Mario is back in a new galaxy flying adventure: Super Mario Galaxy 2. This time Bowser has somehow grown in this huge galaxy sized monster and has kidnapped the princess. While many gamers may wonder if Nintendo can really add enough new spunk to top the first Super Mario Galaxy, I will start off this review by saying YES they have topped the first game!

The game starts off with a mini level of Browser attacking and of course kidnapping Princess Peach. You will get used to the first person style controls with the Nunchuck and Wii Remote quite easily in this first level. The second player feature is back with the “point and click” and is available right from the start of the game. While the second player doesn’t have a character on the screen, you can still help out by collecting coins, powerups and even stunning enemies which we will talk about later.

Being a 3D platform game, the level design and very artistic details of everything in the world are even better than the first Super Mario Galaxy, the colours are rich, the levels are very creative and every corner has a new twist and turn that will have you thinking “wow, that’s a great idea”. Even the galaxy map has been changed for the better; the confusing galaxy map has been changed to a Super Mario style map where you simply just point and click along a preset path to fly to the next world. The game is long enough and can be done in two or three serious gaming sessions, there are about 70 “planets” for Mario to check out. If you want to find all the secrets of the game, you’ll have to play through it two or three more times.

Mario has some nifty tools at his disposal, of course you can be fire Mario or one of my favorites Cloud Mario where you can make clouds appear under your feet and make you jump up to brand new heights. Every level features a new game play twist or mechanical gadget that you must figure out to free the trapped stars and save the Princess from Bowser.

Yoshi has returned in Super Mario Galaxy 2 and he’s quite useful. You can use him to eat up spinys and spit them out to destroy things or enemies. Gobble up special fruit to make Yoshi run faster or puff up like a ballon and fly around the 3D level. Yoshi is even essential in one level where Yoshi gobble up spiny enemies and then spit them back at the level boss. The second player even helped out by stunning the boss with stars trigged by the B button while I spat out spiny enemies. You can’t of course use Yoshi in every single level, but the levels that Yoshi is located in are a blast and unique to his skills.

While most of the levels take place on a 3D planet, some are side scrolling 2D style Super Mario levels, one such level involved the gravity of the level being either normal or upside down making for a fun filled world of ceiling walking and jumping “down” to get away from being crushed or spiked in the head.
The music in Super Mario Galaxy 2 is simply amazing; it ties into the game so well that it is totally seamless. There isn’t much talking in the game, most of the in game speech between all the characters is a bubble on the screen with text in it. Occasionally you’ll hear a “Help me” or “It’s a Mario!”, but the speech is very limited.

Ever get frustrated trying to figure out why in the world you can’t make this jump and just fall over and over again? Nintendo has help for you with “in game tv’s” that actually have pre-recorded clips on how to pass a certain spot. If you see such a tv and just really don’t want to fall a dozen times trying to figure it out, simply walk up to it and press A to watch a video on how to pass this spot. If you are a veteran gamer who wants to really fall a few dozen times figuring it out yourself, just walk on by the tv.
For you Luigi fans out there, yes you can unlock Luigi and use him for some special speed run levels and such. There are also comet stars that you can collect for even more harder challenges such as not being hurt during certain boss battles, speed runs and more.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is so addictive and unique, it has raised the bar very high for platform games on the current generation of video game consoles, it will be very hard to beat. Super Mario Galaxy is the must own game of the summer vacation, so head out there and save Princess peach!

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