Best Game Ever?
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the sequel to the Wii’s 2007 Game of the year Super Mario Galaxy and the third pure platforming Mario game on the system. Developed and published by Nintendo and using a modified Super Maro Galaxy engine can Mario’s second space voyage be even more stellar than his first?
Once again the game opens up during the star festival and Mario getting a letter inviting him to share some Cake with the Princess. Along the way to Peach’s castle Mario finds a little lost Luma, the star people from the first Galaxy, who instantly takes a shine to Mario. When you arrive at the castle Bowser is already in the process of attacking and quickly takes off into space with the Princess and stars. With the help of the Lumas Mario is blasted off into space and begins the chase for Bowser.
One of the first things you’ll notice is that the game looks pretty much identical to Galaxy 1 and that’s no bad thing. The game is as bright and colourful as the previous entry and sounds just as great with some sounds and music returning and plenty of new orchestrations. Perhaps the biggest change from Galaxy 1 is the way you get to new galaxies. Gone is the hub world of Galaxy 1 and in place we have the more traditional world select screen like in Super Mario World or New Super Mario Bros. There is still a place to mess around in and jump though with the Starship Mario, a planetoid shaped like Mario’s head that can travel through the universe. Through the course of the game Mario’s spaceship starts to fill up with Toads, Lumas and various other creatures from the universe both new and old.
The game plays almost exactly the same as it did in Galaxy one with Mario still having a variety of jumps and flips and his spin attack from the first Galaxy and a friend can still join in using a second Wii remote. If you get bored with Mario you can also play certain stages with Luigi without needing to complete the game like in Galaxy 1. Luigi will hang about at the start of the level and take over for Mario if you let him. What this game really does to spice things up is to introduce Yoshi to you very shortly after starting. Yoshi controls similarly to Mario but can use his tongue to gobble up enemies, power ups and to swing on flowers all by pointing on the screen and hitting the B button.
It’s not just Yoshi’s addition to the game that changes how you go through a level. There are also the new power ups that mix up how you play as Mario. The Drill lets you dig from one side of a planet or dirt mound to the other, often resulting in some rather fantastic puzzles and challenges. There’s the cloud suit (acquired by picking up a cotton flower) which makes Mario lighter and able to jump further and higher, walk on clouds and place up to three cloud platforms to reach new heights or out of reach secrets. The boulder suit that lets you roll up into a ball with a shake of the remote and bowl over enemies. Power ups from the previous Galaxy make a return including the fire flower, spring and star. These power ups are all used in new and innovative ways leading to some pretty ingenious puzzles and platforming challenges.
But what about the levels themselves? There are more than in the first Galaxy but with less stars in each meaning more creativity in the levels design, both gameplay and artistic. The galaxies range from traversing through planetoids in space to running down a ghost filled hallway to a galaxy made out of chocolate and sweets. There’s something new in every galaxy whether it’s a new theme, solving a picture puzzle by butt stomping or racing through a jungle valley using a big pink bird there are so many fun ideas constantly getting introduced to you, and the short length of each galaxy means you are never far from something new, exciting and unexpected. Another great thing is that there are more 2D sections in this game, making for a lot more creative and interesting ideas in the 2D plane than they showed in the first Galaxy.
One of the most challenging things about the galaxies are the Prankster Comets. You unlock the Prankster Comet Stars by collecting the Prankster Coin in the levels. These coins aren’t too hard to collect but are often out of the way or require some skill to collect. The real skill comes into play in the Prankster Stars. These are without a doubt some of the hardest stars to get in the game. Some challenges from the first Galaxy return such as speed runs and daredevil runs (not getting hit) but there are also Cosmic Mario challenges where space clones of Mario follow his every move and challenges where you need to beat every enemy in a short amount of time using a power-up. You’ll end up using most of the 1-ups you’ve collected on thee kind of stages.
