Grand Star Rescue

"They're using the Smg icon grandstar.png to power that awful red. It looks like it's making...something."

- Luma

Grand Star Rescue is the first mission of the Gateway Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy, and is subsequently the first mission of the game as well. The objective of the mission is to recover the Grand Star at the end. The mission also serves as a tutorial level for the player. After the first time this mission is completed, it cannot be replayed until after completing Gateway's Purple Coins.

Mission
When Mario awakens on the Starting Planet, an apricot Star Bunny will challenge him to a game of hide-and-seek. The player will have to follow the Star Bunny around part of the planet until he reaches his two friends, after which all three Star Bunnies will run away and hide in various locations around the planet. One is found in a crater near a small pool of water, another in the grass surrounded by rubbery bulbs, and the last in the Warp Pipe. When Mario catches one, it will give him a clue as to where the remaining others are. Once the player catches all three of them, a small castle-like structure will appear on the top of the planet. Here, Mario will meet Rosalina, befriend Baby Luma, and then gain the spinning ability. Mario needs to spin the nearby crystal which contains a Launch Star that leads him to the Black Hole Planet. Here, Mario talks to a Luma who says that he had another Launch Star all ready for him to use, but that it was broken into five Star Chips by meteors. The player must then collect the scattered Star Chips to reform the Launch Star and progress to the first Metal Planet.

On the Metal Planet, a Luma trapped in a cage asks Mario to free him, telling him that one of the Goombas on the planet should have the key. The player must then seek out the one Goomba on the planet that is larger than all the others, as only this one has the key (it will not appear on the planet until the player talks to the trapped Luma). Once freed, the Luma transforms into a Sling Star, which leads Mario to the second Metal Planet. On this planet, he must defeat a Big Goomba near the top of the planet and collect its key to free another trapped Luma on the bottom of the planet (unlike the previous planet, the Big Goomba will be on the planet regardless of whether or not the player talks to the trapped Luma before freeing it). Mario must then follow him into a Warp Pipe on the bottom of the planet, which takes him to the Flipswitch Area inside it. It is filled with yellow Flipswitch Panels and moving electrical platforms. A large machine in the middle of the room holds a Grand Star inside it. Mario must step on every switch to turn them from yellow to blue, which will shut the machine down and allow Mario to retrieve the Grand Star.

This is the only mission in the game where Flipswitch Panels must be turned off, rather than on, and they have a circle on it for all colors, rather than a question mark (blue), an exclamation mark (yellow), or a square (green).