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A fan-made Super Mario Galaxy 3 serves as a reminder of how weird it is Nintendo never re-released Super Mario Galaxy 2.
It has been 15 years since the amazing Super Mario Galaxy 2 and even though Nintendo moved away from that game’s formula with Super Mario Odyssey, you’ll still find many fans clamouring for a Super Mario Galaxy 3.
The odds of it happening are extremely unlikely, though. Aside from the fact that the Super Mario Galaxy games weren’t as big a sales success as you might think, Nintendo has already said the next 3D Mario game after Odyssey will ‘try expanding further in new ways.’
So, with Super Mario Galaxy 3 little more than a pipe dream, it’s no surprise to see a fan take matters into their own hands and make the game themselves… albeit for PlayStation consoles.
A Nintendo fan project being released for PlayStation hardware, and thus inaccessible to Nintendo loyalists, is obviously a bit strange, but that’s because it’s been made in Dreams, the game creation tool by LittleBigPlanet creators Media Molecule.
Sadly, support for Dreams ended in 2023, but the tool itself is still available for purchase on PlayStation 4 (or for free if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber) and is backwards compatible with the PlayStation 5.
Created by DeadShotLazer_72 (with the assistance of HallowedHero and Buppy2009), the project’s name is Super Mario: Heart Of The Stars, but one look at it makes it clear it’s meant to be a Super Mario Galaxy follow-up.
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Although it was published on Dreams a couple of weeks ago, it’s garnered more widespread attention recently thanks to the YouTube channel GameXplain showing it off.
It’s very impressive, especially considering it’s described as a beta. The visuals are distinctly Mario, with some of the levels using recognisable iconography and accurate recreations of Nintendo’s own assets. The sound effects are also clearly ripped right from Nintendo’s game.
The level design looks like something straight out of Super Mario Galaxy, but the game also replicates the camera angles, the opening segues that introduce the levels, the launch star transitions, and it even includes the animation of the Luma popping out from under Mario’s hat whenever he spins.
It’s an incredible level of detail and it’s no wonder the game has been played nearly 2,000 times, according to its Dreams stats. If only Nintendo would create a follow-up to Super Mario Maker 2, that allows you to create 3D games.
The comments on GameXplain’s video quickly devolve into jokes and debates about whether Nintendo will have the project taken down. The company is famously protective of its IP and often shuts down fan games, even when they’re free.
Some have argued that the project should be safe considering Dreams is full of similar fan-made games that remain untouched, but Nintendo did previously force a Mario character model to be removed in 2020. Not that that stopped people from just making another one.
The project also serves as a reminder that Nintendo strangely didn’t include Super Mario Galaxy 2 in the 3D All-Stars collection, not even adding it later as DLC. And thanks to the compilation’s limited run, you can’t play the first Galaxy game easily now either.
Next week marks the Super Mario Bros. franchise’s 40th anniversary and while it’s impossible to predict what celebration plans Nintendo has in store, a re-release of 3D All-Stars, that includes Super Mario Galaxy 2, would be a very popular announcement.
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