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The game was directed by Yoshiaki Koizumi and soundtrack was composed by Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo, using a symphony orchestra for the first time in the series.
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Nintendo aimed to make the game appeal to players of all ages, and the team had more freedom in designing it compared to other Super Mario games because of the outer space setting. The concept of spherical platforms originated from Super Mario 128, a GameCube tech demo shown at Nintendo Space World in 2000.
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Nintendo EAD Tokyo began developing Super Mario Galaxy after the release of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat in late 2004, when Shigeru Miyamoto suggested that Nintendo commission a large-scale Mario game.
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