Super Mario Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy is a 3D action-adventure platform game for the Wii, first released in Japan on November 1, 2007. It is the eleventh entry in the Super Mario series, the third 3D platformer, and the first of what would be recognized – in retrospect – as the "course clear-style" games of the series. In this game, the player controls Mario in outer space, moving across spherical planetoids with their own centers of gravity. The levels are more linear than those found in its 3D predecessors Super Mario 64 (1996) and Super Mario Sunshine (2002). Similar to prior games, he is collecting Power Stars to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, who is trying to establish his own galaxy at the center of the universe. Mario is aided by his brother Luigi, a brigade of Toads, star-shaped creatures called Lumas, and a mysterious woman named Rosalina. The save data description for the game is "Launch into a cosmic adventure!"

Upon its release, Super Mario Galaxy was met with critical acclaim and commercial success. It received various awards and accolades, including from the, the , and the. It has sold 12.80 million copies, making it the ninth best-selling Wii game. It was re-released in 2011 under the Nintendo Selects branding for having sold so well. It is one of the few Wii titles to have been ported to the console in 2018. A port of the game with upscaled graphics was included in Super Mario 3D All-Stars alongside Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine on September 18, 2020 to correspond with the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. (1985). After its original release a dedicated sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2, was developed and released for the Wii on May 22, 2010.

Super Mario Galaxy has gone on to be considered one of the and a masterpiece.

Story
From the instruction booklet Every hundred years, a huge comet flies by in the skies above the Mushroom Kingdom. One year, that comet filled the entire sky, and from it fell a stream of shooting stars. The Toads scooped up the Star Bits and brought them to the castle, where they were reborn as a great Power Star. It was a happy time in the Mushroom Kingdom. Then one night Mario received a letter...

Dear Mario, I'll be waiting for you at the castle on the night of the Star Festival. There's something I'd like to give you. From Peach

With invitation in hand, Mario headed off to the castle just as the Star Festival was getting into full swing. Surrounded by Toads gleefully trying to catch falling Star Bits, Mario was looking forward to the night's festivities.

But then, something happened... Every century, on the eve of the Star Festival, a comet passes over the Mushroom Kingdom and causes magical stars and stardust to fall to the planet below. Peach invites Mario to her castle to join in the festivities and receive a special gift. As Mario arrives in the Castle Gardens, Bowser suddenly attacks the Toads with his airships and encases them in crystals. He "invites" Peach to the creation of his brand new galaxy and lifts the castle off the ground with a UFO to carry it to the center of the universe, taking her, two Toads, and Mario with it. Before Mario can reach Peach, Kamek suddenly appears and casts a spell at him, sending him into space. An apricot-colored Luma, whom Peach was carrying before her abduction, flees to look for Mario before Kamek warps the castle away with another spell.

Mario is awoken by the apricot-colored Luma on a small grassy planet. Here, he meets other Lumas and Rosalina, a mysterious woman who acts as the protector of the galaxies and the mother of the Lumas. She tells Mario that her ship, the Comet Observatory, had its Power Stars stolen by Bowser. Without them, the Comet Observatory is unable to move through space. Rosalina asks him to reclaim her Power Stars. In exchange, she offers to help rescue Peach and defeat Bowser. Rosalina gives him the apricot-colored Luma to help him on his quest. He grants Mario the ability to spin and travel through space. Together, they travel to various galaxies in opened domes to obtain Power Stars. Once a mission is completed in one galaxy, Mario collects a Power Star and unlocks the next mission. Most domes contain five galaxies. Once Mario has collected enough Power Stars, the next galaxy in the current dome is an enemy base where either Bowser or Bowser Jr. would be using the power of one of the Grand Stars, large varieties of Power Stars. Rescuing the Grand Star unlocks the next dome. When enough Power Stars are collected, the Comet Observatory takes Mario to the center of the universe.

Once there, Mario defeats Bowser in his brand new galaxy, retrieves the last Grand Star, and rescues Peach. Just then, a large sun in Bowser's near-complete galaxy undergoes a supernova and becomes a supermassive black hole which begins pulling in everything. The Lumas from the Comet Observatory, including the apricot-colored Luma, throw themselves into the black hole in order to neutralize it, and it soon evaporates in a massive explosion. Mario appears in front of Rosalina, who saves him from the cataclysm and tells him that this is not the end, but a new beginning for the universe, which repeats its cycle indefinitely, each time a little differently.

Mario later awakens in the Mushroom Kingdom near Peach's Castle. He sees characters and enemies he met throughout his adventure celebrating together. Bowser and Peach lie next to him and begin to stir. When he looks into the air, he notices a newborn galaxy as Rosalina's words echo in his mind, and exclaims, "Welcome! Welcome new galaxy!" The camera pans out into space, revealing the reconstructed universe. After 120 Power Stars have been collected, a special cutscene plays after the staff roll: Rosalina thanks the player and says, "I will watch over you from beyond the stars." before flying off with the Comet Observatory. Alone in the rubble left by the supermassive black hole, an apricot-colored Luma appears behind a decrepit starship. This alludes to the idea of how the universe repeats itself. The events of the past will carry out anew, with the lost apricot Luma searching for its mother.

Basic gameplay
Gameplay is somewhat different from the previous Mario titles, as rather than being played strictly in 2D or 3D, the game occasionally shifts from 3D to 2D and vice versa (although the core gameplay is largely in 3D); the game also utilizes sphere walking. Even with these changes, however, the gameplay heavily resembles Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, with a similar camera system and similar gameplay mechanics.

Basic controls
The game has several innovations and additions to the basic 3D Mario game concept. Mario is controlled with the analog stick and can jump with the. The works just as the  trigger did in Super Mario 64. The player uses it to make Mario crouch, do Backwards Somersaults, Side Somersaults, and Long Jumps. Mario can also Triple Jump by jumping with precise timing three times, each time jumping higher than before. The centers the camera behind Mario, while the  can adjust the camera angle manually. By pressing, the player can enter a first-person perspective.

The game also uses the motion sensors of the Wii Remote. The pointer of the Remote appears as the Star Pointer on the screen. The Star Pointer is used to perform a variety of actions, such as using Pull Stars, manipulating Sling Pods, and collecting Star Bits. Shaking the Wii Remote or Nunchuk makes Mario perform a spin. By pressing, players can fire a Star Bit. When enemies are hit by a Star Bit, they are stunned and can be defeated with a touch, releasing Star Bits. Mario can also defeat most enemies by jumping on them, which creates a coin Mario can use to heal HP. Using the spin to defeat enemies is also possible. Spinning may also stop an enemy from attacking; if Bowser and Mario both spin at the same time, both moves get canceled. Also, if Mario or Luigi Long Jumps then lands on the ground and quickly does a spin, they will do a small pirouette. The player can use any of these tactics to defeat regular enemies, though special enemies such as the Grand Goomba in the Gateway Galaxy might require a spin. Several enemies are, however, much easier to defeat by shooting them than by jumping on them. As in Super Mario Sunshine, Mario can jump on NPCs to gain extra height or annoy them.

Swimming is fairly simple. Mario can change his direction by using the analog stick and can dive by pressing Z. Breaststrokes are possible by pressing repeatedly while swimming forward. Mario must return to the surface or collect air bubbles periodically in order to refill his air supply. Failure to do so could result in losing a life. Skating is a technique used when on ice. Mario merely needs to spin while walking, and he starts to skate.

