Mario Galaxy 2 Review

hello ladies and gentlemen this is the fourth in a series of five reviews that I'm doing on the Super Mario series if you've never watched these videos before I recommend starting with my Mario 64 video instead or at the very least watching the galaxy one video first since this game is broadly similar to the previous one I won't be covering it all from scratch instead I'll be focusing on the small differences and additions this time around it's recommended you play these games before watching these videos if possible Super Mario Galaxy 2 released in 2010 for the Nintendo Wii although the Mario games all build off an influence each other in various ways galaxy 2 was the first direct sequel to a main Mario game in a long time although it has a 2 on the end of the title the story seems to start off with a complete reset which paints the events more as a reimagining of the original galaxy rather than a continuation of it given the way the original ended they may have felt their only option was to start over but it also provides an excuse for explaining elements like the spin move as though they're brand new in case the player never touched the original galaxy despite the need to reintroduce everything galaxy 2 gets started much faster than its predecessor which makes it the first time a 3d mario has had a shorter introduction than the preceding one there's a lot of little changes that make the galaxy games distinct from one another but perhaps the most interesting one is the way they handle tutorials this time around there's less mandatory and holding but much more voluntary and holding struggling players can resort to the TV screens which show off certain hints and techniques I don't have access to any kind of playtesting data but I can't imagine these video tutorials are particularly effective at training people how to play since games are interactive the ideal way to teach the player something isn't to show them it's to make them do it such techniques have been used in just about every Mario game and galaxy 2 is no exception a good example this time around are the planetoids the player uses when they battle Bowser this technique is actually learned much earlier in the stage when the player uses a planetoid to break a lock on a door later in the same level they have to break three locks which requires them to aim their shots carefully through clever design the player builds up the skill set they need for the boss as such the need for these TV screens should be quite minimal but I suppose since they're optional it's a harmless concession to make for the sake of accessibility the Japanese and European versions even went one step further and included a hilariously patronizing DVD which covers even more simple concepts press the a button on the Wii Remote to jump press the button while standing still and Mario will jump straight up hold the button longer for a higher jump press the button while running to jump in that direction you can use this to jump on enemies and other pets I'm not sure this thing was worth the plastic it was printed on but at least it doesn't get in the way of playing the game a more contentious inclusion is the cosmic guide mode which takes over and completes the level should the player decide to use it on the positive side these are actually even less intrusive than the TV screen since the player has to die a bunch of times before the option even presents itself in fact had I not read the manual or read about the game online I wouldn't even know it exists since I never did it during normal play that said I have encountered similar things in other games and being offered an easy way out due to too many failures can feel like an aggravating slap in the face there's also a sense of resentment that some players are getting stars and advancing through the game even though they may not have earned it as much as others personally I'd never opted to use a system like this as I think it defeats the purpose of playing in the first place it's tempting to say this kind of system should be thrown away never to be heard of again but the other side is worth considering too there's two major arguments for the cosmic guide that I'd like to examine when I agree with and one I don't first of all imagine a situation where a player has a disability which impedes their progress through the game for example it might hurt for them to shake their wrist too much which would make certain levels of galaxy to much more challenging than others if the player gets stuck halfway through the game because they can't shake their way past certain stages then they'll be locked out from the second half of the game that second half might contain some of their favorite levels if only they were allowed to play them at the end of the day the world map progress system is just an arbitrary lock on content which maybe shouldn't exist the next argument puts forward a similar idea but from a different position some would say that spending money on a game entitled supplier to experience all the content of that game and those arbitrary content locks are undesirable this makes some sense but I can't help but feel it's a very lazy attitude which would lead to poor game design to use an analogy this is kind of like saying that purchasing a book entitles you to understand all the themes subtext and complexities of that book in reality if a book is well-written it will probably have subtle hints and implications that will go over some readers heads new perspectives or insights might reveal themselves to the reader on subsequent readings so that the person who puts effort in is rewarded with a higher quality story whereas the lazy reader might only understand it at a more basic level there's no reason why the same shouldn't be true for games if the designer so wishes when given an easy choice a lot of players will just opt for the path of least resistance which could be very destructive in the long run if players are never forced to master any game mechanics then the fear is eventually games will become more and more simplified I sympathize with people who have genuine problems completing certain parts of games due to circumstances outside their control but I wish this system wasn't open to abuse by lazy players who would otherwise be able to complete it with a bit of effort all of this is to say if I were designing the next Mario game I wouldn't include the cosmic guide I think accessibility concerns can