Demystifying the physics of Super Mario Galaxy
by Chris Greenhough 
{ Mar 27th 2008 at 2:15PM }
As we've already established, we're not science people ('D' grade at GCSE Science, thank you). Bring up a subject such as photosynthesis, or the properties of sulfur dioxide, and it's likely you won't get much of a reply, short of us standing there and saying "buh?" like some slack-jawed, mouth-breathing farmhand.
In other words, Gamasutra's article on debunking the physics found in Super Mario Galaxy never stood a chance of entering our enfeebled brains and staying there. Oh, it definitely interested us, but terms such as "unit vector" and "collision mask" quickly appeared to make us feel like absolute thickos again. What we did pick up from the feature was that gravity can only exist in the real world on spherical surfaces, and that the laws of physics themselves were twisted to accommodate Galaxy's zany world of misshapen planetoids.
If you're one of those people who feels confident conducting conversations about "surface normals," give it a look.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mr Khan @ Mar 27th 2008 2:22PM
duh
Aside from that, objects as small as they exist in Galaxy wouldn't have gravity anyone, and the black holes would simply absorb whatever was around them
The only physically realistic scene was near the end of the game, when that star collapses and sucks in absolutely everything around it, but then again Mario (or Luigi) and Peach get sucked inside and just find a stellar nursery
This is like people looking at Lord of the Rings and talking about its historical inaccuracy
kavorka @ Mar 27th 2008 2:24PM
Who cares? Did anybody actually believe that the physics in Mario Galaxy were true to life? If so, play less video games and read a book.
vidGuy @ Mar 27th 2008 2:37PM
It's a platformer, fantasy video game which bends the laws of physics and gravity to make the game more fun. This article completely misses the point of the game. No one expects a Mario game to have life-like anything.
mgroves @ Mar 27th 2008 2:37PM
This "conversation" is such a waste of perfectly good electrons.
Roto13 @ Mar 27th 2008 2:40PM
The only flaw in an otherwise ultra-realistic game.
Justin @ Mar 27th 2008 4:23PM
Hahahahahahahah
kobewan @ Mar 27th 2008 2:48PM
Is there actually a GCSE Science test? We had to do the subjects individually i.e. Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
Parrsman @ Mar 27th 2008 3:41PM
Yup there is, im doing a double award nd the exams have all 3 subjects rolled into one. Depends what exam board your using, ours is OCR
Jared @ Mar 27th 2008 2:56PM
i'm pretty sure you have gravity on all types of surface, not just spherical. it's just REALLY insignificant unless you're as big as a planet.
worm @ Mar 27th 2008 4:20PM
Yep, Jared here is right. Even a baseball and a watermelon have a tiny amount of gravity pulling them together. It's just insignificant.
Now, if the moon were a giant watermelon...
Shmil (Brawl Code 2621-2310-1994) @ Mar 27th 2008 3:16PM
THIS JUST IN
video game physics break laws of physics
Anon @ Mar 27th 2008 4:22PM
I think the point of the article wasn't to complain about how the physics was unreasonable, but rather to explain how it worked...and it was fascinating...makes perfect sense to me.
Tom @ Mar 27th 2008 4:32PM
NO....WAY.... Super mario Galaxy has something UNREALISTIC in it?.....I....I had no idea! It's.....So Realistic and all......
Carlos @ Mar 27th 2008 4:59PM
well duh!
hvnlysoldr @ Mar 28th 2008 3:45AM
I wonder if they can find gravity waves soon.