Vital Stats

Genre: Platformer

Players: 2

Online: None

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

ESRB Rating: E

Release Date: 5/23/10

Platforms

• Wii

There haven’t been a lot of direct sequels to Super Mario games since the late eighties, so Mario’s latest outing is something of an oddity. However, Mario hasn’t lost that sequel magic and comes through with a game that feels comfortable and novel at the same time.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 plays like a director’s cut of the first game. In fact, it grew out of the scraps on the first game’s cutting room floor. Evidently when you’re willing to abuse the law of gravity, whole new worlds of platforming just open up. So the sequel began life reusing old levels and art, but soon spiraled into a two year game. This means that Super Mario Galaxy 2 feels a little old and a little new; it suits a sequel well.

The core of the gameplay is completely unchanged. Mario planet-hops through galaxies, collecting 120 stars and eventually a missing princess along the way. Each planet has unique gravity, terrain, and enemies to frustrate your progress, and you spend the bulk of gameplay meeting and crushing each. The novelty of stomach-churning gravity changes has been dulled by experience, but the platforming is no less fun for it. You’ll still swoop and soar around planets no bigger than an apartment, and just exploring each level is its own reward.

Are you sure the gravitational constant equals 1?

Most of the changes are things you won’t especially notice. Super Mario Galaxy 2 reins in the wild inspiration of its predecessor in favor of tighter and more challenging gameplay. Gone are the strictly cosmetic contrivances, like ice cream cone planets. In their place is more diverse gameplay, like genuine side-scrolling stages that use the gravity mechanics to revive an old platforming standard. Other elements have been retained but polished. Co-Star mode, the game’s 2-player cooperative gameplay, has been expanded so that your second can actually kill enemies and collect coins. Between that and reused art like the queen bee or the reworked Mario sprite level from the first game, there’s less to see but more to do.

That’s not to say that Super Mario Galaxy 2 falls short on the novel features, however. It’d hardly be a Mario game without some ridiculous new suits to try on (sorry, Sunshine), and Galaxy 2 offers Rock Mario and Cloud Mario alongside a reprise of the first game’s suits. Rock Mario can roll up and plow through obstacles, adding long-absent bowling gameplay to the Mario series. More interestingly, Cloud Mario can generate three temporary platforms out of thin air, adding a dynamic element to the game’s otherwise mostly static design. Mario can also pick up a spin drill that allows him to burrow through a planet’s core and pop out on the other side. It’s a 3D mechanic that resembles the sliding block puzzles from ice levels in older 2D games.

In the power-up vein, Yoshi makes his first playable appearance here since Super Mario Sunshine. The insatiable dinosaur eats enemies per usual and special fruits that make him sprint, float, and reveal hidden platforms. The latter power-up, Bulb Yoshi, is probably the most novel in the Mario universe, because you can only stand on platforms you can see and Bulb Yoshi’s powers wane and expire over time. So galaxies that feature Bulb Yoshi are dynamic inasmuch as they’re constantly being remapped by Yoshi’s glow. The same trick appears in ghost houses and boss levels, but more for visual wow than extensively explored gameplay.

A plan is just a list of things that don’t happen.

Finally, Super Mario Galaxy 2 introduces cosmic clones to the series: lethal doppelgangers that echo your actions at a brief delay. As long as you keep moving and never cross your own path, a train of ten dangerous copycats is mostly benign. However, when you’re collecting 100 coins scattered across a level, things get trickier. Clones serve as a clever hybrid between race ghosts and a timer, a sort of 3D platforming Snake. The threat of punishment dogging your footsteps will probably attract hardcore gamers who found the first game too easy, though it will probably repel just as many casual gamers.

For gamers frustrated by clones and other marks of the sequel’s increased challenge, Nintendo has ported the Super Guide from New SMB Wii into 3D as the Cosmic Guide. Like its 2D predecessor, the Cosmic Guide pops up after you’ve sown too much effort and reaped only failure. With your permission, the guide will play through the offending level for you, bypassing the problem and shaming you with a special bronze power star. The idea actually works better here than it did in New SMB Wii because Galaxy 2 is considerably less linear. Bypassing a star doesn’t just dump you into a harder one. Instead, it usually unlocks a different kind of star objective that may actually work better for a given player.

Out of This World
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the hardcore remix of Super Mario Galaxy. It’s a twenty hour platformer that’s mechanically similar to its predecessor, but a little more demanding and a little less novel. The newly-included Cosmic Guide won’t really fix the game for casual gamers, but the co-op play offers a more complete experience than Mario’s last outing. All told, the game is an easy sell for the hardcore and genre fans, but not at any significant price for casuals.

What It Costs: $50

What It’s Worth:
•To The Hardcore: $60 (buy)
•To The Genre Fan: $60 (buy)
•To The Casual: $10 (play with a friend)