Super Mario Galaxy: Difference between revisions

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Mario is on his way to visit Princess Peach so that they can observe a comet streaking past the Mushroom Kingdom together, but suddenly, [[Big Bad|Bowser]] returns once again to kidnap Princess Peach. The attack launches Mario into space and he awakens on a strange small planet, where he meets Rosalina<ref> Known, oddly enough, as "Rosetta" in the Japanese release.</ref>, a mystical being that protects the cosmos and living star-shaped creatures called the [[Ridiculously Cute Critter|Lumas]]. After taking Mario to her Comet Observatory, she explains that Bowser has stolen all power from the Comet Observatory to fuel his army and create a new kingdom for himself. Mario must [[Gotta Catch Them All|retrieve all the stars]] for Rosalina so the Comet Observatory can venture to the center of the universe where Bowser awaits...

 

 

The game is also notable for being the first Mario game to feature music played by a live orchestra. Though Mario series veteran [[Koji Kondo]] was in charge of the soundtrack, the orchestrated bits were done by [[Mahito Yokota]], who was previously the composer for ''[[Donkey Kong Jungle Beat]]''. As a result of working on this game, Yokota has become the go-to guy for orchestral arrangements for games that Kondo has composed for.

 

 

{{tropelist}}

 

* [[Already Done for You]]: After you rescue him from the haunted mansion, Luigi will go out looking for stars on his own. However, he invariably gets stuck in whatever galaxy he's in, forcing you to go rescue him to obtain the star. There are also several galaxies in which Toads have already retrieved the star, you just have to go get it from them.

* [[Always Accurate Attack]]: Doing a [[Ground Pound]] just after spinning in midair allows it to home in on enemies.

* [[Apocalypse How]]: {{spoiler|Class X-4 during the [[Gainax Ending]]}}.

* [[Art Major Physics]]: Put all tropes relating to it under this one. First thing, most galaxies aren't made of a few planetoids small enough to walk around in minutes. Remember though, [[Rule of Cool]] and [[Rule of Fun]] applies.

** [[Batman Can Breathe in Space|Mario Can Breathe in Space]]: Actually justified for Mario early in the game (his Luma presumably gives him this ability). As for everyone else, though, the trope applies.

** [[Baby Planet]]: Practically all of them. Heck, some planets aren't much bigger than Mario himself, yet still have enough gravity to hold him down. The most extreme example is in Deep Dark Galaxy, where Mario will encounter a bonus planet that, once he undoes a screw to reveal a circle of coins, is constantly shrinking, and no matter how small said planet gets, Mario won't escape from its gravitational pull until the planet vanishes completely. Also quite literal as some Lumas (which are literally babies) will ''explode into planets when you feed them enough Star Bits.'' Some will explode into ''galaxies'' later on in the game.

** [[Gravity Sucks]]: The sizes of some of the black holes are pretty ridiculous by astronomy standards...

** [[Selective Gravity]]

** [[Space Does Not Work That Way]]

** [[Space Is Magic]]

** [[2-D Space]]: Notably [[Averted]].

** [[Weird Moon]]

* [[Attack of the Town Festival]]: How the story of the game begins.

* [[Backstory]]: Shows perhaps the most in any ''Mario'' platformer game... ever. See also [[Tear Jerker]].

* [[Bait and Switch Boss]]: Bowser Jr.'s final appearance in the game.

* [[Big Boo's Haunt]]: Several galaxies. Ghostly Galaxy is the classic haunted mansion iteration, while Deep Dark Galaxy is an ''underwater'' variation.

* [[Big Eater]]: A lot of the Lumas will ask for large amounts of star bits - so large, in fact, that they explode and somehow create planets.

* [[Boss Arena Idiocy]]: Topmaniac would be invincible if he would just get rid of that electric fence around his arena.

* [[Boss Arena Recovery]]: Many of the boss arenas have little lights or plants on the ground that you can shoot star bits at to produce coins to restore your health. Some of the fights even have coins and star bits in the arena itself. And as if you weren't constantly picking up Star Bits during both the preceding level and boss fight, hitting a boss enough times to start their next phase usually causes dozens of Star Bits to pop out of them.

