Around the time when it was the hottest thing around, the Wii was always considered a shovelware dumping ground. For every Legend of Zelda, there were a million instantly forgettable party collections. It’s sort of true, but just saying that would be doing the console a huge disservice. Yes, the Wii was home to an awful lot of tat, but by golly it didn’t half produce some classics.
One such game was Super Mario Galaxy 2. Due to the sheer impact it had on video games as a whole, Mario 64 to be frank will never be topped when it comes to 3D Mario games, Mario Galaxy 2 though has come the closest.
In a lot of ways, this game is a rarity. When it comes to the main series each follow up would always bring a new mechanic to the series, whether it be Yoshi (in Super Mario World) to Fludd (from Mario Sunshine), Galaxy 2 felt more like an update. A somewhat dirty word today where “update” can sometimes be misconstrued as “cheap cash grab”, but Nintendo doesn’t do that. Maybe “refinement” would be a better word.
With new, more interesting, planets to explore, Galaxy 2 is a more interesting game than its predecessor. New power ups to use, the appearance of Yoshi and the ability to control Luigi on certain levels, the better Mario brother (yeah, I said it!). It’s jam packed with platforming goodness.
From the opening story section you’re thrust onto Starship Mario, a spaceship that looks like Mario’s head, it’s from this hub you can interact with other characters you’ve picked up on your adventure, who usually just spout useless tips that you would’ve figured out half an hour ago. Other than that it’s just a quick break between levels before going to the world map and travelling to whichever level you choose, most of which have multiple stars to collect. This on top of the medals, and at certain times, prankster comets will arrive at certain levels completely changing the rules of said stage.
Just thinking about how this game was designed makes my mind do somersaults. It’s not often I sit and stare at the screen and admire how much time, effort and skill went into creating each of these levels. The new powers ups are far from random, the levels were created around them.
The bee suit, able to hover for a specific time creates some excellent platforming sections, where touching water automatically turns you back to regular Mario. The drill is able to burrow deep into each planet, one specific level having you figure out where to drill in order to reach the top of the tower. Then there’s Yoshi and all his special powers.
There’s the blue fruit which allows Yoshi to float up into the air, then there’s the red hot chilli, eating which causes the green dinosaur to run at pace, in turn allowing him to run up walls, or even on water as one of the more open worlds demonstrates. Indeed, whereas latter day Marios negate exploration in favour of a more point A to B design. Super Mario Galaxy 2 has a good mixture of both.
There are planets where it’s a fairly straightforward path to the finish, others where you’re fairly free to explore, which usually involve collecting pieces of a star. Both are equally fantastic. The way Mario moves around the planets can be disorientating at first, particularly the more circular planetoids where running around upside down is commonplace, but soon you’ll get used to the inertia, jumping around and flying between planets with ease.
There’s no such thing as the perfect game, but it’s hard to come up with any issues with Mario Galaxy 2, aside from maybe the main hub. Starship Mario is perhaps lacking its own identity and character the way Peach’s Castle in Mario 64 did. There is a reason it’s largely considered as the game of the generation for many, and despite being in SD it looks great, once again showing that Nintendo’s art style can easily surpass hardware limitations. The way Mario blasts off from each planet, with the camera perfectly positioned to view the level looks stunning.
Mario Galaxy 2 is Nintendo on the top of their game; graphics, gameplay and audio all coming together to form a near perfect whole. And as good as Mario 3D World is, Mario Galaxy 2 is nigh on perfection. Who knows how Nintendo will be able to top this. But if anybody can do it, Nintendo can.
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