Super Mario Galaxy 2!
Story
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is an epic space opera that rivals Mass Effect 2 in its masterful storytelling and intricate characters... PSYCHE! I'm sure I fooled NONE of you with that one. (And if you were fooled, you, sir, are disappointing me.) Here's the plot in a nutshell- Mario gets invited to the Star Festival by Peach, Peach gets kidnapped by Bowser (who's HUGE in this one), Mario gets his own spaceship (or FACESHIP! HA! ...sorry, the game itself used that joke and it still wasn't funny there) and heads into space to gather the lost Power Stars and save her. Because it is ALWAYS stars. It's just the typical Mario 3-sentence plot, which is kind of a shame considering that Galaxy 1 had an interesting side story about the genuinely interesting character of Rosalina, the captain of the Comet Observatory. However, we don't come to a Mario game looking for a story, we epxect a framework that gives us a reason to go gather those shiny Stars. It's interesting to note, however, that until the very end Galaxy 2 pretty much ignores the fact that the first Galaxy ever happened. Mario meets a Luma for the first time, the Star Festival is on again, etc... But again, not really the point, although you will miss Rosalina due to her replacement being a fat, ANNOYING lard of a Luma who attempts to teach you gameplay basics. FOOL! BACK! Go back to your cake! I need none of your help! Moving on...
Gameplay
Ahh, the bread-and-butter of every Mario game's delicious meal. Here is where Galaxy 2 shines like David Bowie on Christmas. The game is a fantasy platformer (as opposed to Prince of Persia's realistic platforming) in which Mario enters a galaxy full of small to large planetoids and navigates the level's challenges to reach the Star at the end of the level. Galaxy 2 retains the amazingly awesome hook of the first Galaxy- the gravity system. Most planetoids enable you to run around the top, sides, and bottom of them as you look for new passages and ways to go. You can run over the edge of a flat planetoid and end up upside-down on its bottom, or run all the way around a spherical planetoid. (NOTE: There are still many planetoids that you CAN fall off of, however, so don't go jumping off every platform you see expecting to flip onto the bottom.) Mario must work his way around the several planetoids that comprise an area and accomplish a goal (getting to the end, getting a key, defeating enemies, etc) so that he can reach a launcher that will blast him into space and send him to the next area in a level challenge. Various Mario powerups will help you reach the end in different ways. Lather, rinse, repeat until you reach the end-of-level star and nab it. Every level (referred to as galaxies) has somewhere between 3-6 Star challenges that you select upon entering it, and to fully clear a galaxy you must collect all of its stars. This gameplay revolves around the simple formula that Mario's been following for years in a new format, and it is one of the best representations of the concept I have ever seen. Every challenge is bursting with creatvity and the developers have come up with endless ways to test your mettle. In an hour of play, I don't think I once saw a repeated gameplay idea or level challenge- there's always something new around every corner and about 97% of it will leave you smiling and ready for the next challenge. Galaxy 2 provides a great sense of accomplishment and gets you hooked, and soon you'll be saying "Just ONE more star!" when you were planning on ending your play session. This experience is heightened ever further by near-perfect controls and excellent use of the Wii's capabilities. The controls are almost perfectly tight and precise, coupling the traditional Mario run-jump-flip moveset with the Wii's spin move and moveable cursor with which to pick up and shoot Star Bits. The game also throws in a couple Wiimote motion challenges like balancing and rolling a big ball or flying a bird, and for the most part they work quite well. However, the challenge involving flying a bird has quite bizzare controls that can leave you angry, but that particular challenge only occurs once or twice in all 121 stars of the main game. The game only uses motion control briefly and melds it in seamlessly with the main gameplay, providing a simple and very subdued usage of it that vastly outperforms the waggle-heavy efforts of Wii games past. Galaxy 2's gameplay is fantastic and will have you coming back over and over.
Level Design
I had to give this aspect another riff because of how simply amazing it is. The level design in Galxy 2 is a thing of beauty. Some levels are better than others, but there simply are no bad levels, and the developers' creativty shines in every last one of them. Levels range from a huge tree culminating in a massive slide, a lava-filled factory where you have to guide rolling Chomps into holes, a huge enemy-controlled tower, levels where the gravity flips without warning, a water world that, with the flip of a switch, freezes over, a haunted house where you're on the run through an obstacle course away from a pack of ghosts, a series of wooden platforms that are, one at a time, sawn apart by massive saw blades as you run vertically up them, the requsite Bowser fortresses, and much, much more. Even when you think you've seen everything there is to see in a level, the game delivers another curveball right to your face with the comet system. Once you find a special Comet Coin in each galaxy (hooray, another item for completists to collect!), a comet can show up that will alter the level, creating a new challenge like a timed speed run or a run through with your max HP decreased to 1. There's never a dull moment in these levels, and it's always fun to discover what new levels you're going to encounter next.