* [[Bottomless Pit Rescue Service]]: Just in the hub.

* [[Breather Level]]: Gusty Garden Galaxy comes near the middle of the game, but has a relaxed pace and feel-good atmosphere like Good Egg Galaxy at the beginning. On the other hand, controlling the pieces of fluff that you use to cross gaps in the level may require several tries to get right, so you should probably bring a good number of extra lives anyways.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: {{spoiler|The non-playable (until you collect all 120 stars with Mario)}} Luigi always gets captured or trapped while he is looking for a star. At one point, he gets trapped on the top of a ''small house'' that Mario can easily triple jump on top of.

* [[The Cameo]]:

* [[Camera Centering]]

* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: For all its cheerful charm, the game includes some melancholy elements. This includes Rosalina's [[Tear Jerker]] storybook, as well as the ending, where {{spoiler|the entire universe is destroyed due to a ''massive'' black hole and all of the Lumas throw themselves into the black hole to neutralize it and recreate the universe.}}

* [[Chainsaw Good]]: Topmaniac has a ''red-hot'' one.

* [[Chasing Your Tail]]: Dino Piranha and Bowser.

* [[Colossus Climb]]: Megaleg and Heavy Metal Mecha-Bowser. Also present in the first level of Honeyhive Galaxy, where Bee Mario has crawl all over the Queen Bee's massive body in order to collect the five star chips embedded in her hair.

* [[Co-Op Multiplayer]]: The Co-Star Mode in both games. The sequel expands on it by including an orange Luma.

* [[Cosmetic Award]]: Get 9999 star bits? {{spoiler|The coconuts turn into watermelons.}}

* [[Deliberate Injury Gambit]]: Sometimes it pays to let an enemy hit you in order to lose an inconvenient power-up. (I'm looking at you, Spring Suit.)

* [[Dem Bones]]: Kingfin and Dry Bones.

* [[Divine Assistance]]: Rosalina, for the one or two parts she actually decides to aid you.

* [[Do Well, But Not Perfect]]: In the levels where you have to swim behind Guppy and go through the rings that he puts out, if you're such a fast swimmer that you actually catch up to Guppy, the knockback from when he hits you can easily cause you to miss a ring.

* [[Easter Egg]]: If you look very closely while on the third planet in Toy Time Galaxy, you can actually see a tiny model train inside one of the cracks in its walls.

* [[Electric Jellyfish]]: There's a huge one guarding the entrance to the underground lake in Deep Dark Galaxy.

* [[Everythings Better With Bunnies]]: Especially when they help you find stars.

* [[Lava Adds Awesome]]

* [[Excuse Plot]]: The main plot is as simple as most ''Mario'' stories, but the extensive backstory to Rosalina given in the storybook isn't.

* [[Family-Unfriendly Death]]: Some of the death animations involve Mario getting disintegrated, suffocating in quicksand, and electrocution, ''leaving behind a skeleton!''

* [[Flunky Boss]]: Topmaniac, Kamella, and Kingfin.

* [[Flying Saucer]]: Cuts out Princess Peach's castle and lifts it up in a beginning cutscene.

* [[Free Rotating Camera]]: Just a few areas.

* [[Free Sample Plot Coupon]]: Mario's goal is to retrieve the Grand Stars that fuel the Comet Observatory built by Rosalina. Luckily for him, the first of these Stars is the only one that isn't guarded by any of the bosses, in fact its power hasn't been fully used yet. Also a case of [[Back From the Brink]].

* [[Game Breaking Bug]]: Although this game has received top-notch QA, some glitches exist, making Mario die if he spend too much time orbiting around a planet without actually landing on it (especially frequent with {{spoiler|Luigi,}} by abusing the long jump/lock-on spin, or with some glitchy planetoids like that bouncing ball), but they merely send you at the start of the level. However, it is painfully played straight under some circumstances. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REn7iKs7Vzs&feature=relmfu In the final level in front of Bowser, no less!]

