Ghostly Galaxy

"We've detected signs of Luigi in this galaxy. Hopefully the ghosts haven't gotten to him yet!"

- Captain Toad

Ghostly Galaxy is a galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy. Many elements of this area are of a haunted theme, and Mario can find Boo Mushrooms that turn him into a Boo. This galaxy also has the first appearance of Luigi in the game. Upon obtaining the galaxy's first Power Star, Luigi will be rescued in the process. After being rescued, Luigi will later discover a few more Power Stars for Mario to collect in other galaxies. Bouldergeist is the boss of this galaxy.

The first thing Mario does in this galaxy is board a Green Starshroom, which always leads to the starting planet. The starting planet has about three Swoopers and three Jack O' Goombas. There is a spike that contains a Rainbow Star when spun that could be used for destroying the Chain Chomp Heads in the first mission. In the third mission, there are three Scuttlebugs. Each mission has a different Launch Star to get to the planets. There is a big gap in the middle of the planet that contains a Black Hole.

Haunted Mansion
The Haunted Mansion is a planet that resembles Luigi's Mansion in this galaxy. It is visited only in the first and third missions, though the third mission only has part of the Mansion. In the first mission, when Mario (or Luigi) enters the Mansion, he will come face-to-face to his first Boo in the game, providing that the player has not decided to skip this galaxy and go to another Boo containing galaxy (i.e. Deep Dark Galaxy). The Boo can be exterminated with a ray of light that gets turned on by a Lever Switch near the door. Also, there are some boxes near the edges of the room. Some of them contains Toads that give Mario information, while others give him Coins and Star Bits. There are also some Bowser Statues near the Crates.

There is a painting of a Boo on top of the stairs and when Mario goes near it, a Boo spouts out. A Launch Star leads to the upper floor of the mansion. Luigi is trapped in a prison and must be rescued. Jill Board teaches Mario how to use the Boo Mushroom in one of the rooms.

In the first mission, there is a hidden room containing a large amount of coins. To enter this room, the player must go to the Star Chip room containing Jack O' Goombas. Then, the player must go to the ceiling and he or she must ground pound a white circle full of cracks. After which, the hidden room is entered. It consists of a Lever Switch and eight Sling Stars. The Sling Stars lead the player to each other and they help the player collect the coins. The coins only appear when the Lever Switch is activated and it will eventually disappear after a short time.

In the third mission, only the first part of the mansion (with the Bowser statues) is seen. Instead of a Boo painting however, it is a Bomb Boo painting. It is used to destroy the statues to get coins, or to destroy the statue in the fireplace to proceed onwards. There are also the boxes from the first mission. When Mario enters the fireplace he is automatically inside a Launch Star, and is sent away to continue his mission.

The Bone Pen Planets are planets prior and after to the real Bone Pen. They are typical planets: round and able to walk "upside down". There are some trees with faces that have star bits on their branches on the first one. Also some shells are girded along the ground which the plumber may Spin near to get some Star Bits. The Spooky Speedster is found here. The second one is much like the first one but it has a ring that is connected to the planet. The ring makes the other side of the planet hard to get to so Mario has to do a back flip over the ring to get there. There is nothing on the lower half, however. On the planet, some small apparitions that look like Boos float and fade out on the top half.

When Mario gets to the second Launch Star in Mission 3, he will arrive here. This Planet contains some Scuttlebugs, Jack O' Goombas, Bomb Boos, and a few Sling Pods. At the top, there is a Sling Star that will take Mario to the second Cracked Wall Planet. Here, the player must collect five blue Star Chips to create Pull Stars leading to a Launch Star. This will take Mario to a Bouncy Planet, then to the Bouldergeist Planet.

This Planet is where Mario encounters the Boss, Bouldergeist. This planet is shaped like a circle with platforms leading up to it. There is also Lumalee here. When Mario fights Bouldergeist, Bomb Boos will appear. Besides this and a few coins, the Planet is empty. When Bouldergeist is beaten, the player will earn a Power Star.

Bone Pen
This planet is where the player races the Spooky Speedster and collect 100 Purple Coins in under one minute. The Bone Pen is basically made up of Pull Stars and bones so the player does not get out of the boundaries. There is also some meat that bounces Mario in a different direction.

