Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2
Ranking: 2/100
Score: 97.12%
Mario is back, and this time he’s saving the princess and
the galaxy from Bowser’s insane schemes. I know that sounds like the exact same
premise of ‘Super Mario Galaxy’, but it’s totally different! There’s a ‘2’ on
the end, for starters. Will the game live up to its predecessor’s reputation?
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| See? It's totally different! You have a spaceship that looks like your head, and Yoshi who's... wait, Mario? What are you doing to Yoshi? (source: G4TV) |
Intro
The manual is cute, brightly coloured and nicely laid out.
The whole intro fits within this tone, from the graphics to the music. Peach
invites Mario to eat cake with her during the star festival, and it doesn't
appear to be a euphemism - how sweet. The storybook design of the opening
cutscene/gameplay is an interesting one; the way the screens flip over like the
pages of a book adds to the fairy-tale quality. I also couldn't help but laugh when
it transpired Bowser's apparent reasoning for kidnapping Princess Peach was so
she could bake him a cake.
As with Super Mario Galaxy, the manual spends too much time
telling you how to get through standard screens such as the Health and Safety
ones. The story also seems to be identical to the first game - Princess Peach
wants you to see shooting stars with her, but she's kidnapped. Really? We're
not even going to vary it slightly? What's even stranger is that the game
claims this star festival only happens once every one hundred years and it's
happening again after the first game. So, what? This game takes place one
hundred years after the first one, but Mario, Peach et al haven't aged at all, much less died? Maybe there was some really good explanation at the end of the previous
one? Maybe.
Game, I know there's that old adage of 'If it ain't broke,
don't fix it,' but would it kill you to do something even vaguely superficially
different to the story? The cutscene/gameplay was practically identical to the
first game, except that Bowser was bigger. Couldn't the star festival be held
somewhere different? Oh, and if you could move the NPCs so that when their
speech bubbles are activated they don't cover up platforms, that'd be useful.
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| Mario leaps out of a pipe and into a storybook. Literally. He doesn't even get squashed when the pages turn over. (source: G4TV) |
Getting Going
The 'storybook' opening allows you to practice the most
basic moves, and both the initial levels and spaceship hub world give you hints
and experience in utilising more complicated controls. There's always some form
of character to tell you what you need to do in each section or a hint screen
you can access, so you really have no space to be confused on what you need to
do. The game often employs the notion of talking you through a new action which
is crucial to advancing, then making the next stage involve said action but
without explanation. For example, the first time you can ride Yoshi, it is
heavily hinted that you can eat the spiny enemies and spit them out at
containers to break them. You not only need to do this to reach the launch
star; in the next section you need to do this to obtain the gold star and
finish the level, and you are expected to figure it out for yourself. This
ensures you learn the different ways you can interact with the environment in a
fluid manner.
Sometimes the game holds your hand a little too much and you
can't avoid it; characters will yell 'Over here!' at you before you get a
chance to assess your environment. Even in the early stages, it's a bit too
much and makes you wonder if you'll have to play the entire game without having
an opportunity to think for yourself.
Some of the hint boxes are avoidable, leaving you free to
access them only if you want to. If there was a way to switch off or avoid
activating all the hints, that would lessen the irritation of constantly
getting unskippable speech bubbles telling you what to do in the game while
still making them available for players who are struggling.
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| Mario wonders if he should just step away and pretend he had nothing to do with it... (source: G4TV) |
Fun
Like Super Mario Galaxy, you have lots of things to do
in-game. In addition to finding the launch stars and gold stars to complete
each level, you collect star bits, you can find comet stars you can collect
power-ups and there usually at least one character in each section with whom
you can speak. There are new additions, such as being able to team up with
Yoshi, that add new gameplay elements such as eating and spitting out enemies.
These also take away the skills you can use with Mario, so there's definitely a
sense of needing to use or discard Yoshi in order to best progress through the
levels. There are also new power-ups that allow you to physically alter the
environment, like drill power-ups that let you drill through the earth and
cloud power-ups that allow you to create temporary platforms. The game is also
a little harder earlier on, which does make it feel more of a challenge. There
are also fun bonus levels you can access where you have to destroy lots of
enemies to obtain power-ups.
The main problem with the game is that it's so similar to
the original that it might as well be an expansion pack. The physics are the
same, the levels seem very much like the ones I played in Super Mario Galaxy -
the first boss is practically identical to the one you face in the first game.
There are hints of some new and different features - such as
being able to use Yoshi to gain different powers and one neat little section
where you can actually use the gravitational forces to jump between planets. I
would like to see these elements implemented a lot more to make the game feel
like a sequel and not just some extra levels. Also, it seems as though Yoshi
runs away fairly soon after you dismount, which makes it difficult to choose when
to use him. If you're riding Yoshi, you tend to want to stay in that form
throughout the level, simply because you'll need him at some point and his
respawning points are few and far between. It'd be nice if he followed you
around so you could switch between Mario and Yoshi-powered-Mario at will,
allowing you to tackle levels in different ways.