There is also a move that is not explained in the instruction booklet. If the player, while airborne, both shakes the controller and presses (to spin and Ground Pound at the same time), they perform a special ground pound that homes in on nearby enemies. If there is no enemy nearby, Mario does a fancier ground pound. This move returns in the game's sequel, also unexplained in the packaged materials.

Co-Star Mode
Featured in Super Mario Galaxy is a multiplayer mode called Co-Star Mode. By simply connecting a second Wii Remote, another player can join in and assist the first player by controlling a second Star Pointer, and in doing so can accomplish a variety of different things, some of which the first player can do, but many of which the first player cannot do. When Co-Star Mode is active, "1P " appears below Player 1's Star Pointer, and "2P " appears below Player 2's Star Pointer to help differentiate between them. When Co-Star Mode is not in use, these indicators no longer appear beneath either player's Star Pointers, until such time as Co-Star Mode becomes active again. The second player can collect Star Bits and fire them at enemies to briefly stun them. When the second Star Pointer is pointed at Mario and is pressed, the second player can make Mario perform a Co-Star Super Jump. Combining both jump techniques can make Mario jump higher than when only controlled with one controller. This works in midair, but can only be done once before touching a horizontal surface.

Mario's life meter
Mario's life meter has been decreased to three total. Originally, Mario had a life meter with eight units, similar to Super Mario 64, its DS remake, and Super Mario Sunshine, but it was reduced to three in the final game, with the ability to extend it to a maximum of six via a Life Mushroom. There is no longer a separate, slowly-decreasing life meter for when Mario is underwater; instead, Mario has an air meter which decreases and starts to deplete Mario's main life meter when it hits zero. The Life Mushroom replenishes any lost health and adds a second health meter, making Mario's max health six. When Mario's health drops down to three again, the second health meter smashes and the effect of the Life Mushroom is lost. Unlike in previous 3D Mario games, Mario does not take damage by falling from high areas.

New elements
Mario explores a new 3D world with planets that have their own gravity. Several levels have arrows that Mario can turn around with a spin, changing the direction of the gravity. The Launch Star allows Mario to launch off of a planet and go flying to the next. There is little or no warning that a boss might be located on the next planet, and there is also little indication that Mario may be facing something terrible or something peaceful on where he is headed next, and there are also no loading times and screens. The game also contains side-scrolling levels reminiscent of New Super Mario Bros. with classic enemies such as Goombas and Piranha Plants. These side-scrolling levels may also contain directional gravity, allowing Mario to walk on the walls and ceiling.

"Super Luigi Galaxy"
Collecting all 120 Power Stars and defeating Bowser once more unlocks "Super Luigi Galaxy" mode, which replaces Mario with a playable version of Luigi and presents a few gameplay differences to reflect this change. Like in several previous Mario games, Luigi boasts higher jumps, but lower traction than Mario. Luigi is also faster than Mario but takes longer to reach top speed. Luigi loses air faster while underwater and loses a chunk of air every time he spins underwater. Cosmic Luigi is more challenging than Cosmic Mario, and Luigi receives 20 1-Up Mushrooms from Peach's letter (although if Luigi's 1-Up counter grows too high, he only receives five). Outside of these changes, the storyline is almost completely unchanged and even includes the original NPC Luigi. When players collect 120 Power Stars and defeat Bowser again in this mode, Grand Finale Galaxy becomes available for Mario and Luigi, allowing the 121st Power Star to be collected.

This mode is referenced by Rosalina as "another world" players can access once they have defeated Bowser after collecting 120 Power Stars. In the Japanese version, she describes it as the world where Mario (or Luigi) may come across his alternate self who is not him.

Controls
When playing on a Wii or Wii U console by oneself (P1), the game requires one to use the Wii Remote attached to the Nunchuk. If the player attempts to access the game without the Nunchuk attached, it will prompt the player to do so before proceeding. One will not be able to access the rest of the game unless they do so. In Co-Star Mode, the second player (P2) is not required to have the Nunchuk attached to their Wii Remote but it still must be held vertically.

The controller for the has a more conventional layout, cannot display a pointer on screen, and lacks the same motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote. To compensate, actions that originally involved shaking the Wii Remote are performed by pressing the X button. Actions involving the Star Pointer are instead performed with the right analog stick. In Co-Star Mode, both analog sticks can be used to control the Star Pointer. The original tilt controls in the game is also replaced by the regular left analog stick control.

For the control scheme of the iteration included in Super Mario 3D All-Stars for Nintendo Switch systems, click here.

Setting
Super Mario Galaxy is set in outer space. With the exception of Grand Finale Galaxy, which is Princess Peach's Castle Gardens in the Mushroom Kingdom, all levels – referred to as "galaxies" in this game – are staged on worlds far removed from Mario's home planet. This is the first entry in the series to explicitly include an outer space setting since Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992) and the first time it has been realized by Nintendo EAD, the studio responsible for most of the proceeding Super Mario games. A galaxy is an isolated cluster of small planets and other planetary bodies. Some are shaped like spheres, but many are not. Most planets have their own gravitational pull, which prevents Mario from falling down bottomless pits and enables him to return to his starting position if he just keeps moving forward. Mario's movement, physics, and trajectory bend organically around the planet's shape. Because they have their own pull, most planets can be directly traveled between just by jumping. Otherwise, they can be reached via objects called Launch Stars and Pull Stars. Not all planets have their own unique gravity: some are shaped like the more traditional courses of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine and the gravitational pull is below their mass, but this is conveyed through context.

The theme of space is communicated in various ways throughout Super Mario Galaxy. Many galaxies include distant asteroid belts or views of massive, unreachable planets orbiting suns that peak over their horizons. Depending on the distance from the game's camera, the light from a visible sun retracts, mimicking the behavior of real sunlight. The skyboxes of the galaxies feature nebulas, auroras, and starry skies. Three-dimensional objects – including Mario himself – exhibit a soft glow in certain positions as if struck by the light from distant stars. Black holes occur in place of bottomless pits in many galaxies. Super Mario Galaxy includes some motifs associated with science fiction, such as humanoid robots, fortified battle facilities, UFOs, and starships. Much of the game's setting includes whimsical, tranquil, and surreal elements comparable to those found in children's books. Locations are reached via a palace-like starship called the Comet Observatory, the game's hub world. It is overseen by a princess named Rosalina and is a nursery for spacefaring star children called Lumas. In lieu of aliens, the people found living in the galaxies include Star Bunnies, Honeybees, and penguins. Star Bits, small collectibles that fall from the sky like shooting stars, resemble and are eaten by the Lumas. There are planets and entire galaxies that look like dessert.