Graphics and Sound
Galaxy 2 is one damn good looking game. Granted, the game still isn't up to PS3/360 levels of pretty (the Wii would probably explode before that happened), but the graphics are quite excellent, with multiple layers of polish and next-gen textures and all that stuff that makes graphics geeks joygasm. This is probably the best that the Wii's graphics will ever get, which is both happy and sad at the same time. It also further proves that the Wii is much better at producing cartoony, vibrant graphics and should not be forced to shove out realistic graphics (ohh, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex Edition, how my eyes bled when I looked upon thee...). In the sound department, Nintendo is yet again proving their continual desire to push our nostalgia buttons with lots of remixes of classic Mario tunes and sounds muxed in with sweeping orchestral tracks. This game has a full orchestra cranking out its music, and for someone like me who enjoys listening to the background music, it is just FANTASTIC. If you don't really care about background music, though, you'll still probably ignore it. Shame on you.
Sequelitis
Now, to veterans of the previous Mario Galaxy, this review may seem a tad familiar. What makes this worth another look if I've played the first Galaxy, and how is it different, you ask? Well, I'm here to tell you. And if you didn't ask, I'll tell you anyway. Galaxy 2 has one of the best sequel transitions I've ever seen- it starts off with a BRIEF tutorial level and then leaves all extra instruction to optional TVs- thus, new players can watch the demos while vets can simply ignore em. As seen right on the cover, the best new addition is Mario's enslaved green dinosaur pal, Yoshi. In many levels (WAAAAAY more than in New Super Mario Bros Wii), you can find a green egg that Yoshi will hatch out of, already equipped with a saddle and riding boots. Mario, you swine! Breeding creatures for the sole purpose of riding on them everywhere? You cruel man! I must say, though, this version of Yoshi is the definitive 3-D version of Yoshi and smashes the strange Sunshine version of Yoshi into the dirt. Yoshi retains his trademark flutter jump, allowing him to jump higher and farther. He also uses the Wiimote cursor to guide his tongue. Simply point the Wiimote at an unsuspecting enemy, fruit, or object and hit A and Yoshi will shoot out his tongue in an unnatural direction to gobble it up. Some objects he eats and poops out Star Bits (...), and others he holds in his mouth until you shoot them out at other enemies. Combine this with Yoshi's swinging ability and the powerup berries that let him dash, float, and cast light, and you get a fantastic Yoshi that is personally my favorite version of the little green guy. Another new aspect is Mario's signature starship, Starship Mario (shaped like Mario's head; now you get the faceship pun). It replaces the first Galaxy's Comet Observatory overworld and creates a world map similar to that of Super Mario Bros 3 and New Super Mario Bros that you can move about on. The world map is an excellent new addition that allows completists like myself to feel less guilty about hanging around and collecting all the stars before moving on, but Starship Mario itself is extremely boring. There's simply nothing to do on the ship itself, and every time you come back there you'll ignore the crew completely and dash straight for the helm to go back to the world map. Rounding out the new stuff are three new power-ups, Drill Mario (a drill that allows Mario to burrow into the ground, fun but imprecise), Rock Mario (allows Mario to roll around as a giant rock, useful but really hard to stop), and Cloud Mario (allows Mario to create up to three platforms anywhere that he wants, easily my favorite of the new three). You can also play as Luigi far more often, which is an A+ move in my book (although how many damn Luigi's Mansion references are you gonna give us without a sequel, Nintendo???). Despite these changes, however, Galaxy 2 is extremely similar to the first game, and not much has really changed this time around. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your opinion of the first one, and whatever your opinion of the first one was, Galaxy 2 is not likely to change your mind.
