Super Mario Galaxy [Wii]

WATCH SUPER MARIO GALAXY VIDEOS

You have to feel sorry for Princess Peach. Not because she keeps getting kidnapped, but because her boyfriend is a workaholic. When he isn't playing soccer, baseball or golf, Mario is busy throwing parties, racing karts or impersonating a doctor. Apparently, spending "quality time" with your significant other isn't a big priority in the Mushroom Kingdom.

But when push comes to shove, Mario knows on which side his bread his buttered. Eschewing those darn mini-games (yay!) in favor of good old-fashioned platforming, the mustachioed mascot returns to his roots in Super Mario Galaxy, squashing Goombas, hurling turtle shells and battling gravity itself in an ingenious, intergalactic quest to once again save his lady love from the clutches of arch-nemesis Bowser. And it's his best effort in a decade.

It's also his biggest. Super Mario Galaxy emulates the core gameplay system of the venerable Super Mario 64 by requiring Mario to collect up to 120 power stars, but the manner in which he does so is refreshingly new: he has to explore the entire universe.

Why? Because once again stupid Peach got caught in the middle of one of Bowser's Machiavellian schemes, this one involving the creation of a new galaxy. The dino-baddie has learned a few new tricks, the coolest of which is how to steal Peach's entire castle and beam it into the center of the universe with the unlucky royal pain still inside. In the ruckus, Mario passes out, only to awaken on a strange building floating around in space. The home of an enigmatic queen, this cosmic observatory is Mario's launching pad as he scours galaxies in search of stars, and ostensibly, his missing girl.

But while the story is typical Nintendo storybook hooey, the gameplay is at once sophisticated and accessible. Each of the dozens of galaxies toys with gravity, often letting you step off what would normally be a deadly ledge only to stick to the ground and pop out on the other side, upside-down. You'll run circles around planetoids, even leaping through space from rock to rock as you move from one gravitational pull to another. The effect is thrilling and pervades every inch of Galaxy. You'll rarely be certain which way is up.

Somehow, that's never a problem - credit excellent controls and a fantastic camera for pulling off such a feat. Using both the nunchuk and the remote, you'll jump, squash and twirl through the game without skipping a beat. The remote also acts as a cursor, allowing you to collect the game's ubiquitous star bits with a wave of your hand. Where many platformers make item collection a chore, Galaxy makes it as easy as pointing at the television.