Super Mario Galaxy

Development

The conception of Super Mario Galaxy traces back to late 1996 after Super Mario 64, when staff observed that 3D games caused a separation among players, with some finding them too difficult. Assistant director Yoshiaki Koizumi believed the difficulty came from camera controls and depth perception issues. After Super Mario 64, Shigeru Miyamoto assembled a team to develop a successor tentatively titled Super Mario 128. The gameplay principles originated from Super Mario 128, shown as a tech demo at Nintendo Space World in 2000, featuring spherical platforms that Koizumi wanted to use but thought were technically impossible.

Koizumi later regretted offering multiple camera modes. In mid-2003, before Nintendo EAD Tokyo began Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, a staff member expressed interest in making the next Super Mario game, and Koizumi agreed after working on Jungle Beat. Miyamoto suggested working on a large-scale Mario game after Jungle Beat finished in late 2004, pushing for the spherical platform concept.

Reception

Super Mario Galaxy received critical acclaim, with a Metacritic aggregate score of 97 out of 100 based on 73 reviews. On GameRankings, it was the highest-rated game with at least 20 reviews at 97.64% before the site shut down in 2019. Critics praised the visuals and presentation; Chris Scullion of Official Nintendo Magazine said the graphics pushed the Wii to its full potential, while Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com called the visuals absolutely impressive. Andrew Robinson of Computer and Video Games thought Nintendo got both gameplay and graphics perfect. Margaret Robertson of Eurogamer described the visuals as an explosion of inventiveness. Andrew Reiner of Game Informer approved of water and particle effects but noted similar detail to Super Mario Sunshine. Patrick Shaw of GamePro said the game takes full advantage of the Wii's capabilities.

Legacy

In the 1,000th issue of Famitsu, Miyamoto expressed interest in making a sequel. Originally called Super Mario Galaxy More, it became a full sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2, released in 2010 to similar acclaim and selling 6.36 million copies worldwide as of April 2011. Super Mario Galaxy was rereleased for Nvidia's Shield TV in China on 22 March 2018, running via emulator with 1080p resolution and remapped controls. It was included in Super Mario 3D All-Stars for Nintendo Switch on 18 September 2020.

An enhanced version for Nintendo Switch was released on 2 October 2025, as part of a collection with its sequel and separately on the eShop, running at 1080p (up to 4K on Nintendo Switch 2 via free update) and adding an assist mode and a new chapter of Rosalina's storybook. A pair of Amiibo released on 2 April 2026 can be scanned for items. A hardcover book of Rosalina's storybook was made available separately. The sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, titled The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, was released on 1 April 2026.