Super Mario Galaxy 2 Review

 (Originally published to Glitchwave on 6/15/2023)

[Image from glitchwave.com]

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Genre(s): 3D Platformer

Platforms: Wii

Release Date: May 23, 2010

The seventh generation of gaming, up until the succeeding era, ascended over every previous period by surpassing the average console lifespan with eight or so years instead of the typical five. This generation was long enough to encompass both my pre-teen years as well as every year I was in high school, ending around my first semester of college in 2014. Because the seventh generation coincidentally overlapped with basically the entirety of my adolescence, I sometimes wonder if this factors into why I became so disenfranchised with gaming during this period. Perhaps it wasn’t that gaming had reached a point of widespread saturation thanks to the colossal boom in mainstream popularity the medium had experienced in 2007. Maybe video games took far less precedence in my life at the time because they didn’t pronounce any of the angsty or horny proclivities stirring around in my hormone-addled brain. The cause of my disillusionment probably stems from components in both column A and B, but let’s focus on how the state of gaming was at the time for now. I’ve mostly attributed my relative distaste for this generation of gaming to the influx of photo-realistic cinematic games and murky, carbon-copy first-person shooters that incentivized online multiplayer capabilities over all else. However, even my dear Nintendo wasn’t safe from my teenage cynicism. When Super Mario Galaxy 2 was announced, my initial reaction was an aggrieved facepalm. This was the first instance of a mainline 3D Mario game receiving a direct sequel on the same system, and I couldn’t help but think that its existence was a cheap, pandering cash grab to piggyback off of the first Super Mario Galaxy’s success. It made me realize how much I had changed since the first Galaxy was released, with a new outlook on assessing industry practices. After playing it, Galaxy 2 did very little to ease my preconceived pessimistic notions, and I always felt annoyed when I saw that a sizable handful of people were championing it over the first game. Even now as an adult in my 20’s over a decade later, my thoughts on Super Mario Galaxy 2 haven’t really changed.


Truthfully, even though I played through the entirety of Super Mario Galaxy 2 soon after playing through the first, I could only remember a few minute details before playing it again for this review. I don’t think my hazy recollections are due to the long span of time since playing the game. I remembered the first title fondly despite having not played it for the same well-worn swathe, or at least before I played it again to review it. The reason why my memories of Super Mario Galaxy 2 are but a vague slurry of more Mario moments in space is because the game does little to nothing to discern itself from its predecessor. Every rich source of inspiration that made the first Super Mario Galaxy a wondrous spectacle showcasing the enchanting romanticism of space travel is diluted by familiarity here in the sequel. This lack of inspirational integrity is evident right from the game’s beginning, as Mario is called to action by an age-old standby plot stimulant. Instead of a special event like the Star Festival that hadn’t been established until the first Super Mario Galaxy game, Mario gets an invitation from Princess Peach to have cake with her at the castle. Mario still scurries on over there with enthusiasm that indicates that he still doesn’t understand that cake is not a euphemism for sex. The Star Festival season is still a presence in the introduction, and the “shooting stars” overhead serve as the occasion for cake at Peach’s. Still, toads walking through the grassy plains of the Mushroom Kingdom catching star bits on their tongues like snowflakes exude far less festive delight that sets a joyous precedent for the rest of the game like before. Anyways, everyone and their grandmother know what impedes Mario from that cake date with Peach. Bowser makes his due appearance to kidnap Peach, and he uses his new enlarged kaiju proportions to make him intimidating enough in preventing Mario from stopping his evil schemes on sight. After the princess is abducted right on schedule, the game immediately warps Mario to the first galaxy. Everything about this introduction seems heavily contrived. The grand allure of the annual event that catapulted Mario into the action in the first Galaxy title mesmerized us because the game conveyed its spectacle effectively. When Mario was blasted into the vast, indifferent arms of outer space by a Kamek soldier, the uncertainty of the situation caught our attention. Here, the situation seems so nonchalantly rushed, almost as if the sensation of deja vu is expediting Mario’s approach to the situation. The Luma that granted Mario his spin ability to survive the wild reaches of the cosmos simply interrupts Mario by chance along the way to the castle. In their minuscule diversion attempts, the developers set up a watered-down depiction of the exact same event that started the first game by negating all of its effective pacing.