According to director Yoshiaki Koizumi, the primary goal behind Super Mario Galaxy was to create a Super Mario game with spherical worlds. It was thought that these worlds would make it less likely for players to get disoriented or have to reposition the camera. These were issues he observed during the development of Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), and Super Mario Sunshine that prevented complete immersion and intimidated inexperienced players. The decision to stage the game in outer space was made because the development team thought that the spherical worlds would most intuitively make sense as planets. In 2017, a figure was released by Nintendo that conveys that Super Mario Galaxy is structurally viewed as a different type of 3D Mario game from its immediate predecessors – the "sandbox-style" games Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. Nintendo aligns it with the succeeding games Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010), Super Mario 3D Land (2011), and Super Mario 3D World (2013) as a linear "course clear-style" game. However, many of the levels in Super Mario Galaxy are structured similarly to the ones in its predecessors, particularly in the robust six-mission galaxies and the large planets that do not have their own centers of gravity. The principals of the "sandbox-style" games derive from hakoniwa, or "box gardens", and Koizumi directly cites them as an influence behind the worlds in Super Mario Galaxy as well.

Galaxies
In Super Mario Galaxy, levels are accessed inside of domes on the Comet Observatory. They are spatially distributed across the hub, similar to the access points for levels in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. However, with the exception of the Garden, each dome contains a set of five different galaxies instead of just one dedicated course. Domes are unlocked unilaterally as the player completes certain criteria. These make the domes analogous to the worlds of the 2D Super Mario games like Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988). However, as in its 3D predecessors, the player is not restricted to linear course progression in Super Mario Galaxy.

Each galaxy contains objectives referred to as missions. Completing a mission has Mario acquire one of the galaxy's Power Stars, the same tokens used in Super Mario 64 for unlocking levels. One mission correlates with one Power Star. The start of each mission has a brief cinematic preview of the galaxy that hints at the location of the Power Star, as was similarly done in Super Mario Sunshine. Once a specified number of Power Stars has been accumulated, a new galaxy becomes unlockable at the player's discretion. Only half of the Power Stars in the game are required for progression. The minimum number of Power Stars needed to access the game's final level is 60 in a game that contains 120 total. Consequently, a player who completes as many missions as possible within one dome may unlock all the galaxies within the next all at once when they enter it for the first time.

Every dome has a Pull Star at its center. Entering the Pull Star brings Mario to an interactive selection screen of all the dome's galaxies. The galaxies orbit around the Pull Star (the ; see right). The display is directly comparable to models of solar systems, with each galaxy following a circular trajectory around the Pull Star. The distance of these orbital lines from the Pull Star has a positive correlation with the number of Power Stars required to unlock the galaxies and a negative correlation with the number of missions available within them. (i.e. The galaxies closest to the origin typically have the greatest number of missions and require the lowest number of Power Stars to unlock. The farthest ones contain the fewest and require the highest number of Power Stars to unlock.) Using the Terrace as an example, a dome contains three different types of galaxies: There are galaxies accessible outside of the domes. With the exception of Gateway Galaxy, these ones can also be categorized as mystery or boss galaxies. Most of them are unlocked by feeding Hungry Lumas a requested number of Star Bits. These Lumas appear on the Comet Observatory once certain criteria are met within the dome galaxies (see chart below). There is a Hungry Luma associated with every dome, essentially functioning as an extra level for each one. A tiny house called the Gate rests on a grassy platform orbiting the observatory. It grants Mario access to Gateway Galaxy. This galaxy is the first level of the game, but it can only be revisited via the Gate once "King Kaliente's Spicy Return" is completed. Though it is not a dome, there is a Hungry Luma associated with it as well. A planetoid called the Planet of Trials orbits the observatory and has three galaxies of its own. It becomes reachable once all three of the secret Green Power Stars have been collected. A Launch Star leading to Grand Finale Galaxy appears here after the player has collected 120 Power Stars as Mario and Luigi. Bowser's Galaxy Reactor is only reachable by speaking to Rosalina after 60 Power Stars have been collected.
 * "Robust galaxies" that contain at least six missions. They either feature a high number of visitable planets or a small selection of large ones to explore. The missions build off of each other environmentally or narratively. (i.e. The events that occur in one mission foreshadow the events of the subsequent mission.) Two or more of the six missions typically involve a boss battle. Most domes contain two or three of these galaxies, and they are all listed together on the first page of the in-game Star List. They are the only galaxies orbited by Prankster Comets. The robust galaxies of the Terrace are Good Egg Galaxy and Honeyhive Galaxy.
 * "Mystery galaxies" that each contain one mission. Before being unlocked, they are represented by course preview models shaped like ? Blocks. These galaxies are highly distinctive in theme and mission. Some of them entail minigames like ray surfing or ball rolling. Others are athletic obstacle courses. Mystery galaxies usually require completing a certain mission in another galaxy in addition to accumulating a specific number of Power Stars to unlock. Each dome contains one or two mystery galaxies. In the Terrace, they are Loopdeeloop Galaxy and Flipswitch Galaxy.
 * "Boss galaxies" that each contain one mission. They feature linear obstacle courses that lead to a boss battle. Half of them involve Bowser Jr., either directly or as the inciter for another boss to go after Mario. The other half feature Bowser himself. With the exception of the Garden, each dome contains one boss galaxy and it is always on the outermost ring in the dome. Completing the mission in these galaxies is a criterion needed to unlock a subsequent dome and is required for game progression. They have the highest or second-highest Power Star threshold. The preview model in orbit resembles a bust of Bowser's head with glowing eyes. The boss galaxy in the Terrace is Bowser Jr.'s Robot Reactor.

Mario encounters his brother in four galaxies: Good Egg Galaxy, Honeyhive Galaxy, Battlerock Galaxy, and Ghostly Galaxy. In Ghostly Galaxy, Luigi is at the end of the "Luigi and the Haunted Mansion" mission and gives Mario a Power Star when reached. After Luigi is rescued, he appears in the observatory and offers to help Mario collect Power Stars. When Luigi visits a galaxy, he gets stuck and sends a letter to Mario asking for help. A picture that hints at his location is included with each letter. Finding him within a galaxy awards Mario with a secret Power Star.

There are 42 dedicated galaxies in the game. Of this total 15 are robust galaxies, 20 are mystery galaxies, and 6 are boss galaxies. If the Comet Observatory, its library, and its domes are considered individual levels, then the true total number is 50. Some galaxies have tiny otherworldly subareas reached via pipes that contain an interactive side objective. If each of these areas were to be considered levels as well, then the true number is even higher. The chart below lists the galaxies of the game roughly as they are listed on the Star List. Each galaxy is given a brief description, an in-game screenshot, and a list of their missions. There is a legend at the bottom of the chart detailing what the symbols used in it represent.

Prankster Comets
Prankster Comets are objects that interfere with a galaxy and give it an extra attribute. The 30 Comet Stars are obtained by completing special challenges in the robust galaxies, namely speed runs; "daredevil" runs (in which Mario is defeated if he takes a single hit); races against Cosmic Mario; and doubling the speed of enemies and obstacles. They only appear after the corresponding normal mission (e.g. Ghostly Galaxy's "Beware of Bouldergeist") is completed, sometimes immediately, and at other times, only after another galaxy's level is completed. Prankster Comets appear and disappear every other time a mission is completed. After a mission is completed while a Prankster Comet is active, all Prankster Comets disappear until a second mission is beaten. In some cases, such as in Space Junk Galaxy, all normal missions within a galaxy have to be beaten first before a comet can appear. There are two Prankster Comets in each of the 15 robust galaxies: one of the comet types just described, plus a Purple Comet where Mario must collect 100 Purple Coins. These comets only begin to appear after "The Fate of the Universe" is completed at least once. Which and where Prankster Comets appear can be manipulated by feeding Comet Tico 20 Star Bits.

