Super Mario Galaxy is a 2007 platform action-adventure video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the third 3D game in the Super Mario series. As Mario or Luigi, the player embarks on a quest to rescue Princess Peach, save the universe from Bowser, and collect 121 Power Stars. The levels in the game consist of galaxies filled with minor planets and worlds, with different variations of gravity, the central element of gameplay. The player character is controlled using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, and completes missions, fights bosses, and reaches certain areas to collect Power Stars. Certain levels use the motion-based Wii Remote functions.
Nintendo EAD Tokyo began developing Super Mario Galaxy after the release of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat in late 2004, when Shigeru Miyamoto suggested that Nintendo should commission a large-scale Mario game. The concept for the use of spherical platforms originated from ideas used in Super Mario 128, a GameCube tech demo shown at Nintendo Space World in 2000. Nintendo aimed to make the game appeal to players of all ages, and the team had more freedom in designing it compared to other Super Mario games because of the outer space setting. The soundtrack was composed by Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo, using a symphony orchestra for the first time in the series.
Super Mario Galaxy was a critical and commercial success, hailed as one of the best games in the series and one of the greatest video games of all time. At the time of its closure in 2019, Super Mario Galaxy was the highest-rated game of all time on review-aggregating site GameRankings. It received outstanding critical acclaim, citing the game's graphics, gravity mechanics and level design, soundtrack, setting, and story. It won several awards from top gaming publications, including multiple "Game of the Year" titles, and became the first Nintendo title to win the BAFTA Award for Best Game. The game is the ninth bestselling Wii game worldwide with sales of 12.80 million. The game was released as a Nintendo Selects title in 2011, as a download via the Wii U's eShop in 2015, on the Nvidia Shield in China in 2018, and as part of the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection for the Nintendo Switch in 2020. A sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2, was released for the Wii in 2010.
