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Super Mario Galaxy 2 Game Review

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a 2010 platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the fourth 3D entry in the series and one of the best.

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“My powers… Gone. My empire… Shrinking.

My huge cake… Never got a slice…“

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When this game was released back in 2010, it received widespread critical acclaim. Nowadays, it is regarded as one of the greatest Super Mario installments that triumphed over the original game. While I do love this installment a lot, I still have to disagree with the assessment that it’s somehow better than the original ‘Galaxy’ when it clearly is not.

My main area of contention is the plot. The first ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ featured by far the greatest storyline in a Mario game. It was so strong, in fact, that it was borderline space opera in its own right. How the Lumas factored into the story and how epic and moving that ending was still is stuck in my mind. The sequel, however, threw all of that out of the window by basically focusing on your standard must save Princess Peach and must defeat Bowser narrative. It was tiresome and slight, not to mention repetitive as you get to defeat the guy multiple times.

There is also one other aspect that was inferior to the original and that is the overall technical presentation. The first game featured fantastic graphics and a truly grandiose, timeless score, but this one paled in comparison to that greatness. Don’t get me wrong, the game is perfectly solid and even quite good when all is said and considered, but it just wasn’t as amazing as its immediate predecessor.

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Graphically speaking, this was 2010 and not 2007, so the Wii was getting stale as a console. Yes, the game is still colorful, fun and vibrant, but it showed its age and it did look dated even back then. But my main issue is the score itself. Yes, the main theme on the hub world is absolutely wonderful, endearing and instantly memorable, but most of the other compositions were just solid without ever reaching the epic, orchestral grandeur of the first game. Again, this game still has a better soundtrack than the vast majority of other games out there, but it just cannot compete to the aforementioned masterpiece.

The gameplay is almost identical to its predecessor for better and for worse. While I did appreciate seeing all these amazing mechanics back once again, I still wished for more unique ideas thrown into the mix. But for the most part, because the original featured such incredible gameplay mechanics and versatile ideas, having Nintendo revisit them was the right choice as you can never have too much of a great thing after all.

There are once again galaxies containing planets and the levels are again diverse in imagery, mechanics and level design. You can control either Mario or Luigi, which was a wonderful addition as I love that guy, so playing with both of them was a lot of fun. The spins, jumps and all the other movements are repeated here to great effect.

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How you access the galaxies is changed, however, and unfortunately mostly for the worse. They included a map system similar to the likes of ‘Super Mario World’ and ‘New Super Mario Bros. Wii’. Although the map made choosing the levels easier and more intuitive, I still missed the amazing observatory from the first game as it seemed much more complex and like a fully lived-in world. There is a hub world here, but having Mario’s head as a hub world was odd and it was too small, so there was not a lot to do there. When it comes to interactivity on the hub world, the original was miles above the sequel.

There is one element that was significantly improved upon here, however, and that is the enemy A.I. and level design. The boss battles are for once demanding instead of being too easy and breezy. Many bosses were actually quite difficult to complete, especially that one worm guy that could dig into the ground. Bowser was still a bit too easy to beat himself but many other bosses were much harder than usual for a Mario game, which was refreshing to witness.

The gameplay in this game is much more varied and polished than in its predecessor. This is the area where Galaxy 2 truly excelled at. The majority of levels include some task that requires a certain mechanic to pull off. It was not only superbly utilized, but the creators actually went to great lengths to include so many different tasks, mechanics and ideas into every single level, resulting in a highly versatile gaming experience that was a blast to go through. The gravity is used superbly, changing the directions worked, and slowing down time was also very well incorporated here.

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There are 49 galaxies in the game allotted among seven regions that are called worlds. When you collect 120 Power Stars, an additional 120 Green Stars are unlocked. This was the new addition to this installment and it did not only work, but it was by far its most defining and best characteristic. These Green Stars are basically placed in previous levels that you’d already beaten, but they are hidden in such a way that it makes it rather hard to reach.

So yes, you have to go through 120 levels all over again, but there is a catch here. You don’t have to go through the entirety of the level as many of these hidden stars are placed at the beginning of the levels, though numerous levels have two or three of these stars hidden somewhere in them. You have to carefully search for them changing the camera angles and exploring in-depth the heights and depths of each level. How they were hidden was so clever and this opened up the world of the game gloriously.

These stars shine and make a low sound that at least somewhat made them easier to hunt down. Just finding these stars was a joy for me as suddenly the game reached adventure exploration territory that wasn’t there before and it served as a refreshing contrast to the platforming levels while still requiring some intense platforming moves in order to reach many of these hidden stars. Some of them even required two or three successive buttons to be pushed to do split jumps, wall jumps or even jumping out of Yoshi himself. Successfully doing these combinations was immensely satisfying for me as a platformer enthusiast and the exploration element truly gave this game new life.

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The Prankster Comets were also improved here. Instead of appearing randomly within previously played galaxies, you unlock them here by finding a Comet Medal, which is similar in look to a health coin, but much larger. This also offered rewarding exploration for players as each first level in a galaxy had this coin perfectly placed and/or hidden.

The decision to make these Prankster Comets more varied with two or even more mechanics in one level was also terrific as it gave the game a lot of versatility. I wished to have seen more of the levels where you have to collect those Purple Coins as I love collecting stuff. The highlights were the doppelganger elements as they were by far the hardest ones.

The same power-ups from the previous game are mostly present here with three new ones added in for good measure. The Spin Drill was so cool and superbly realized as it gives you the power to burrow into ground. Rock Mario allows you to transform into a boulder that runs over enemies. It was powerful, but hard to control. Cloud Mario gives you the option to make three clouds, which then makes reaching the furthest areas possible. This was the best and most cleverly utilized power-up of the three.

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I have to say that honestly I still disliked and at times hated the Yoshi levels. Again, they were well thought out, but controlling Yoshi was too difficult for me and the pepper that made him run fast made for the most frustrating levels in this game. This aspect continues to be my least favorite in these games.

There are so many amazing galaxies in this game, but some of my favorites include the wonderfully cozy and charming Freezy Flake Galaxy that is gorgeous in its snowscapes and greatly utilized ice skating mechanic and Cosmic Cove Galaxy that is one of the rare underwater worlds that work as it’s beautiful to look at, not too difficult to play and very atmospheric. Cloudy Court Galaxy utilized on the cloud power-up superbly while Puzzle Prank Galaxy was suitably more puzzle-oriented and refreshing.

Flip-Swap Galaxy utilized the brilliant flip mechanic phenomenally while the ghost galaxies were highly atmospheric and fun. Throwback Galaxy was, well, a charming throwback to ‘Super Mario 64’. Grandmaster Galaxy was a fun final test for players and the gliding levels were much better handled than the surfing levels in the previous game and much more fun, though still rather difficult. What I did not care for are those ball-rolling levels that were still way too hard and the levels that featured too many bosses were somewhat monotonous.

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Super Mario Galaxy 2 still features ridiculously overwhelming and difficult controls, but once you get used to them, you are bound to have a great tie. The star-pulling levels for instance are still quite demanding, but this time I got used to them quicker. The length of the game is just right and it was actually so damn entertaining that I wanted even more when I finished it. The level design is continuously superb, the voice acting was great and the ideas were quite unique, but the presentation left a lot to be desired. The sound is terrific, but the score is less impactful this time around.