There are two ways of doing this.

Having played Super Mario Galaxy to within an imperial inch of its last life since the Japanese release just 4 days ago (Nov 1), I could tell you about all the good bits and how they’re so very wonderful - but then you’d hate me because the good bits wouldn’t be quite so good for you, as you’d already be anticipating them, and you’d end up wishing you’d never read this review. It would be quite a crap review. 7/10 at best.

Alternatively, I could tell you how and why Super Mario Galaxy is the best non-shooty videogame of the new generation, only without any of the spoilers or unnecessary details concerning exactly what goes on inside this magic disc. The painless but still-sort-of-pertinent version of events. Let’s go with that, then.

We have to start by dismissing Twilight Princess for what it really was – just an adaptation of a very good GameCube game. Link needs to step aside because it’s this, Super Mario Galaxy, which makes it blindingly clear that when Nintendo chooses to develop gamers’ games on the Wii format it still has the power to produce world-beaters. (And the era of upgraded GameCube releases – see Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario, Resident Evil 4 – should be pronounced ‘Over’ with the thud of a Thwomp.)

Since Super Mario 64 appeared just over a decade ago, changing the way we play videogames and the way They make videogames, we’ve been waiting for Super Mario 64 2. And while Super Mario Sunshine was a massively entertaining quasi-sequel, building on the ground of Mario 64 but never quite plucking up the courage to ask for a new plot of land – Super Mario 64 Plus, if you like – it’s only now that we have a game truly fit to be classed as a Super Mario 64 2.

Galaxy isn’t merely a bigger, better version of Mario 64; it exists in an alternate universe of gameplay ideas that are all its own - but it’s still in 3D and Mario still plays the lead.

It’s obvious that the Wii Remote, which has already proven powerful enough to be a make/break factor in the development of Wii games (a potent weapon when developers use it cleverly - and calibrate their Remote controls with some precision - but a bit of a tool when they misuse it) has been employed thoughtfully from the beginning of Super Mario Galaxy’s creation.

You can use the Wii Remote as a pointer at virtually any, um, point in the game, collecting small stars from the ether and firing them back at enemies or obstacles. But that’s only the most basic incorporation of Remote controls that Mario Galaxy has to offer. With intuitive use of Remote movement Mario can also spin, roll, shoot fireballs, catapult himself, tractor-beam himself through zero gravity areas, and do other things that you’d be better off finding out independently . In boss fights, too, Wii Remote movements are used for the delivery of attacks and killer blows while the Nunchuk’s analogue stick controls Mario’s basic movement.