Review: Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2

I won a copy of Super Mario Galaxy 2 in a Nintendo poetry competition in 2010 for ‘I can be your Luigi baby,’ inspired by Enrique Iglesias Hero which admittedly was not my best parody, but a winning one nonetheless.

Fifteen years later, the game remains timeless, with Enrique Iglesias’s career, much less so.

This bundle brings together two of the most celebrated 3D platformers in the Mario universe: the original (2007) and its sequel (2010).

The core hook remains intact: Mario blasts off to different planets, jumps, spins, flips gravity, battles bosses and collects Power Stars. The sequel builds on the first’s foundations with more inventive level design and surprises.

The controls have been adapted from the original Wii motion-based design into standard stick/buttons and pointer/motion support. I struggled a bit with the tilt/gyroscope elements and constantly fought with the camera. I remember it being much more elegant on the Wii using the Wii mote so I’m wary as I write this review of being too forgiving to compensate for my nostalgia.

I can overlook some of the frustration as the level design, pacing and variety is excellent and I appreciate the portability of the Switch 2.

New players won’t feel as encumbered as they don’t have a point of reference for how it felt on the Wii. My 6-year-old absolutely loved it and completed both games, albeit in assist mode .

The art style holds up extremely well and the visual jump from Wii is more than just resolution: new textures and improved framerate give the games a fresh polish.

That said, these are still ports of Wii-era titles, so while they look great for what they are, they won’t rival modern native AAA visuals so there aren’t tiny little details to appreciate like Mario Wonder but in context they deliver impressively.

The game retails for R1 399 which is a little steep considering Mario Galaxy was part of a 3-pack in the Super Mario 3D All-Stars package 5 years ago for R 1000. Sure, inflation plays a role but it doesn’t feel like all that long ago, although to be fair, 3D All-Stars was a very limited release so its usually expensive on the second-hand scene.

From a value-standpoint: you get two full games, each critically acclaimed historically, now on modern hardware with enhancements.

If you’ve never played them, or want to revisit them, the price isn’t as ludicrous as say Donkey Kong Returns HD which I reviewed earlier this year. You can also purchase them separately at R 839 each on the local eshop.