Immediately after finding the first star in the tutorial mission, Mario will be transported to this game’s hub to organize the remainder of his quest. Rosalina’s majestic space observatory is no longer the peaceful stomping grounds situated in a placid stasis over the cosmos, for that, would be far too familiar for comfort. Instead, Mario’s neutral zone is a soaring, planetoid vehicle manned by a small Luma contingent. The captain of this vessel is a large, purple Luma named Lubba, whose portly size, dopey demeanor, and sense of style make him like an intergalactic Patrick Star. Actually, Lubba temporarily grants his esteemed position as captain to Mario since he has far more experience in missions involving saving damsels in distress. This change of rank results in the vessel reshaping itself into the visage of Mario’s bulbous head complete with his trademark cap with the capital “M” insignia. As much as I’m amused by the design of the SS Mario (the acronym being spaceship in this context), the new hub also feels like a sufficient demotion from what was offered in the previous game. The player is no longer enraptured by a sense of ethereal sentimentalism that exuded from the observatory. I’m not even certain what effect the SS Mario is trying to convey other than the novelty shape of the spacecraft. Also, it’s quite ironic how much more difficult it is to navigate through this comparatively smaller hub thanks to the ship’s gravitational mechanics like it's a dwarf galaxy.

If the pacing and the hub sounded underwhelming, neither compare to the extent of halved-assery in how Super Mario Galaxy 2 constructs its levels. An accelerator button on the deck of the ship expands the screen to a grid that dots the levels, traveling level by level to the finale of that world’s Bowser/Bowser Jr. boss on the far right as the player progresses. When Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced the gaming world to its mapped menu grid, the unparalleled organization of the game’s levels was revolutionary. However, implementing this design several generations later in the third 3D era is appallingly lazy. A less involved level selection like this in a 3D game is inherently so compared to the depth of seeking out their location in 64 and Sunshine, and the inspired choice of placing them all in the same orbital space in the first Galaxy game. Empty space on the grid in Super Mario Bros. 3 not dedicated to the next level at least had enemy encounters and mini-games in the Toad houses to give the environment more character. Super Mario Galaxy 2’s rendition of this fills nothing in its empty spaces between levels, which makes you wonder why the developers didn’t just present the levels in a straight line and cut out the filler spaces. Somehow, an advanced game in 3D fails to make its level map on par with the pixelated template that predates it by two whole decades.

Every aspect of Super Mario Galaxy 2 mentioned so far seems like the primary goal of the developers was to streamline the foundation of the first game. One facet of this that the developers didn’t screw up was the overall level design. The first Super Mario Galaxy was the most linear of the plumber’s 3D titles regarding level progression, with the developers finally gaining the confidence to render levels akin to the classic 2D format after bashfully avoiding them for two generations. Super Mario Galaxy 2 naturally doubles down on the first game’s more straightforward approach to 3D Mario, and the levels here exude a sense that the developers became more comfortable with a linear level design after crafting the first game. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is slightly more difficult than its predecessor, a game in which I stated perfected Mario’s accessible approach to the challenge. However, I think the spicier tinge to the sequel’s difficulty curve might be its greatest contribution to the Galaxy brand. The developers were no longer afraid of making calamitous platform sections more commonplace, such as the disintegrating green ones or those that alternate with Mario’s spin ability. A stand-out section that tests the player’s reaction times is the slide down the trunk of a gargantuan tree in “Tall Trunk Galaxy”, dodging thorny bramble patches and looping around its wide interior to circumnavigate the empty pits in its structure. The winding platform that takes Mario over the thick sea of ectoplasm in “Boo Moon Galaxy” is unpredictable, and reeling Mario over the globs of lava in “Melty Monster Galaxy” is super tense. Did I mention that The Hammer Bros, the original juggernaut enemies of Super Mario, make their 3D debut here and are usually situated on steep, narrow platforms to fling a storm of projectiles at Mario? If the developers insisted on banking on familiarity, at least they decided to add a pinch of challenge to the mix, especially since the developers have reused tons of level motifs from the first game.