The Comet Observatory
The Comet Observatory is the hub world in the game. It is a bridge between domes and serves as a place for the player to rest in between missions. It is a sprawling structure similar to a palace, with a tall central spire and ornamental architecture. These attributes visually make it reminiscent of Princess Peach's Castle, the hub of Super Mario 64. The core of the observatory is a comet called the beacon that is fueled by Power Stars. The beacon is what allows the Comet Observatory to travel through space, but it remains in orbit around Mario's home planet throughout most of the game. The observatory has two extraplanetary satellites: the Planet of Trials and a grassy platform that holds the Gate. The platform is directly anchored to the observatory via Warp Pads and can be considered a direct extension of it, unlike the Planet of Trials.

Including Gateway Galaxy, there are nine galaxies directly accessed from the Comet Observatory. Six of these galaxies come from the Hungry Lumas affiliated with each dome. Unlike the hub worlds of Super Mario Galaxy's predecessors, there are no hidden Power Stars directly found on the observatory, though accessing the Planet of Trials, entering the Gate, and the arrival of Hungry Lumas are framed similarly. Five 1-Up Mushrooms are hidden in the observatory. Most of the observatory is obscured by darkness when Mario first arrives due to the abduction of its Power Stars and only the Terrace can be accessed. As Mario collects Power Stars, energy is restored to the observatory and new areas become lit to convey that they are now accessible. Warp Pads dot the Comet Observatory. They can be used to quickly reach adjacent locations on the hub. A Red Star appears above the Bedroom once Mario completes "Gateway's Purple Coins". Touching it transforms him into Flying Mario and allows him to soar through the skies of the observatory. There is nothing on the observatory that can harm Mario, and he will safely be transported back to solid ground if he falls off its edge.

The Comet Observatory is a nursery ground for Lumas. They are cared for by Rosalina, who treats them as if they were her children. As light is restored to the observatory, more and more Lumas appear. It was built by Rosalina when she was a child with an apricot-colored Luma. Over time, as more Lumas arrived and needed care, she expanded its size. The Comet Observatory visits Mario's home world once every hundred years, which is celebrated in the Mushroom Kingdom as the Star Festival. When the beacon is at its maximum size, Rosalina can make the observatory fold into the shape of a rocket ship and soar through the sky like a comet. The domes are framed as an extension of the observatory that provide a view of the cosmos. Each one is themed around rooms in a house, such as the bedroom, kitchen, and so on. There are two locations similar in concept that are not domes on the observatory: the garage and the library. The garage is framed as an intergalactic repair shop that starships can dock to. This is where the Toad Brigade and Luigi establish themselves once "Bee Mario Takes Flight" and "Luigi and the Haunted Mansion", respectively, are completed.

The library is a closed off space behind the beacon that becomes accessible once "The Fiery Stronghold" is completed. Though entered like a dome, there are no galaxies here. The are no tangible incentives for coming to the library, and the player is never forced to enter it. This is where Rosalina reads a storybook to the Lumas. New chapters become available as Mario accumulates Power Stars. The book details her personal backstory, the history of the Comet Observatory, and provides insight into the past of the apricot-colored Luma that travels with Mario. This part of the game was created by Yoshiaki Koizumi and included at the discretion of Shigeru Miyamoto. Rosalina's Story is noted for its heartfelt and melancholy elements. The illustrations on the pages have been likened to .

Non-playable characters
With the exception of Princess Peach, Toads, and penguins, all of the characters encountered by the player are completely new to the Mario franchise. Most characters are met within galaxies, though Rosalina, the Toad Brigade, and the Lumas are found on the Comet Observatory. In addition to the characters listed below, Yoshi has a cameo in Space Junk Galaxy and can be set as the file select icon for the player's saved file. Miis can also be set as the file select icon, representing their first appearance in a Super Mario game.

Enemies and obstacles
Roughly ninety enemies are in Super Mario Galaxy. Including bosses and obstacles, there are over one-hundred. Most enemies that can be defeated by Mario drop different spoils depending on how they are attacked: enemies drop coins if stomped on and Star Bits if spun into. Most enemies that actively attack Mario briefly stop after successfully causing damage. This gives the player a chance to get their bearings before responding. Some enemies, such as Piranha Plants, laugh at Mario when they successfully land a hit.

About fifty of the enemies and varieties in Super Mario Galaxy are wholly new to the series. Some of them are incorporated into subsequent Super Mario games or have inspired staple elements. Notable groups include: octopus creatures called Electrogoombas, of which several varieties fire rocks; mechanical, spinning enemies called Topmen; and stationary enemies that discharge rings of electricity called Beamers. Though some enemies look like robots, there are no enemies visually comparable to the typical alien designs found in science fiction. Some of the new enemies are derivative of creatures that appeared in earlier Super Mario games in both design and behavior, with a particular focus on Super Mario 64 (see right). Some of them resemble recurring enemies in The Legend of Zelda series. Specifically, the bats resemble Keeses and the Electrogoombas resemble Octoroks. The Japanese name for Rocto directly derives from the name "Octorok".

Super Mario Galaxy makes use of the Super Mario series' back catalog of enemies. This game represents the first instance that some of these enemies were ever integrated into a 3D platformer. There are enemies in Super Mario Galaxy that, with the exception of re-releases or remakes, never appeared outside of their debut titles. The enemies that are incorporated contrast greatly with the ones in the previous 3D Super Mario game, a title that made a conservative use of the series' back catalog and introduced enemies that largely never appeared again.

Items
Collectibles, pickups, and launchable objects.

Power-ups
Items that transform Mario's appearance and give him unique abilities.

Music
The majority of the music in Super Mario Galaxy was composed and arranged by Mahito Yokota, who penned the entirety of the soundtrack for Nintendo EAD Tokyo's first title, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (2004). Longtime series composer Koji Kondo contributed four tracks himself and mentored Yokota in developing a sound appropriate for the title. It is the first Super Mario game to feature a fully orchestrated soundtrack. The game's performed at the Sound Inn Studios in  and consisted of roughly fifty members dubbed the "Mario Galaxy Orchestra". Koji Haishima, who had conducted pieces from Square Enix's ' series and Capcom's ' series, served as conductor. Some of the pieces are orchestral arrangements of Kondo's compositions from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario 64.

Yokota was professionally trained in orchestral composition and championed the use of an orchestra to producer Shigeru Miyamoto during the game's development. He was met with reluctance due to the anticipated expenses and the thought that it would detract from the player's immersion, which is why live instrumentation had seen only occasional use in prior Nintendo games. It was ultimately decided that a live orchestra would be appropriate for Super Mario Galaxy after Yokota spent three months trying to develop the best sound with little success. Based on the music of prior titles in the series, Yokota's first attempts derived from and. Though approved by director Yoshiaki Koizumi, Kondo was displeased. When Yokota presented his work to him, he said, "Yokota-san, if somewhere in your mind you have an image that Mario is cute, please get rid of it... Mario is cool." This experience and the strenuous three months of work briefly made Yokota consider leaving the project. A musical direction was definitively established when Yokota presented Miyamoto with three pieces – one orchestral, one a mix of orchestral and pop, and one entirely pop – and asked which he felt was the best style for Super Mario Galaxy. Miyamoto chose the fully orchestrated one, remarking that it sounded "the most space-like". This piece, titled "Egg Planet", was penned by Koji Kondo. It accompanied the game's debut trailer during E3 2006 and is incorporated as the level theme for Good Egg Galaxy in the final product. Miyamoto's preference for it is what allowed Yokota to find his sound.

