While Super Mario Galaxy has appeared on Nintendo Switch before, via 2020’s Super Mario 3D All-Stars, this week’s re-release is still momentous. For one, 3D All-Stars was bizarrely only for sale for a limited time – so this will be the first time this game has a ‘standard’, ever-available Switch version. More importantly, this is the first time that Galaxy 2 is on Switch, meaning we now have one of gaming’s finest duologies reunited and available on modern hardware. All of this is great news.
Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2
- Developer: Nintendo
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Platform: Played on Nintendo Switch 2
- Availability: Out 2nd October on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2
Having spent a fair chunk of time with each of the new ports, I’m looking forward to an inevitably reignited debate about which of these two games is better. The rare Nintendo direct sequel, Galaxy 2 is doubtless more refined, tightly organized to push its best ideas early and hard before offering up bold experimentation and fiendish late-game challenges. But that game can only exist because of the original Galaxy – experimental, charming, and wildly atmospheric.
The two form a fascinating one-two punch in this sense. Take the core structure of the games: Galaxy goes all-in on breezy hangouts in an attractive and story-rich but relatively inconsequential hub world. Galaxy 2 jettisons that for a very simple hub with a dialed-back narrative. The first title generally channels the levels of Super Mario 64, with multiple run-throughs and the like – Galaxy 2 embraces more of a linearity reminiscent of Mario’s 2D outings, in turn allowing for more attempts at joyous one-off level design spectacle.
Anyway, I digress. The funny thing about writing about a new release of games such as these is that there’s little point in litigating about the quality of the work. These are undeniably classics. The march of time is not going to change that for the Galaxies any more than it has for the very first Super Mario Bros. With that said, there are curious wrinkles in how these titles play that are only now visible because our minds have been collectively rewired by Odyssey – ways in which you realise Odyssey’s physics are slightly superior, its narrative waffling better delivered, and the game’s visual identity more refined. I feel if you showed that trio to somebody who had never seen them before, they’d easily identify which game is the newest – but none of this takes away from the brilliance of the Galaxy games.