What can you do in one hour of “Super Mario Galaxy“?

What could I accomplish, starting from scratch, and while pausing to jot down notes and — oh, what a bad idea — trying to snap photos?

(Note that Nintendo required that any photos include more than just the screen. I tried to show a tip of the Wiimote. And tried to snap photos while playing the game. Bad idea!)

This is how it went when I tried it on Friday morning in San Francisco at Nintendo’s summit for the company’s holiday Wii and DS games.

You are about to read a tale of inverted gravity, Wii remote shower caps, the helpfulness of a guy from IGN, lessons not learned from “Metroid Prime 3,” and how I figured out a way in “Galaxy” to cheat.

T-Minus 10 Minutes
Friday was my second day at Nintendo’s San Francisco event. Right before my “Galaxy” session I play a tiny bit of “Battalion Wars II.” This event is on the 32nd floor in a suite atop a Westin hotel. Wiis in glass cases stand in front of widescreen TVs. On soft white chairs sit Wii remotes, encased in new silicon Wii remote jackets. The jacket wraps the end of the famous controller clear in bulbous, clear material, making the remote look like it didn’t want to get its hair wet in the shower. There are four TVs running “Galaxy,” each with a Wii supposedly on a one-hour timer. All are being used, so I scan the chairs in front of them to see who I thought I had the best chance to kick off.

I spot David Young, a Nintendo public relations rep I had seen at many shows but met only yesterday. He is sitting in a chair enjoying “Galaxy.” I had often seen him snapping photos of crowds of reporters — crowds I was sometimes in. He explained the day before that the pictures were for “internal purposes,” which I suggested might include examining the reaction on our faces when his colleagues told us yesterday that “Smash Brothers Brawl” was delayed until February 10. A day later, he and I are good enough pals that I feel I can hover over him and ask him how the game of “Galaxy” that he was playing was. He gets the hint. He tells me the game was there for people like me, not him. He hands me a Wii remote and nunchuk. A second remote, used for the game’s optional co-op controls, remains on the seat. I push it aside as I sit down.

9:29
I launch the game, choosing to mark my save file with a big floating Toad head. I could have chosen the cranium of Mario, Yoshi or Princess Peach. If there was a significance to picking Toad, I would not discover it in my hour. Note the absence of Luigi. A sign of things to come? Or not come, as it were?

The game begins with me controlling Mario, of course, ambling down a path toward Princess Peach’s castle. I walk him with the nunchuk’s left analog stick and jump with the remote’s A button, which is under my right thumb. There is a festival going on outside the castle. A crowd of Toad guys are celebrating…something. It’s night-time in the game, marking this as the first “Mario” game to start post-sunset ever. Welcome to 1992, Mario.

9:30
Because I had played “Galaxy” before at the last two E3’s, I know well enough to point the remote’s blue cursor at a cascade of small falling stars that are pleasantly raining on the festival. Wanding over them — without pressing any buttons — absorbs them into my inventory.

Cue cut-scene. A fleet of airships designed in the flying-pirate-ship-style begin to attack. Close-up of Bowser, who is riding atop one such ship. He growls. Thanks to Nintendo’s writers, we know that he is saying the following to Princess Peach: “You are cordially invited to the formation of my new galaxy.” There is a large flying saucer hovering over his ship.

I am put back in control and told to run to Peach’s castle. In just a jiffy, I am on the outside of the castle bridge. Cue second cut-scene. Bowser’s fleet drops anchors, snags the land around the castle and begins to lift the whole plot of real estate to the sky. Bowser’s wizard buddy (Magikoopa?) knocks Mario for a loop.

9:37
Mario wakes up on a floating planetoid. This one is small. It is covered in grass and set against the backdrop of black space. Mario can run all around this thing, without fear of falling off, encircling the thing in seconds. This is the game’s main gimmick, revealed eight minutes in.

A rabbit appears, asking to be chased, shades of “Super Mario 64.” He’s a little tricky to catch. It’s clearly an intentionally tough challenge, designed to get players so focused on the chase that they will have run several laps around the spherical object Mario is set on before they realize what an odd twist on gravity, cameras and sense of direction the game presents. In a Nintendo era of handholding casual gamers and the easiest “Zelda” yet, this is an unexpected shove into the deep end. The player is forced to catch three more rabbits.