often be addressed through hardware or at least through other design techniques but I'm not really going to criticize this game for it either since it does have some legitimate uses this whole situation could have been avoided if galaxy 2 had stuck to the same unlock structure as before but instead it uses a world map more in line with the 2d installments of the series the number of bottlenecks the player has to go through to unlock more stages has hugely increased over galaxy one which already had more than Mario 64 on top of the Bowser stages which are all mandatory the first star of most worlds is unskipable as well this is much more restrictive than the previous games and while that's not necessarily a bad thing it doesn't seem like this structure is utilized particularly well in theory the more restrictive world map could allow for later stages to inherit challenges from earlier ones but this is rarely implemented one example where this is done well is with the Yoshi starring Alex II which is mandatory the first star here requires the player to use Yoshi so from this point on the level design can assume that the player is familiar with the ocean if we think of it this way then the first star in every world is the most important one from a design perspective because it's the only one we can be sure the player has to pick up in order to advance to really take advantage of this they should have made sure that the first stage in each world taught the players something new but unfortunately most of these stars are just traditional platforming challenges in world - the first stage is the puzzle plant galaxy which is actually one of my favorite stages but it doesn't require the player to learn any significant new techniques if they had swapped puzzle plank with the nearby hightail Falls galaxy then the rest of the game could have been built with the knowledge that the player was familiar with the red Yoshi powerup this would mean that level designers could then drop the red pepper into later levels safe in the knowledge that the player is familiar with it as for the power-ups themselves there's a few new inclusions this time around along with plenty of old ones if I had to guess one powerup that wouldn't be returning from the original galaxy it would definitely have been the spring so I was very surprised to see this again it seems a lot of people hated this one last time around and I can certainly understand where this comes from as I used to feel the same way myself after playing both galaxy games a couple of times the spring doesn't seem so bad to me since it's all about bouncing everywhere the focus is always on platforming when the spring suit comes into play granted it's a totally different kind of platforming than normal much more limited and easy to make mistakes with but it is platforming which is what Mario games should obviously be about if the spring had been missing from galaxy 2 I wouldn't have cared at all but I'd certainly say it's a more worthy inclusion than the new rock mushroom which only has one proper platforming section in the entire game part of the problem with the rock suit is the shaking motion required to activate it doesn't match its function but at least it shows how smartly the motion controls are integrated for most other things shaking to make Mario spin feels very natural since the spin is often utilized to correct and otherwise miss jump watch a completely novice player try any remotely complex game and they'll probably move themselves around a little when something unexpected happens of course most people quickly grow out of this habit but I think we all have a little bit of that in us which is what the spin jump capitalizes on the flip swap galaxy is particularly devious for this punishing players for relying on their instincts to save them it's also easy to see how throwing fireballs creating clouds are even using the drill lineup with the shaking motion the player is performing the player is mimicking Mario's actions in miniature or maybe I should say Mario is mimicking the player whatever way you think about it it just feels right when it comes to the rock powerup the side-to-side motion of shaking the Wiimote is somehow translated into a forward speed burst there's a disconnect here which makes it less satisfying than it should be and it doesn't help that most of what it accomplishes can also be done by the fire flower invincibility star or red Yoshi pepper with so many power-ups in play some of them were bound to be a little redundant cloud Mario is probably the best addition but its function overlaps quite heavily with the bee suit which itself overlaps somewhat with the boom mushroom they all allow the player to go higher or further than before and all have a floating feel to them thankfully the clouds don't interfere with Mario's core skill set which makes them a much more versatile and interesting tool this is put to good use during the Greenstar challenges where the player sometimes needs to do several long jumps or backflips while utilizing the clouds for footing this is why I don't think it was wise to bring the bee suit back for the newer game interestingly the cloud flower is balanced differently to any other Mario power of before it which makes it feel quite unique most suits either operate on a timer or last as long as the player avoids damage but the cloud one is resourced based instead this strikes a nice balance between the unlimited and timed power-ups it doesn't rush the player or feel restrictive but it also can't be exploited forever of course the most important powerup of all is Yoshi who makes a triumphant return here after a disappointing appearance in sunshine mapping Yoshi's Tong to the pointer is a particularly inspired touch which makes me wonder how they'll ever manage to top it in a post Wiimote world this allows the player to move in one direction while attacking with Yoshi in another direction without having to adjust the camera position in the process it's the kind of gameplay scenario the Wiimote excels at above other methods accomplishing something with ease which would have been very awkward to implement on a more traditional controller I've already talked about how Mario's movement mechanic have been simplified in the galaxy games so I won't get into that again except to point out that this is a large part of the reason why Yoshi fits better in galaxy 2 than sunshine the implementation is quite similar in both games