Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Don’t read this go buy it now!

The original Super Mario Galaxy raised the bar for 3D platformers with its innovative level design, creative puzzles, and great graphics. With Super Mario Galaxy 2, Nintendo managed to distill everything that made that game enjoyable and created the best 3D platformer ever and one of their best games ever.



Gameplay.
For the most part, Mario Galaxy 2 retains most of the original’s gameplay basic mechanics. Once again, you are on a quest to find 120 stars scattered throughout various levels in order to defeat Bowser; who, surprise, surprise, has kidnapped Princess Peach again.

When Super Mario 64 came out in 1996, the worlds were very open ended and you could sometimes stumble on stars that you were not supposed to get until later. With subsequent games, the focus became much narrower, and Mario Galaxy 2 is the culmination of that. Each level has an extremely centered focus on you getting to the star at hand, to the point where each level’s general area and design are tailored specifically to the task at hand. On one side, I think this is a great approach and it reminds me of the old Mario 2D games where you were basically avoiding obstacles on your way to the flag-pole at the end. On the other side, exploring levels in Mario 64 was also great fun. While there is some exploration to do in Mario Galaxy 2, it is much more limited than in previous games.

There's a lot of throwback elements in the game, like this level that recalls a Mario 3 level. Image from IGN.com

Mario controls extremely well with the nunchuck and Wii remote, making it very intuitive to move around and concentrate purely on playing instead of trying to figure out which #$&@ button to press to do anything (Mod Nation Racers, you’re on notice). Similarly, the camera system is untouched from the original Mario Galaxy, which is a great thing. That game was the first 3D third person game where the camera was a complete non-issue. The camera automatically swoops, zooms and pans to give you the best possible angle for you to concentrate on the gameplay.

Past Mario 3D games have used a hub system where you walk around on a sort of lobby area where you access each level. In Mario Galaxy 2, it almost seems like there were two camps in the development team, and ended up getting a hybrid system between the full blown hub and the more traditional map approach used by all 2D Mario games since Mario 3, including both New Super Mario Brothers Games. You are aboard a ship shaped like Mario’s face, and there are various characters that join your ship as you progress through the game. When you want to go to an actual level, you step on a platform and the view zooms out to the branching map where you can select which level you want to play. I would say this is probably the biggest fault of the game, because the hub is truly useless. There’s nothing special about it, and the game pulls you out to it every time you get a star.

This is the Mario Starship that replaces the old world hub. Image from IGN.com

Mario Galaxy 2 also heralds the return of Yoshi, who has been missing in 3 of the previous 4 3D Mario games, and had very limited mechanics in Super Mario Sunshine. Yoshi is a lot of fun to ride. It controls exactly as you would expect him to control. However, the best addition to Yoshi is that you can control Yoshi’s tongue by pointing at the screen with the Wii. Nintendo has used it to create some very cool puzzles and levels, including ones where you have to swing from various pegs by timing and pointing the remote at the screen.

I could tell you what's going on, but that would ruin the fun. Image from IGN.com

It almost seems like every single star has a different gameplay mechanic to it. For example, there is one level where you’re skating down a giant slide while collecting coins, another where you use your Wii remote as a joystick to control Mario as he balances on top of a giant ball (much like Super Monkey Ball), another where Mario is hanging on a buzzard as it flies through a level, or yet another where you are running through a level in the same vein as Mario 64. There is not a dull moment in Super Mario Galaxy 2, it is the most varied game I have ever played. With 120 stars to collect (okay 242, but you didn’t read that here), it is guaranteed to keep you busy for a while. Star 242 may be the most difficult challenge in Mario history.

Graphics.
Mario Galaxy 2 is the best looking Wii game out there. Granted it is not saying much, compared to PS3 and the XBOX 360 standards, but it’s one of the few Wii games that is not distracting to look at. The character and level design are great, and it makes you wonder how amazing this game would look on a more powerful console. Bucking the recent trend widespread in all kinds of games of using mostly browns and grays as the primary colors, Mario Galaxy 2 is not ashamed of using pretty much every color it could find. The reason the graphics look really good is because Nintendo has worked around the limitations of the Wii, using character and environment designs with very broad and simple strokes, along with vibrant colors that make everything in the screen pop. While some may besmirch the graphics by calling them kiddy, they are a part of what makes this game great.

Hey remember these guys from Super Mario World? Image from gameranx.com

Sound.
There’s not much to say about sound effects. They are exactly what we have gotten in the last few years. Mario sounds like Mario. However, the soundtrack is a different story. For the first time ever, Nintendo used a full orchestra to record the music. The results are completely amazing. While there is a lot of new material, there are numerous callbacks and remixes of music from all games in the series, which benefit greatly from the orchestra and their new arrangements. Because of that, the soundtrack feels very familiar, yet new at the same time. Again, similarly with the graphics, some people might think the music can get silly and kiddy, but those people are probably gingers anyway.


Here's a sample of some of the new remixes from the game. You might remember this from the Bowser levels in Mario 64.

Story.
I’m dedicating as much space to the Story in this review as Nintendo did in Mario Galaxy 2. Princess was kidnapped go rescue her! Seriously, this game needs no story because it’s too focused on making the game fun. This is the complete opposite to the Final Fantasy XIII approach of having save points between videos!

Overall.

I shouldn’t even have had to write this review up. Go buy / rent / get this game now.