I think back to last Thanksgiving. I recall my dad “getting” the Wii in just a few seconds when I showed him “Wii Sports” bowling. He was bowling like a pro in no time. This rabbit-chasing, however, I think would be beyond him. Nintendo’s still kind of hardcore.

I pause the game and learn that I am in a mission called “Grand Star Rescue.” It makes me think of the phrase “Grand Theft Auto” and I briefly wonder if Nintendo is making a joke. After all, performing a GSR sure sounds like the happy, magical opposite of pulling a GTA. But I don’t wonder too long because the clock is ticking.

I experiment with the game’s camera controls. For the most part you don’t control the camera. It follows Mario as he runs around. But you can zoom the view in and out. Also, pressing up on the d-pad locks into a fixed first-person view for scanning the surroundings. Movement isn’t permitted. The first-person looking is done with the analog stick, which doesn’t feel good at all and makes me wonder if the game’s development team at Nintendo Tokyo has played any “Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.”

9:43
I have caught the rabbits. I am told something or other about the sparkly blue sprite thing that will accompany me in my adventure. And I am instructed to shake the remote to make Mario do a full spin.

9:44
While watching the on-screen indicator instructing me just how to shake the Wii remote, I realize that the little tutorial picture shows a Wii remote that is encased in the Wii jacket. I wonder if this is the default image of the Wii remote from this point on, elegant design giving way to elegant-design-encased-in-a-shower-cap.

The spin move can be used to attack. It is also used to launch Mario from planetoid to planetoid. Stand him inside a gold star hovering parallel to the ground, making it a momentary hula hop. Then shake. He will launch to some new space-rock for more running around.

I launch him. I watch him take off into space and head toward a new planetoid. This is seamless. The screen never goes dark. The loading is invisible to me. Mario lands on a new sphere that is missing much of its mass. It’s spherical, rocky swiss cheese. There is a black hole at its core. Falling into it would be bad, the equivalent of falling off a ledge in more terrestrial “Mario” games.

At this point I note my posture. “Mario Galaxy” is no “Wii Sports.” I am playing this game seated. My right forearm is resting on my chair’s arm-rest, leaving me all the range I need to shake my wrist for Mario’s spin.

9:47
I’ve got Mario on his third heavenly body, having done something on the second that I forgot to note down. Each planetoid presents a challenge — squash things, collect things — that rewards players with the creation of a new launch star. I’ve launched Mario to a sphere that looks like it’s made of wood. A star guy of some sort is in a glass jar. I need to kill all the Goombas to free it. I can jump on their heads, but I can also do the spin move, which knocks them dizzy and sends them spinning themselves. If Mario runs into them while they spin, they die.

9:49
I didn’t remember to note it, but perhaps it is at this time that I notice that the TV just a few feet to my left is playing “Guitar Hero III for the Wii. The song invading my galaxy is KISS’ “Rock n Roll All Night.”

It is at this point that I note “Galaxy”’s twin oddities: I am collecting the star bits that rain from above or emerge from downed enemies by pointing the remote at them; I am attacking, often, by shaking the Wii remote. In previous “Mario” games, I collected stuff by moving Mario to that stuff, with the help of a d-pad or control stick. I attacked with buttons. The way you accomplish these two core tasks in “Galaxy” feels looser, lighter and, for the most part, quicker — breezier.

Oh, and I can also shoot my enemies. Those star bits I am collecting can be fired back out at enemies with a pull of the B trigger beneath the remote.

I get to a new planetoid — my fourth in six minutes. This, the biggest one yet, is dominated by a giant Goomba. I have to shake Mario in the direction of pink crystals which transmit a charge that stuns the giant. I have to repeat this a few times, of course. He is defeated.

9:50
I have been transported inside the planet. I am running on the inside of its surface shell. Within my sights is the Grand Star. Bands of dangerous metal scrape the inside of the shell. I have to run a pattern through them, since, thankfully, they have been designed to include gaps. I need to run Mario across several floor tiles that change color and, eventually, trigger the release of the Grand Star.

9:52
I have succeeded and the game tells me so: “You got a Grand Star!” Here comes a cut-scene of Mario flying away with it. Their flight pattern reminds me of Superman and Lois Lane’s, from the Man of Steel’s finest films.

