Super Mario Galaxy posts (Subscribe to this feed)

This latest Super Mario Galaxy video doesn't introduce any new outfits like the last developer walkthrough, but it does demonstrate star-hopping, gravity tricks, and other essential skills for traveling in this 3D platformer. The latter half of this two-minute movie even features that curious portion of the E3 trailer in which the level builds itself as Mario moves around.

How will we make it to November 12th without our heads exploding from all this exciting media? Collect five star shards and fly past the post break for the embedded video.

In addition to a brief mention of a release date at their press conference yesterday, Nintendo is showing off a brand new four-level demo of Super Mario Galaxy at this year's E3. A quick recap of the levels and new stuff available this time around. Warning: Potential spoilers ahead.

Stage 1: The basic training level shows you how to jump around some small grass- and dirt-covered planets. Falling into a pit doesn't necessarily kill you -- sometimes you just fall to the other side of the planet. Be careful of black holes, though -- fall into ones of those and it's "too bad" and a restart from the same point.

The boss of the first demo level actually takes place on the inner edge of a giant sphere. Mario has to avoid moving electrical conduits and jump on panels to shut down a giant generator. A nice, simple introduction.

Stage 2: A little tougher than the first stage -- there are more enemies this time around. Luckily, there are also plenty of stars to collect with the pointer. Once you have some stars, a quick point and a flick of the B button can fire them to stun or knock over enemies. A second player can even pick up another remote and help with the shooting.

Of all the scenes we spotted in yesterday's Super Mario Galaxy trailer, the ones that excited us most were the moments we saw our mustachioed protagonist bedecked in his bee and Boo outfits. Tears of joy came to our eyes, salty with the nostalgia of Super Mario Bros. 3's frog suit, raccoon leaf, and other fondly-remembered power-ups.

GameTrailers has a six-minute developer walkthrough of Honey Bee Galaxy, explaining the game's two-player mechanics and Mario's bee apparel along the way. Buzz past the post break for the video honeypot and an awkward clip in which Mario gropes a distressed queen bee.

See also: Hands-on with Super Mario Galaxy

The hotly-anticipated Super Mario Galaxy was playable at an executive Nintendo reception earlier tonight. We had to wait patiently as the IGN Nintendo team couldn't get their hands off of it ... and for good reason. The game is incredibly charming and creative, and filled with life that make it a clear killer app for the console.

Firstly, the game looks absolutely stunning. Not only does it run in 480p and in widescreen, the game features some beautiful colors, fantastic texture work, and some stellar special effects. The Mario character model is easily the best we've seen in any Nintendo game so far: it's not hard to think that the in-game cut-scenes are pre-rendered at times. Galaxy, at the very least, shows that the Wii is a capable piece of hardware, so long as developers take time and care with it.

Mario in a bee outfit! Flying around as a ghost! Hanging onto a Thwomp! If you missed the Super Mario Galaxy trailer that premiered at Nintendo's E3 press conference this afternoon, we've got the video embedded for you past the post break. Our image gallery has also been updated with new treats for you to tweak your mustache to. November 12th couldn't come sooner!

Reggie Fils-Aime just announced that the much-anticipated Super Mario Galaxy will be released in America on Nov. 12, 2007 at Nintendo's E3 2007 press conference. The announcement accompanied an extensive new video of the game. More new photos direct from the conference after the break.

Along with some video of Super Mario Galaxy in the background and some very nice footage of a family enjoying themselves, we got an announcement we've all been waiting for: the release date for Super Mario Galaxy. November 12th. It's not now, but it's not never either.

Even with a diminished E3, there's no controlling the wave of rumors that hit the Internet every year before the show. Why fight it? From now until E3 hits, we'll be posting one piece of wild speculation every day. Some may be patently ridiculous, and others just might turn out to be true. Even some of the ridiculous ones might turn out to be true! Rest assured, everything will be totally made-up and unfounded. Except, of course, when we speak about all the ass Reggie is going to kick. That part? Totally true.

Rumor: Super Mario Galaxy has been cancelled so the team could be put to work on a higher-priority project: a DS birdwatching non-game.

That is, until Reggie Fils-Aime administered an unforgiving slap to the face and instilled hope once more. Speaking at the recent Nintendo Summit in Seattle, the Nintendo of America president confirmed that the musically rich Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy would both be out before your Official Iwata Swimsuit 2007 calendar becomes worthless. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for DS was given similar assurances and will likely join the anticipated Wii duo in this holiday season's battle for shoppers. You'd best start stocking up on that financial ammunition.