Difficulty
Probably the most major flaw of Galaxy 1 was its odd difficulty curve. Most of the game prior to the final boss was on the easy side, and then after the final boss the difficulty suddenly spiked in some areas and was left the same in others. Galaxy 2 works on fixing this problem, but falls prey to some of the same issues. Galaxy 2 is overall a more challenging game, but yet again most of the more difficult stuff comes after the final duel with Bowser (SPOILER ALERT: Peach is yet again a tease) in the form of a secret world and comet challenges. The difficulty also seems random at times- on occasion you'll come right out of a cakewalk mission only to find yourself in a gauntlet of death traps threatening to EAT YOUR FACE. These spikes somewhat throw off the difficulty curve, but it really won't bother you too much. Also, I never once got the new version of Super Guide to show up, a fact which makes me happy, since if it had I would've punched it in the face.
Conclusion
Galaxy 2 has already been named Wii Game of the Year by many critics, and it deserves such an accolade. Beautiful level design, tight gameplay, engaging challenges, and great gameplay hooks absolutely skyrocket the game over its the odd difficulty curve and boring hub world to become an intricately crafted gaming experience that few should miss. Now, the real question is: is it worth your hard-earned $50? If the Wii is your only system, you should be at your nearest retailer buying this game RIGHT NOW. If you have more options, however, you're presented with a choice. In all further mentions of this game, I will include it in a package with Galaxy 1 as a single game, as I consider it to be a sort of expansion and streamlining to the first Galaxy due to how similar it is to the first one. However, this game still costs the full $50, so if you own more systems then just a Wii, here's my advice. if you played Galaxy 1, loved it and devoted a lot of time to it (like me!), then you should've already bought this one and loved it, but if for some reason you haven't yet, go do it. Even if you just mildly liked the first Galaxy, give this one a shot, as it's essentially a streamlined and slightly improved version of 1. It doesn't matter if you've played the first one, and if you haven't and want to try Galaxy, I'd actually advise going with 2 over 1. If, however, you only thought Galaxy 1 was alright or, heaven forbid, didn't like it, this'll be just more of the same to you and will not change your mind whatsover. So whatever opinion you have of Galaxy 1 will likely be the same opinion you have of Galaxy 2, if not a tad better for Galaxy 2. I'd advise you at least attempt to like this one, though, as it's a stellar gameplay experience that, barring heroic exploits from Metroid: Other M or Epic Mickey later, is also my prediction for the 2010 Wii Game of the Year. I'm off now to explore the depths of the universe, gotta go grab my towel. Froody! And remember, It's Dangerous to Go Alone!
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is an epic space opera that rivals Mass Effect 2 in its masterful storytelling and intricate characters... PSYCHE! I'm sure I fooled NONE of you with that one. (And if you were fooled, you, sir, are disappointing me.) Here's the plot in a nutshell- Mario gets invited to the Star Festival by Peach, Peach gets kidnapped by Bowser (who's HUGE in this one), Mario gets his own spaceship (or FACESHIP! HA! ...sorry, the game itself used that joke and it still wasn't funny there) and heads into space to gather the lost Power Stars and save her. Because it is ALWAYS stars. It's just the typical Mario 3-sentence plot, which is kind of a shame considering that Galaxy 1 had an interesting side story about the genuinely interesting character of Rosalina, the captain of the Comet Observatory. However, we don't come to a Mario game looking for a story, we epxect a framework that gives us a reason to go gather those shiny Stars. It's interesting to note, however, that until the very end Galaxy 2 pretty much ignores the fact that the first Galaxy ever happened. Mario meets a Luma for the first time, the Star Festival is on again, etc... But again, not really the point, although you will miss Rosalina due to her replacement being a fat, ANNOYING lard of a Luma who attempts to teach you gameplay basics. FOOL! BACK! Go back to your cake! I need none of your help! Moving on...
