Super Mario Galaxy

Did You Know?

• The centennial Star Festival is held to watch a comet pass by the Mushroom Kingdom.
• Princess Peach discovers a star-shaped creature called a Luma and invites Mario to the festival to show it to him.
• Bowser attacks the Mushroom Kingdom with a fleet of airships and a massive flying saucer, lifting Peach's castle into outer space.

Development

The conception of Super Mario Galaxy traces back to late 1996, shortly after Super Mario 64's release. Assistant director Yoshiaki Koizumi believed this difficulty came from attempts to prevent depth misperception, getting lost, and motion sickness, resulting in cumbersome camera controls. After Super Mario 64, Shigeru Miyamoto assembled a team to develop a successor tentatively titled Super Mario 128 to address this problem. The gameplay principles originated from ideas in Super Mario 128, shown as a technology demonstration at Nintendo Space World in 2000.

The demonstration's director, Koizumi, wanted to use spherical-based platforms in a future game but believed it would be technically impossible. Koizumi later regretted preparing different camera modes for players to choose from. In mid-2003, before Nintendo EAD Tokyo started work on Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, a staff member expressed interest in combining skills to make the next Super Mario game, and Koizumi agreed after working on Jungle Beat. Miyamoto suggested working on the next large-scale Mario game after Jungle Beat's completion in late 2004, pushing for the spherical platform concept to be realized.

Reception

Super Mario Galaxy received critical acclaim, becoming the fourth-highest-rated game on Metacritic with a score of 97 out of 100 based on 73 reviews. On GameRankings, it was the highest-rated game with at least 20 reviews, holding a 97.64% ranking based on 78 reviews before the site shut down in December 2019. Critics most praised the visuals and presentation. Chris Scullion of Official Nintendo Magazine said the graphics pushed the Wii to its full potential.

Jeremy Parish from 1UP.com noted the visuals were absolutely impressive despite the Wii's limitations. Andrew Robinson of Computer and Video Games thought Nintendo got both gameplay and graphics perfect. Margaret Robertson of Eurogamer called the visuals an explosion of inventiveness. Andrew Reiner of Game Informer approved of the water and particle effects but noted similar detail to Super Mario Sunshine. Patrick Shaw from GamePro said the game takes full advantage of the Wii's capabilities in presentation and control.

Legacy

In late 2004, after Donkey Kong Jungle Beat shipped, Nintendo EAD Tokyo started work on Super Mario Galaxy at the suggestion of Shigeru Miyamoto, who wanted a large-scale Mario title. The spherical planet design came from the Super Mario 128 tech demo shown at Space World 2000. The team had more creative freedom due to the space setting, aiming to appeal to all ages. Yoshiaki Koizumi directed the game, and Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo composed the soundtrack, using a symphony orchestra for the first time in the series.

The game launched on Wii in Japan on 1 November 2007 and in other regions later that month. Critics praised its graphics, gravity mechanics, level design, music, setting, and story. It sold 12.80 million copies worldwide, making it the ninth best-selling Wii game. A sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2, arrived in 2010 with similar acclaim.

The original is often ranked among the best games ever made, holding the highest GameRankings score when the site closed in 2019. It won multiple Game of the Year awards and was the first Nintendo title to win the BAFTA for Best Game. Re-releases include a Chinese Nvidia Shield TV version on 22 March 2018, the Super Mario 3D All-Stars Switch compilation on 18 September 2020, and an enhanced Switch collection on 2 October 2025, playable separately on the eShop. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, a sequel to 2023’s film, came out in 2026.