Super Mario Galaxy – Wii [$49.99]

Almost exactly one year after the Wii’s launch, the system finally has its Mario game… and what a game it is. Super Mario Galaxy is huge, it’s beautiful, and it evokes the same constant sense of wonder that playing Super Mario Bros. did more than 20 years ago. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Super Mario Galaxy is how quickly it makes you forget that, graphically, the Wii as a system is nearly five years behind its contemporaries. Or, perhaps, it’s the way the remote and nunchuk become extensions of your hands, with a control scheme that is both responsive and utterly natural to anyone who has played one of the previous 3-dimensional Mario games. Or it could be a story which, while still secondary to the gameplay, actually evokes something like emotion in the player as it develops. Regardless of what makes Super Mario Galaxy great, there is no question that it is great, a serious contender not just for Wii game of the year (a competition in which its primary adversaries are currently cringing), but for video game of the year. If you have a Wii and don’t own Super Mario Galaxy, sell it. The game is that good.