Super Mario Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy is the latest installment in the Mario series, as well as the first Mario title for Nintendo's upcoming game console, Wii. "Super Mario Galaxy" is only the working title for the game. It is being developed by Nintendo EAD Tokyo, a recently formed studio featuring Nintendo's "all star" developers, whose first title, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, was noted for its adaptation of a simple and innovative control method into a full-fledged game. "Galaxy" was first announced at Nintendo's E3 2006 press conference on May 9, 2006. Because of the flexibility of the Wii Remote, Mario will be able to perform new types of maneuvers never before seen in a Mario game.

This is Mario's third 3D adventure following Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine.

Description

After Princess Peach is kidnapped by an unknown villain, Mario must follow the culprit all the way into outer space. In space, Mario finds a world very different from the Mushroom Kingdom. Some of the areas are spherical, allowing Mario to travel completely around them, while others are flat.

Gameplay

Most of the game takes place in outer space along a vast chain of miniature planetoids and other space matter. Mario can jump from planet to planet to collect various items and defeat enemies. Each planet's gravitational force prevents Mario from drifting off into space. Mario will face monstrous bosses, such as a fiery octopus-like creature that resembles Gooper Blooper from Super Mario Sunshine, a spider, and a towering, mechanical boss that resembles a Snifit. For every boss Mario defeats, he gets a star. During the course of the game, Mario will make good use of his spin attack. It is certain that a star cursor will be featured in the game, allowing players to interact with the world, but how it fits into the storyline has not yet been revealed. The E3 demo, for its part, gave little thought to storytelling, and instead exhibited a presentation reminiscent of NES-era games like Super Mario Bros. and Balloon Fight in which the game engine is already running at the title screen, and pressing Start segues directly into the first level. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat also used this same storyless aesthetic. A black hole was also seen in the demo, although its purpose is unknown at this time. A second black hole was used inside a Swiss cheese-like planet to create a bottomless pit. In a brief clip, Mario was also seen flying along the surface of a star, weaving in and out of sunflares.

Multiplayer

During an interview with IGN, Takashi Tezuka, Nintendo's analysis and development's general manager, stated that multiplayer for Super Mario Galaxy is more likely to be co-operative. Two-player functionality was already confirmed for the game. The development team is already experimenting with new ways to use the Wii Remote so that one player can control Mario while the other aids him. Conversely, Miyamoto also suggested that the second player could have the ability to interfere with Mario's progress.

Controls

* The control stick on the Nunchuck attachment is used to move Mario.
* The A button on the Wii Remote is used for jumping. Timed presses will result in progressively higher jumps.
* Shaking either the Wii Remote or the nunchuck attachment causes Mario to spin. This spin can be used for numerous things such as to stun or hurt enemies, cause items to spring up from the grass, or to launch Mario forward into space from special star-shaped points.
* Pressing the B button causes a star-shaped cursor to appear on the screen. The cursor can be moved for many functions such as interacting with objects (the E3 demo showed it ringing bells and rallying enemy attacks back at them), picking up or moving objects, and grabbing onto special locations while in mid-flight.

Release

In an after-hours press event at E3 2006, Shigeru Miyamoto said about Super Mario Galaxy: "I don't want to promise anything yet. But if it's not a launch title it will definitely be there within the first six months." Wii will be released in the United States, its launch territory, on November 19, 2006, which implies that Super Mario Galaxy could be released before the end of May 2007.

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