* [[Gang Plank Galleon]]: Deep Dark Galaxy hosts a pirate ship that shows up in several missions.

* [[Gravity Screw]]: A major aspect of the game.

* [[Green Hill Zone]]: Gateway Galaxy and Good Egg Galaxy.

* [[Hailfire Peaks]]: Freezeflame Galaxy, natch.

* [[Have a Nice Death]]: If you get to the end of the Battlerock or Dreadnought Purple Comet missions without all the purple coins, the Gearmo will mock you for not trying hard enough and then take away one of your turns.

* [[Helpful Mook]]: Plenty! Cataquacks, Koopas, Bob-ombs, Bullet Bills, and green Topmen, to name a few.

* [[Homage]]: What with the tiny planets, way of slinging around space, and the plot of the storybook (not to mention Princess Rosalina herself), the whole thing seems to be inspired by ''[[The Little Prince]]''.

* [[Hornet Hole]]: Honeyhive and Gold Leaf Galaxies. At least the bees are friendly.

* [[An Ice Person]]: Ice Mario.

* [[Incendiary Exponent]]: Fiery Dino Piranha.

* [[It's Up to You]]: [[Double Subversion|Double subverted]]. Hey, looks like Mario doesn't have to get all the stars himself. Luigi and the Toads are going to help him! But then they get captured or stranded, so in the end, you still have to do all the missions, same as if they weren't helping you.

* [[Jaws First Person Perspective]]: The battle with Kingfin opens with one.

* [[Just Before the End]]/[[Kill'Em All]]: {{spoiler|The ''entire universe'' is destroyed. Sure, everyone gets reincarnated, but still, ''everyone dies''. In a ''Mario game,'' no less.}}

* [[King Mook]]: Several. Examples include Dino Piranha, Topmaniac, and Major Burrows.

* [[Knight of Cerebus]]: Surprisingly, Bowser. Whenever he appears, the atmosphere gets much more tense.

* [[Level Ate]]: The Sweet Sweet Galaxy and "Bouncing Down Cake Lane" in Toy Time Galaxy.

* [[Lost Woods]]: Honeyhive and Gold Leaf.

* [[Made of Explodium]]: Airships, Megaleg, Mecha Bowser, some bosses and enemies... and apparently Kingfin. Yes, an exploding, semi-biology-fail, skeleton ''shark''.

** In Battlerock Galaxy in particular, whenever Mario does a mission that requires him to go inside the Battlerock, an explosion inexplicably occurs whenever he leaves it.

* [[Musical Gameplay]]: Coins that pop up out of blocks or bushes will have their usual coin SFX be in tempo and harmony with the backing music. Additionally, when fighting King Kaliente, every time you hit one of the coconuts (or it hits him) a musical cue plays.

* [[Mutually Exclusive Powerups]]

* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: Kingfin is a skeletal shark. That summons robot fish.

* [[Nintendo Hard]]: Dreadnought Galaxy in general, Sling Pod Galaxy, the Trial Galaxies, etc. In short, anything that you do not have to do to beat the game with the bare minimum of stars is going to be [[Nintendo Hard]]. Some Prankster Comet missions are prone to this too:

** Daredevil (white) Comets give you only 1 HP, typically on levels where taking damage was easy, especially on difficult levels.

** The Cosmic (blue) Comets, which force you to race through the stage against a "cosmic" [[Mirror Match|version of yourself]]. Cosmic Mario is hard unless you spam your long jump (Koopa shells and boost rings in Sea Slide Galaxy) and get that boost at the start (and if you hit a wall while long jumping, you crash and lose time!). Cosmic Luigi is even harder than Cosmic Mario, to the point where [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|he's a cheating bastard]].

** Finally, the Purple Coin Comets make you scour the area for Purple Coins. Sometimes these are timed, or maybe you'll have to dodge the obstacles. There are also levels that combine these attributes, though they attempt to make it easier by placing 50 extra coins. The timed ones put you under intense pressure with a strict time limit, while the untimed ones are very tedious and you'll often jinx yourself into dying on your way over to the Star after getting all 100 coins.

