BrockTalk

WII REVIEW: SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2

Nintendo is known for it's family friendly games and mascots, but don't let the presence of their flagship character Mario in Super Mario Galaxy 2 fool you. This game is as hardcore as they come, by putting even the most seasoned video gamer's skills to the test. Thankfully, the challenges aren't a result of poor level design and gameplay mechanics, but rather very good and even excellent design and mechanics. This is old-school gaming at its' best  built for the modern age, and brought directly to you from the company that defined old-school gaming: Nintendo.


This is the first time Nintendo has released two major Mario games on the same console, but the creators knew they had a plethora of ideas left unexplored after the first Galaxy, and thankfully for all of us gamers, they decided to release a second installment. The original Galaxy was a heck of a lot of fun, but Galaxy 2 offers some major additions to its' predecessor. The first is the inclusion of Mario's favorite green dinosaur, Yoshi, and his levels are some of the most fun you will find in Galaxy 2. Just like in Super Mario World for the SNES, Yoshi can grab, eat, and spit out enemies with his tongue, but the designers have taken this a step further. Yoshi's tongue can also be used to grab on to various objects in the world allowing Yoshi to  pull, swing, and jump his way to victory. A couple of levels give Yoshi special abilities by consuming power-ups, one of which turns him into a make-shift balloon, and another that gives him super-speed.

Don't think Yoshi gets all of the fun, however, as Mario gets a handful of new special power-ups of his own. In addition to the returning bee suit from the original Galaxy, new suits include a cloud suit that allows Mario to place up to three cloud platforms allowing him to reach new heights, and a boulder suit that gives Mario the ability to roll into a ball and bust things up real good. My favorite new Mario tool, however, is the drill. This tool drills through the planets' surfaces allowing Mario to either reach the other side, or in some cases, enter and run around the inside of the planet.

The great thing about Galaxy 2 is how every new level you encounter, especially in the beginning of the game, introduces you to a new game mechanic allowing the gameplay to remain fun and fresh. You will obviously end up re-visiting a lot of the mechanics throughout the course of the game, but they are varied up nicely. Just as in the original Galaxy, Mario's main objective is to retrieve power stars, and if you want to retrieve all 120, you'll definitely need to get your game-face on. This isn't to say that the game is impossible, as it doesn't require you to obtain all of the stars in order to progress through the levels, and it is the not-required "prankster" stars that provide the toughest challenges, but if you are a completionist as I tend to be, you will definitely have your work cut out for you. Also, if the game recognizes that you are dying a lot in a particular spot, it will present you with an option to bypass the problem-area. The boss battles are another highlight of the game, as each encounter provides its' own unique and fun challenges to take down the foe.

Mario Galaxy 2 isn't perfect, however. Just like in the original, the circular 3D aspect of many of the levels sometimes make it difficult to see or feel just where Mario is on the plane, causing a little disorientation to the player, and the occasional death. This can no doubt be frustrating, but isn't a big enough problem to warrant not playing an otherwise fantastic game. My second minor complaint is that even though the new additions are great-fun, Galaxy 2 is really no more than additional Galaxy 1 levels with a few new mechanics. Heck, even the story is almost exactly the same, even though this is really no surprise seeing as how Mario games stories have pretty much stayed exactly the same over the years. I guess Mario games have always been more about gameplay over story anyway.

Overall, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is one of the best if not the best game you will play on the Wii. Flagship Mario titles always seem to be system defining games for each Nintendo console, and the Galaxy games are no different.If you haven't played the original, then I would highly suggest just going straight to this installment since as I mentioned there's really no story to miss out on per say, and if you're still left wanting more of the platforming plumber then go back and pick up the first Galaxy.