Not many video games are held in as high esteem as the Mario franchise. With over 222 million units sold of the main platform games alone, Mario is easily the best-selling video game franchise of all time. With New Super Mario Bros. Wii (review) coming out as a holiday favourite in November of last year and the following months with old-school 2D gameplay, the 3D side of the Mario platform series is back with Super Mario Galaxy 2, a game that surpasses its highly acclaimed predecessor from 2007, Super Mario Galaxy.
People who played the first Galaxy will instantly adapt to the game's controls and premise, since Super Mario Galaxy 2 is built off the same concept as its predecessor. Even the story is similar: Mario is summoned to the castle by Princess Peach with the tempting offer of more cake, but when he arrives a planet-size Bowser comes down and swoops her away, threatening to get her to bake him a huge cake. Once again, Mario rockets into the sky with the help of his Luma friends and his adventure begins.
The controls and gameplay are further refined from the previous game, providing the player with near flawless control over Mario's movements. The most prominent new addition, Mario's sidekick Yoshi, controls easily as well, using the B button to control tongue movements such as eating, grappling and spitting. Yoshi's three powerups also provide new gameplay ideas which make some stages rather unique. The Dash Pepper makes Yoshi run many times faster than usual and unable to stop, which has an advantage when trying to cross large gaps. The Blimp Fruit lets Yoshi float, helping him reach higher parts of the stages. The Bulb Berry, which is probably the most unique, makes Yoshi turn into a living flashlight of sorts, either showing otherwise hidden parts of the level or lighting up dark ghost houses.
The auto-camera from the last game was also refined, which is great news for people who had problems with it in Super Mario Galaxy. In my complete playthrough of the game, I only had two instances where I felt the camera was hindering my ability to see what I wanted to look at, and that's pretty good considering most games require that the player moves the camera around to look ahead.
As a first for the 3D Mario games, the hub worlds like Peach's Castle, Delfino Plaza and the Comet Observatory are replaced with a world map like one would find in New Super Mario Bros. Wii and previous 2D Mario games. This makes it much easier for players to find galaxies they have left to explore and cuts down on the time between visiting galaxies, which is an improvement. After all, people generally don't play Mario to look for the next world but to get into the world and complete stages. To navigate the map, players control Starship Mario, a little planet you ride around the universe that comes in the shape of Mario's head, and acts as a little sandbox to play in where you can test your Mario skills and do a few other neat little things.
The galaxies you find on the world map have fewer stars than in previous games, but are typically of similar size, which is refreshing since you don't have to visit the same galaxies so many times, and it keeps the game moving at a quicker pace. The game also has a few surprises that keep the game continuing even when you think it might be over, as the whole back half of the game is filled with extra stuff that while it is not necessary to complete to finish the final boss, is a must for gamers who need to collect everything.
Although Wii games don't typically have the best reputation for visuals, a few shine through, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 easily is the diamond of the Wii library. While I won't bore you with most of the technical details, I can safely say that it pushes the Wii to its limits, employing the highest resolution, frame rate and a graphical style that irons out most visual issues. This shouldn't come as a surprise considering Super Mario Galaxy had a very similar level of visual quality. The music, which has more orchestration than the previous game, never fails to astonish and a few tunes are brought back from earlier games to invoke nostalgia in older gamers.
It's not often anymore that people enjoy the simplicity of a fun game like Super Mario Galaxy 2. In a gaming universe overwhelmingly saturated with earth-toned shooters, sci-fi role playing games and sports games, games full of the vibrance and pure fun of Super Mario Galaxy 2 remind us why Mario is synonymous with games. Underneath the colourful environments and booming orchestrated music is a formula that keeps people wanting to play more and brings enjoyment to all who play. While some may see this as a simple expansion pack to Super Mario Galaxy, anyone who truly appreciates amazing games realizes how impressive this game is and I would wholly recommend it to anyone.
Jacob's Rating: 5/5
