My
Square
Eyes

Today, I finished my first run through Super Mario Galaxy. The game is tremendously fun and a statement of superiority in gameplay. I have had so much fun running, jumping, swimming and flying around in Nintendo's great take on outer space and I was astonished over how well the game rewards curiosity and exploration! Everytime I looked round a corner, I discovered something new and exciting and that is a proof of good game quality, if you ask me. I ended up with 65 stars and I pretty much skipped the last two rooms, because I couldn't wait to see how Mario's epic space saga would end. And what an end it was. 

As I said, Super Mario Galaxy's quality had my eyes, ears and brain cheering of joy throughout the whole time I played. Until I beat Bowser for the final time. Then, the final movie sequence rolls and something happens to the playful and innocent story that has so far coloured my experience. I can hardly explain what the ending was about! I mean; I saw what happened, yes, I UNDERSTAND what I saw but I just can't believe that they went for such a convoluted, cryptic ending when the rest of the game was so straightforward and fairy tale-like.

There is a theme of death and rebirth, or rather a theme of cycles. When one thing ends, another begins to take its place. Fine, I got that. Why does everyone get sucked into a friggin' BLACK HOLE, accompanied by an out-of-place graphical illustration, and then all just goes back to "normal"? What do this ending have to do with cycles? It's no wonder that when you google "Super Mario Galaxy ending", Google suggest "Super Mario Galaxy ending explained". You need to get this thing explained to get it. Thing is, no one really knows, there's just different thoughts on the matter. Here is my thoughts:

After Mario defeats Bowser, the galaxy-to-be collapses (due to its unstableness), causing a black hole. Now, since the black hole is located at the centre of the universe - and because it's a really REALLY big black hole - the entire universe  gets sucked in. Yes, Mario, Princess Peach, Bowser, Rosalina, Luigi, all the Toads, all the Lumas, Princess Peach's castle and Rosalinas spacecraft too. Everything disappears. But... All the Lumas sets out to prevent all existence from being erased and so they come together to stop the vortex of the black hole and create a new universe (or a new galaxy). After this, everything turns black. Then, Rosalina (who's now HUGE) talks to Mario about rebirth and the cycle of life. Then Mario awakes, back outside princess Peach's castle in Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser and Peach also wakes up just beside him and Bowser seems quite out of it. Luigi is nowhere to be seen, however. Then Mario looks out into space and discovers the new galaxy and upon this, he cheers. End.

There are several ways to interpret this but I think it's hard to avoid the possibility that Mario, Peach, Bowser and everyone else died and then was recreated (or reborn). Yes, Mario and friends were wiped from existence and then, new characters replaced them. Oh dear... I don't know why they wanted me to feel like when I saw the ending of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (and they succeeded) but was this really the ending they aimed for from the beginning? Nintendo has never been very keen on making things more complicated than a ten year old would understand so I just don't get why they ended Super Mario Galaxy in such an ambiguous way. And my description of the ending isn't really a good substitute for experiencing the thing yourself, so that you may understand my confusion and irritation, take a look at this.

So, the only thing left for me to do is to collect the remaining 55 stars to get the "120 Stars" ending. At least I know that the way there will be nothing but sheer platforming perfection, even if the final ending also leaves a funny taste in the mouth.