Despite it's recycled concept, Super Mario Galaxy 2 still oozes Awesome sauce and delivers what makes Mario EPIC!!
Now 3 years ago when Super Mario Galaxy was released, it recieved extremely positive feedback, meaning that critics said it was the best Mario Game for decades to come! Now originaly, Nintendo wanted to make an expansion called "More Super Mario Galaxy", but since they were cramming so much stuff in thier expansion, Nintendo had decided to make an instant sequel thus expanding the development to 3 years! Now that I've got my hands on it, does it prove to be a better sequel or a pointless rehash? Well we gotta delve deep into my review to see inside won't we?
The Story is how Peach invites Mario to a reconstructed star festival. Mario, clutching the invitation in his hand happily runs to the mushroom kingdom to celebrate the star festival with her. After Mario picks up young lost Master Luma and gains once again the ability to spin punch, Mario then finds Bowser in planet size gate crashing the festival and (uggh, seriously AGAIN!) kidnaps Princess Peach for the umpteenth time and heads of into space to create himself a Galactic Empire (kinda reminds you of Emperor Palpatine don't ya think?). Mario launches off into space and ends up a little planetoid. There Mario meets Lubba, a chubby Luma who resides in the planet. He tells Mario that the planet he's standing on a spaceship believe or not! Lubba then makes Mario a deal: If Mario can find enough Power Star to fuel the starship, the Starship will be the property of the tubby plumber for a bit. Mario agrees and the ship transforms into Mario's head. Then Mario goes on a epic quest to retrieve the Power Stars!
The Controls are flawless and work very well. You will use the Wii-Mote+Nunchuck combo for the game. You will use the Control stick on the Nunchuck to move, A to jump, B to fire star bits and Z to crouch. Again, like Mario Galaxy 1 the controls are very simple to grasp in which just about anyone, even a non gamer can get into grips with the controls with no problems!
The Graphics are once again the best looking visuals on the Wii to date! Sure it's the same as it's prequel, but who cares?! Galaxy 1 looked incredible and this game's no exeption! Everything from the level design to character models look vibrant and colourful yet detailed and smooth at the same time!
The Gameplay is really outstanding. It controls and feels a lot like Mario Galaxy 1 just with a different HUB base and different Levels. Mario's main hub is Starship Mario in which Mario can explore the place, get used to his movements or he can just get behind the wheel and travel off into the far reaches of Space. Unlike Galaxy 1, getting to each Galaxy is set up like a map simmilar to certain 2-D Mario Games. Each Galaxy has it's unique twists and turns! Once, again the Level design is top notch and has yet to be beaten by another 3-D Platformer! Some of the Levels and Galaxies allow you to ride on Yoshi and make use of his abilities! There's the blmp fruit which allows Yoshi to float for a brief period of time, the bulb berry which allows Yoshi to reveal hidden paths and Finally the Dash Pepper which allows Yoshi to run really fast and walk on walls! Also the fact that you can ride on Yoshi anytime while exploring Starship Mario! Awesome! Mario also gets some new power ups as well. There's the Cloud suit which allows Mario to create up to 3 floating platform clouds for a brief period of time, the boulder suit which allows Mario to bowl over enemies and a drill which allows Mario to drill through dirt and end up on the other side. These are cool power ups and the old ones are still there such as Rainbow Mario, Bee Mario, Fire Mario etc. Also, Luigi fans rejoice! Everyone's favourite man in green is back and instead of completing the entire game to play as him, players can now play as Luigi by simply talking to him! Again, very cool concept! You can also collect star bit to feed Hungry Lumas so they can TRANSFOOOOORM into different galaxies so you can collect more star juice for Starship Mario! There is 2 player mode in this game and it is downright awesome! Not only can they merely collect star bit and stun enemies, the 2nd player is now able to attack enemies and collect items for Mario so that means alot more of teamwork is used in this game than the last game! There are also help T.V's for newcomers, the super guide from "New Super Mario Bros Wii" Returns etc! Soo much stuff has been cramed in this game and Bottom Line: Gameplay is as epic as first game was!
The Music is orchestrated which means that it sounds a bit like Star Wars music but with the Mario Quirkiness mixed in! The SFX are good and the voice acting from Charles Martinet and Kazumi Totaka are plain outstanding, making you feel like you are having fun with this game as they are having fun!
The Downside of this game was that Peach gets kidnapped every single time!! Okay minor annoyance. Here's the real downside! It feels too much like the original Mario Galaxy in terms of control playstyle and concept and gravitational effects and music even!!! No, I don't count the graphics because If you ask me, they are better left unchanged! Oookay onto verdict!
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the DEFINITE version of the original! It's a essential Mario purchase and definatly worth a look! Let's overview the facts shall we?
The Good: Great controls, top notch level design, new power ups to interact with the envrionment, Riding on Yoshi is a good feature, earning the ability to play as Luigi is easier, Orchestrated Star Wars like music is awesome, terrific voice acting, outstanding graphical detail, boss fights are fun!!
The Bad: Peach getting kidnapped is getting old, feels too much like the original!
The Ugly: No Ugly Points here!
Title: This game is destined to be supremely perfect!!!
Oookay. Before I have an angry mob of people trying to tell me "Hey Tekkenfb368, why do you underrate this game if all you do is say mostly positive things about this game!", let me explain. 9.5/10 is not a bad score! I really love this game to bits and I really think that it has the epicness of it's predeccesor! I only prevented this game from getting a perfect 10 because it feels to much of the original in terms of Gameplay, sound, concept and some level designs etc.