Mahito Yokota composed roughly thirty pieces for Super Mario Galaxy and oversaw their recording at Sound Inn. Unlike most orchestras, a metronome was used during recording sessions that was set to a tempo adjacent to Mario's running speed. He did this because he did not want the music to sound like a passive background element – he wanted it to sound like an organic part of the game. Another major way this was accomplished was with the music itself being an influenceable element. For example, there are three variations of "Rosalina in the Observatory", the that plays on the Comet Observatory. The first variation is what plays in the earliest portion of the game, when many areas are inaccessible and the Observatory is largely cast in shadow. This variation is simplistic in orchestration. As the player accumulates more Power Stars and more areas on the Comet Observatory become accessible to the player, the variation that plays is progressively more richly orchestrated. Within the levels themselves, unique sound effects and musical queues correlate with the actions performed by the player in real-time. Sound director Masafumi Kawamura established this by building on what he had integrated in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2003) and Jungle Beat, which comparably included instances where the player's actions would influence the music in limited, context-specific instances. In Super Mario Galaxy, the player can influence sound throughout the majority of the game. It was accomplished by synchronizing a stream of the raw recording data from the orchestra with data. This effect enhances the player's sense of rhythm and immersion within the game world.

On January 31, 2008, two soundtracks were made available in Japan through Club Nintendo. One is a standard edition with 28 tracks on a single disc. The other is a "platinum edition" that has 81 tracks across two discs. The platinum edition was released in Europe on the same date. The standard edition eventually saw a localized release in the United States on October 23, 2011 through its inclusion in a Wii console bundle. The platinum edition would not become available in the US until the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars on September 18, 2020. Select pieces from Super Mario Galaxy are included in Super Mario History 1985-2010 Sound Track CD, Nintendo Sound Selection: Endings & Credits, and The 30th Anniversary Super Mario Bros. Music. Music from Super Mario Galaxy has been rearranged and incorporated into succeeding video games by Nintendo, including Super Mario Galaxy 2, Super Mario 3D Land, Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8 (2014), Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (2014), Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (2014), and Super Mario Maker 2 (2019). Film composer incorporated select compositions into melodies he penned for The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Music from Super Mario Galaxy has been performed live in concert by the, the , and the.

Staff
Super Mario Galaxy was developed by Nintendo EAD Tokyo, a development team established in 2003 that previously developed Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and assisted in the development of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006). It is smaller than the Kyoto branch of the same name that developed the majority of the previous Super Mario games and consists of younger, less experienced staff.

Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto conceived of the game and served as one of its producers. Yoshiaki Koizumi, a friend and protégé of Miyamoto who has been involved with the series since Super Mario 64, served as director. This represents the first time he would serve as the sole director of a Super Mario game, after having co-directed Super Mario Sunshine with Kenta Usui. He previously directed Jungle Beat and believed that that game's development allowed the staff of Nintendo EAD Tokyo to get familiar enough with each other to confidently pursue a game as complex as Super Mario Galaxy.

This is the first Super Mario game to feature Bowser's current voice actor, Kenny James.

The staff credits in the Nvidia Shield TV version shows three people in charge of Chinese localization as well as an "iQue testing group". It is possible that the game was fully translated for the iQue Wii release before the console was canceled.

1997-2004: Super Mario 128 and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat


Super Mario Galaxy was developed as a respond to the oversights of 3D game design established by Super Mario 64. That game was one of the first 3D titles ever published and has had a significant foundational influence in how 3D games are made, not just at Nintendo but throughout the entire industry. Despite its influence, there was a feeling amongst some of Nintendo's staff that it caused a divide between people that did not exist during the 2D era of video games. While some people enjoy playing 3D games, there are some who feel that they are too difficult. Yoshiaki Koizumi, who was one of the assistant directors on Super Mario 64, attributes this to overcorrection of the game's controls. Yokota considers the three biggest hurdles in developing a comfortable 3D control interface are: depth misperception; the ease with which a player can get lost; and motion sickness. The solutions created to mitigate these problems, most significantly camera controls, resulted in systems that were too cumbersome or at least intimidating for players.

After Super Mario 64 was released, Shigeru Miyamoto assembled a team within Nintendo EAD to develop a successor tentatively titled Super Mario 128 that would address this problem in its decade-long development. At, it was presented to the public as a for the Nintendo GameCube. Directed by Koizumi, it has the player control 128 Marios on a saucer-shaped platform that dynamically changes shape over the course of the demo. This iteration of Mario 128 was never released as a full game and parts of it were foundational for other titles such as Pikmin (2001), but Miyamoto did extrapolate the idea of having Mario run around "spherical worlds" from the demo. It was believed that this concept would resolve many of the problems with previous 3D games in deemphasizing the need to control the camera and decreasing the likelihood of the player getting lost. When shared with Koizumi, he agreed this had the potential to become a full game, but was technically near-impossible.

While Super Mario 128 continued to be worked on intermittently, Nintendo published Super Mario Sunshine in 2002 for the GameCube. It was the first entry in the Super Mario series released since Super Mario 64 and shares some elements with it. However, Super Mario Sunshine was assertedly unrelated to Super Mario 128 and was best viewed as a revisitation of Super Mario 64, not a proper successor. Koizumi was one of the co-directors on Super Mario Sunshine and this would be the last 3D-related project he was involved with for several years. He oversaw the integration of a camera system in the game that, in his view, only exasperated the problems of 3D game controls. He came to the perspective that it was too difficult to produce the "perfect 3D control environment" where it was fun to play but not needlessly stressful for the player.

Koizumi's next project was at the newly-formed branch Nintendo EAD Tokyo where he directed Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, a 2D action-adventure platformer released in 2004 for the GameCube. The player controls Donkey Kong with the DK Bongos, a controller with fewer input options than the conventional GameCube controller. The experience of directing Jungle Beat made Koizumi realize that one could create a robust action game with only a few button inputs required of the player. They had established what Koizumi calls "contextual binding", where available player actions would be changed depending on context, resulting in more diverse ways of play without increasing the number of buttons. Koizumi also observed that an exaggerated presentation delights bystanders that were not directly playing the game, allowing more people to gain from the experience than just the player. These were concepts he brought to Miyamoto, who was having consistent difficult working on Super Mario 128 as its sole director. In 2003, before they had started development on Jungle Beat, a staff member expressed interest in making the next Super Mario game. The experience of working together as a team for Jungle Beat made Koizumi realize that this was something they could do. They had the technical skill needed to succeed the struggling Super Mario 128 project and bring Miyamoto's spherical world concept to fruition.

