@TWRoO,

You missed a big one!!

Q: How many Mario costumes are there, combined?

A: I can't answer that, because there's at least one that hasn't actually been revealed yet. So when someone previously said there were 6 they were wrong, but as I say, the NDA means I can't say any more.

Super Mario Galaxy is such a letdown. It brings nothing new to platforming. After playing it seems clear that it's all a bunch of "been there, done that" rolled into one slick package, but all shine and little substance leave the player wanting so much more. Miyamoto truly seems to have run out of ideas. Take for instance this one example: Mario is still wearing the same clothes from 1985! Where is the character progression? The plot is nearly non-existent and what threadbare shreds there are seem to be an almost total retread of the tired "save the princess" formula. In a more modern vein, why is there no multi-player support? It's the 21st century Nintendo! For this and many other major flaws I have to give this game a 7.5/10. I blame Wii Fit.

That guy playing two guitars at once was amazing, Stof. Great post.

@ fkusumot: Ok, this is irony, right? RIGHT?

credit goes to fkusumot for the early preview of the 1up review

Complete and utter.

Also I'm just trying to de-hype myself a little. Many days left to wait. 

Who wants to fire bomb the first place to rate this under 9/10? =P

MY OFFICIAL GAMESTOP 1-HOUR REVIEW

^{by Frank Kusumoto}

I got to play SMG today at the Gamespot for an hour. Started from the beginning with a new save file. I noticed another save file that had 35 stars and 8 hours playtime. Somebody was hitting it hard.

The cutscene opened, the music welled up, I smiled. Bombs are dropping everywhere and I'm trying to do side jumps, triple jumps, wall jumps, butt stomps, you know, all the good stuff. I'm trying to do the waggle attack but it's not working. Maybe the controller is broken. After I've made the re acquaintance of my old moveset (and it fits like a perfectly tailored sheep-skin condom). I'm off to see what's up with the princess.

Well, hopefully you've seen the movie. Mario gets blasted by a Lakitu and thrown back to the world. Mario make friends with some star children who take him to their Queen... Rosalina! Rosalina tells you to go fetch stars so she can power up her ride and get up off this place. This also takes from Bowser the power that is keeping him and his fleet in the catbird seat.

So I ran around. Flipped and smacked koopa's. Gathered stars. Pushed some buttons in a puzzle. Smacked a boss silly. But mostly just running around like a five year old kid in Willy Wonka's field of dreams going "yahooo, yahooo, yahhooooo!" I kept getting interrupted by a little star who wanted me to do something, head on over somewhere.

Turns out there were lots of his little buddies trapped on little asteroids barely a kilometre away and could I be so kind as to help free them. So off I go and in traditional heroic fashion I free the little star being and I get a STAR! And there's 120 more where that came from.

Controls are flawless, design is genius. The pacing is boom, boom. boom. Right on track. It's like playing a 2d platformer in 3d. I've read that you can go back and explore but mostly you're just trying to get to the princess before Bowser does dainty and dastardy things with a pudenda. I felt obligated to push and pull and fling headlong into each new challenge.

That was my one hour and it was brilliant. I spent time looking at the screens and taking in the ambiance, the colors, the lighting, looking at all the choices and seeing how they came together. Just as important is the music and it makes claim to the mood and the space and covers it in tones that enhance the beautiful polished feeling that everything in the game has. Bravo Art Department!

Miyamoto says he wants to constantly surprise the gamer and this is the truest expression in a game that has been realized. Unfortunately there are men, between the age of 15 - 37, who have no wonder. These people will not find this game amusing. The only hope for them is that someday they learn to smile and enjoy something for what it is and appreciate something that is giving to the world instead of attempting to take it.

@fkusumot,

I actually think mine is pretty big, other forums I have posted on would lynch someone for having a sig this big. Nobody has really said anything so I left it as is...

Yeah, I kinda said, your's is like top size and it's informative and clean. Bigger I wouldn't like... but a lot of times in some silly sales argument I'll scroll up the page to see what the numbers are on your sig. :)