So I've had a chance to play and check out Mario Galaxy a bit now and I have some impressions. Those of you who know me know that I'm extremely picky when it comes to gaming, and I'm extremely hard to please. Additionally, Mario 64 ranks among my favorite games of all time. That being said, here are my first impressions.

At first glance, it is a very fun game, but I have a few very major drawbacks with it.

1. Music. Mario 64's music really did a great job of catching the overall feel of the game. It was unique, light hearted, and very "theme" feeling. Galaxy's music sounds more like it belongs in a cheap Lord of the Rings knockoff game.

That being said, most people don't consider music a HUGE factor in a game, so I doubt that will effect most gamers.

2. Level Design. Galaxies are fun to travel between, but what happened to really getting to know a level, or world? The worlds in Mario 64 were what made the game what it was. Jumping through pictures on the wall into a whole new world was a very different approach to level selection and it worked well. I don't see why it needed to be changed.

As for the levels themselves, I can't say I love them, but they are ok so far. I also haven't made it to the end of the game yet so my impressions so far are my "first" impressions. My absolute favorite levels in Mario 64 were the levels like Joly Roger Bay, Wet Dry World, Snowman's Land, Bomb-omb Battlefield, Cool Cool Mountain, Big Boo's Haunt, Shifting Sand Land, Hazy Maze Cave, Dire Dire Docks, Lethal Lava Land, Tiny Huge Island, Tall Tall Mountain, and of course the Bowser Levels.

The levels in Mario 64 that I didn't like as much were Rainbow Ride, Rainbow World, Whomp's Fortress and Tick Tock Clock. They were fun, but not something I would have enjoyed playing for an entire game.

In Mario Galaxy, so far I haven't played a single level that feels like any of the levels I liked from Mario 64. Every level feels very spread out, or very small. There's no levels yet that "engulf" me and capture the feel of the major Mario 64 levels. Running around small planets is fun, but so far it seems like it was majorly overdone.

Last but not least, Mario Galaxy (so far) does not have anything resembling a snow level, or an underwater level. The space platform levels with Mario stuck in flying orbs do nothing for me. I find myself trying to get through them just to hopefully find the better levels.

I'm not done playing Mario Galaxy yet, but so far it hasn't come close to chipping the gaming diamond that is Mario 64, at least for me. And honestly, the more I think about it I don't really think the Galaxy idea was the best direction to take the Mario series. Why not stick with the Castle theme? Mario doesn't need light sabers and space ships to be fun. That's what made it different from other games in the past.

Hopefully I'll come around. I want to enjoy Mario Galaxy, but so far it's not living up to my expectations at all.

I took notice that you listed almost every single mario 64 level up above...

Well I personally think that Mario 64 was more fun but that does not mean that Mario Galaxy is not a huge step up from mario Sunshine because it is definitely better than Sunshine but it isn't quite as good as mario 64.

Some things that really bothered me were

1.Bee Mario (come on they could have made the game without this)
2.Boo Mario (doesn't mario hate the ghosts?)
3.The stupid penguins (why must they all talk to you?)
4.Collecting Star Bits and feeding them to Lumas (they say something like "snackidy-Diddly-doo... TRANSFORM!!!!! every time you feed them.
5.Moving the comet (why must things move from level to level, and you have to feed a luma to move the comets.)
6.The small levels (I really don't get why they moved away from big levels becuase every level in Mario 64 was my favorite, this is the biggest turndown for me)

The music doesn't bother me all that much but you are right it could have been much better.

Mario Galaxy is still a great game wither way.

I got Galaxy for Christmas, and I have to say that it is probably the most fun I have had playing a game in a few years. The controls are really nice and innovative. The levels, while not as expansive and probably more linear, are still a great way to show off the gravity system. The mini games (the Ball Balance and the Ray Surfing) are a really cool use of the Wii controller.

Andrew as you play more through the game it forces you to go back and get to know the levels more. I actually found myself liking the worlds where I kept traveling from place to place. There are bigger words in this game but all the new game play the galaxies open up is huge. I found this game to be incredibly enjoyable. In fact so much so that I am beating it again with Luigi to get that stupid 121st star.

Dude, of course it's not going to give you the feeling of 64, because it's not that game, it's a different one. >.>

Yes but it was promoted as the true Mario 64 sequel. Last I checked sequels should feel similar. It feels more like an entirely new Mario game, which is fine, but it shouldn't have been promoted as the true Mario 64 sequel. I haven't really noticed many similarities at all besides the fact that it's Mario and you collect stars.

Well in mario galaxy you run around in the same type of levels such as sand ice, green, or ghosts houses, it really does have the same type of feel for me, except for the modifications that they made to the enemies such as the ghosts (they now have tongues) or the bosses and how much better it was to fight Bowser on a platform instead of a sphere.

But overall the game has the same general concept, it's like Mario 64 in space, though I will admit that I do like Mario 64 more just because it doesn't show you where the star is every time you enter the level.

Maybe it's not the same as Mario 64 but it's still a great game once you get into it, sure there are a couple of things that are really retarded such as feeding the lumas but there are dumb things in every game nowadays.

I haven't played to long into the game but so far it seemed pretty fun.

i got it for christmas and my first thought was "wow, this is kinda gay", but my brother really enjoys so thats good