2005-2007: Super Mario Revolution


In 2005, Koizumi prepared an outline for "Super Mario Revolution" for the GameCube's successor, the Wii. Adapted from the Super Mario 128 demo and building on what EAD Tokyo had accomplished with Jungle Beat, the core concept of "Super Mario Revolution" was for it to be a 3D action platformer with Mario running around spherical worlds. These worlds would have their own centers of gravity that prevent Mario from falling off the edge. There would be few walls or ceilings on the worlds to obstruct Mario's path. If he kept moving forward in one direction, he would return to his starting position. This would mitigate the chances of the player becoming lost. After the project was greenlit by Nintendo's executives, Koizumi spent three months creating a small prototype with several other EAD Tokyo employees to present to Miyamoto for his feedback. The prototype was set in space because it was believed that most players would interpret the spherical worlds as small planets. This set a precedent where Miyamoto would be the first one to all of the game's builds. A system was eventually set up that allowed the staff to send him a build from the Tokyo studio to his office in Kyoto as soon as it was finished. In the last few months of development, Miyamoto made frequent in-person visits to EAD Tokyo.

Development progressed with the involvement of more staff. It succeeded the indefinitely-stalled Super Mario 128 project and was recognized as the "true" successor to Super Mario 64 by Miyamoto during development. At some point it was renamed Super Mario Galaxy to reflect the game's outer space setting. An important tenet that informed development was to prioritize what Koizumi refers to as "ease of play" - to make the control system as unobtrusive to the player as possible. The number of button inputs required by the player was kept to a minimum. The spin move was added to supplement jumping actions, which Koizumi believes can be imprecise in a 3D environment. Originally they made it so that Mario could spin indefinitely by shaking the Wii Remote, but Miyamoto had them integrate a delay after the spin to make the game more challenging. Employing contextual binding resulted in the development of scenarios within the game that change what button inputs do, such as in the rolling ball levels, ray surfing, and controlling power-ups. Pointer controls were thoroughly integrated into Super Mario Galaxy to supplement or even replace traditional button inputs, as the team felt they were more intuitive. To keep the player from "thinking about the camera", another tenet of development, EAD Tokyo developed a new camera system called the "planet camera". It gently follows Mario as he runs across a spherical world without sudden jerks or obscuring his positioning. It requires no input from the player. This element of the game was very important to the staff because they did not want any players to experience motion sickness. To ensure the game was comfortable to play, they heavily relied on the feedback of playtesters, something that was also employed extensively during Jungle Beat's development.

In concert with Nintendo's goal of making the Wii appeal to demographics beyond their core consumers, the team wanted Super Mario Galaxy to appeal to people who do not play video games. One of the ways they did this was by integrating a cooperative multiplayer mode called Co-Star Mode. One player controls Mario and a pointer (P1) while a second player only has a pointer (P2). It was seen as a good way for family and friends to play together even if one of them was inexperienced with games. Co-producer Takao Shimizu originally envisioned pointer controls being the same for both players, but Miyamoto had them restrict some actions to P2. This completely changed the balance of the game. For example, they originally allowed P1 to hold moving obstacles in place with the pointer. Staff felt that restricting this action to P2 improved the game's flow. The desire to engage non-players also informed  Super Mario Galaxy's theatrical cutscenes and lively character animations. This made the game fun for bystanders to watch.

There were concentrated efforts to make the game easily accessible for beginners, such as with the integration of Bee Mario. Believing that one of the joys of a Super Mario game was simply moving around, Koizumi oversaw the integration of areas without enemies or objectives. The earliest builds of the game were too easy, however. Miyamoto reminded staff that it was important for a game to feel challenging to play, otherwise the player might feel disengaged. Measures were subsequently taken to ensure the game was still healthily challenging, such as by reducing the life meter from eight bars (as was done in Super Mario 64 and Sunshine) to three. Coins were made rarer, health-restoring items.

EAD Tokyo was pressured to finish the game close to the Wii's launch, as several executives were disappointed by Super Mario Sunshine not being a GameCube launch title and thought that an earlier release could have helped the console's commercial performance. When Super Mario Galaxy was first shown off to the public during, Miyamoto stated it would release within six months of the Wii's launch. However, EAD Tokyo felt it was more important to make a game they were really happy with, resulting in it launching eleven months after the Wii.

Pre-release and unused content
When first showcased at, Toads with star-shaped spots appeared in the game that provided the player hints and could transform into rabbits. Lumas serve this role in the final game. Rosalina was originally conceived as "related" to Princess Peach and had a similar design reflecting this. Bonefin Galaxy was intended to be much darker, as was Deep Dark Galaxy. These were changed in the interest of playability. Guppy was first envisioned as a friendly character and had a design comparable to the Dolphins from Super Mario World (1990). Artwork of Sea Slide Galaxy and Beach Bowl Galaxy suggests that they were conceived as a single galaxy, with Beach Bowl's main planet in the center of Sea Slide's ring. A piece of concept art titled "Fortress" is very memorable to the staff since it was one of the first drawings made during development. The planet shown in the art is not in the final game but it has some similarities to Good Egg Galaxy, Beach Bowl Galaxy, and Bowser Jr.'s Robot Reactor. The development team wanted to incorporate Yoshi and he appears in the 2005 "Super Mario Revolution" proposal documents, but he is relegated to cameos in the final release.

Floating Toad
To perform this glitch, the player should go to the level "Tarantox's Tangled Web". Mario should go to the final planet where Tarantox is fought and launch the green Toad onto the platform. Then, the player should jump into the sling pod and launch Mario onto the same platform so it breaks. If the player looks at Toad closely, he can be seen floating.

Out of bounds in Freezeflame Galaxy
To perform this glitch the player should go to the Freezeflame Galaxy's mission "Hot and Cold Collide". Mario should reach the second planet and triple-jump in the walkway between the sides of the planet. The player should use the slope-climbing glitch to reach the top of the planet. When the player walks on the planet, random textures of ice water will appear. The planet surface will also appear in the wrong spot or be invisible.

Trading cards
Trading cards were developed by EnteryPlay to correspond with the release of Super Mario Galaxy. Each pack (called Fun Paks) contained two regular cards, a trivia card, a standee, and a temporary tattoo.

Buzz Aldrin promotional event
To correspond with its release in the United States, Nintendo of America hosted an event in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 3, 2007 where someone dressed as Mario entered the G-Force One with former astronaut. It was coordinated with the, who owns the aircraft. Footage of the experience was aired on. Patches labeled "Super Mario Galaxy Flight Team" were created for the suits worn by Aldrin and the assisting crew.

Press Start 2008 concert
On September 14, 2008, hosted the concert  at Bunkamura Orchard Hall. It is an intercompany celebration of video game music. One of Nintendo's contributions to the setlist was "Super Mario Galaxy 2008", a medley of the game's music arranged by Mahito Yokota and conducted by Taizo Takemoto. Koji Kondo and Yokota attended the event as guests. A recording of this piece is featured on a compact disc included with the Super Mario 25th Anniversary Commemorative Book published in 2010.

Super Mario-kun adaptation
The events of the game are adapted in three volumes of the manga Super Mario-kun. The first volume, 38, was published October 28, 2008 and follows the conclusion of a story arc based on Super Paper Mario (2007). It sees Mario becoming demoralized after failing to rescue Princess Peach during the Star Festival, but his confidence is restored by Rosalina and the Lumas. He travels across various galaxies alongside them and other characters from Super Mario Galaxy. In vol. 39, published March 27, 2009, Mario plays with most of the game's power-ups and rescues Luigi. The arc concludes in vol. 40, published November 27, 2009, and is followed by a storyline adapted from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (2009).

