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Well, I've had the game for about a week now, and I've almost beaten it. Now, understand, I've had off of school for the past two days and must have invested about 12 hours into the game (no exaggeration), so for me to be almost done it does not mean it was a short game. Also, when I say almost done, I mean, I've acquired 97 of the 120 stars. Percentage-wise, I'm almost done. However, the difficulty of those last 23 stars is anyones' guess. I haven't had to use a guide yet, though there have been parts that have been very challenging and, eventually, I think I may have to use a guide from lack of ability to find the few remaining hidden stars. However, my closeness to completion aside, let me say this. Super Mario Galaxy is the best Wii game ever. I know I said that before about Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and then the same of Trauma Center: Second Opinion, and the same again of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, but now I say it once more, with Super Mario Galaxy being the definitively best Wii game available. The controls are fantastically smooth. Moving on a sphere is awkward at first, but Nintendo gave Mario a bit more weight than what he had in Super Mario Sunshine, so it all balances it out. The game is truly a piece of eye candy. Those scenes where Mario rockets from Star launch pads does next to nothing for the gameplay, but by God does it look incredible and it stops passer-bys dead in their tracks. The music is all orchestrated, no MIDIs this time, and it shows, big time. The music is both a mix of classic Mario muzak and beautifully compossed classical bliss. But most importantly, the game is FUN! I have never enjoyed playing a game so much before. Just pure giddyness takes over when I weave Mario in between comets and space mines, and though this level of fun may be outdone within the next year by Pikmin 3, for now, I can easily say I have never had more fun playing video games before, ever. The only bad things I can say against the game are that, eventually, it does end. Despite the fact that gamers struggle their way through all 120 stars, I know most wish for 100 more. Also, this game really brings to light the fact that few Wii games have reached this pedigree of excellence. It is a nearly perfect game in all respects and it is a masterpiece of this new generation.

The music is just amazing. I'm heavily considering ordering the soundtrack from Japan. It's that good.

And man, this game is pretty, isn't it? Not just for a Wii game, but for a game itself. I never noticed jaggies, or anything that took me out of the experience. It was like playing a CG movie.

I dunno, it seemed really, really good to me. I didn't really notice anything bad about the visuals at any point.

But then again, it's a Nintendo game, so it can't look astonishing.

CG movies: Toy Story, Monster's Inc, blah blah blah. It has magnificent lighting and shading with very little bloom (thank God gonk ) The Queen Bee's fur (?) looked really freaking good. The only thing that CG movies do that the games don't are close-ups of characters. Explosions looked awesome, blah blah blah, I don't care any more.

What CG movies are there to compare to?

See the reason I like teh gameplay so much is that Nintendo has made a big effort towards not being repetitious. While for the most part, yes, it is still just running and jumping. But at the same time, those parts are broken up by new experiences, like Boo and Bee Mario, the ball-rolling levels, the manta-riding levels. Also, I like how the game is paced, you feel you have some incentive to go revisit older levels with the inclusion of the new comet system, and you have incentive to play the game all over again, just to see that one last star, star #121. I think I've said this before, but I'm a sucker for Super Mario 64 and one of the reasons I like Galaxy's gameplay so much is because it is fairly similar to that of SM64. However, I also like the gameplay additions offered by the planet hopping and random gravity system that were introduced in this game.