Super Mario Galaxy...

So far, Super Mario Galaxy has been a fun ride. It's still amazing how a game can take just a few elements, polish them to a sheen, and make even a basic tutorial fun and rewarding to play. It also marks the first fun Wii game that I've played in quite a while.

I still get a little disoriented when I try to navigate upside down, but after about an hour or so of playing, I seem capable of doing basic jumps, exploration, and combat no matter which way is up.

The sandbox element of the first hour or so is content is so rewarding. I figured out most of the techniques on my own through normal play before I was ever told about them (and required to use them) by different gatekeepers in the game.

Although I imagine that some folks would rather play the game with a regular controller, I am actually enjoying the wii-mote aspects of the game. The pointer can be used to grab gems (nice -- and I also hear that it's really fun for parents with young kids who can grab gems using the wii-mote while the parent moves Mario around) and shaking the wand is integrated well into both combat and exploration. It adds a nice rhythm element (kind of like playing the notes in Windwaker or navigating through a Quicktime Event in God of War. It certainly doesn't feel tacked on like the 6 axis implementation in games like Ratchet & Clank: Future Tools of Destruction.

I think what I like most about this version of SM is that it is much more Zelda like, and it also seems to incorporate cool aspects of other games like Katamari Damacy and Ratchet & Clank. It seems like I've only discovered a small portion of the game world so far and I'm pretty interesting how the game gets bigger and better as I progress.