I have to start by saying that yes, I enjoyed Super Mario Sunshine. Kiddie atmosphere aside, it had solid physics and enjoyable game mechanics. Super Mario Galaxy goes a slightly divergent route--there is the "we aimed this game toward youngins" feel to it, but it's less about tacking Mario onto one gimmicky device and more about the variety of special abilities that the classic Mario games prided themselves on.

The story is the usual flimsy Bowser-shows-up-destroys-utopialike-Mushroom-Kingdom-and-kidnaps-Princess-to-further-evil-plans thing that has been repeated for about fifteen centuries in various Mario games, books, movies and Egyptian hieroglyphs (well, kind of). Once the opening sequence is over with (which includes a very nice modern rendition of the battleship music from Mario Brothers 3) it's on to zipping about the cosmos saving various peoples from oppression by The Dino Himself.

To be sure, the graphics are perfectly suited to the attitude of the game in general. Water effects and light reflections are surprisingly good, and the slightly-cartoonish look complements everything just perfectly. A lot of music in the game is old classics resurrected (the underground music and main theme from the original Mario Bros are rendered in a very satisfying way) along with new music that mostly has a whimsical, airy feel to it. Many old sound effects are also brought back, such as the "flattening" sound goombas make. And yes, old enemies you didn't think would be seen again make returns--my personal favorite was the mole guys from the battleships in Super Mario 3. While far harder to fight in three dimensions than you would expect, it's still nice to see them around.

The game relies on the tried and true basic control scheme that's been around since Super Mario 64. Run, jump, spin attack, double jumps...they're all there. Some special abilities can be obtained during play, most of which seem tacky at best and childish at worst, but all of which serve some purpose to the gameplay and achieving necessary objective. There is no way to manually control the camera, and it has a tendency in certain situations to get itself stuck in an odd spot, therefore limiting your options if you have to do something like throw a shell into a very specific target you can't quite see. Other than that, however, no major issues.

One thing that must be pointed out is the game's focus on "deep space" elements. This shines best in stages that aren't on planetoids, that is they are on some construct floating in space above a black hole of some kind. This black hole provides the impetus to not fall off, but on many of these constructs individual parts have their own gravity, so to speak, and the player ends up moving in ways that would otherwise be impossible. It feels mind-bending and confusing at first, but it's not long before the fun factor kicks in and you're laughing and getting excited everytime you jump into an area with a different gravity alignment.

Overall, it's classic Super Mario, with a few elements to mix things up and add a fresh new feeling without an overabundance of extra ingredients to ruin that yummy soft cake mix that is Nintendo's definition of fun.