There is that star screen that makes a fast appearance (since you must select which star), but other than that the player gets in very fast. Obviously, the text box isn’t really needed.

This is also pretty easy:

“Nintendo cited several advantages for making the N64 cartridge-based. Primarily cited was the ROM cartridges’ very fast load times in comparison to disc-based games, as contemporary CD-ROM drives rarely had speeds above 4×. This can be observed from the loading screens that appear in many PlayStation games but are typically non-existent in N64 versions. ROM carts were much faster than the 2× CD-ROM drives in other consoles that developers could stream data in real-time from them. This was done in Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machin, for example, to make the most of the limited RAM in the N64.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64#Game_Paks

Given that cartridges are faster than CDs, and that Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 are FAR larger in terms of sheer size than Super Mario 64 (3.2 & 1.2GB vs. 8.6MB, respectively) – by a margin that considerably outpaces the difference in processing power between the N64 and the Wii – it’s little surprise that SMG takes longer to load.

Now you’re just being obtuse. Even Zelda games can do a simple fade out.

The only reason why all that 3d bloat is in Galaxy 2 is because 3d artists believe they have ‘personalities’ and must demonstrate them to us. The only way to give a video game personality is to allow the player to play according to his or her own personality.