Game Art and Machinima Research: Super Mario Galaxy

By Meg Sugden
The last game that I wanted to look at was Super Mario Galaxy. This is an original Mario game, but one of the newest ones that has come out. Mario is invited to the Star Festival by Princess Peach when its invaded by Bowser and Peach's entire castle is removed and taken into space. Mario's rescue mission fails but he is met by an enchantress named Rosaline and her companions, the Lumas, and they help him get back on track. Mario's mission is to find all the missing Power Stars, that Bowser has stolen, so to get power back in the observatory in order to be able to fly it to help save Princess Peach.

Mario as a character is probably one of the most famous ones in gaming history and has such an iconic look to him and will also be known as having that same look. Although in this game he does have the ability to turn into other outfits the most common being a bee, which he wears to perform different movements in order to reach higher places in some levels that require it. Due to the fact the Mario is such a well known and iconic character makes him so good to look at. The reason that I wanted to look at him is because we want to be able to make a well known character like this, and be able to do it successfully so that when just looking at the character or its silhouette you know who it is.

Next the environments are all beautiful. They are really well designed and each one is unique and works well with the rest of the designs in the game. Like Mario they are very cartoony looking, taking the same aesthetic style that is used in many other Mario games and keeping it, even though this one is set in space. The environments vary in size and design as Mario travels through the worlds and they look really nice. You almost connect with each environment as they is so much to interact with and do in each place and a lot of the gameplay involves re-visiting each place so you get to know the area so well. Finally the actual design of them is just so nice to look at, they are very bright and colourful and never fail to look amazing.