Galaxy 1 was amazing, but Galaxy 2 somehow topped it!
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It's time for the Super Mario Galaxy 2 review! For the Wii!
This is my one year anniversary review! And what better game to start the new reviewing year off with one of the most anticipated games for the Wii! So, let's get started!
The beginning of the story is very similar to Galaxy 1. Peach has sent Mario a letter telling him to come to her castle. As you start out, the game is set in a 2D retro style. However, once you reach the castle, everything turns into Galaxy's standard 3D form. If you've never played a Mario game before, you will of course not know the story of this game. To everyone else, do I even need to explain it? Just take a wild guess at what the story could be. Yep, that's right. Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser, AGAIN, for the umpteenth time! However, this time Bowser has grown to planet size, and says he is building himself a galactic empire. So with Peach in his grasp, Bowser heads off into the sea of stars.
Immediately, Mario launches himself into space using a Launch Star. Eventually, Mario meets up with Luba, a corpulent Luma who resides on a fairly smallish planet with a handful of other Lumas. He tells Mario that the planet they're on is actually a space ship, but there's no fuel for it. He makes Mario a deal: Mario will go out into the different galaxies and collect fuel for the ship, which are Power Stars, and in return, the ship will be handed over to Mario as his own, while he searches for Peach. So of course, Mario agrees, and the ship is turned into Mario's head. Talk about a personalized ship! So after that, Mario sets off in search of the Power Stars.
Unlike the prequel, getting to each level is set up like a map, like you would find in certain 2D Mario games. If you've played the original Galaxy, you will become very familiar with the gameplay of each level in this game. Each galaxy will usually consist of Mario having to make his way through the levels, which are sometimes miniature planets with their own gravitational pull, but a lot of them are also oddly shaped globs of mass. The goal of each level is to find the Power Star. Each level, depending on how skilled you are, can probably take up a max of ten minutes to complete. But don't think it'll be easy! Many of the levels can be quite challenging to beat! Now there are some levels where obtaining the star is just a little too easy, but don't get me wrong! Some of the levels will put you to the test!
Some of the levels in this game allow you to ride on Yoshi! I thought this was a great feature that Galaxy 1 didn't offer. Yoshi can eat almost any enemy, and the one's he can't, you can fire them back at other enemies! Yoshi can also eat fruit scattered throughout the level. Now some of the fruits give Yoshi a temporary special ability, such as running really fast, filling him up with air to float up really high, or even giving you a light to show hidden paths! These are awesome abilities which adds more fun to the game!
Now Yoshi isn't the only one who can acquire special abilities. Mario can be upgraded with familiar suits found in the original Galaxy, such as the Fire Flower, and the Bee Suit. But there are quite a few new ones as well such as the Boulder Suit, which will turn Mario into a boulder which allows him to "bowl," over enemies and obstacles, the Cloud Suit, which will give him the ability to create up to three floating clouds right underneath him, to which he can stand on, and a huge drill, which, isn't a suit, but it gives him the ability to drill his way through dirt on a planet, and end up on the other side! These new upgrades are amazing, and my favorite one is the Cloud Suite! Not only do they give you new abilities, but it also creates more challenges in the levels because of the necessity to use them to obtain the star!
Now in the original Galaxy, the levels have multiple stars, some of which were due to comets flying by the galaxy. Well this game has comets too, but you have to earn them! What I mean is, a lot of the levels will have Comet Medals hidden throughout the level. If you can obtain it and make it to the end of the level without dying, a comet will fly near that particular galaxy a little while later, giving you a another scenario to complete, which will of course give you another star.
Just like in the original Galaxy, there are Star Bits galore! You can collect them by either walking on them, or pointing at them with your Wiimote, which is very helpful! If you have a friend around, not only can they help you gather Star Bits with a second Wiimote, but now they can grab coins and One-Ups and bring them directly to you! It's a very nice little feature! If you collect 100 Star Bits, you'll gain an extra life! Collecting Star Bits is not only fun, but actually essential to gaining new levels in the game! Sometimes you will find a hungry Luma on your map. If you feed him enough Star Bits, he will open up a new pathway to more levels!
The graphics are fantastic! I honestly didn't really find a difference in the appearance of the game, compared to Galaxy 1, but so what! Galaxy 1 looked amazing, and so does this game!
The controls are perfect! I seriously did not find any flaw in them at all! You'll use the Wiimote/Nunchuck combo, just like in the first Galaxy, A to jump, B to fire Star Bits, and a quick shake of the Wiimote or Nunchuck will give Mario a spin attack, and if you spin in the air, it's like a half-jump that is very much appreciated! That little half-jump has saved me so many times!
I thought the camera was a little better than the prequel. It's still not perfect, but seriously, I highly doubt you'll have a problem with it.
You know, as I was playing through some of the levels, I literally said out loud, "How did the developers come up with this design?" The level design of this game is just outstanding! I thought Galaxy 1's level designs were awesome, but this game somehow topped it! The developers for this game put on their thinking caps, and REALLY tried their best, and succeeded at coming up with some of the most unique, clever, and overall fantastic level designs!
I REALLY enjoyed the music in this game! The songs in Galaxy 1 have been remixed for this game, and I think they sound even better than the originals! But that isn't the only reason I really liked the soundtrack, it's also because Nintendo has remixed retro songs from past Mario games and added them into some of the levels! Like this one! Listen to it and you'll know what I mean! (Link at the top!) :)
Speaking of retro, the design for some of the levels in Galaxy 2 are in 2D! I loved this idea! It has the same mechanics as playing in 3D, but you're in 2D! An excellent idea that was executed wonderfully!
As fantastic as the game is, there were some downsides that I found. One of them was the length of the story mode. I beat it in about 10 hours. However, since there is so much replayability by going back and obtaining stars by completing different scenarios on the same levels, I can forgive the shortness of the story mode.
The second downside was the VERY last star you get in story mode, which is a boss fight. It was WAY too easy! I was kind of confused by this, because a lot of the boss fights prior to the last one were WAY more difficult! Oh well. It was still fun though!
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is an outstanding game! What makes it so outstanding? It's the amazing gameplay of the terrific level designs! But along with that, are the fantastic graphics, the perfect controls, the excellent music, the awesome new as well as old suit upgrades, lots of fun and challenging boss fights, and the large amount of replayability!
Now I did say that the downsides were the shortness of the story mode, and the cake walk of getting the very last star in the Story Mode, but you know what? Those two downsides are so small, that they really don't hinder the game's overall greatness!
This game is just 100% amazing! What more could you ask for in a 3D platformer? If you have not played this yet, you absolutely need to! It is definitely worth every single penny! Now there's just one more thing. I was wondering if I was ever going to be able to say this!
This game gets a 5/5 with the title of MONUMENTALLY AND SUPREMELY PERFECT!!!!!
Ratings:
0=COMPLETE AND ULTIMATE FAIL!!!!!
.25-.75=Total Crap!
1-1.5 = Horrible!
1.75-2.5=Bad
2.75-3.5=Good
3.75-4.25=Awesome!
4.5-4.75=EPIC!!!
5=MONUMENTALLY AND SUPREMELY PERFECT!!!!!