> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# SANTA MONICA Mario Mishap?
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-mario-mishap/
- Published: 2007-07-18T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T02:19:20.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Mario helped sell the NES, Super NES, and Nintendo 64, and some might say it’s because of the lack of a good Mario game on the Gamecube that hurt it. In other words, Mario is essential for a new Nintendo platform. Perhaps that’s less of a problem for the Wii, but the system does still need a game that truly defines it.

Nintendo wants that game to be “Super Mario Galaxy.” However, reviewers at this year’s E3 summit in Santa Monica were not entirely impressed.

Skeptical game player Mark Raby gave his critique.

“Last year we tried out a round that had Mario making his way from the ground to outer space,” he said. “This time it was all in space. While it’s cool that Nintendo is trying to push the Mario envelope by putting its icon in an intergalactic adventure, we’re just not that fond of the way the control has turned out.”

“Having to deal with warped gravity and other space anomalies makes navigating the area a bit too frustrating, at least it did for the 15 minutes or so that we played.”

“We’re also not clear on how the game progression will be handled, and we didn’t get any answers from the handful of Nintendo people we asked. ‘Super Mario Bros 3’ and ‘Super Mario 64’ are great because the over worlds work so well. We don’t know if there will be something like that in ‘Galaxy,’ or if it will be all open ended like in ‘Super Mario Sunshine,’ which wasn’t exactly a huge success for Nintendo.”

“We’re not putting a seal of death on the game, but the limited amount that we tried just didn’t amaze us the way we hoped it would.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 18, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071807.pdf?ref=smdp.com)