These planets are just the hollowed out rims of a planet, one of them has a pink bouncy ball in its center and mines around it. Most of them don't have gravity because there is no core but the one with the bouncy ball does.

This is an area very similar to the Matter Splatter Galaxy. It is apparently a crumbling mansion where Mario must follow spotlights of shifting matter to navigate through the mansion and get the Power Star.

These are six small planets that shoot from three to five Star Bits each. Mario only passes by them and can only reach one of them by doing the Pull Star movement exploit glitch. They seem to be made of metal by close examination and are covered by a purple covering. If looked at closely, the player can see small red stars on them.

This planet only appears in the "Luigi and the Haunted Mansion" level and the levels with Bouldergeist, and appears to be an exact replica of the planet of the same name from the Space Junk Galaxy (commonly thought to be Olimar and Louie's ship from Pikmin 2). Though it cannot actually be visited by Mario, the player can look to the left just after landing on the Mansion Planet in order to see it floating in space in the "Luigi and the Haunted Mansion" levels, and above and to the left of the Bouldergeist Planet in the Bouldergeist levels. If hacking the player can reach the ship. The ship does have gravity but it is very small and any single jump can make the player fall. A large amount of junk circles the ship.

The Spooky Speedster Planet is the planet that the Spooky Speedster is found on. It has multiple trees and all of the members of the Toad Brigade are there. There are several Star Bits in the trees, and the player starts the race with the Spooky Speedster here.

This is the planet at the end of the race with the Spooky Speedster. The Planet resembles the planet Saturn. The ring acts as a wall which does not let Mario get across. However, if Mario does a backflip, wall jump and spin backwards, he can make it over. However, there is hardly anything across it. Another way back to starting line is to take the Warp Pipe at the top of the planet.

These are two planets in the middle of the Race Area which are hollow and made out of glass. The only feature about them is that they have Pull Stars in the middle of them that will let Mario go across.

This is the area where Mario races the Spooky Speedster using Pull Stars. It is ringed by bones and there are multiple obstacles made of bones all around it along with a cluster of mines at the end.

Luigi and the Haunted Mansion
At first, Mario starts off on the Toad Brigade's ship, but has to use a Launch Star to reach the pathway into the mansion. Jack O' Goombas litter the pathway, so Mario must be careful. Boos are inside the mansion, but a switch activates a swinging beam of light, which Mario has to lure them into to defeat them and get the items they are guarding. One of the Boos has a key to get deeper into the mansion.

Soon, Star Chips can be collected to rebuild a Launch Star which will then be located in one of the windows where a black hole was before. Using the Launch Star, Mario is then launched into another part of the mansion, where Luigi is calling for help beyond an impassable window. Mario will have to find another way inside, where he discovers a new power-up, the Boo Mushroom. As Boo Mario, he needs to vanish to pass through the bars, but he must be careful as a beam of light which will make him lose the Boo Suit is in the next area. Mario needs to return to normal before he can speak with Luigi to get the Power Star, for if Luigi is approached in Boo form, Luigi will hide his face in fear.

Strangely, when the player revisit this mission as Luigi in the above level, the trapped Luigi still shouts "Mario". This could either be something the developers missed, or the fact that he could have been expecting Mario to rescue him.


 * Enemies
 * Boos
 * Jack O' Goombas
 * Goombas
 * Scuttlebug
 * Chomp


 * Planets Visited
 * Starting Planet
 * Haunted Mansion


 * Names in other languages

A Very Spooky Sprint
To win this level's power star, Mario must defeat the Spooky Speedster in a race using Pull Stars. At the start, there is a big empty stretch of air that must be traversed using Pull Stars which will then blast Mario to the Spooky Speedster's planet. Mario must then race the Spooky Speedster along a race course ringed by bones using pull stars. If a pull star runs out, Mario will be pulled backwards through the race. There are multiple moving and non-moving bones all around the racecourse and multiple bones surrounded by a substance which will bounce Mario off meanwhile making a sound like a gong. There is a short-cut right after the first set of gong-bones in the form of a Sling Star which will fire Mario in front of the area with two glass planets that have Pull Stars in the center of them. The next area is full of mines that must be traveled through, a good strategy here would be to say no to the Spooky Speedster's request at the start and come to these mines then blow up some of them with Star Bits for a straight path through. If Mario gets there after the Spooky Speedster does, he'll lose a life automatically, if Mario gets there before Spooky Speedster, he will give him the Power Star.