* [[Nominal Importance]]: For some reason, the English translation didn't give names to any Lumas, while the original Japanese (which called them Chikos) did indeed have names for some of them. You know the Luma that grants Mario's ability to spin? The one that Rosalina introduces with the line, "To save your {{color|red|special one}}, you'll need to power to travel through space. {{color|red|Luma}} can give you this power. I will entrust you with his care"? He is named Tyke in the Japanese version. They also didn't mention the name of the black/dark brown Luma who is always at Rosalina's side and in the observatories. His name is Polari, after the star Polaris. This oversight makes the storybook a tad confusing in the English version, since {{spoiler|upon meeting the Lumas for the first time, Rosalina makes a point of thinking up names for all of them.}}

* [[Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught]]: In the second mission of Beach Bowl Galaxy, "Passing the Swim Test", you have to retrieve a golden shell in the ocean and bring it back to the coach in order to pass the test and get the power star. However, there aren't any golden shells lying around on the ocean floor. One of the other penguins eventually clues you in that the actual way to pass the test is to find a penguin carrying a shell and steal it from him.

* [[Number Two]]: Polari, the black Luma who's always at Rosalina's side or in the map domes, appears to fulfill this role aboard the Cosmic Observatory.

* [[Ominous Latin Chanting]]: Bowser's battle theme invokes this for both the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJqrQJr_vrc&feature=related regular boss battles] and his [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIuvjG3Egjo final boss battle], although no actual words are spoken; it's a choir singing "ah" and "ooh" in the ''style'' of ominous Latin chanting.

* [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]]: The daredevil challenges.

* [[Opening the Sandbox]]: If you collect all the stars in the galaxies as they become accessible to you, you'll very quickly reach the point where you can take the remaining star missions in pretty much any order you want.

* [[Rainbow Speak]]

* [[Recurring Boss]]: Topmaniac has to be fought four times: twice in regular battles ("Topmaniac and the Topman Tribe" in Battlerock Galaxy and "Revenge of the Topman Tribe" in Dreadnought Galaxy), once in a daredevil battle ("Topmaniac's Daredevil Run" in Battlerock Galaxy), and once as part of a speed run ("Topman Tribe Speed Run" in Dreadnought Galaxy). Kamella and Bowser have to be fought three times each (Kamella in "Kamella's Airship Attack" in Space Junk Galaxy, "The Underground Ghost Ship" in Deep Dark Galaxy and "Ghost Ship Daredevil Run" also in Deep Dark Galaxy, Bowser in "The Fiery Stronghold" in Bowser's Star Reactor, "Darkness on the Horizon" in Bowser's Dark Matter Plant and "The Fate of the Universe" in Bowser's Galaxy Reactor) and there are several other bosses you have to fight twice. Special mention goes to Dino Piranha who is fought in the first level ("Dino Piranha" in Good Egg Galaxy) and the second to last level (as [[Incendiary Exponent|Fiery Dino Piranha]], in "Fiery Dino Piranha" in Melty Molten Galaxy). The first version is pretty much your standard [[Warmup Boss]] while the second is a freaking [[That One Boss]]. Talk about [[Taking a Level In Badass]]!

* [[Reincarnation]]: A major theme of the game. Lumas are born from star dust, and grow into stars, which then form suns, moons, and planets, the latter of which have people on them. Eventually, they decay and crumble back into star dust, which goes on to create new Lumas. When you add in the ending, this game looks very, very Buddhist.

* [[Ring Out Boss]]: Topmaniac.

* [[Royal We]]: The Queen Bee speaks this way.

* [[Rule of Cool]] and [[Rule of Fun]]: This is definitely one of the least realistic games in the series, what with all of the [[Art Major Physics]] and stuff. All in the name of fun, though.

