I can't even remember anymore - does 1UP have a pro or anti-Wii review history?

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3164087

(the game is also now currently ranked #1 on 1UP for interest, across all platforms)

Anyone who's been paying attention lately should know that Super Mario Galaxy is going to be really good. But how good? After some extended time with the import, we have 10 reasons Galaxy has us totally pumped, and why it might turn out to be one of the best games this year.

1. It's completely nuts.

Galaxy takes everything you think you know about how platform games work and turns it upside down. Or sideways. By taking the action from the usual flat surfaces and linear worlds, Galaxy makes an aging genre feel fresh again... and forces gamers who have become complacent in the decade since Super Mario 64 defined 3D platform to learn new skills and approach each challenge with an open mind.

SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Super Mario Galaxy screens.

2. It's totally true to its roots.

Despite its casual disregard for what you think you should do in a game like this, Galaxy is still a Mario game. And that means it still operates according the fundaments of the series -- including its basic rules and mechanics. Pipes, fireballs, coins, little waddling mushroom guys: They're all accounted for. They may work a little differently in the past, but Mario speaks with an iconic vocabulary that everyone understands.

3. It has fanservice out the wazoo.

And for the long-time fans, Galaxy offers tons of little nods. It may be minor gameplay elements like screw-bolt platforms (last seen in the airship levels of Super Mario Bros. 3) or big things like, well, those same airships, which are once again a major part of the game. It even pokes fun at other games with plenty of injokes -- Luigi finding himself trapped in a haunted mansion, for instance.

SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Super Mario Galaxy screens.

4. It has tons of variety.

No tropical islands here... well, no, that's not true. Galaxy does have a tropical island setting, but unlike its predecessor Super Mario Sunshine, that's not the only setting to be found. It's one of dozens, in fact. Galaxy's universe-spanning premise freed Nintendo to get creative with the environments, resulting in levels that take place in old familiar settings like deserts and ghost houses as well as new places like beehives, cosmic junkyards and space cruisers. And even clichéd locales like the fire and ice worlds offer a spark of originality.

5. Its Wii Remote features aren't annoying or obtrusive.

Yeah, we hate Wii games that tack on half-baked motion functionality without regard for how it impacts gameplay. Fortunately, Galaxy makes sparing use of the remote. In most circumstances, the remote simply controls a pointer which can be used to collect star bits, and then shoot them at enemies to stun them momentarily. Certain levels also use the pointer to launch Mario (or other things) across the screen. But it always serves a small, simple function, an accent to the traditional controls. More ambitious uses of the system's motion controls are present, but they're quarantined to stand-alone levels and never interfere with the regular gameplay. The result: Variety and consistency all at once.

6. It has tons of boss battles.

Just about every one of the game's main galaxies has at least one epic boss encounter to contend with, ranging from a spinning blade of death to a lava octopus to -- of course! -- Bowser himself. You'll fight Bowser several times, in fact, and the first time you face off against him is a battle big enough to serve as a satisfying final encounter in a lesser game... and they only get better from there.

SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Super Mario Galaxy screens.

7. It's tough, but not impossible.

While Galaxy starts off so easy that you could almost call it "coddling," the game slowly introduces more and more devious challenges into the mix as you unlock different stages. A boxy platform suspended over a void here, a waggle-controlled race there, a planetoid made entirely of vanishing platforms or two, and before long you're being forced to manage constantly reversing gravity as you ride moving platforms while under fire by deadly projectiles amidst dodging electrical beams and weaving around the platforms' own defensive perimeter. But while you'll die -- often! -- the game is generous with checkpoints and lives, and practice makes perfect. Which is good, because collecting all 120 Stars will take plenty of practice.

8. It looks and sounds great.

Yeah, bummer about Wii not outputting in high definition... but maybe Mario doesn't need it. The graphics are colorful and clean and demonstrate the same attention to detail that makes all those tricky new gameplay elements work. And the soundtrack -- wow. Nintendo doesn't usually go in for orchestrated music, but its use adds such an expansive, majestic feel to the game that we insist on more of this delicious sonic joy in all their future games.

SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Super Mario Galaxy screens.

9. It makes Bowser Jr. cool.

Impossible, right? But no -- you will actually look forward to each and every encounter with Nintendo's worst character ever. It helps that the first time you meet him he sics a robot several hundred times your height on you. OK, so maybe Bowser Jr. himself isn't cool... but as a harbinger of awesome boss battles, you can't help but be excited about his next appearance. And any game that makes you excited about Bowser Jr. is doing something right.

10. It's Mario, dammit.

Not that every Mario title is golden (or even good), but Nintendo's little guy has defined the platform genre not once (Super Mario Bros.) but twice (Super Mario 64). When he's on his game, Mario's brilliant. This time around? He's definitely on his game. The U.S. version arrives November 13 -- and we'll weigh in with our review then.

They do manage to throw in these pearlers:

"...Yeah, bummer about Wii not outputting in high definition..."

" Yeah, we hate Wii games that tack on half-baked motion functionality without regard for how it impacts gameplay. Fortunately, Galaxy makes sparing use of the remote."

...God the game looks sweet :((

should be a fantastic competiton between this, bioshock, possibly mass effect and halo for GOTY

This is easily my most anticipated game of this year.

This game looks like lots of fun, i may need to buy a wii sooner then i thought.

I think I will just play this game at my friend's house who lives two houses down haha

Generally 1up is considered by 'da inter-netz' to be anti-Nintendo. So much so that there was talk of them seriously scaling back their Nintendo coverage because it didn't fit in line with what they want to do - or something like that.

Either you've quoted the article wrongly, or 1up has changed (downgraded) their lookout for the game, because the article title currently reads

"10 reasons Mario Galaxy could be incredible. "

Not GOTY

1up is definitely partially Anti-Wii, but the writer of the article, Jeremy Parish, is definitely one of their more level-headed people. :)

is halo always nominated due to it's ridiculous sales or just because of the multi player?

they did change the title, and also the intro to the paragraph, before it said

"10 reasons Mario Galaxy could be a perfect 10.
By Jeremy Parish 10/31/2007

Anyone who's been paying attention lately should know that Super Mario Galaxy is going to be really good. But how good? After some extended time with the import, we think it just might be good enough to be a perfect "10." (Not that 10 actually means perfect on the 1UP review scale, but you know what we mean.) Not that we'd be so irresponsible as to assign a score this early! Still, we can name 10 reasons Galaxy has us totally pumped -- and why it might turn out to be one of the best games this year."

I wonder why they edited it, maybe because they pretty much implied a review score

haha, that's funny that they changed it. It's hard to defend them as not being anti-wii when they do this sort of thing.

On a side note Jeremy Parish used to hate my guts. When I was a teenager (13-14) we both used to frequent rpgamer boards. I used to refer to him as a nazi, which he didn't like on account of Nazis being very terrible people. But I was a punk kid and found it very amusing. He was very level headed though. I went by the handle Lunatikk back then. Good times.