During our hotel appointment with Nintendo I got a chance to briefly play through one of the demo levels of the next true Mario game, Super Mario Galaxy. In this particular course, Mario needed to get from Point A to Point B. Or rather, Point Bee. There was a queen bee across the level, and it was Mario's task to get over there and help her out with something.

Playing the game was gorgeously simple. If you've ever played a Mario game you will know exactly how the game controls without even thinking about it. You can jump with the A Button, run by holding the B Trigger, and crouch (and start a long jump) with the Z Button on the nunchuk. The B Trigger, in conjunction with the Wii remote pointer, also fires enemy-disabling pieces of stardust Mario collects within the level. Flicking the remote will make Mario do a spin attack, which is also necessary to activate star cannons and other modes of transport around the level. All the classic Mario moves are in there and intact, such as the triple jump and wall jumps.

It felt great to jump around with Mario again in a new 3D adventure game, and it was even better because of the game's automatically controlled camera. There were very few moments where I truly didn't know where I was oriented in a level, but as soon as I became disoriented the camera shifted into a good position. It's a little strange to not be in direct control of the camera, but you can temporarily peek from a side angle using the D-Pad on the Wii remote.

And what a fantastic view it was. When on the ground the level looks just like any other Mario game, with bright blue skies and lush, green scenery. But instead of taking to the skies, Mario now blasts straight into outer space. The starscape and scope of the galaxy Mario is set in only becomes apparent when he is far away from the level, because the background kind of fades away into a nebula cluster, not unlike what we see when peering through the Hubble telescope. You will smile when you see this for the first time.

Going through the course I saw some beautiful pools and waterfalls. The water is fun to play in while as regular Mario, but the moment you snack on a Bee Mushroom you'll power-up (complete with the classic Mario power-up sound!) into Bee Suit Mario. Bee Mario can fly for a brief period of time—a small timer appears next to Mario when you hold down the A Button to get airborne. Flying is necessary to go up obstacles that Mario cannot easily jump over, and also so he can step on special purple flowers that Mario can only transverse in his adorable bumblebee form. The flower platforms in the level demoed are set above harmless pools of water, but if Bee Mario falls into them he'll lose his suit. That's no worry, at least in this level, since there's an endless supply of Bee Shrooms to let you try again.

The ways that Bee Mario can move around the level are amazing. The flight mechanic lets you recover from a jumping mistake and makes jumping challenges somewhat easier. By grabbing on to special flowers and shaking the Wii remote, the plants will wildly sprout and take Mario to new locations in an Alice-in-Wonderland kind of way. There is also a section of honeycomb in which Bee Mario can stick onto and crawl up a wall, using his bee flight powers to skip over sections with no honey to stick onto. The controls were 100% perfect during all of this, as should be expected from a Miyamoto Mario masterpiece.

Upon finally reaching the queen bee, she asks you to find out what's been bugging her. To do this, you need to jump on to the big queen's torso, crawl around like a good little worker bee should, and pick out five pieces of shrapnel that are actually parts of the level-ending star cannon. This is one of those tasks that has Mario defying gravity by crawling around and under the queen's belly, but thanks to the game camera I had few issues with staying oriented. And speaking of the belly, the bee fuzz covering her looked really impressive.

From just the small five-minute slice of Super Mario Galaxy I've played, I can already tell that it's going to be another all-time classic. I'm not satisfied with just the small, sweet taste Nintendo has offered me, though. I'll try to get some more Mario playtime in at the Barker Hangar before the show is over.