At the end of the cut-scene Mario sets down in a place called the Comet Observatory. A woman named Rosetta stands there. She’s a helper, not a love interest. I think.

Collecting a single Grand Star has illuminated the inner circle of the observatory’s area, a terrain of flat, floating platforms that encircle a small Mario-tall sun. Collecting more Grand Stars will brighten more of the area, expanding the number of available doorways. This area is the game’s hub, the equivalent of “Super Mario 64“’s castle. From here Mario will access his galaxies (note the plural).

9:55
I’m exploring this hub world, which is populated by floating star guys. They’re called Lumas. The area looks like it contains a hidden passage or two. In my attempt to find one I run off an edge, into space. As Mario plummets, a sphere of light surrounds him and lifts him back up from where he fell. There is no dying in this part. It makes me wonder if this game has been made to be easy.

9:57
I enter the main observatory room. My floating companion turns into a pull-star, which means he hovers at a specific location, allowing me to point at him with the Wii remote, press a button, and have him pull Mario toward him. Mario is pulled up to a view of the greater galaxy, which contains five rings that encircle the Comet Observatory. The innermost contains the orbit of an icon representing the galaxy where I just had my Grand Star Rescue adventures. The outermost ring contains the orbit of a purple Bowser head. The number “8″ on it suggests that I will need to find seven more Grand Stars before I can access it. There is also a ring with a “3″ galaxy on it and two rings, each housing the orbits of question-mark blocks.

10:00
I fly back to my first galaxy. Now I’m on a mission called “Dino Piranha.”

10:02
I decide it’s time to try to cheat.

The second Wii remote is sitting on my chair, falling into the crack where the seat cushion meets the arm rest. I pick it up and power it on. As demonstrated at E3 in July, “Galaxy” lets a second player assist the main gamer. The assist player can use the remote to control a cursor that can collect star bits, shoot them at enemies, and freeze enemies still, the better for the main player to bash them. At E3 the assist player could also use the freeze move to hold Mario still, which would elicit chuckles, if not the spirit of cooperation. Mario could not be frozen in the Nintendo Media Summit build, suggesting the option may have been taken out.

So about my cheating. I figure that if I hold the nunchuk in my left hand and the main remote in my right I can still manage to also hold a second remote. Doing so, I decide, will let me use the freeze function on enemies right before I crush them. The problem is that the freeze ability is activated with a press of the second remote’s A button. If I hold the second remote in my left hand, then, when I’m freezing an enemy, my left thumb is off the control stick and I can’t make Mario move. If I try this with the second remote in my right, then my right thumb, while freezing, can’t also make Mario jump.

I give up trying to cheat… for the moment.

10:03
The planetoid I’m on looks like it’s been broken off from a dark blue castle. There’s a floating coin box, which I have Mario run under and bash with his head. Oddly, coins don’t come out. Star bits do. I collect them. I’m instructed that I get a free life for every 50 I collect.

I keep Mario still for a moment and look at some of the other planetoids I see floating beyond mine. Not since “The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker” have I felt so small in a game, so immersed in a fascinating expanse, and so curious about whether the specks I’m seeing — the specks I know I will be able to reach somehow — are small surprises waiting nearby or massive environments far in the distance.

10:05
Mario is now on a planetoid that looks like a barbell. Boulders are rolling at him.

I notice someone calling my name from the right. I look over, where a demo station for “Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games” is set-up. Sega of America PR chief Charles Scibetta is saying hello to me. I’m on a timer, so I don’t make much small talk. But given the previous day’s announcement that EA has bought the development studio BioWare, I ask him if that puts the announced BioWare-developed DS role-playing game starring Sonic in jeopardy. The game is among the oddest projects on the horizon. Scibetta tells me not to worry. It’s still being made. Relieved, I turn back to “Galaxy.”

10:06
Mario is now on a small green kidney-bean-shaped planetoid. (Note that many of these planetoids aren’t even big enough to fill the TV screen.) Somehow I cause Mario to die. I am too stunned to jot down why. I think I let him get trampled by Goombas. Perhaps he took damage while I was talking to Scibetta.