 * Enemies
 * Jack O' Goombas
 * Goombas
 * Swoopers
 * Spooky Speedster


 * Planets Visited
 * Starting Planet
 * Spooky Speedster Planet
 * Race Area
 * Pull Star Planets
 * Finish Line Planet


 * Names in other languages

Beware of Bouldergeist
A member of the Toad Brigade informs Mario that the monster that kidnapped Luigi in the first mission lives here. Mario has to find his way to a circular stone platform where he meets Bouldergeist, a ghost with the ability to control stone. Mario must dodge the rocks it uses and its hands in the second round meanwhile grabbing the Bomb Boos and hitting its body. Mario must defeat Bouldergeist by using Bomb Boos to hit its main body three times, twice (a total of six times). Doing so causes Bouldergeist to explode, leaving behind a Power Star.


 * Enemies
 * Jack O' Goombas
 * Goombas
 * Bomb Boos
 * Swoopers
 * Scuttlebugs
 * Chomp
 * Bouldergeist (Boss)


 * Planets Visited
 * Starting Planet
 * Bouldergeist Planet


 * Names in other languages

Super Mario Galaxy Trading Card Description
''The battle against Bouldergeist is a two part, rock-versus-Mario smackdown. This stone specter can be defeated by throwing Bomb Boos at it three times. In part two, Bouldergeist reveals its giant rocky fists and tries to smash Mario. Continue to toss Bomb Boos to help lead Mario to triumph over this nemesis.''

Bouldergeist's Daredevil Run (Daredevil Comet)
Very similar to the mission Beware of Bouldergeist, however Mario starts on the boss planet with a health maximum of one. This mission, until completed, is only available while a Daredevil Comet is in orbit.


 * Enemies
 * Bomb Boos
 * Bouldergeist (Boss)


 * Planets Visited
 * Bouldergeist Planet


 * Names in other languages

*In the French version, every Daredevil Comet level will contain "(pas de seconde chance)"

Purple Coins in the Bone Pen (Purple Comet)
Mario starts off on a small planet with the "Bone Pen" in front of it. The Bone Pen features bones as walls, meaty bones as bumpers, spiky balls as obstacles, and Pull Stars for getting around. There are more than 100 Purple Coins, but only 100 have to be collected by the player before the Power Star appears in the center of the pen. This mission, until completed, is only available when a Purple Comet is in orbit, and has a one minute time limit, the strictest time limit of all Purple Comets in the game. The time still goes on even after 100 coins is collected. Oddly, there are a total of 149 coins rather than 150 coins, even though the Toad Brigade members say otherwise. The level is often told as one of the hardest.


 * Enemies
 * Mines


 * Planets Visited
 * Bone Pen


 * Names in other languages

Matter Splatter Mansion
A mission similar to the Matter Splatter Galaxy. While playing the level A Very Spooky Sprint, the ring shaped planet containing pumpkin-headed Goombas also has two breakable stalagmites. One contains a Rainbow Star, and the other contains a Launch Star to the Matter Splatter Mansion (the one with the launch star is sparkling). Here, Mario must walk along the moving sections of matter that the spotlights reveal. Mario will need to go through, getting keys, and unlocking doors to get through; eventually, there will be a Power Star behind one of the doors.


 * Enemies
 * Jack O' Goombas
 * Goombas
 * Swoopers
 * Boos
 * Magikoopas


 * Planets Visited
 * Starting Planet
 * Matter Splatter Area


 * Names in other languages

Trivia

 * The level "Luigi and the Haunted Mansion" is an obvious reference to the game Luigi's Mansion; in fact, the galaxy as a whole may be based on the premise of that game, although the roles of Mario and Luigi have now been inverted.
 * The galaxy's music before Mario enters the mansion is a remix of the underground levels from Super Mario Bros., while the music heard in the mansion and afterwards is a remix of the music from Ricco Harbor. Additionally, the music that plays inside the mansion is also used in Super Mario 3D Land for Ghost Houses.