I recently became a health freak and I've been avoiding a whole pallet of junk foods, E numbers and saturated fats. I also do my best to steer clear of unnatural preservatives, as I don't like to eat food that isn't fresh - although I've found this a difficult principle to follow, as buying, say jam for instance, without preservatives usually means that I'll have to consume within five days of opening. I don't know about you, but I don't buy food to eat within a time limit - and I certainly don't get a craving that lasts a full five days! I might enjoy jam on toast one day a month, but damned if I'm bound to food choices that all utilise jam as a main ingredient for the week ahead. So to keep me from even encountering such a dilemma, I just won't buy jam.

Preservatives help keep food from going off for a long time, prolonging the sell by date - and you could say that a lot of games these days have added preservatives to keep the player coming back for a few more weeks after they should have gone off the title. But the difference between food with preservatives, and the same for food without, is usually a big one if consumed in the first couple days. Natural fresh jam, so rich in flavour, a sensory overload of fruity righteousness perfect for sampling on its own, or with a host of other foods - but only for a week. Jam with preservatives starts off above average and remains above average for as long as it can. It can be enjoyed - but only if you haven't tasted the former. Games without preservatives are usually brilliant fresh ideas, but can be completed quickly, with no incentive to return - Grabbed by the Ghoulies springs right to mind.

So what if I told you that there was a product that broke those rules previously stated - a naturally fresh product that stays fresh for longer than any rivalled product WITH preservatives? You'd say that I was mad. It's not because we keep that product in some paranormal fridge or container, although you do pop this product into something pretty special - but the reason why this fresh, organic produce outlasts the ones with preservatives is as simple as these two words are to say: "Nintendo Magic". And the product? You guessed it - Super Mario Galaxy.

You don't have to finish Super Mario Galaxy within five days of unwrapping it, although it is pretty tempting and I've considered losing valuable, much needed beauty sleep to pull all-nighters on this game. But know that Mario Galaxy is a game that manages to keep the concept of the platform genre fresh and novel throughout. You can take as much time as you want with this game and each time you return to it, you'll be instantly hooked like a coffee connoisseur sipping the perfect espresso with just the right amount of cream on top - or you could play this non-stop and the ever changing gameplay dynamics will keep things original for as long as you stay with it, a luxury you'll take for granted, which will morph and refine your taste so much that before long you'll prefer the fine wine to the common chardonnay, and the Colonel's eleven herbs and spices to chicken without any seasoning.

Maybe KFC isn't such a good example when looking at a Nintendo game with scrutiny though, trying so hard to find faults but failing so miserably to spot any. I've never been so glad to fail so miserably either - but Mario Galaxy simply is THAT good. Sure, the story isn't unique, and anybody who's ever seen a Mario game before will know that the Princess gets kidnapped and it's your goal to go get her back - but it's the getting her back part that is the cream on the espresso, or the aroma that lends itself to the taste of the fine wine.

Mario is space-bound and there are so many galaxies out there for our protagonist to explore that it would be unfair to count them. This is largely why you won't become too familiar with the gameplay, as there are so many different places to explore. With each galaxy comes a different theme and with each theme with a new gameplay twist - so is it any wonder why things keep fresh for as long as they do? As Mario you have to find stars that hide within the different planets and it fills me with great pleasure to reveal that most galaxies have three main planets, each hiding five, six, or seven stars - and that's not to mention the one-off puzzle planets that'll have you tearing your hair out, and the boss planets that are consistent throughout every main galaxy. The planets with lots of stars to find are usually main ones, with mini stories, themes and goals - and this is how you'll find the first three stars in these types of planets. One planet you visit, for example, might be populated with bees, and those bees might be in danger. The first star may come from finding out what the danger is, the second from eliminating the danger and the third for restoring peace to the galaxy and taking on a mini boss. Then after you've found all those three stars you are free to revisit and search for secret stars that are usually terribly hard to find. This might all sound like one big Mario cliché, a formality that appears in all Mario platforming titles, but there are a few factors to consider before arriving at that conclusion.

Each time you find or receive a star, you return to your home base at the observatory. This is where you choose which galaxies and planets to visit, talk to mushrooms, and bank the starbits that you collect on your travels around all of the planets in the game. Starbits aren't exactly rare like the stars that you have to collect to find the princess, but they still play an integral part in the games mechanics. To picture a starbit I'd have you recall those sugary rainbow drops that you no doubt enjoyed as a kid, but now regret as an adult because of that filling in your mouth that gives you pain every time you accidentally bite your spoon. These brightly coloured little gems can be used to unlock new planets, uncover a multitude of secrets, harm your enemy and feed your allies. Collecting starbits is as easy as it is to find them; you simply point your wand at the TV and hover your little on-screen pointer over them. No matter how far away those starbits are from Mario, you can still collect them - and then firing them is just a case of pointing at your chosen target and squeezing the trigger. As an added bonus, you even play co-op, where you control Mario and your friend collects and fires starbits.