10:08
I’m back at the kidney-bean planetoid. By spinning at a small piranha-plant enemy I cause the bean-planet to sprout a vine which extends to another planet. By shaking the remote some more, Mario zips along the vine to a new green planet.

10:10
There’s a black hole inside this new planet. I walk Mario into it. He dies again. In red block letters, the game’s text states: “Too bad!”

Faced with newfound struggles I realize that making Mario spin at the height of his jump buys me a split second to redirect his descent. I try this a few times and am immediately in better control.

I find a green pipe and stand Mario on it. He automatically descends. That’s a tiny difference from previous games in the series.

I get to my first floating area in this galaxy that isn’t a planetoid. It’s a platform of four big squares, arranged two by two. Stepping on each of them once makes three more appear, in a straight line, on what would be a wall, if the first four squares were a floor. Such is the gravity in space that I can walk Mario up this “wall.” Passing over those squares causes more to appear. Soon, I’m required to do a jump. I fail multiple times, dying again and again. This game isn’t as easy as it first seemed. Eventually I succeed.

10:17
I’ve got Mario on a planet covered in dirt. There’s some sort of mole or something racing around beneath the dirt. For some reason, I can see footprints. When I get Mario away from the prints, the creature emerges. When Mario gets close, it disappears. I chase the thing unsuccessfully for a bit. It won’t come out when Mario gets near.

This calls for some cheating.

I put the remote in my right hand down. I pick up the secondary remote. With my left hand I run Mario away. The underground guy emerges. With my right hand’s player-two remote, I point at him, press the button and freeze him. I then run Mario toward him. I put down the nunchuk and pick up the main remote, now with my left. I’ve got a remote in each hand. I shake the one in my left to make Mario do his spin attack. The little digging guy explodes into a fountai of star bits. I collect my reward, then put that second remote back down.

I am pleased with myself.

10:18
I’ve got Mario flying to another planet. This time, as he flies, star bits float around him. Using the remote I collect them.

I land on the Dino Piranha’s planet. He’s in a big shell. Shaking Mario near the tip of Dino’s tail causes the tail to recoil and bash the shell. The boss is revealed. He’s Godzilla with a “Little Shop of Horrors” head.

10:20
After three more shakes at his tail the boss is defeated. I get a star.

10:21
I’m back in the Comet Observatory where I am told that I can shoot my star bits at the friendly, floating Lumas star creatures. So I shoot 50 of them at the guy who just talked to me. He says things like “delicious” (in text, not voice, of course). He doesn’t give me anything. A Nintendo rep later tells me that I was wasting my time. It’s only worthwhile to feed some of these Lumas guys.

10:24
I’ve returned to my first galaxy once more. I embark on a mission called “A Snack of Cosmic Proportions.” I’m back on the planet with the castle parts. A new path is open. What happens next is to involved for me to note, especially since I only have a few minutes to go. I shoot Mario from planetoid to planetoid, dashing through challenges in order to produce stars that launch him to new places. As he flies around, I discover launch-stars that float in the middle of his flight path. I can use these to make Mario launch in new directions while he is in mid-flight. I realize that Mario’s flying through a kind of cosmic maze. I learn that my goal is to feed 100 star bits to a particular character, and I dash Mario every which way to find sufficient ingredients. I wind up backtracking and forking. I figure out that a glowing blue line now illustrates any path Mario has flown on. The black sky is scrawled with my journey.

10:35
I do not collect enough star bits. The character that wants them needs more. I don’t understand why the demo’s timer hasn’t cut me off.

Matt Casamassina, Nintendo editor at IGN leans over and asks me what I think of the game. I tell him it’s very good. He agrees. I ask him how far away I am from a cool mission that was demonstrated for the press yesterday: a mid-air race that features Mario standing on the back of a manta ray, dashing down a course composed of a winding cylinder of water. I’m not near it, but he unlocked it on another machine.

I get up and go to Casamassina’s system. He leaves me to it. The system is now being used by some guys from GameSpy. I ask them to cue up the water race. They do. I snap a photo. I learn that you use the remote for this one, twisting your wrist left and right to turn the ray. I make Mario fall off. So do they. A lot. It’s hard too. But it looks great.

I hand the controls back over. My hour — and my bonus time — is done.

I’ll be playing this game again in November.