Welcome (Back) To The Galaxy!

The original ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ for Nintendo Wii was, without a doubt, the greatest video game I have ever played. When I first played SMG it had been many a year since I had been a committed video game player; in fact not since the dying days of the now-many times superseded Nintendo Entertainment System had I followed the new video game releases with any regularity. Hence, I had missed ‘Super Paper Mario’, ‘Super Mario Sunshine’, ‘Super Mario 64’ – even ‘Super Mario World’! – in the time between then and when I first popped SMG into our Wii. Needless to say, I found SMG completely addictive, to the constant bemusement of my wife, until she started playing it and found it even more addictive. Compared to the 2D graphics and ‘run, jump, bop’ of early Mario games, SMG was a revelation in terms of its range of gameplay options and beautiful 3D worlds.

All of which made SMG2 the most eagerly-awaited item in the Wheatley household since the release of the ‘Mad Men: Season 3’ DVD box set. So what’s the verdict? I had heard varying reports about how much different it was from the first game; having played through about 30 galaxies to date, I would say it is not a dramatic departure. The best analogy I have been able to think of is those movie sequels that work well because all of the foundation has been laid out in the first instalment, leaving the second instalment to just kick things off from there. Similarly, although SMG2 does run through for newbies the basic moves from the first game, experienced players can get right into the new stuff, of which there is a lot. Yoshi’s return is the most obvious example, although he actually isn’t as prominent as the advance press would have you believe, with Mario still having to tough out most levels by himself. (The level in which Yoshi swallows a hot chilli pepper and then uses the fire coming out of his butt to sprint up steep walls is a highlight to date.) There are plenty of new bosses, and while defeating most of them involves figuring out that boss’ one weak spot and raising holy hell on it, there are quite a lot of variations on how that is achieved. And there are several new transformations (Cloud Mario, Rock Mario), and heaps of new ideas for galaxies that will keep you entertained for months on end.

So better? Yeah, I’d say so. The best quote I have read about it (from Edge Magazine) is that ‘this isn’t a game that redefines the genre: this is one that rolls it up and locks it away’. Well, let’s hope that isn’t strictly true: while I struggle to see where they can go next, one could easily have said the same after the first game. There has got to be at least a few more places where they can they hide those friggin’ power stars yet…