Does Nintendo make lightning strike twice with this sequel?
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: May 23, 2010
ESRB Rating: E
I personally am a fairly big proponent of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and as longtime NintendoGal.com readers will remember, I consider the original Super Mario Galaxy to be anything but broken. The problem is, Galaxy‘s biggest strength was the sheer variety of ideas that it brought to the table; every single level was something new and interesting, and the game never got old as a result. I wasn’t sure if the team could keep it up for another whole game.
Somehow, Nintendo has managed to pull it off. Super Mario Galaxy 2 doesn’t just keep up with its predecessor, it blows it away. This is one of the most creative, entertaining and satisfying games I’ve played in a very long time.
The game’s premise is virtually identical to that of the original Galaxy, but it’s whittled away even further, to a point I never thought I would reach: this is one Mario game that just has too little story going on. You start out the game, and Bowser is enormous and runs off with Peach to create a new galactic empire, and there you go. That’s literally everything you’re going to see, and while I’ve always said that Mario games don’t need to have much emphasis on story, to see this little effort put into it is frankly a bit frustrating.
That said, Galaxy 2 has it where it counts: gameplay. Like the original, this game takes the essence of an old-school 2D platformer and translates it into three dimensions; there’s virtually no emphasis on free-world exploration, and you’ll spend your time running and jumping and spinning along a generally pre-set path. Many people were turned off by this the first time around, and they’re not going to be any more happy with this sequel, as it has even less emphasis on exploration; I think there’s only really one galaxy that’s a large, open level.
Galaxy 2 does things with platforming that no game has ever come close to doing; if you were impressed with the gravity manipulations in the first game, the sequel does things that are even more impressive. They’ve thrown in several new powerups (notably the Rock Mushroom and the Cloud Mushroom) that allow themselves even more platforming freedom; rather than rave about a particular item’s inclusion, though, I prefer to just throw them in as just a small, equal sample of the many great ideas the developers have thought up. The puzzles and platforming are more clever than before, and more than once (especially in one galaxy focused on Chain Chomps) I found myself laughing out loud saying “I can’t believe they did that, that’s great!”
Apparently during the game’s development, they created a way for designers to directly implement their ideas into the game, and the results of these completely unchained minds really need to be experienced firsthand. It’s as if every brilliant idea that anyone came up with was placed into the game in some way, and the variety is as mind-boggling as it is fun. Not only that, but the developers have also reached into Mario’s past for inspiration, and what they’ve come up with is highly nostalgic, but implemented brilliantly in its own right at the same time. Old-school gamers are going to be very happy with one galaxy in particular, and they’ll know it when they see it.
The main selling point of this game is the inclusion of Yoshi, and I’m happy to report that he does improve the gameplay. While running around normally, you can quickly point at ans swallow enemies, or else grab onto special hooks to propel yourself forward. There are also a number of fruits you can eat that will do certain things like make Yoshi run at high speed, or float, or reveal hidden passageways; while there’s no real reason that Mario couldn’t do those things, it does provide that little bit of excitement whenever you see a Yoshi egg waiting for you.
If anybody thought that Galaxy was too easy (and I wouldn’t blame you), Galaxy 2 definitely takes it up a notch or two. The game starts out at a level around midway through the original game, and just gets more difficult from there; the latter half of the game, where you’re chasing after the second group of 120 green stars (more on that later), can be exceptionally challenging if you’re not being very careful. That said, only once did I ever run into the Cosmic Guide; if you end up dying enough on a particular level, an ethereal Rosalina will show up and offer to complete the level for you; if you take this easy way out, though, you’ll only be given a lesser bronze star, as opposed to a golden one, as a symbol of your inadequacy.
You won’t be forced to play these levels to get to the end boss, however; the final level of the main story is unlocked after receiving 70 stars. This will require you to play at least a few of the Prankster Comet levels; each level has a Comet Medal in it somewhere, and picking it up will trigger the appearance of a more difficult challenge, like in the original game.
Completionists will have an awful lot to do, though; once you beat the final boss, you’ll unlock another handful of galaxies, even more difficult than the ones that came before. Once you pick up all 120 stars, you’ll actually find yourself tasked with finding another 120 green stars, and unlike the first game, it’s not just playing through the game again as Luigi, though you’ll probably want to use Luigi to get them anyhow (free tip – another is to deposit your stuff with the Banktoad when you can). And once you’ve gotten those 240 stars, you’ll unlock one final challenge, and this time it really is a challenge, one that netted me four game overs before I completed it. My final time was just under 30 hours, which is fantastic for a platformer.
That said, the game isn’t perfect, though it comes close. The lack of story was mentioned earlier, but with all the variety that the game presents, it’s a little bit of a bummer that all of the Bowser fights are almost identical. Additionally, some of the green stars can be difficult to find. They’re hidden within the original levels in hard-to-reach or hard-to-see places, and sometimes the hard-to-reach ones are really, really hard to reach. One star in particular required so specific a triple jump that I must have lost somewhere around two dozen lives trying to get it. It’s somewhat unfair, really.
Despite a couple of shortcomings, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is about as addicting as they come, and brilliant beyond any platformer that’s come before. There’s a reason that new Mario adventures are so highly anticipated; they always manage to tap into the part of your brain that derives pure, distilled enjoyment from playing games. It doesn’t have top-tier graphics, great storytelling, character development, or anything like that, and it doesn’t need it; Galaxy 2 is a package of pure fun, the kind that everyone enjoyed when they started playing their first video games. I give this game five stars, and anyone who enjoys Mario, or platforming, or mindless fun needs to get it as soon as they can.
