Super Mario Galaxy: It Makes Converts

Feb. 5 4:36 PM by Lynxara

Kotaku's always best when the writers are blogging about weird things they do or that happen in their daily lives, and this is no exception. Brian Crecente hits the blog with a post about how Super Mario Galaxy transformed his game-hating wife into someone who can find it... well, cute.

She watched for a little bit, and then started asking questions. What do you have to do? She asked. And Tristan [Crecente's son] explained. We were on one of the boss battles, one that we kept losing at. Tristan, who was playing shotgun, was helping out quite a bit by freezing the things being thrown at me.

After we beat the boss, Trish sat through a chapter of the story and then both of us went upstairs to start cooking dinner.

What was that? I asked as we sorted out the meal.

What?

You hate games?

Yeah, but that one was really cute.

My working theory here is Super Mario Galaxy's superior and oft-unappreciated art design. Levels and visuals in that game are composed with the same care that goes into any animated masterpiece. Galaxy puts me most in mind of certain Miyazaki flicks (especially Laputa) and your finer Leiji Matsumoto (especially Galaxy Express 999), and it has the same universal appeal.