Super Mario Galaxy glitch?

Hey everyone. Whenever I play SMG and start my game up I always have four lives. Even if I have 12 lives when I save the next time I start from my save file I only have four. Has anybody else experienced this?

it is not a glitch it is something they implemented. i had like 40 lives and saved then had like 4 or w/e it is. yea its not a glitch but wish it was.

you lose your lives everytime you turn off the game, but at the same time everytime you turn on the game and talk to the mailtoad you get the letter from the princess that has 5 lives attached to it. So everytime you lose you gain too.

In Super Mario World your lives were saved as well as in the NEW Super Mario Bros. for DS.skyLine72

I do recall that your lives were not saved in Super Mario World (the SNES version at least, but I am unsure of the GBA/VC versions).