User:Nintendo101

Nintendo fanatic and enthusiast. (You probably are too if you're looking at this page.) I'm otherwise an artist and an ecologist. Within my field, I specialize in wildlife and (currently, but not exclusively) insects. I've had an account here since 2012.

I wrote the character sections for Super Mario Odyssey. I contributed a lot to the articles for Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy (which is now featured - yay!), and Super Mario Galaxy 2, alongside many other people on this wiki who have contributed their time, energy, and passion to writing about video games.

I have been a fan of Nintendo since a very young age. My first Mario games (and three of the first video games I ever owned) were Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, Super Mario 64 DS, and Mario Kart DS. These games were good company for a young kid who moved around a lot and had difficulty keeping long-lasting friends.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I sequentially played some of my favorite games in the Super Mario series to 100% completion. This includes, in order, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, and Super Mario Odyssey. It's been really fun! These are great games, and I always wanted to marathon a series like this before but never had the time. It has been interesting to see where the series began and where it has ended up. The design philosophies, the characters, the art directions, world building, level design, narrative, etc. All good stuff. It might be fun to write something about it some day.

My favorite video game character is Yoshi.

For assets I have uploaded to the wiki, I suggest viewing them here.

Sandbox for current project

Prerelease

• Shiggy first mentions that there will definitely be a game for the Revolution during E3 2005 (I think - double check any earlier mentioning, maybe in Japan, though Ninty tends to do initial press announcements in English because their largest sale demographics are in the west)

Reception

• warmly recieved, considered the best Mario game in years
• People almost immediately entered the camp of this game being excellent, and folks seem to have largely stayed there over the years, if anything its reception has only gotten more positive
• Not everyone loves Star Ball and ray surfing

Sales

• 5th best selling console game (across all consoles) in 2007, but achieved greater lifetime sales than the other four in subsequent years (I think)

Awards and recognition

• IGN, GameSpot, Kotaku, Yahoo! Games, EDGE
• AIAS, BAFTA, GameInformer, Nintendo Power, TV Asahi
• Guinness World Records is currently mentioned, but GWR is a for-profit organization, not a passive recorder of records and Nintendo could have bought that record for promotion. Hmmm...
• I recall its success over Call of Duty 4 at BAFTA was framed by some as an "upset" or at least a surprise, based on then contemporary market trends for video games; look into that - is that just retrospective?
• Has SMG won any more contemporary awards?

Controversy

• The French thing - anything else out there? Maybe track down sources for Phantom Hourglass and Sticker Star

Themes

Super Mario Galaxy has been noted for its narrative themes, the very presence of which has been described as exceptional when compared to other titles in the Super Mario series. The game explores themes of isolation, grief, found family, acceptance, and rebirth.

The game invokes feelings of isolation through its outer space setting. Most galaxies are enveloped by vast, dark skies pierced by stars and distant suns. There are story scenarios, missions, locations, and musical queues interlaced in the game that intentionally draw attention away from its more vigorous, joyful elements to focus on the dispassionate coldness of space, amplifying Mario's relative insignificance to a vast, endless universe. Video essayist Jacob Geller notes that these conditions give the player a moment to decompress after action-orientated gameplay and foster contemplativeness. Such conditions are interpreted as existentialistic and sad, but not dreadful. Rather, Super Mario Galaxy gently conveys that there is some assurance and security in accepting the limited impact one has on the universe, and that it is okay to feel wary when faced by uncertainty. Grace Benfell of GameSpot describes the evoked feeling as an "existential, joyful melancholy."

Benfell also comments on the the integration of Lumas in the game. The childlike creatures are predestined to become celestial bodies at the end of their life cycles. The objects he directly interacts with are implied (and sometimes even directly demonstrated) to have once been Lumas themselves, with Power Stars having once been yellow Lumas, Pull Stars once blue ones, and so on. As a gameplay mechanic, Hungry Lumas permanently transform into wholly new planets and galaxies once fed a requested number of Star Bits. These planets are already lush with flora and sometimes bear communities of people living on them. As Benfell argues, this mechanic implies everything seen in the game were once Lumas, not just the objects shaped like stars. This component of the Lumas likely derives from the life cycle of real stars and the knowledge that the majority of elements, including all the ones that make up living things, were created and distributed across the universe by dying stars. Benfell equates transformation with death, an often somber theme in art. However, Lumas eagerly anticipate transformation. It is in dying that they are capable of creating new life, including newborn Lumas, so it is an essential component to the cycle of rebirth in the universe. Death is never truly the end.

The game's themes are most deeply and explicitly channeled through the characterization of Rosalina.

Ciara Cremin of the University of Auckland adapted philosopher Gilles Deleuze's analysis of cinema to Super Mario Galaxy, providing a foundation for how video games can be studied as a discrete artform. She understands it to be a "masterpiece" of the form.

Legacy

• heavily influenced subsequent 3D Super Mario games, especially SMG2, SM3DL, and SM3DW - but also SMO
• Rosalina would be incorporated into subsequent ensemble/spinoff games, Nintendo's marketing, have a direct presence or homage in subsequent main series games, and would become a largely beloved character
• Captain Toad would rise in prominence and be playable in his own title; distinguished from the Toad in coming years
• Lumas and Toad Brigade would also become less frequent but consistent elements
• Space-themed portions in subsequent ensemble/spinoff games would often incorporate allusions to SMG

Things to read

• 15 Years Ago, Super Mario Galaxy Made It Cool to Be a Gamer
• Super Mario Galaxy: In Space No-One Can Hear You Mamma Mia
• Super Mario Galaxy Showed Us Something The Series Hadn't Before, And Hasn't Since
• 15 years later, Super Mario Galaxy is still the series' most stellar entry
• Super Mario Galaxy Coming To Nintendo DS Thanks To Fan Project
• In Battle of Consoles, Nintendo Gains Allies
• E3 Interview: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto
• E3 – 2006 : LIVE :: Massive Wii games ‘hands on’
• Halo 3 Arrives, Rewarding Gamers, and Microsoft
• Nintendo: Wii play now, but Wii ship later
• One on one with Nintendo at E3
• E3 2005: Shigeru Miyamoto Interview
• TGS 2005: Hands-on the Revolution Controller
• Super Mario Galaxy and the Videogame Aesthetic
• Super Mario Seriality: Nintendo’s Narratives and Audience Targeting within the Video Game Console Industry
• Redesigning Super Mario : Creating realistic versions of some characters and animations featured in Super Mario franchise
• The Fine Line Between Rehash and Sequel: Design Patterns of the Super Mario Series
• The evolution of the introductory section
• Molecular Mario: The Becoming-Animal of Video Game Compositions
• Impact of an Active Video Game on Healthy Children’s Physical Activity
• It's a-me Density!
• Super Mario 64: an exercise on freedom and style
• AusGamer Review
• Is the Japanese gaming industry in crisis?
• Nintendo defies recession with record profits
• Nintendo Wii: Lessons learned from noncustomers