The great thing about this is that you soon become very adept at multitasking - jumping around, platforming and navigating tricky puzzles while quickly collecting and firing starbits. Enemies take starbits in a variety of different ways; a rainbow drop might stun or send your enemy spinning, primed for Mario to finish it off with the traditional jump on the head routine, or if your enemy is weak, you can simply walk into them. Some foes laugh at your starbits, but even if you're on a planet full of foes that are immune to their power, collecting 50 starbits rewards you with another life and they also end up in the bank when you get back home, where you can feed the cute dancing Luma stars with great big smiley faces and appetites to match. Feeding these greedy floating Luma stars their favourite food makes them incredibly happy, and they'll mostly likely help you out by providing you with a shortcut to the other side of the planet, while some even transform into planets themselves, allowing you to find a couple more stars.

Something that works very well alongside the firing of starbits and the traditional platforming are the camera angles. In Mario Galaxy you don't really have that much control over the camera; you could walk around the corner and the camera will change to a new angle, Resident Evil style, and a large proportion of the game is played with the camera floating above Mario as opposed to directly behind - which helps for firing starbits at faraway enemies and also for collecting new starbits in the distance. While all of this might sound unappetising, let me explain the probable reason for this choice of approach with the camera.

Mario Galaxy is different to other platform games because of the previously mentioned features, but what keeps this game fresh - what I've been referring to all this time with food analogies - is the variation in how each planet plays. You see, they don't feature just traditional 3D environments, worlds, blocks to jump on and hills to climb, and while it's true that all of this makes up a good amount of the gameplay, there's so much more to it, like floating around in bubbles, navigating tricky jumps, fighting mini-boss characters and using surroundings to solve challenging puzzles and transforming into various guises. Boo Mario is a ghost form that you can use to walk through walls, while Ice Mario allows you to freeze water to walk across it - or how about Bee Mario, an insect form that allows you to fly. All of this and a shell of a lot more occurs in every single level and there's never a shortage of things to do - but the most unique thing about Mario Galaxy is walking on rocks in the middle of space. Lots of levels mix up traditional platforming with rock walking, but simply put, you have to take Mario to the rocky stars, which are usually spherical (although there are many different shaped rocks in the sky) and normally have some kind of puzzle to solve in order to progress to the next floating rock. Rocks aren't massive in surface area and you can keep walking forward to see Mario walk entirely around them from top to bottom and back round to the top again. It's like taking a trip around the world, on a much smaller, Italian scale.

This is why the camera movement is no longer really controllable by you. Imagine having to mess around with the camera angles while walking on the underside of a rock that has thirty Goombas on it! While the decision to make camera movement primary controlled by AI was a risky one, it's clearly paid off, because not once have I felt the urge to want to turn my camera around - although you can control it to some extent on the big 3D open areas like you can in Super Mario Sunshine.

If you want an example of what the Wii can achieve graphically when things are done right then Mario Galaxy is visual proof that the Nintendo Wii is more than just a GameCube 1.5 when it comes to beauty that this game outputs onto your screen. Each planet theme is delightful to behold and easy to identify thanks to top notch graphics - Mario and the other characters in this game look superb as they run, jump and move around with pure chic, while starbits whiz towards the screen, colourful bursts lighting up the room. You shouldn't play in anything less than a dark room either, to bring out the rich blues in the night sky while gravitating around rocks in orbit - and then there are things like water and fire effects that look realistic in a way we've come to except from a Nintendo game, maybe how a child without woes would see water - clear, enticing and charming. Mario Galaxy knocks the nebula out of any other Wii title graphically and is just light years ahead of the rest.

And if you won't come back for the graphics alone then you will come back to find secret stars and tackle Prankster Comets that orbit planets that you thought you'd completed. There are a few types of comets that bring mischief and chaos to a familiar planet - one is the Speed Comet, and returning to the planet in question while that comet is orbiting dares you to try and complete the level in a challenging timeframe without the ability to begin from a checkpoint should you lose a life. Other comets include the Fast Foe comet, which speeds up enemies, the Cosmic Comet, which forces you to race a Cosmic Mario to the star and a Daredevil Comet, which strips you of all but one health point for the duration of that level. Then when you eventually complete the game, there's the Purple Comet that challenges you to find 100 purple coins in the planet that the Purple Comet orbits. Surely that's enough to convince you never to buy games with preservatives in ever again?

If you're wondering about the audio aspect then let me just use those two words again: Nintendo Magic. I can almost see the composers scoring this game as I play through it, with their epic, uplifting violins and typical Mario style fanfare horn instruments, then there are weird synthesis noises to compliment everything that Mario does, like floating from rock to rock, or using the telescope in the observatory to find new planets, not to mention that every planet has a new addictive tune, or at least some kind of music to set the scene depending on the nature of the planet. Complete the package with moans, grunts and cries of glee or anguish for each character and you've got the perfect sound to compliment the perfect graphics - and the perfect game.

Just to repeat that, Super Mario Galaxy really is perfect - and I rarely say that when reviewing any game. But this isn't a game; it's a system seller, which is rich when nobody can get hold of a Wii for love nor money right now in the run up to Christmas. If you're one of the fortunate ones to have a Wii however then you've got to buy this game, or you might as well give it away to somebody who wants to actually play this game, because if you don't, I'm convinced that you'll go to hell, because God doesn't take too kindly to the greedy depriving the needy of Mario in what is undoubtedly his biggest, most fun-filled adventure yet. Forget ready meals with additives, preservatives and E numbers to keep you hooked the unnatural way; Mario Galaxy is a recipe you'll love and it's good for you too, in the sense that it'd be good for you to play a proper title for a change, one that should stay fresh and in your collection forever - and you can bet Uranus on that!

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).