Another commendable aspect of Super Mario Galaxy 2 is how the game utilizes the comets. In the first Galaxy game, comets would periodically visit a galaxy after the standard star missions had been completed. The comet’s presence triggered a more challenging version of one of the regular star missions, and the specific aura of the comet would signify the brand of challenge that would occur. While these shooting stars provided a much-needed spark of challenge in Super Mario Galaxy’s gameplay, the most challenging aspect of them is their inconvenient natures. The observatory needed some kind of meteorologist Luma on board to issue a forecast for when these comets arrive, for which galaxy they’d dock themselves over was as unpredictable as a game of chicken. The comets would also impatiently leave orbit if Mario didn’t attend to them immediately, which is arguably indicative of the fleeting nature of this astral phenomenon. Still, having to halt my progression to catch these comets on time tended to get on my nerves. Galaxy 2 reconsiders how the comets are triggered by introducing “comet tokens,” collectibles that will eventually signal a comet over that level when obtained. These coins are conspicuous, so the player will most likely see them in their peripheral vision during the course of a mission. However, they are intentionally situated in hairy platforming sections and hidden between obscured crevices, forcing Mario to take a risk and or make an extra effort to swipe them up. The additional lengths needed to collect the tokens make for a fun incentive. When a comet makes its appearance, it will also thankfully sit and wait patiently for Mario to accept it. I greatly appreciate it. Galaxy 2’s comets also filter through some of the less acclaimed types of challenges while accentuating the ones with more potential. Comets that involve collecting 100 purple coins are dispersed more evenly, and the army of pygmy shadow Marios that copy his every move and make every mistake when moving have more severe consequences.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 also adds a couple of new attributes to the gameplay despite how much its direction copies the first game. The return of Mario’s power-ups after he forgot to pack them for his vacation in Super Mario Sunshine was a delightful return to form, and the power-ups featured in the first Super Mario Galaxy were perfect in providing gameplay variety in tandem with the platforming. The few new power-ups here at Mario’s disposal have a weighty presence over the course of the game’s levels, and both of them are fortunately fun and functional. The simplest new power-up is a drill that Mario holds above his head to burrow between the layers of earth on opposite sides of a planet. Cloud Mario grants Mario a string of clouds that materialize as makeshift platforms, with maximum usage of three before the power simply becomes an aesthetic change turning Mario’s clothes white and his hat fluffy. Rock Mario allows Mario to encase himself inside a rolling boulder that careens into enemies with ramming speed, sort of similar to Goron Link’s ability in Majora’s Mask. Every single old ability from the first Galaxy game such as Bee Mario and Ghost Mario make a singular appearance across a select few levels, giving the new power-ups more precedence and allowing the player to become more accustomed to using them by proxy. This decision was wise on the part of the developers because in a game that already stubbornly refuses to change any of its noticeable clothes from yesterday, at least brandishing a brand-new pair of socks will retain a slight bit of freshness. Hence, it staves off becoming totally rotten.

As neat as the new powers are, let’s not kid ourselves here. We all know that the most essential addition to Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the inclusion of everyone’s darling little dinosaur Yoshi. The general rule of thumb regarding a Mario game seems to be that adding Yoshi to a game is like supplying a dash of garlic onto your food: any dish will automatically become more delectable just with its inclusion. Nintendo wanted to drill into the player’s heads how noteworthy Yoshi’s appearance is in Galaxy 2, putting him on the game’s front cover as prominently as Mario like in his glorious debut in Super Mario World. We can almost infer that Nintendo figured Yoshi’s presence here is the main component that legitimizes the game’s reason for existing, amending their mistake of the first game’s glaring omission by developing a sequel with an overload of Mario’s pet. To their credit, at least the developers supported the selling point of Yoshi by greatly utilizing his unique attributes in the gameplay. The askew weight of space gravity has not altered Yoshi’s enormous, idiosyncratic appetite in the slightest, as Yoshi will devour multiple victims using a targeting system and gulp them down in one bite. If an enemy’s exterior is too rugged to be palatable, Yoshi can spit them back out at another enemy or breakable wall/surface. Yoshi’s flutter kick is always useful in aiding with corrective platforming, and Yoshi swings with ease on the series of flower knobs to cross gaps. Yoshi somehow ascends past even Mario’s significance in his own game considering even he has more new power-ups than the eponymous plumber. Yoshi’s special abilities come from eating a certain type of fruit, and their effects are brief. Eating the blue fruit will bloat Yoshi like Violet Beauregarde, and he’ll soar upward using the extra exhalation. Chili peppers will literally light a fire under Yoshi’s ass as he turbo boosts in a red-hot frenzy, and the golden fruit that resembles a lightbulb will illuminate hidden platforms. Nintendo not only made Yoshi the biggest discernable aspect of Galaxy 2 but made him the real breadwinner of the entire game. It certainly shows a significant improvement from the awkwardly-implemented, water-soluble Yoshi from Sunshine.