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| Rainbow!Mario is invincible! And never short of someone to chat to at a party. (source: G4TV) |
Visuals
The graphics are suitably cartoony, bright and colourful - a
theme which is consistent throughout the game. When you are hit and only have
one segment of health left, not only does the HUD flash and beep crazily, but
Mario himself looks exhausted the moment you stop moving. Everything's adorable
looking - even the enemies. Again, the design makes it fairly obvious what will
hurt you and what is safe to attack or land on.
The HUD seems to come and go as it pleases, which I find a
little irritating. Maybe I want to see what my health is all the time, and not
just if I've been hit - there are power-ups that let you take extra hits, and
when the HUD vanishes, you can't see whether you still have this or if you've
been hit enough to lose it. The whole use of 'sharp looking things are bad' in
the visual design does fly out the window a bit when it comes to Yoshi, who can
eat almost anything, it seems. Trying to figure out what you shouldn't try and
make him eat seems a solely trial-and-error exercise.
The HUD is not obtrusive in this game, I don't see why it
needs to be hidden at every opportunity. I personally would like to see all
that information on screen at all times.
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| 'Next stop, Vegas!' Providing there's enough life left - which I can't tell right now. (source: G4TV) |
Intelligence
The enemies have varied attacks and some of them are joyous
when they succeed in hurting you - which is something I can't help but love.
Some enemies chase you, others throw projectiles; sometimes you find yourself a
little overwhelmed by sheer numbers, which makes things nicely challenging. A
nice addition are enemies that exist to spawn other enemies; if you want to
stop being hounded by baddies, you need to take these guys out, and that
requires a little more thought than just jumping on every enemy nearby. At the
same time, there are projectiles you need to dodge which have enough of a
pattern that you can avoid their blows if your timing is right. Another
interesting aspect is how some enemies - which can still hurt you - are actually
required to progress through the level. For example, there are spiny enemies
you need to swallow when using Yoshi and spit out at containers to break them. Fortunately,
these are permanently spawning to prevent a situation where you are unable to
progress because you accidentally killed all enemies on screen.
A really minor issue I have with the enemies is that they
all seem to suffer from pre 1987 Dalek syndrome - they can't negotiate anything
other than a flat surface. If you jump on a platform, they can't reach you.
This applies to almost all chasing enemies I can think of, which renders the
challenge of encountering them somewhat diminished. The reverse of this is also
true - they won't jump off ledges after you, either; even if it's a very small
fall.
The only thing I could think of that would add an
interesting element is if you had enemies who could follow you around planets
that 'flip' over, or who can jump up steps after you. Of course, too much of
this kind of behaviour would be frustrating as you would never be able to evade
swathes of enemies, but if a couple of enemy types were capable of this, it
would be interesting.
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| Ah, that's better. I can see everything now. Did you know there was a two player co-op available? Bigger question - have you ever used it? (source: G4TV) |
Immersion
The game has well-paced levels that are made up of several
small stages; this 'little and often' set up for each level makes it a lot
easier to keep on playing, and before you know it you'll have spent an hour or
so playing. Even within galaxies, there is a reasonable amount of variety
within the levels; largely due to the way certain levels are designed around a
gimmick, such as changing gravity or using drills. The game saves your progress
regularly and automatically after each level, so you won’t feel tied into
playing beyond a single level; it gives you the flexibility to have a quick
game in a spare half an hour, or dedicate a whole day to playing. Another nice
thing this game does that its predecessor didn’t is that it uses visible
checkpoints. In ‘Super Mario Galaxy’, when you died your starting point would
be dependent on how far you had progressed through the level, but you never
knew where this mythical point was. In this game, it’s very clear; this adds an
extra little sense of anxiety when faced with a tricky area and an untouched
checkpoint in tantalising view.
Like Super Mario Galaxy, the learning curve is pretty flat.
It gets trickier, to be sure, but there is rarely any moment where you actually
feel in real danger. You'll bumble along quite happily, and you'll definitely
enjoy the experience, but whether you'll feel challenged in the earlier levels
is debateable.
This is certainly a game that could benefit from several
difficulty levels in order to keep younger and newer players from giving up in
the early stages, while giving older or more experienced players a bit more of
a challenge.
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| Yes, they really do call it a 'faceship'. (source: G4TV) |
Cameras
The camera is third person and follows your character
around. Generally, it points in the direction you want to move and doesn’t
suffer from clipping through objects or obscuring your view. Sometimes the
camera placement even offers you hints towards completing the level; in one
section, if you stand on a specific platform, the camera zooms out, giving you
a view of the whole area. Soon enough, you realise the view is specifically
tailored so you can figure out the best route to reach the goal with the drill
power-up. You also have the option to use the control pad on the Wii Remote to
change your view.
