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Less than a handful of hours into Super Mario Galaxy on the Switch 2, all I can keep thinking is, 'why did it take me so darn long to play this?' I have no good reason for that. My sister had the original game on the Wii back in 2007, and as much as I liked the concept as a lifelong space nerd, I never did get around to trying it out myself. Even with the arrival of Super Mario 3D All-Stars in 2020, I still left Mario's planet-spanning adventure in my backlog, being far too preoccupied with Animal Crossing: New Horizons at the time to play anything else.
So, when Nintendo announced it was once again re-releasing Super Mario Galaxy, and adding Super Mario Galaxy 2 to the mix for good measure, it felt like fate finally had enough of my shenanigans, and was stepping in to tell me to get my act together and play it. After all, Super Mario Galaxy has long been considered one of the best Mario games of all-time, and while I'm still working my way through the starry platformer, I'm starting to understand why.
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The mustachioed plumber has had his fair share of unique power ups over the years. With the likes of the classic Fire Flower which lets him fire out a barrage of fireballs, to the Super Bell that transforms him into a cat. I myself am partial to the Elephant Fruit in Super Mario Wonder, which (as the name gives away) turns Mario into a big chunky elephant who has to squeeze through pipes… and almost certainly causes some back problems for poor Yoshi. And while Super Mario Odyssey didn't feature traditional power-ups, it also got playfully inventive in its own way, with Cappy letting Mario become everything from a T-Rex to a frog.
But nothing, and I mean nothing, can top Bee Mario. The minute I consumed my first stripey mushroom in the Honeyhive Galaxy and saw his bumble bee transformation, my mind was made up. Not only is the plumber just undeniably adorable as his little legs bunch up and he bumbles through the air in a bee costume, but it's just downright fun to mess around in the honey-themed planet, and interact with the many bees that reside there while I'm in this guise.
It also marries perfectly with the innovative 360 degree platforming of Super Mario Galaxy, which lets you go around the entire surface of a planet. The idea of its world-jumping set up has appealed to me for years, but it did take me a spell to adjust to the gravity, and the way the camera moves with me; particularly on the first few planets that tutorialize the controls, with my view going a bit topsy turvy at times. I do, however, enjoy the way you can use the Joy-cons like the Wii remote, flicking it across the screen to collect Star Bits (which look like tasty, tasty candy).
But I really started to fall in love with the galaxy-spanning, star-shooting format of the adventure when I became a bee. Sure, I wouldn't have initially guessed a bee costume would be the thing to pull me into the outer space setting, but it's thanks to this form that I got a taste of how playful and creative this 2007 adventure is. With a fly meter that limits how long I can stay airborne, buzzing up to purple flowers and grassy ledges becomes a test of timing. Sometimes I overshoot the capacity of my little wings and find myself rolling into the great expanses of space, but this only serves to impress upon me the fact that gravity can work with and against me, which adds an extra layer of challenge and fun to the platforming.
One of the "perks of being a bee" as a fellow buzzing buddy tells me, though, is that I'm able to stick to honey walls. Flying isn't the only way to get around as a fuzzy striped insect, and as I watch Mario wiggle his way up some honey combs, I fall in love with the power up even more. Not only is it once again an adorable touch, but it also introduces another kind of challenge that puts both my honey clinging abilities and my flying to use.
See, I have to try to fly over to another patch of honey-combs a short distance away, but it's a risky maneuver since my short fly time makes it all too easy to bump into a section of the wall that's devoid of honey and ricochet off into space. The 3D spherical world really comes to life as I try to fly around it, and climb my way up the mighty honey wall to reach the Queen Bee. Speaking of the Queen, I can't say I was exactly comfortable having to act as her physician and help her take care of an "itch" – aka, crawl all over her body to collect star pieces. But hey, what's a busy worker bee to do when the Queen makes a request?
I just can't get over how joyful it is to fly this way and that on the inviting planet nestled in the galaxy, that's flush with greenery. I'm also very delighted to discover that it's not the only instance this power up comes into play, and knowing it also pops up in Super Mario Galaxy 2 has cemented my desire to jump into the sequel once I wrap up the first. I'm sure it will be some time before I can forgive myself for taking almost two decades to play this whimsical adventure, because it really is the bees knees.