With only a few months to go before the release of Super Mario Galaxy, expectations couldn't be higher for Nintendo's flagship hero. The title was recently confirmed for release this year, leaving our Nunchuk thumbs quivering in anticipation.

Mario is carrying a lot of weight on his shoulders, however. The groundbreaking titles, from the original Super Mario Brothers through to Super Mario 64 (sorry, Mario Sunshine), were more than great games; they also defined their platforms, setting new standards both technically and in terms of design.

It's no surprise then, that bloggers are starting to make demands for what they want to see in the new release. Check the link to see what people want this time around, and let us know what you want included.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Nintendo confirmed that they do in fact plan to release Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl by the end of this year, as well as pretty much every Nintendo game announced for the Wii. This corroborates an IGN report to the same effect, and is also totally, totally rad. Here's the full list of Nintendo's planned 2007 releases. Donkey Kong Taru Jet Race is slated for June 28, and the rest are all "2007":

• Donkey Kong Taru Jet Race
• Wii Health Pack
• Disaster: Day of Crisis
• Mario Party 8
• Project H.A.M.M.E.R.
  
• Wii Music
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl
• Battalion Wars II
• Forever Blue
• Mario Strikers Charged
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
• Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games

Keep checking with us for news of the inevitable delays of about half of these. Seriously, that's a lot of first-party Nintendo games for just half a year or so. Aw, we just made ourselves sad with our own skepticism. Still, if half of this stuff does get released in Japan this year, it'll be great news and do a pretty good job of ending any drought that may or may not be happening.

Update: fixed some italics and formatting.

We are definitely sad about Sadness. That was really something we had high hopes for, as the gameplay sounded truly revolutionary, and thus perfect for the Revolution Wii. But it's probably easy to talk up something that may or may not even exist. Still, the Frontline/Nibris split, and the delays on Nintendo's most-anticipated first party titles, plus what we've seen so far ... well, frankly, sometimes it makes us a little concerned. While a lot of the added-waggle ports have been surprisingly good so far, we're not seeing a lot of right-here, right-now, pop-'em-in-the-Wii original games for our shiny original system. At some point, we just have to ask ... is developing fresh, new games with sensible motion sensitive controls (like Wii Sports, but bigger) really so difficult? Some of these games have been years in the making, after all. And we're all for the wait, mind you, if it results in a more perfect gaming experience, but we're still a little anxious at times when we see fallout like this.

There's an interesting feature over at CVG detailing ten games to watch for on the Wii this year (similar to what we did for the DS). Now, as this is a list from the UK, they've included some games with which we American gamers have already been blessed, but the rest of the lineup is interesting indeed. Of course, they highlight Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (we so can't wait for that), but the lion's share of the list goes to the most obvious -- and long in coming -- games for the Wii, like Metroid Prime 3 and Super Mario Galaxy (and the less talked about, but also cool Disaster: Day of Crisis). Of course these are going to be great games, but on what shall we pin all our hopes and dreams between now and the oblivion of year's end? It hurts to see so many great games on this list when we know they have no firm release date. Reggie promised us that there'd be no drought, but things are looking a little dry from the vantage point of this list. Potentially awesome, yes, but a little dry all the same.

Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will arrive in late 2007 according to the latest round of whisper down the lane. CVG reports that "sources close to Nintendo" have cited the delays and have also verified that Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass will be released at the tail-end of next year.

Officially, Nintendo would only acknowledge that Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and Phantom Hourglass would debut in 2007. But the holiday stretch (October-December) is the obvious release window. Be patient.

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has updated Stephen Totilo on the planned release for Super Mario Galaxy. Mark your calendars with a big sharpie drawn across many pages: Fils-Aime expects the game to come out sometime between the end of March and Christmas.

Why not say "by the end of 2007?" Well, it's bad business -- Nintendo has three titles (WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Wii Play, and Mario Party 8) coming out between now and March, and then Metroid Prime 3 seeing a release sometime after March. To say Mario Galaxy is coming out before Christmas gives analysts the clue that it might be poised to elevate their holiday lineup, unless Smash Bros Brawl or some heavy-hitting third-party titles can step up to the plate by then.

Past March 2007, we don't yet know Nintendo's first-party lineup. Fils-Aime hints that some announcements will be coming in January. If Nintendo has learned from their follies with the GameCube, then we should have a consistent release schedule for the next year. If not, then we'll probably get one hit game every now and then, followed by long intervals of drought.

[Update 1: It's StePHen Totilo, not SteVen. The change has been made, you can call your snipers off at anytime now.]