Gameplay
Ahh, the bread-and-butter of every Mario game's delicious meal. Here is where Galaxy 2 shines like David Bowie on Christmas. The game is a fantasy platformer (as opposed to Prince of Persia's realistic platforming) in which Mario enters a galaxy full of small to large planetoids and navigates the level's challenges to reach the Star at the end of the level. Galaxy 2 retains the amazingly awesome hook of the first Galaxy- the gravity system. Most planetoids enable you to run around the top, sides, and bottom of them as you look for new passages and ways to go. You can run over the edge of a flat planetoid and end up upside-down on its bottom, or run all the way around a spherical planetoid. (NOTE: There are still many planetoids that you CAN fall off of, however, so don't go jumping off every platform you see expecting to flip onto the bottom.) Mario must work his way around the several planetoids that comprise an area and accomplish a goal (getting to the end, getting a key, defeating enemies, etc) so that he can reach a launcher that will blast him into space and send him to the next area in a level challenge. Various Mario powerups will help you reach the end in different ways. Lather, rinse, repeat until you reach the end-of-level star and nab it. Every level (referred to as galaxies) has somewhere between 3-6 Star challenges that you select upon entering it, and to fully clear a galaxy you must collect all of its stars. This gameplay revolves around the simple formula that Mario's been following for years in a new format, and it is one of the best representations of the concept I have ever seen. Every challenge is bursting with creatvity and the developers have come up with endless ways to test your mettle. In an hour of play, I don't think I once saw a repeated gameplay idea or level challenge- there's always something new around every corner and about 97% of it will leave you smiling and ready for the next challenge. Galaxy 2 provides a great sense of accomplishment and gets you hooked, and soon you'll be saying "Just ONE more star!" when you were planning on ending your play session. This experience is heightened ever further by near-perfect controls and excellent use of the Wii's capabilities. The controls are almost perfectly tight and precise, coupling the traditional Mario run-jump-flip moveset with the Wii's spin move and moveable cursor with which to pick up and shoot Star Bits. The game also throws in a couple Wiimote motion challenges like balancing and rolling a big ball or flying a bird, and for the most part they work quite well. However, the challenge involving flying a bird has quite bizzare controls that can leave you angry, but that particular challenge only occurs once or twice in all 121 stars of the main game. The game only uses motion control briefly and melds it in seamlessly with the main gameplay, providing a simple and very subdued usage of it that vastly outperforms the waggle-heavy efforts of Wii games past. Galaxy 2's gameplay is fantastic and will have you coming back over and over.
Level Design
I had to give this aspect another riff because of how simply amazing it is. The level design in Galxy 2 is a thing of beauty. Some levels are better than others, but there simply are no bad levels, and the developers' creativty shines in every last one of them. Levels range from a huge tree culminating in a massive slide, a lava-filled factory where you have to guide rolling Chomps into holes, a huge enemy-controlled tower, levels where the gravity flips without warning, a water world that, with the flip of a switch, freezes over, a haunted house where you're on the run through an obstacle course away from a pack of ghosts, a series of wooden platforms that are, one at a time, sawn apart by massive saw blades as you run vertically up them, the requsite Bowser fortresses, and much, much more. Even when you think you've seen everything there is to see in a level, the game delivers another curveball right to your face with the comet system. Once you find a special Comet Coin in each galaxy (hooray, another item for completists to collect!), a comet can show up that will alter the level, creating a new challenge like a timed speed run or a run through with your max HP decreased to 1. There's never a dull moment in these levels, and it's always fun to discover what new levels you're going to encounter next.
Graphics and Sound
Galaxy 2 is one damn good looking game. Granted, the game still isn't up to PS3/360 levels of pretty (the Wii would probably explode before that happened), but the graphics are quite excellent, with multiple layers of polish and next-gen textures and all that stuff that makes graphics geeks joygasm. This is probably the best that the Wii's graphics will ever get, which is both happy and sad at the same time. It also further proves that the Wii is much better at producing cartoony, vibrant graphics and should not be forced to shove out realistic graphics (ohh, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex Edition, how my eyes bled when I looked upon thee...). In the sound department, Nintendo is yet again proving their continual desire to push our nostalgia buttons with lots of remixes of classic Mario tunes and sounds muxed in with sweeping orchestral tracks. This game has a full orchestra cranking out its music, and for someone like me who enjoys listening to the background music, it is just FANTASTIC. If you don't really care about background music, though, you'll still probably ignore it. Shame on you.
