Great games are getting introduced to new generations every year thanks to a boom in remakes and remasters. There are some like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater that change very little, and others like Resident Evil 2: Remake that completely redefine what makes a game great.

Metroid Prime Remastered is a great middle ground, allowing Nintendo to refresh a game while keeping what makes it special intact and accurate to the day it first hit shelves. A similar treatment is provided to Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 for the Nintendo Switch, the latest in Nintendo’s journey to keep its greatest achievements alive for new generations. They succeed in essentially every way.

Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 arrive on the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 with a number of improvements. With enhanced resolution, including 1080p on Nintendo Switch and 4K on Nintendo Switch 2, the visual upgrade is noticeable immediately. I don’t know how long it has been since you played a Wii game, but those graphics have certainly aged in visible ways. I think the Super Mario 3D All-Stars port of Galaxy is also a great example of just how much these games benefit from the resolution upgrade and refresh.

The games also featured improved UI, extra Storybook Chapters, a new Assist Mode, and more, which may or may not be immediately identifiable depending on how well you know these games. For newcomers to these titles, the upgrades and improvements to both Galaxy and Galaxy 2 are absolutely necessary. While these aren’t the crisp, clean visuals of Super Mario Odyssey or Donkey Kong Bananza, the presentation of these games will not be as jarring to players as it would have been if they picked up the version from three console generations ago.

The world-bending levels of Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2, full of camera-twisting and gravity-defying, have always been disorienting for me. I’m one of those Super Mario Sunshine truthers who feel like the bizarre environmental themes play to the game’s strengths. Galaxy, on the other hand, never resonated much with me as a story. The additional pages of Rosalina’s storybook do feel like a fun expansion of the game’s world, but I’m still not compelled by what I’m being told in either of the two games. Instead, the laurels of Galaxy 1 + 2 exist in how much the 3D Mario formula was flipped upside down in these games. Literally.

Playing Galaxy 1, I was thrown back into my first time playing this story. I remember being shocked by how much it felt like the standard of what a 3D platformer could be was changing. Every planet visited feels like an increase in risk and reward, shifting the patterns you seek out to gain insight into unfamiliar environments. In 2025, it’s slightly disappointing to feel like we’ve treaded new paths beyond what this game sought to achieve, but there’s not quite any other game like this one. A Kirby and the Forgotten Land or Donkey Kong Bananza doesn’t happen without Galaxy first prompting the team at Nintendo to ask themselves how far they can push what a character embodies.

While many think Galaxy 2 is a massive improvement any sequel would want to embody, I’ve actually always preferred its predecessor. That said, I haven’t replayed Galaxy 2 since it first came out, and I’ve forgotten how much charm there is in simply iterating rather than recreating a Mario gimmick. Should an Odyssey 2 have been released, I imagine it would have looked like this game, finding new ways to build on the fantastical abilities Mario seeks to learn alongside the player. Yoshi is an excellent addition as well, and while I don’t think the awe and wonder of the first game is matched in its sequel, the level design is some of the series’ finest.

Having loved the games upon release and having gotten refreshed versions here and there, there’s not much to say in terms of criticism. As I mentioned, the camera work and navigating upside down is a strange trigger for some incapacities about my own hand-eye coordination and cognition, I can’t quite put a finger on. Still, I love the way the game doesn’t let you rest. Not terribly difficult, the challenge in these games is keeping up with every twist and turn thrown at you. The problem for me is that in the present, we’re thrown twists and turns as a matter of game mechanics as well as design choices. The thrill is gone, however slightly, thanks to how games have grown and developed.

For someone coming into these games after playing other modern Nintendo titles, or any of the onslaught of punishment-as-game-mechanic titles we love to hate (death after death), these might seem quaint now. I think, unlike some older games, you feel their age in a more nostalgic sense than a quality-reducing one. These are great games that platformer fans would love, no matter when they played them, and the modernization is key to keeping this accurate. Still, I do wonder if someone playing these to fill a blind spot in their gaming journey won’t feel the slightest bit underwhelmed given what’s come since their first arrival on consoles.

It’s impossible to say these games aren’t worth $35 USD each, given how they expand our understanding of Super Mario. If you already own these games, I think that the polishing they received gives players from the Wii days plenty of reason to return. There are great updates, and the fact that the game feels so seamless in handheld mode is a testament to the attention put into bringing these games into the present. I wouldn’t put either in my top 3 Mario games of all-time, personally, but that didn’t stop me from loving a trip back to such quirky, genre-bending adventures. If anything, I appreciate them now more than ever.

A Nintendo Switch Review copy of Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 was provided by Nintendo for this review.

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Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2

69.99

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• A wonderful refresh of two classic titles
• Joy-Con 2s handle the motion controls quite well
• Plays great on handheld

Cons

• Dated simply for how well the Nintendo 3D platformer has grown since the 2000s