Sadly, changing the view using the Wii Remote is very restricted;
there have been many occasions where I've wanted to look in a different
direction and found there is no option save the direction the camera is
currently facing.
There is a fixed first person view that allows you to look
around your world 360 degrees, but you cannot move your character at the same
time. I'd like to be able to use that camera view while I'm trying to move, or
have the option to toggle between a free camera and an automatic one.
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| Is that a Luigi? Hi, Luigi. He's chilling on a heavily inflated Yoshi. Apparently when Luigi first found Yoshi, he though Luigi was his mother. Suddenly this screenshot is a teensy bit weirder. (spruce: G4TV) |
Controls
As the controls are identical to Super Mario Galaxy, my
comments are essentially the same. The controls are simple to use and accurate.
The Wii remote is employed effectively, making it feel like a natural extension
of the control stick, and not tacked on for the sake of it. You point the Wii
remote primarily to collect star bits, and it's not so sensitive that you have
to stop moving about to precisely aim at them. None of the buttons you are
likely to use are difficult to reach.
The only minor quibble I have is that if you want to change
the camera angle, you do pretty much have to stop what you're doing to get to
the controls necessary. Also, I did find the combination of control stick and
wiggling the Wii Remote to aim fireballs wasn't as accurate as I'd hope for;
often I'd have difficulty aiming in quite the right direction.
Having said that, the likelihood of you wanting to change
the camera angles that often are pretty low, and fixing an issue like this
would involve having to change the rest of the controls to accommodate it. Given
everything else works so well, this would be a bad move. I think if the
controls for using the fireball power-up were simply a little more sensitive,
it would eliminate that issue.
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| Mario. Hero, plumber and cloud master. (source: G4TV) |
Ideas
Like its predecessor, this game is full of cute little ideas
and gimmicks that enhance the gameplay without feeling tacked on for the sake
of it. The ability to create platforms and dig through the earth is used to
solve puzzles, rather than just because they can. Riding Yoshi gives the player
a completely different experience, as well as allowing new obstacles to be
placed that Mario cannot handle alone. There are noticeable attempts to make
this a different experience to Super Mario Galaxy with the different power-ups
and bonus levels, and the physics have been expanded occasionally to allow you
to use the gravitational pull between planets to reach certain items, and in
levels where the gravity changes depending on the areas you walk on. There is also a 2-player mode. Sort of. Basically, a friend can grab another Wii Remote and collect star bits for you.
It's very difficult to shake off how similar this feels to
its predecessor, however. The premise is practically identical, and several of
the differences in-game are largely superficial. One other minor, yet very annoying
'feature' in this game is that you cannot speed up character speech bubbled.
They will types themselves out at a steady speed and you can only proceed when
it has finished and the 'A' symbol appears. I'd also argue that the 2-player mode seems a bit tacked-on; it's a half-hearted attempt and even the manual states 'Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a single player game...' Why bother if you're not going to do it properly?
Plenty of other games allow you to press 'A' to make all the
speech bubble text appear on screen, and then press 'A' again to jump to the
next speech. I would have dearly loved to see this here so I didn't have to
keep waiting for the same series of speech bubbles to be typed out over and
over when trying to complete a mini bonus stage. I know with a sequel you want
to play on the strengths of the original, but I would have liked to see
something a bit more different - perhaps having the whole game depend on being
able to change your environment through those digging and platform generating
power ups? I'm also of the opinion that if you're going to include a 2-player mode, either do it properly with full rival or co-op functionality, or don't do it at all.
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| The most perilous of traps in the Super Mario Galaxy world - the hint screen. (source: unknown) |
Memory
Like Super Mario Galaxy, this is a fun and technically great
game. The whole look and feel is kept cute and cartoony, and is completely
consistent - even the scarier elements are still rather sweet. You get your
toads and your Lumas again, and they tend to have cute things to say and a bit
of personality, which is nice to see. The levels are fun and varied enough that
you don't feel as though you are going through the motions, and they leave you
feeling genuinely curious as to what you will face next. Also, some of the
bosses are so cute you actually feel bad when you have to hurt them; at least I
did.
This game does suffer from sequel curse, in that it really
isn't a particularly different game from its predecessor. Oh, and the story is
just lazy; it's practically a copy and paste job from the first game.
Some of the new gimmicks in the game I feel should have been
used more. If the whole game involved giving Mario the opportunity to call up
Yoshi to get through the level, it would have been a new take on the same
overall idea; there were elements of puzzling in this game, and having to use
Yoshi and Mario's different abilities to traverse each level would have been a
good way of having that thread run through every level. Oh, and just write a
new premise; it doesn't have to be complicated, just different from the last
game.
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| Yay, checkpoint! Now I know just how much I'll have to repeat when I die. (source: G4TV) |
Overall, ‘Super Mario Galaxy 2’ is a fun, varied game with
lots of neat little gimmicks and a cute, consistent tone. However, it’s so
similar to ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ that at times it feels more like an expansion
pack than a sequel.
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