but in galaxy 2 it's not a drastic step down from Mario's usual scale set relative to Mario Yoshi is a powerup again rather than a hindrance he can even swim this time I also particularly like what they did with the new Yoshi power-ups which instead of acting as a straight forward enhancement simply modify Yoshi's behavior this is a good way of differentiating the powers since Mario is a different entity tlg the player isn't given full control over their effects thanks to all these power-ups it's easy to remember galaxy 2 more for its gimmicky moments than its platforming but compared to the original there's a lot more pure platforming sections with instant death pits the flip swap galaxy beat block galaxy sweet mystery galaxy and many other sections conform to this style none of these stages utilize the gravity swap mechanics the galaxy games are known for instead they each integrate a small but significant twist of their own this is probably the largest and most successful change compared to the first game in the last video I praised the space junk galaxy 4 it's constantly changing objectives and mechanics they do a good job of keeping the player engaged but none of them focus on the jumping mechanics the Mario games are known for in galaxy 2 the unique mechanics in each stage are better integrated with the platforming this leads to a more consistent play style with the gravity swaps becoming just another tool to be used only when appropriate in some instances this drastically cuts down on the number of launch stars and other interruptions the player has to endure some of these stages are straight of platforming from beginning to end with no breaks in the middle something the original galaxy was sorely lacking thanks to these types of stages being more common the challenge has also increased compared to the previous game this may also be one of the benefits of the cosmic guide mode with an easy way for players to progress the level designers can safely push the difficulty further than before while galaxy 1 had several planets which felt similar to the level layouts in Mario 64 these are almost entirely absent from galaxy 2 apart from one obvious exception the Trobe a galaxy was a weird in interesting choice for inclusion in this game since it feels quite out of place compared to the other more focused stages I get the impression some level designer at Nintendo just started putting this together to see if they could and eventually it got included in the final product although it's very novel to walk on the underside of a level from Mario 64 this stage otherwise doesn't really do anything new even the boss fight is roughly similar to the one from nearly 15 years earlier with so few changes to the original layout it ends up feeling quite tame in comparison to the newer stages but there's an even better comparison of how the series has evolved over time to see just how much the galaxy games focus on platforming you need only look at the Haunted Mansion levels and compare them to the earlier levels of the same type in 64 and Sunshine B is often focused on puzzle solving but the later games just trow the player into platforming scenarios instead makes me wonder why these are even visually themed the way they are other than the need to keep with tradition this is one of the problems with the Mario games and some might even say Nintendo in general although they're more than capable of thinking outside the box in some ways their series become somewhat rigid with certain conventions becoming deeply ingrained for seemingly no reason being a direct sequel there are some attempts to fix the problems of galaxy 1 but they're only a moderate success the best fix made in this version is the introduction of comet metals which accomplished several things they reward players for exploring the stages more thoroughly and executing more difficult techniques they give the player a clear indication of how to trigger the appearance of new comets which also means the Comets are now permanent rather than temporary even the comet objectives themselves have been improved in most cases the speedrun challenges being a particularly good example by starting off on a low amount of time and placing time pickups throughout the environment this gives the player more to consider as they make their way around these challenges in the original often had several minutes of time on the clock but in galaxy 2 it is a better sense of constant pressure similarly the cosmic clones are used to apply pressure to otherwise simple tasks last time around cosmic Mario was used for races but in reality this isn't significantly different than just asking the player to do something under a time constraint if you put a time limit on a level then the play we'll try to complete it as efficiently as possible turning it into a one-man race in galaxies to the cosmic clones modify the gameplay in a way no other element does by forcing the player to carefully consider how they navigate the area this is especially effective since the team have chosen suitable missions to include these on the chump work stage is interesting enough the first time true but with the addition of cosmic clones it becomes downright genius as well as fixing most of the issues with the Comets there's also been an attempt to address the problem with coins instead of asking for star bits the Lumas within stages now ask for coins instead on the surface this seems like a good idea but since routes to the level are mutually exclusive the player doesn't have an incentive to pick up coins the first time true when collecting the first star the player can keep an eye out for a hungry luma and if they see one then they know when they reenter the stage they should collect coins I have to commend the team for at least recognizing that coins need more utility but the ideal solution should encourage the player to collect coins all the time not just under certain circumstances galaxy 2 clearly benefits from being a sequel but some other outstanding issues have gone completely unchanged the camera isn't any better than before although at least it hasn't gotten any worse similarly the intros and outros to each stage follow the same formula as before but this ends up becoming a crippling oversight during regular play these are less than ideal but tolerable when the green stars come into play they quickly cross the line to intolerable and stay there for a very long time I suppose this is as much an