Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 review for Nintendo Switch

Is it possible for games with universal acclaim to be underrated? In a way, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 kind of are. I mean, their original Wii releases both sit at 97 on Metacritic, so it’s not like they’re hidden gems or anything, but if you think about it, that’s an astounding accomplishment: Super Mario Galaxy came out back in 2007, was immediately hailed as one of the best games of all time in every respect…and then we got its sequel a mere three years later, and the consensus was (and is today) that it surpassed its predecessor. It’s a one-two punch that’s almost unmatched.

And they did it all while being released on the underpowered, motion control-having Wii, which just makes it all the more impressive.

It should come as no surprise that both games are still outstanding. We kind of knew this, seeing as Super Mario 3D All-Stars already showed that Super Mario Galaxy had aged well. But seeing both games in the same package – with very nicely upgraded graphics – really underscores it. The visuals were already impressive when they first came out, but seeing them all polished up adds to their splendour, and makes you want to keep on going to see what you’ll discover next.

And that’s where the two games really shine. Both Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 feature delightfully inventive worlds, and the way they used outer space to play around with where you can go and what you can do remains a lot of fun. Punching a star and having it send you flying through space never gets old, and you’re constantly wanting to see where you’ll go next.

Mind you, that’s not to say that the games are flawless. The main reason goes back to that aside about the Wii a few paragraphs about: the games were built around motion controls in a lot of ways. They largely work just fine with standard control schemes, but there are bits and pieces that don’t quite translate. Picking up star fragments is much more of a chore without a Wiimote; your workaround in handheld mode is to just touch the screen, which is easier said than done – I always found it a tiny bit annoying to pause my exploration for that second or two of poking around the scream to pick up stars.

Likewise, the camera sometimes feels like a bit of a hindrance, especially if you’re used to using both your right and left thumbsticks. Doing so here just changes the perspective a little, and I constantly found myself having to reset the camera view after I’d press on the right stick and expect the world to rotate around me.

Still, even with controls and camera work that feel slightly like a relic, there’s nothing here that would make you think the world got it wrong 15-20 years ago as far as these games are concerned. They were pinnacles of 3D platforming then, and they remain that way today as well.

Nintendo provided us with a Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 Nintendo Switch code for review purposes.