Sequelitis
Now, to veterans of the previous Mario Galaxy, this review may seem a tad familiar. What makes this worth another look if I've played the first Galaxy, and how is it different, you ask? Well, I'm here to tell you. And if you didn't ask, I'll tell you anyway. Galaxy 2 has one of the best sequel transitions I've ever seen- it starts off with a BRIEF tutorial level and then leaves all extra instruction to optional TVs- thus, new players can watch the demos while vets can simply ignore em. As seen right on the cover, the best new addition is Mario's enslaved green dinosaur pal, Yoshi. In many levels (WAAAAAY more than in New Super Mario Bros Wii), you can find a green egg that Yoshi will hatch out of, already equipped with a saddle and riding boots. Mario, you swine! Breeding creatures for the sole purpose of riding on them everywhere? You cruel man! I must say, though, this version of Yoshi is the definitive 3-D version of Yoshi and smashes the strange Sunshine version of Yoshi into the dirt. Yoshi retains his trademark flutter jump, allowing him to jump higher and farther. He also uses the Wiimote cursor to guide his tongue. Simply point the Wiimote at an unsuspecting enemy, fruit, or object and hit A and Yoshi will shoot out his tongue in an unnatural direction to gobble it up. Some objects he eats and poops out Star Bits (...), and others he holds in his mouth until you shoot them out at other enemies. Combine this with Yoshi's swinging ability and the powerup berries that let him dash, float, and cast light, and you get a fantastic Yoshi that is personally my favorite version of the little green guy. Another new aspect is Mario's signature starship, Starship Mario (shaped like Mario's head; now you get the faceship pun). It replaces the first Galaxy's Comet Observatory overworld and creates a world map similar to that of Super Mario Bros 3 and New Super Mario Bros that you can move about on. The world map is an excellent new addition that allows completists like myself to feel less guilty about hanging around and collecting all the stars before moving on, but Starship Mario itself is extremely boring. There's simply nothing to do on the ship itself, and every time you come back there you'll ignore the crew completely and dash straight for the helm to go back to the world map. Rounding out the new stuff are three new power-ups, Drill Mario (a drill that allows Mario to burrow into the ground, fun but imprecise), Rock Mario (allows Mario to roll around as a giant rock, useful but really hard to stop), and Cloud Mario (allows Mario to create up to three platforms anywhere that he wants, easily my favorite of the new three). You can also play as Luigi far more often, which is an A+ move in my book (although how many damn Luigi's Mansion references are you gonna give us without a sequel, Nintendo???). Despite these changes, however, Galaxy 2 is extremely similar to the first game, and not much has really changed this time around. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your opinion of the first one, and whatever your opinion of the first one was, Galaxy 2 is not likely to change your mind.
Difficulty
Probably the most major flaw of Galaxy 1 was its odd difficulty curve. Most of the game prior to the final boss was on the easy side, and then after the final boss the difficulty suddenly spiked in some areas and was left the same in others. Galaxy 2 works on fixing this problem, but falls prey to some of the same issues. Galaxy 2 is overall a more challenging game, but yet again most of the more difficult stuff comes after the final duel with Bowser (SPOILER ALERT: Peach is yet again a tease) in the form of a secret world and comet challenges. The difficulty also seems random at times- on occasion you'll come right out of a cakewalk mission only to find yourself in a gauntlet of death traps threatening to EAT YOUR FACE. These spikes somewhat throw off the difficulty curve, but it really won't bother you too much. Also, I never once got the new version of Super Guide to show up, a fact which makes me happy, since if it had I would've punched it in the face.
Conclusion
Galaxy 2 has already been named Wii Game of the Year by many critics, and it deserves such an accolade. Beautiful level design, tight gameplay, engaging challenges, and great gameplay hooks absolutely skyrocket the game over its the odd difficulty curve and boring hub world to become an intricately crafted gaming experience that few should miss. Now, the real question is: is it worth your hard-earned $50? If the Wii is your only system, you should be at your nearest retailer buying this game RIGHT NOW. If you have more options, however, you're presented with a choice. In all further mentions of this game, I will include it in a package with Galaxy 1 as a single game, as I consider it to be a sort of expansion and streamlining to the first Galaxy due to how similar it is to the first one. However, this game still costs the full $50, so if you own more systems then just a Wii, here's my advice. if you played Galaxy 1, loved it and devoted a lot of time to it (like me!), then you should've already bought this one and loved it, but if for some reason you haven't yet, go do it. Even if you just mildly liked the first Galaxy, give this one a shot, as it's essentially a streamlined and slightly improved version of 1. It doesn't matter if you've played the first one, and if you haven't and want to try Galaxy, I'd actually advise going with 2 over 1. If, however, you only thought Galaxy 1 was alright or, heaven forbid, didn't like it, this'll be just more of the same to you and will not change your mind whatsover. So whatever opinion you have of Galaxy 1 will likely be the same opinion you have of Galaxy 2, if not a tad better for Galaxy 2. I'd advise you at least attempt to like this one, though, as it's a stellar gameplay experience that, barring heroic exploits from Metroid: Other M or Epic Mickey later, is also my prediction for the 2010 Wii Game of the Year. I'm off now to explore the depths of the universe, gotta go grab my towel. Froody! And remember, It's Dangerous to Go Alone!
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