* [[Save the Princess]]: Acceptable thanks to the [[Grandfather Clause]], because it would not be Mario if it wasn't required.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: Just ''look'' at some of the space backgrounds. They look absolutely amazing. For example, in the first level of Melty Molten Galaxy, there's a sequence which consists of Mario shooting through several launch stars in a row. The main point of the sequence seems to be to show off the impressive graphics of the volcano level.

* [[Self-Imposed Challenge]]: Getting all 150 purple coins in "Luigi's Purple Coins" in Toy Time Galaxy or "Purple Coins on the Puzzle Cube" in Gusty Garden Galaxy (only 100 are required for the star). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inPSGDUsn24 Yes], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PraZGgdwRU&annotation_id=annotation_991106&feature=iv both] are actually possible! Not enough for you? Here's [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php?topic=7615.0 a bunch more!] The developers also made it so that getting Starshrooms are optional. Add that to avoiding extra lives by avoiding Star Bits and 1-up Mushrooms, and the game gets [[Nintendo Hard]].

* [[Shifting Sand Land]]: Dusty Dune Galaxy.

** As mentioned before, the game's concept of visiting miniature planets has been compared to the story of ''The Little Prince''. The drawings in Rosalina's storybook are also in the same style as those in the classic French tale.

** The planet shaped like a [[Pokémon|Poké Ball]] in Buoy Base Galaxy. It even ''opens'' like one.

* [[Single Biome Planet]]: Tons of them.

* [[Sliding Scale of Linearity vs. Openness]]: The levels are mostly linear compared to ''[[Super Mario 64]]'' and ''[[Super Mario Sunshine|Sunshine]]''.

* [[Space Zone]]: Naturally, the strongest example being Space Junk.

* [[Spinning Out of Here]]: You activate teleport pads by spinning on them.

* [[Timed Mission]]: The speedy comet challenges, as well as the ammo depot mini-games. Some of the purple coin missions are timed as well.

* [[Title Scream]]: Just like the rest of the 3-D platformers.

* [[Toy Time]]: Toy Time Galaxy is the [[Trope Namer]], of course.

* [[True Companions]]: The overarching theme of the storybook is how Rosalina and the Lumas are like this.

* [[Under the Sea]]: Three main galaxies<ref>Beach Bowl, Sea Slide, and Deep Dark</ref> and four mini-ones<ref>Buoy Base, Drip Drop, Bigmouth, and Bonefin</ref>.

* [[Unlockable Content]]: {{spoiler|Luigi.}}

* [[Underwater Boss Battle]]: Kingfin.

* [[The Unfought]]: Guppy looks like a boss and acts like a boss; however, you never actually fight him. Both times you meet him, he'll ask you to swim through eight rings; if you do, you get the star.

* [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]: Bowser's Galaxy Reactor, taking place in the ''center of the universe.''

* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: During one mission in Space Junk Galaxy, you'll encounter a Toad trapped in a sling pod. To progress, you have to get him out of the sling pod so you can use it yourself, but the game progresses whether you fling him to a safe spot or kill him by flinging him out into space. Many players get a sadistic kick out of doing the latter. (Not that it ultimately matters, since he shows up again on the Comet Observatory either way.)

*** [[media:Cake_9097.jpg|Mmmh...]]

* [[What the Hell, Player?]]: In Buoy Base Galaxy, if you talk to the Gearmo after destroying the weight that's keeping the fortress from rising to the surface, he says, "You destroyed the weight! So you just go around breaking stuff, eh? You think that's OK? Breaking stuff?"

* [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] can be broken for the more scientifically-minded in regards to the [[Art Major Physics]] (see way above) when [[Rule of Cool]] and [[Rule of Fun]] just don't cut it. Describing [[Space Does Not Work That Way|all the ways]] [[Artistic License Physics|this game fails physics]] [[Natter|may be an exercise better left to the discussion pages]].

* [[World Shapes]]: There are many others, not just spherical ones.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Science Fiction Video Games]]

[[Category:Platform Game]]

[[Category:Wii]]

[[Category:Video Game]]