Satoru Iwata: At any rate, you were pretty extravagant in your use of Miyamoto. (Laughs)

Koizumi: It was really helpful as cooks to have Miyamoto taste our food. (Laughs)

Satoru Iwata: With Mario Galaxy, I just said to Miyamoto: “Please do what only you can do.” It’s been a long time since the last 3D Mario action game, and I just wanted something that would come to represent Wii.