Reception
Super Mario Galaxy has been met with universal acclaim, receiving a score of 97.64% from 78 reviews, making it the highest rated game on the website, while scoring a 97/100 on, as of March 2019 the sixth-highest score on the latter website.

 has given Super Mario Galaxy a score of 38/40.  gave the game 97%. It was called the best game of the decade and praised for having excellent graphics, sound and gameplay as well as a mixture of new and classic features.

Awards and recognition
Super Mario Galaxy is regarded as 2007's "Game of the Year" by editing staff of ', ', , and ''Yahoo! Games''.

In 2007, the game won an award for "Best Audio Design" from . In February 2008, the game received the "Adventure Game of the Year" award from the at the.

In 2009, the game won "Best Game" at the. That same year, Guinness World Records ranked Super Mario Galaxy 29th in their list of top 50 console games of all time based on initial impact and lasting legacy.

The game placed 51st in the 200th Issue of GameInformer's "Top 200 Games of All Time". Nintendo Power ranked it as best Mario mainstream title in its May 2012 issue, as well as the third-best game ever released on a Nintendo console in its final issue.

In Japan, a 2021 poll conducted by with over 50,000 participants found Super Mario Galaxy amongst the top 100 video games of all time, ranked number 56 out of 100.

Sales
Super Mario Galaxy has been a commercial success, selling 350,000 units in Japan within its first few weeks of sale. In the United States, the game sold 500,000 units within its first week of release, earning it the highest first-week sales for a Mario game in the country at the time. Super Mario Galaxy is the 8th best-selling game for the Wii, selling 12.72 million copies worldwide as of September 2017. As of September 30, 2021, it sold 12.80 million copies worldwide.

Controversy
Super Mario Galaxy was the first Mario game to be officially localized to French for Quebec; that market had previously received Mario titles in English rather than French. This followed a deal between the and the video game industry to have every game available for that region in French by 2009. In the Quebec localization, NPCs (particularly the Lumas and the Toad Brigade) make heavy use of accents and slang. This localization choice sparked a minor controversy, with representatives of the Office québécois de la langue française and the criticizing it for promoting poor literacy to children. A Nintendo representative responded that the localization was made with "localizing for the market" in mind, as the Quebec market made up 25% of sales for Nintendo of Canada at the time.

Following the negative reception to the localizations of Super Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (which featured a similarly Joual-heavy localization), later Canadian French localizations would be written in (with the exception of the similarly-localized Paper Mario: Sticker Star).

Wii U eShop
The game was added to the Wii U eShop in late 2015 and early 2016, five months after its sequel was released on the console. It remained available for purchase on the eShop until its closure on March 27, 2023. It was the seventh Wii game distributed on the eShop and one of the 35 overall to ever be released. The game was not ported or uniquely modified for this release. Rather, the Wii U is backwards compatible with nearly all Wii software (including the physical discs) and console peripherals. A Wii game can be played directly on the console by accessing the Wii Menu through the Wii U Menu. Save data from the original Wii console can be transferred to the Wii U system. When booting up a Wii game purchased on the Wii U eShop, it runs as if the game's disc was inserted into the console, loads it through the Wii Menu, and accesses the same save data (if it exists) on the console. The Wii U GamePad can be used to pause the game and return to the Wii U Menu, but it otherwise can only be controlled with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

Nvidia Shield TV
Super Mario Galaxy was ported to the microconsole and digitally distributed on March 22, 2018, exclusively in China. It was the first of six Wii games to be made available on the Nvidia Shield TV. It remained available for download until late 2021, when all Wii games were removed from the Shield. The game was to the console, enabling it to run at 60  and. Sprites and textures were upscaled to match the higher-definition display. Inputs have been modified for the more conventional Shield controller, which cannot track motion like the the Wii Remote can (see above). Unused assets present in the data of the Wii release were removed. The game was officially localized into Chinese (Simplified Chinese) by iQue. As the Shield does not support Miis, they are not available for save file icons in this version of Super Mario Galaxy. The copyright information displays "© 2007-2008 Nintendo". It was unknown what 2008 means in this context, but it possibly refers to the year Super Mario Galaxy was planned for release on the iQue Wii before the console failed to make its way into the Chinese market.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars
In correspondence with the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., Nintendo released Super Mario 3D All-Stars for the Nintendo Switch on September 18, 2020 worldwide. It is a compilation that includes upscaled versions of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine in addition to Super Mario Galaxy. This version of the game is comparable to the Nvidia Shield TV release and they share similar revisions, though it does not include the Chinese localization. It only offers menu translation for the Chinese-speaking audience. This is reportedly due to the translation not being fully owned by Nintendo. Like the Shield version, Miis cannot be chosen as save icons even though the Switch has an integrated Mii creation tool. The compilation had a limited physical release at retail outlets and was available to download on the Switch's eShop until March 31, 2021. The official description of Super Mario Galaxy in the compilation is as follows: It's the night of the Star Festival, and Star Bits are falling from the sky! As everyone celebrates, Bowser suddenly appears and lifts the castle—and Princess Peach—into space, leaving Mario stranded in orbit! It's here that Mario meets a curious star child, Luma, and a mysterious woman in blue...This game introduced new ways to control Mario, like pointing and shaking the Wii Remote, as he explores miniature planets with fun forms of gravity.

References to other games

 * Super Mario Bros.: Fire Mario appears. One side of a planet looks like Small Mario's sprite while the other resembles Small Luigi's. The backgrounds of several galaxies are based on the sprites in this game. "Super Mario 2007" is an arrangement of "Ground Theme". "Space Athletic" is an arrangement of "Underground Theme". "Cosmic Comet" incorporates both pieces. Collecting trailing Notes sometimes plays the "Underground Theme" or "Underwater Theme".
 * The Legend of Zelda: Electrogoombas and Roctos resemble Octoroks. Bats resemble Keeses.
 * Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels: Luigi jumps higher and has worse traction than Mario.
 * Super Mario Bros. 2: Luigi scuttles his legs when he performs a Triple Jump.
 * Super Mario Bros. 3: Airships appear. Montys behave like the Rocky Wrench enemy. "Blue Sky Athletic" and "Airship Armada" are arrangements of "Athletic Theme" and "Airship Theme", respectively.
 * Super Mario World: Yoshi makes several cameos. Magikoopas, Torpedo Teds, and Urchins appear. A planet is shaped like a Yoshi's Egg.
 * Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: The Magikoopa in the opening cutscene is localized in English as "Kamek". The "Rainbow Mario" theme is an arrangement of "Powerful Infant".
 * Super Mario 64: Princess Peach invites Mario to her castle at the beginning of the game. Levels are completed by collecting Power Stars. Rabbits, Penguins, Tox Boxes, and Bomps appear. "The Fiery Stronghold" is an arrangement of "Koopa's Road". After the credits, an ending screen is displayed where Mario says "Thank you so much for playing my game!"
 * The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Ice bats resemble Ice Keeses.
 * Paper Mario: Bowser abducts Princess Peach by pulling her castle into the sky. A race of celestial star children have a prominent role in the story.
 * Luigi's Mansion: "Luigi and the Haunted Mansion" spoofs and subverts this title, with Mario rescuing Luigi from a powerful ghost.
 * Super Mario Sunshine: Z's appear above Mario's head while he sleeps. Cataquacks appear. A variant of the Plurp enemy called Cluckboom is introduced. Fire Shooters and Water Shooters resemble FLUDD. The first boss resembles Petey Piranha. The goal in ray surfing is shaped like a Shine Sprite.
 * Super Mario 64 DS: Silver Stars appear.
 * Donkey Kong Jungle Beat: Banandelions appear.
 * Mario Party 7: The cry Dry Bones makes when it is "blown away" plays when it falls into quicksand.

