Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Mario and Yoshi blast off on a galactic adventure!
Protagonist(s): Mario Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): Wii Release Date: MX: May 22, 2010 NA: May 23, 2010 JP: May 27, 2010 EU: June 11, 2010 AU: July 1, 2010 HK: December 4, 2010 KO: January 20, 2011 Developer(s): Nintendo EAD Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: Super Mario Predecessor: Super Mario Galaxy Successor: Super Mario 3D Land

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It was released in May 2010 and is a direct sequel to the 2007 game Super Mario Galaxy.

Plot

Due to the universe being recreated at the end of Super Mario Galaxy, the Star Festival occurs again, and Mario receives an invitation from Princess Peach to watch the shooting stars with her at her castle. Unfortunately, when he arrives, he discovers that Bowser became giant with the Power Stars and kidnaps Peach, who then travels to the center of the universe to begin his plot to rule the universe. With the help of the Lumas and their leader, Lubba, Mario travels across the universe on Starship Mario to collect the Power Stars and stop Bowser from taking over the universe.

Why It Is Another Great Galactic Adventure

1. Everything that made the first Galaxy game good returns here, and is improved upon, with the flaws also being downsized.
2. This marks the first time a 3D Mario game gets a direct sequel.
3. The story, while having less depth than the original, is still good and effective, charming and well-thought-out.
4. The level designs are even more creative and challenging than in the previous game. Some examples include:
   • The introduction of Red-Blue Panels, which flip over whenever Mario or Luigi use their spin attack.
   • A galaxy that's pitch black aside from an occasional flash occurring.
   • A galaxy that is based on Whomp's Fortress from Super Mario 64.
   • Obstacles and enemies that only appeared in 2D Mario games such as Snake Blocks appear here.
   • Cosmic clones, who chase after the player by copying their every move.
   • Certain enemies and obstacles that were underutilized in the first game appearing much more often.
   • The prankster Comets are more challenging than in the previous game.
   • The utilization of the new power-ups mentioned below.
5. Fantastic graphics that use a more colorful pallet than in Super Mario Galaxy. One such example is the more detailed backgrounds that utilize more themes other than space themes.
6. Comet Medals are introduced, which make when Prankster Comets will appear less randomized.
   • When a Prankster Comet does appear, the player can still play the normal levels of that galaxy rather than being forced to beat it like in the previous game.
7. Incredible soundtrack that doesn't focus as much on orchestral music as did the first Galaxy, allowing for a more diverse soundtrack.
8. This game has a level selection on a map similar to that of the 2D Super Mario games, which makes it quicker to select galaxies as you don't have to run across the hub world do so so like in the previous 3D Mario games.
9. Yoshi returns after being absent in the first Galaxy, and without all of the problems associated with him in Super Mario Sunshine.
10. Three new, creative, and fun to use power-ups in the form of the Cloud Flower, the Spin Drill, and the Rock Mushroom.
    • Yoshi also gains three power-ups in the form of the Dash Pepper, the Blimp Fruit, and the Bulb Berry.
11. The bosses are amazing, and utilize obstacles and power-ups much more frequently.
12. While the levels with forced motion-controls return here, they appear less often and are designed in a way that makes them less frustrating.
13. Once again, the controls are tight and responsive, much like the first game.
14. Instead of replaying the game as Luigi, obtaining the 120 Power Stars unlocks another set of 120 Green Stars that are hidden throughout the galaxies. Many of them are well hidden and require thinking outside the box to obtain. On top of that, unlike the first game that required you to get all 120 stars to replay the whole game again as Luigi, this time, you can permanently unlock him after beating the final boss once, without having to recollect all the stars you collected before.
15. Getting all the regular and Green Stars unlocks a secret final level, making for a total of 242 Stars to collect. Unlike the secret final level in Super Mario Galaxy, which was just a simple stroll through Toad Town while collecting the 100 purple coins, this secret final level is extremely difficult and does a good job at putting all the skills you've learned throughout the game to test. You can even go as far as to max out your Toad Bank to unlock The Perfect Run, making this level so much harder to the point where you have to beat the level without taking damage, and doing so results in Rosalina showing up on Starship Mario.
16. Luigi is playable after the player completes the story for the first time rather than after collecting all 120 stars.
    • Even before the player beats the story, he will sometimes appear at the start of a galaxy and allow the players to play as him instead of Mario.

Bad Qualities

1. The final battle with Bowser, while still epic and fun, is somewhat anticlimactic and underwhelming.
2. The Chimp offers you annoying missions that are a bit on the cheap side, and if you fail (depending on that mission), you lose a life much like the Il Piantissimo racing missions from Sunshine, though thankfully they are optional.
3. Some of the Prankster Comet missions, particularly the ones from World S, are also incredibly broken because the time limit present in most of them pressures you to move faster than you should, the enemies can quickly overwhelm you if you don't plan out very specific routes, and having to collect purple coins within a time limit makes matters worse.
4. There are multiple Green Stars that require "leap of faith" jumps with awkward camera angles that result in instant death if the player misses the star and falls off the stage.
   • Some Green Stars also require quick reflexes to collect, otherwise the player will miss them and will have to restart the level.
5. The story, though still good, has less depth than the previous game as Lubba isn't as fleshed out as Rosalina, and there is much less lore to read about (if any at all). This is due to Miyamoto meddling with the plans of the story. There would have been a backstory of Lubba meeting Rosalina, but he scrapped it.
6. While still fun to re-visit, half of the galaxies in the special world are recycled levels from previous games. To be more specific, two galaxies are just certain areas from the first game, one galaxy is just a secret obstacle course from Sunshine, and the fourth galaxy is a boss rush of a bunch of bosses from the first game.
7. While there are the same number of powerups as the first game (besides Yoshi), most are very underused, with the game being extremely biased towards the cloud flower. The boo and spring are used once each, the bee twice, and even the rainbow star is used less than the original. Compared to the rock mushroom's 5 appearances and the cloud flowers 10, and it's clear they were really trying to use only the new stuff.
8. In sharp contrast to the Grand Finale Galaxy in the first game, The Perfect Run mission in Grandmaster Galaxy is extremely frustrating to several gamers, as they have to beat the level without taking any damage.

Trivia

• In Shiverburn Galaxy, there are three alien-like beings (called "Hell Valley Sky Tree" in the coding) staring at you from a cliff ("Beyond Hell Valley" in the coding). This became an infamous creepypasta.

Reception

Along with its prequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2 received universal acclaim, and is often considered one of the best platform games ever. To this day, debates about which of the two games are better still exist, as there are many who consider Galaxy 2 to be an improvement from the first game due to the gameplay improvements, while many others consider the first Galaxy to be just as good, if not better due to its storytelling and ambience/atmosphere.

On Metacritic, Super Mario Galaxy 2 has a Metascore of 97/100 and a user score of 9.1/10, which are the exact same scores the first Galaxy received. On GameFAQs, the game has an average rating of 4.45/5 stars.

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