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The “Hype”. It’s inescapable. Companies spend millions in advertising, building up positive reaction for a game before it hits stores. You see it everywhere. In TV, billboards, and flash animations more annoying than those insipid “You just won two free Ipod Nano” ads. With so much exposure, rumors inevitably follow. Trying to filter out the fact from the fiction is no easy task. So we set out to do just that, delving deep into the frightening worlds of fan-fiction forums and hype-fueled rantings to see what the truth really is. Check below to see what we discovered.

Perhaps the most anticipated game in this console generation, Super Mario Galaxy stands poised to drive Wii sales to even larger profit margins. The hype surrounding this game is incredible. If you think it’s hard to find a Wii now, just imagine the difficulty when there’s an actual quality game for it. With so much hype, actual facts about Mario Galaxy are hard to find.

Mario travels throughout the galaxy, landing on worlds with much less land mass than seen in previous games.

Super Mario Galaxy features a wide assortment of worlds, with the Wii giving the developers enough power to seamlessly travel between them. Recently released information strongly suggests that tho most game play footage shows Mario walking around small worlds, there will also be normal sized planets filled with multiple land masses that Mario will need to explore.

Super Mario Galaxy features a brand-new control system, abandoning previous schemes in favor of a system completely controlled by the Wii’s motion sensing capabilities.

Super Mario Galaxy does promise some innovative new control methods, but not all of which involve motion-sensitive commands. Fans of previous Mario games will find the control scheme very familiar, with the A and Z buttons acting almost identical to Mario 64. Even with the classic approach to the controls, motion-activated controls are still a large part of the experience. If the player points the cursor, and then moves it quickly from left to right over Mario he will perform a spin attack. The spin attack is also used to activate stars which can shoot Mario off to other planets.

Sources are citing a varied array of release dates for Super Mario Galaxy. Some say Q1 2008, some say September 2007, some state that the game has been delayed indefinitely.

Japanese-gaming magazine Famitsu recently confirmed an October 2007 release date for Super Mario Galaxy in Japan. Now it is unclear how long after that the game will be released worldwide, but Nintendo guarantees a release in time for Christmas.

Super Mario Galaxy will be single-player, but there are some rumors of additional online content.

In a recent interview by Takashi Tezuka, Nintendo’s analysis and development’s general manager, Takashi stated that multi-player for Super Mario Galaxy is going to be co-operative. While Nintendo has confirmed this feature, they have not released any details on how this mechanic will be implemented. Will you be able to play co-op online? We can only hope.

Conclusion: So there you have it. Nintendo is going to sell a gazillion more Wiis when this game is released, so I cannot imagine Nintendo being able to keep up with the demand. The co-operative play is very exciting, as no previous Mario game has promised such a robust multi-player experience. We’ll let you know if anything changes.

Super Mario Galaxy, Wii, Rumor Control