Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Wii

In 2007, Nintendo released Super Mario Galaxy, their "spiritual" sequel to Super Mario 64. It was praised highly for it's unique level design, fantastic soundtrack, and it's genuine fun factor. 3 years later, we come to Super Mario Galaxy 2. It features great new changes to an already amazing formula, and is a blast to play.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 completely forgets about what happened in SMG 1, ditching the old observatory story and starting fresh, with Mario on his way to the Star Festival. And guess who's back? Yes. Bowser. And guess what? He wants Peach. So he attacks the festival in enormous form and kidnaps Peach. Mario then meets a baby Luma, who fans will remember from the first game. He (she?) takes Mario to the sky, and he lands on a mini-hub world in the form of Starship Mario, a sort of Mario playground letting you take breaks from galaxies and have fun running around. From here, Mario meets a huge purple Luma thingie, and the game picks up.

Like I said, the game ditches the hub world from the first game, and sticks to a traditional world map, like in side-scrolling Mario titles. This works great, and is much easier to navigate than the Comet Observatory. From here, Mario can enter galaxies. In each galaxy, there's about 3 levels, usually one from the start, one hidden one, and one level featuring a comet challenge. To get these comet challenges, one must collect the comet coins. There's one in each level, and once Mario has enough, the comet's randomly show up on the galaxies.

Now onto the gameplay. Superb. If you thought the original SMG was good, think again. The sequel features not only 3-D levels, but a host of classic 2-D levels, reminiscing of the old Mario games. These are fantastic, and every level features intuitive level design, and each offers a new different twist. Mario's got a feast of new power-ups as well. Including Rock Mario, and with a shake of the Wiimote, curls Mario into a ball, letting him flatten and break anything he touches. Also new is Cloud Mario, my personal favorite, which lets Mario create 3 clouds which act as platforms, letting him reach new heights. Nintendo's also brought back Bee Mario, Boo Mario, and Spring Mario. Did I mention Yoshi? He's back as well, and he's got a few tricks of his own. He can swing off of flowers, and eat enemies and spit them out. He's got 3 power-ups, including a Blimp Yoshi, a Dash Pepper, and a Light Yoshi, each offering unique things to the prized gameplay. There are also new gameplay mechanics such as flying with a bird, using a drill to drill through planets, and back from the original is the big rolling ball, and these are all welcome additions.

This game is very tough, and I found myself dying multiple times. Thankfully, the game scatters Hint TVs around levels, and you can watch them and learn hints from them. I didn't use them much at all, but for new players it's great. Also, if you die a lot in a level (and trust me, you will), Rosalina will show up and she'll show you how to get through the level, similar to the Super Guide in NSMB Wii. This is a massive game, spanning 6 worlds with about 8 galaxies in each. Once you have 120 stars, you might think you're done. But no, you must collect 120 green stars, offering a challenging way to keep you back for more.

The controls are pretty much the same as the first game, and they work even better. In the original Galaxy, there was sometimes an awkward camera system, and this sometimes led to frustration. Thankfully, it's all been fixed in the sequel, and it never gets in the way of awesome gameplay. The graphics see a bit of an update from the original, but they're still not earth-shattering. The soundtrack is incredible, but not as good as the first game. These tunes will be stuck in your head for days, and that's not a bad thing.

Galaxy 2 is incredible. The best Wii game to date. A must-have for any Wii owner, casual or hardcore.

Pros: Everything!
Cons: Nothing?

10/10