…Oh, and the player can swap out Mario for Luigi whenever he presents the opportunity at the beginning of a random level. As much as I support vindicating Luigi, he’s simply just “green Mario” here as he usually is. Sorry, buddy. You just can’t compete with Yoshi’s utility here or his cuteness.

The range of boss battles in the first Super Mario Galaxy finally offered a smattering of exciting foes that were missing in the previous 3D titles. They efficiently used a mix of Mario’s innate platforming acrobatics, spin move, and specific power-ups to offer up some truly engaging climatic bouts. This aspect has not been sullied in Super Mario Galaxy 2, as the developers have taken the time to produce a new entourage of seismic baddies. The standout bosses seem to integrate Mario’s new moves into the fabric of the fight, with Digga-Leg standing tall on a circular dirt mound built for the drill, and the spiky Rollodillo rivaling Mario’s rock formations in size and speed. Yoshi hoicks the Spinys of the Lakitu King back at him until he falls off his regal cloud. “Throwback Galaxy,” a refurbished remake of Whomp’s Fortress from Super Mario 64, reinvigorates the Whomp King fight from that level with richer mechanical layers and a heightened cinematic scope. It’s a proud sign of how far we’ve come in such a short time. I adore all of the new bosses the same way I did for the ones from the first Galaxy. Yet, Galaxy 2 still does that annoying thing here where it insists on taking traits from the first game. Peewee Piranha is just the first boss from the first game again with severe diaper rash, and did we really need to experience what fighting Bugaboom would be like with the cloud form instead of the bee? They’re simply unnecessary filler.

Being that Super Mario Galaxy 2 strives to emulate the first game in all its glory, does this extend to showcasing the bittersweetness of the space’s immensity found in the first Galaxy game? Of course, it doesn’t! This statement shouldn’t be too surprising considering the game is paced like Mario is running a marathon, which I already divulged when discussing the game’s introduction. As expected, the whirlwind pacing seen in the introduction is just as applicable to the end. Bowser’s final fortress is once again the climactic final level after seeing subsidiary versions of it as the previous world’s climaxes with battling Bowser Jr’s titanic tin cans as (more interesting) breaks in between. Fighting Bowser’s final form is exactly how the first game composed the Bowser encounters: a slightly longer bout with a few steps sprinkled in to maybe throw the player off guard. The marginal difference is that at the end, the player finishes the fight in a sequence of butt-slamming meteors back at Bowser in a celestial vortex. After Bowser shrinks down for the final time after suffering from too much blowback, Peach escapes his captivity and gives Mario the final Grand Star. Lubba takes the two on a grand tour of the cosmos on the SS Mario to celebrate, and Mario finally gets to take a succulent bite of Peach’s cake. I wish I was hinting at something sexual here. The impact of finishing Galaxy 2 compared to the tender gut punch I received upon the finale of the first game couldn’t be any more different. All that Galaxy 2’s ending left me with a feeling of emptiness, and not in a profoundly existential way. I had accomplished the task at hand, and that was it. Yahoo!

I hate being right all the time. My preconceived notions regarding Super Mario Galaxy as Nintendo’s first 3D Mario to be a shallow cash grab shamelessly banking off of the previous game was right on the money. Upon playing the game, my experience amounted to gathering first-hand research on the extent of Super Mario Galaxy 2’s devotion to being derivative. Nintendo must think we’re all idiots that wouldn’t notice that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is practically a glorified copy-and-paste job of the first game. To be frank, I’m quite offended at their gall. I’d be hard-pressed to call Galaxy 2 a sequel: it’s a goddamn tribute. Even in its painstaking efforts to plagiarize the first Galaxy game with the nerve to submit the replica and call it a new work, Galaxy 2 still doesn’t capture the resonating elements of the first game like the warm atmosphere and the themes surrounding its setting, and the new power-ups and the return of Yoshi only do so much to elevate the experience. For some people, these marginal differences are enough to sway them in Galaxy 2’s favor over the first game. However, I have a feeling that the same kind of people think that a taller building is a better building, or that a bigger sandwich is the more delectable one, and so forth. They are impressionable and easier to please than a ten-dollar hooker. Despite all of the flack I’ve given Galaxy 2, my rating for it is still substantially high only because the first Galaxy game was so exemplary in perfecting 3D Mario’s foundation, thus giving it an inherent, yet unfairly imposed advantage as a result. Oh, lucky you, Super Mario Galaxy 2!