References in later media

 * Mario Kart Wii: Rosalina is a playable character and can be unlocked early if the player has Super Mario Galaxy save data on their system. Star Bits surround Rainbow Road, and "Egg Planet" is incorporated as a countermelody to the course's theme music. Spiky Topmen appear as bosses in multiple online tournaments. The countdown sequence for ray surfing and Bob-omb Blasting was repurposed for the sequence for starting races and battles in this game.
 * Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: Bowser can use a rolling move similar to one he can perform during "The Fate of the Universe".
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii): Both the Individual and Team versions of Dream Ski Jumping take place in the Good Egg Galaxy. Several music tracks from Super Mario Galaxy are available in the in-game shop.
 * New Super Mario Bros. Wii: During the credits, Princess Peach can be heard reading a version of the letter she sends to Mario at the beginning of Super Mario Galaxy.
 * Super Mario Galaxy 2: A dedicated sequel with many shared elements.
 * Super Mario 3D Land: An arrangement of "Waltz of the Boos" is used for this game's Ghost Houses.
 * Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Wii): Dream Spacewalk takes place in Synchro Battle Galaxy, a location partially based on Good Egg Galaxy. The event also features sound effects from Super Mario Galaxy and characters can spin. Dream Hurdles takes place in the Battlerock Galaxy. Rearrangements of the music pieces "Dino Piranha", "Battlerock Galaxy", and "Purple Comet" appear in the game. A Mii outfit based on Bee Mario can be unlocked in the game, and Mario's special dash has also been updated to resemble the spin.
 * Mario Kart 7: Queen Bee can be unlocked as a playable character. The Comet Observatory, Gateway Galaxy's starting planet, a Starshroom, and several domes appear in the background of Rosalina's Ice World.
 * Mario Party 9: "Enter Bowser Jr.!" was rearranged for some of the minigames with Bowser Jr.
 * Mario Tennis Open: A Luma can be unlocked as a playable character. Galaxy Arena is based on this game, with "Rosalina in the Observatory" rearranged for the court's background music. "Egg Planet" was remixed for the music in Galaxy Rally, itself influenced by Super Mario Galaxy. The Comet Observatory appears in the background of the title screen.
 * Paper Mario: Sticker Star: "Waltz of the Boos" was arranged for part of the Enigmansion's background music. Another, big-band-styled version plays when the Boos escape from the Book of Sealing.
 * Mario Party: Island Tour: Rocket Road is based on this game and "Egg Planet" is incorporated into the the board's background music. Rosalina and Lumas appear in the background. The minigame Gyro for the Gold plays very similarly to the Rolling Ball.
 * Super Mario 3D World: Rosalina and the Toad Brigade Captain appear as playable characters. Rosalina's unique attack is the spin. Electrogoombas, Lumas, and the Comet Observatory appear in Super Galaxy, itself based on Super Mario Galaxy. Star Bits appear in the background of World Star. The original "Rosalina in the Observatory" plays in World Crown. "Champion Road" is an arrangement of "Gusty Garden Galaxy". "Captain Toad Goes Forth" is an elaboration on "The Toad Brigade".
 * Mario Golf: World Tour: Rosalina is a DLC character. Mario's Star uses elements from Super Mario Galaxy. "The Honeyhive" was rearranged for the background music of Wiggler Park.
 * Mario Kart 8: The airline company Galaxy Air uses a Luma as its mascot. "Gusty Garden Galaxy" was rearranged for a portion of "Cloudtop Cruise".
 * Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U: Rosalina & Luma appear as newcomers. In the Wii U version, Mario Galaxy is based on this game and resembles Gateway Galaxy's starting planet. Trophies of Apricot Luma, The Toad Brigade, Bee Mario, Boo Mario, Spring Mario, and Rainbow Mario appear in the game. There is a Trophy Box dedicated to this game. "Rosalina in the Observatory / Luma's Theme" and "Egg Planet" are rearrangements of the original game's music.
 * Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition: Rosalina, Bee Mario, and Boo Mario appear as Helpers for the player's team. "Gusty Garden Galaxy" music is used in the game's credits.
 * Super Mario Maker: The victory and death themes from Super Mario Galaxy are used when the Rosalina costume completes a level or loses a life, respectively.
 * Mario Party: Star Rush: Gusty Garden Galaxy's theme appears as one of the songs in the Rhythm Recital mode for this game.
 * Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: Bee Mushrooms can be found on tubes of honey. Peach shouting for Mario from this game can be heard whenever she is defeated in battle.
 * Super Mario Odyssey: An 8-bit sprite of Rosalina appears in Dark Side and Darker Side. The "The Odyssey: Power Up!" is an arrangment of the fanfare that plays when Mario collects a new power-up. The regional coins in the Moon Kingdom are shaped like Star Bits.
 * Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: With the exception of trophies, all of the elements related to Super Mario Galaxy from Smash 4 - including Rosalina & Luma - return. They have a revised Final Smash that uses the Grand Star. Boo Mario, Luma, Hungry Luma, and Queen Bee appears as spirits and use their artwork from Super Mario Galaxy. Queen Bee runs a Dojo.
 * Super Mario Maker 2: The Wii sound effect causes "Gusty Garden Galaxy" music to play on a level.
 * Mario Kart Tour: Ice Mario appears as a playable driver. Wii Rainbow Road and 3DS Rosalina's Ice World return as classic courses.
 * Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope: "Rosalina in the Observatory" can be heard during Rabbid Rosalina's first appearance in the game's trailer.
 * The Super Mario Bros. Movie: A Lumalee makes an appearance. Bats appear in one of the posters. The whistle heard in the Toad Brigade theme from this game is featured in the film's score. An arrangement of the Toad Brigade theme itself plays when Toad is introduced in the film, and an arrangement of Gusty Garden Galaxy's theme plays in the credits.

Trivia

 * Coincidentally, the title "Super Mario Galaxy" was first mentioned in a fan letter written to Nintendo Power in 1991. The letter details a fantasy game console called the "Raw Power System" that would come bundled with a game named "Super Mario Galaxy", otherwise known as "Super Mario Bros. 24".
 * An automated phone message sent to people who preordered the game at stated Super Mario Galaxy is a Mature-rated game.
 * The galaxy image in the Super Mario Galaxy wordmark derives from this photograph of the.
 * Super Mario Galaxy is an established model in for studies investigating how consistent engagement with interactive stimuli affects  in elderly people.
 * This game does not have a Dutch localization. Despite this, one single message in the game was translated, being the prompt to insert the Nunchuk into the Wii Remote.