Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 Review - The Best Get Better
I struggled with the Wii. Like many, the novelty at the beginning was great, I played insane amounts of Wii Sports, lapped up my time with Twilight Princess, and devoured a host of other exclusive titles as well, but as more and more shovelware came out, and the PS3 and Xbox 360 libraries continued to bulge with high-quality first/third party and indie software, the Wii was quickly left behind. The original Super Mario Galaxy dropped amidst peak Wii fever, but by the time 2010’s sequel came along, I was needing to blow the dust off the system to play the game. I did so happily because the original game was a revolutionary gameplay experience, and the sequel was an incredible playground to build upon the foundational ideas of the original. While the two games sold in excess of 20 millions combined copies, there are generations of gamers who were yet to experience the magic of the Super Mario Galaxy games, so enter Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 for Nintendo Switch. Nintendo has provided the goods, turning two games that were already the closest thing you could get to 3D platforming perfection, into modernised marvels.
Super Mario Galaxy sees Mario attend the centennial Star Festival to watch a comet pass the Mushroom Kingdom, but as Mario approaches Peach’s castle Bowser and his army attack, ripping the castle from the ground, and abducting Peach, along with the Luma that she had intended to show Mario. Mario gets caught up in the mix and is dragged into space, landing on a small planet where he meets Rosalina, and begins his adventure to rescue Peach and thwart another Bowser endevour.
After years of wafer-thin attempts at narrative in Mario titles, Super Mario Galaxy was an enormous step forward. The successor, Super Mario Galaxy 2, was a bit more of what you would expect however, a simpler, barebones plot that retells the original title with several alterations. Ultimately, despite their quality, a plot in a Mario platformer is not what the players are there for, it’s for the the platforming itself, and even in 2026, the gameplay experience of Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 dwarfs the accomplishments of games that are 10-15 years younger.
With the Mario Galaxy playing experience largely playing out over a series of miniature planets, each with their own gravitational pulls, Mario’s typical leaps and jumps can now launch him from planet to planet, and cover extraordinary distances as gravity drags him that little bit further. Then there are the power-ups. From Galaxy’s Bee, Boo, Ice, Flying, and Spring options, to Galaxy 2’s additions, the Cloud, Spin Drill, and Rock Mario power-ups, both games give the player a wide range of interesting ways to interact with the world beyond just the gravitational systems at play. Both games include a range of other temporary abilities, and Yoshi even comes along for the ride in the second title as well, diversifying the experience even further. Both games play like a dream in 2026 and with so much to do, players both new and returning, will not be lacking for fun options to explore. You can even loop in a second player to use a motion-controlled pointer to collect star bits, and even fire them at enemies.
The music of both games is exceptional, elevating every action you take to extraordinary highs, and the visual upgrade looks excellent. Of course, like most remasters, when a cutscene begins the colours won’t pop like the moment-to-moment gameplay now does, creating something of a disconnect, but its a price I’m happy to pay to be able to revisit this pair of phenomenal titles. The titles now run at 4K on the Nintendo Switch 2, and 1080p on the original Switch, while there are a suite of new UI improvements, storybook chapters, and an assist mode all new to this re-release.
Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 are two of the finest games of all time, and for them to be improved in the myriad of ways that they have is incredibly impressive. Some will question the fact that this is the second time that the original Super Mario Galaxy has come to Switch, but with what has been added, along with the presence of the sequel, and the fact that if you’re a digital consumer, you can opt to only buy Super Mario Galaxy 2 if you wish, the pair of titles should be an irresistible purchase option for any fan of Mario, of which there are tens of millions of.
Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 were reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2 with a code kindly provided by Nintendo Australia.
