Review: Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a platform game for the Nintendo Wii. It was developed by Nintendo.

Mario and Yoshi climbing up a tower. Note how the level curves slightly because it is a small planet.

King Bowser has stolen the power stars from a spaceship with the hopes of using their power to build a new galactic empire. He has also kidnapped Princess Peach again. Mario must travel the universe with what remains of the spaceship’s power, collect the power stars, and rescue Princess Peach.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is six worlds long, with seven levels per world, and two or three power stars a level. Individual levels are made up of several planetoids that Mario travels across, avoiding traps until he reaches the power star at the end.

That is the how Mario gets the first power star. The second power star, if there is one in the level, is hidden somewhere on the way to the first star. Sometimes the star is on a divergent path; other times Mario has to beat a mini-game, like destroying a bunch of the boxes in a limited time, to win the star.

Hidden in every level is a comet medal. Finding the medal unlocks a third star for the level. To get the third star Mario has to complete whatever he did to get one of the first two stars but with an extra challenge; racing against a time limit, or with only one piece of health instead of three.

Prankster comet stars are the least fun to get. While the first two kinds are fun to reach because you explore the levels and overcome reasonable challenges, the prankster comets cross the line into unpleasant challenge, especially the ones that are on a time limit. And they feel like a way of artificially extending the length of the game. I would have preferred bigger levels with new stars instead of going through the same levels again with less fun. Actually, the first Super Mario Galaxy had the same problem. If it were up to me I would have had the two games combined into one of reasonable length instead of two short games with padding.

Mario can jump, double jump, triple jump, and wall jump. Mario also has a spin attack, activated by flicking the controller, which can also act as a jump. Enemies are killed either by jumping on them, or spin attacking them if they cannot be jumped on.

Mario can collect two things: coins and start bits. Mario walks up to coins to collect them, but the player can collect star bits by pointing the Wii remote at the screen. Coins do nothing except give Mario extra lives, but star bits are needed to unlock the way to the second star, and for opening up new levels.

Some levels Mario can find his dinosaur friend Yoshi to ride. Also in some levels Mario finds suit that give him extra abilities. Yoshi can levitate, run on water, and turn into a light source if he ingests certain types of fruits, and the costume powers are creating clouds to make extra platforms, jump really high, shoot fireballs, and fly like a bee for a limited time. They mix up the gameplay a little bit, but none of them are any more fun than running around as regular Mario.

As a linear platformer, all of Super Mario Galaxy 2’s challenge is dodging enemy attacks and obstacles like moving platforms, usually at the same time. The fun of the game comes in the sense of accomplishment from getting through these obstacle courses. And for the most part the challenge is fair; the challenge curve is difficult but not frustrating. However, the game at times creates an unfair difficulty by positioning the camera at an uncomfortable angle making the jumps harder. This becomes especially difficult with planets that are so small that you can see the planet’s circumference, and Mario has to jump around them instead of jumping in a straight line.

Despite the cheapness of some levels, most of them are fun. They are not for the most part difficult, and running through the majority of them is rewarding. The levels start of easy and get reasonably more difficult.

The story is weak, even for a Mario game. Every time Mario reaches Bowser, Bowser boasts about some plan he has, but we never get to see it. Otherwise there is no story to speak of. The only new character is the spaceship’s original owner Lubba, who is an annoying guy who makes bad jokes. There is also a tiny sentient star that gives Mario his spin ability, but it is a baby and does not talk.

The level design is a letdown. The levels are based around running around tiny planets, and that is shown of with Mario running around them and them having their own levels in gravity. But the planets themselves are not interesting. Most of them are grass or dirt based, or machinery. There are a few somewhat better ones, like the ice level, or the lava level, or the ice and lava level, but nothing really creative. And they are such small planets, they feel more like Nintendo had a bunch of half formed level ideas and strung them together.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a solid if unoriginal platform game that will entertain fans of that genre. The difficulty can get unpleasant, but overall the game is more fun than annoying.