issue with the green stars themselves as it is with the structure of the game but whatever way you choose the frame at the end result is the same since some of the green stars are near the start of the stages the player can collect them within seconds of commencing gameplay only to be kicked back out of this age and left to wait on a lengthy and boring process before they can start on the next star let's walk through this step-by-step from the moment the player completes the stage in this case we'll be using Luigi for a change first of all there's an animation where Luigi grabs a star then an animation where he flies back to the spaceship after this several menus pop up four star bits and coins the game also saves itself the player then needs to stand on the switch to get back to the world map they then need to select the level which triggers an animation of Luigi leaving the ship once the level menu comes up and alert plays to let the player know what comet is available after which they get to select which star they want the star spins for a moment and the camera pans over the stage for several seconds highlighting important areas there's then an animation where Luigi flies through space and lands on the stage after a short landing delay the play resumes gameplay if this part of the video bored you just keep in mind we only steps through this once to achieve 100% completion this process needs to be repeated about 240 times it takes upwards of 45 seconds each time sometimes a full minute and none of it is skippable in other words if you achieved 100% completion then you spent roughly three hours just navigating the menus and that's the absolute lowest estimate now to be fair there are two parts in this which are understandable the first is the autosave which is an improvement from galaxy since it no longer wastes time with a prompt the second is the moment to star spins before the level appears as this is most likely a load time after that the level is loaded so all of the remaining moments can be skipped but only if you're replaying a star this is the biggest oversight here even though the green star introductions are exactly the same as the other ones the game still locks you into watching them if you're clever you can get around this by selecting the same green star each time but this can backfire if one of the later stars happens to be on an entirely different path I want to like these green star challenges since some of them are placed in genuinely clever locations but the menu system turns them into an absolute chore of course it doesn't help that for every clever or challenging green star there's at least one completely mundane or pointless one this one in the cosmic Cove galaxy is particularly insulting there's no difference between collect these two stars it's just asking the player to go through the same stage again for no reason others can be a little cheap too like these ones in the sand slide galaxy where the camera positioning prevents you from seeing the stars until you've already missed them it comes across as padding which is especially bizarre since galaxy 2 has more stages than any order 3d Mario before it it really didn't need anything else to extend its length in theory I have no issue with the designers dropping some extra collectibles into the stages but it becomes a problem when the very last stage is locked away behind all these stars this problem also existed in galaxy 1 and in some ways it was even worse their last time around this consisted of completing the entire game again as Luigi with no alterations personally I see it as a bigger problem in galaxy 2 because as a sequel it should have been able to fix such a simple problem but also because it sets expectations differently in galaxy 1 obtaining 120 stars just gives a simple prompt at the end that you can now play as Luigi completing the game again gives the player the bonus stage as a secret reward in galaxy 2 the map is obviously missing the final stage and the green stars show up as separate objectives for the player to complete so there's a sense that the game remains unfinished until all of that stuff is collected it's a small but significant difference and not the only time that galaxy 2 fails to live up to its own hype after finishing Bowser for the first time the player is allowed to access the special world and emerge to the special stages in Super Mario World which contains some of that game's most interesting and challenging levels unfortunately the special world in galaxy 2 is made up almost entirely of recycled content the first stage is a simple one from the forest galaxy the second is original but a mini game rather than platforming the third comes from sunshine and the next to come from the first galaxy game meaning only the very last to our original platforming stages in theory a bit of recycled content shouldn't hurt this game but the special world sets expectations of something better then fails to meet them if these stages had just been scattered through the game in each of the other world maps there would be nothing to complain about but as it is now they constitute a bit of a letdown on a similar note it's disappointing that the final Bowser battle doesn't change significantly from the previous two this time around he ends up getting upstaged by his son who at least has some interesting contraptions to play around with although the Bowser bottles have that traumatic galaxy flare to them there's no good reason to repeat them three times without any significant changes it probably would have made more sense to save Bowser for the final moments this time around it may not feel as climactic as the previous game but of course it could have been much worse much like the rest of galaxy 2 the ending follows in the footsteps of its predecessor for better and worse in general it's hard to be as excited about anything in galaxy 2 as it was for galaxy 1 it may be full of novel new stages and mechanics of its own but the overall experience is very similar to last time around whether you see this as a problem or not will largely depend on your point of view but galaxy 2 started its development as a special edition of galaxy 1 and it shows apparently after seeing how many new ideas the team had Miyamoto urged them to spin it off into its own entity rather than re-release of the first game you can easily still see it as an expansion pack though played back-to-back to two games essentially form one really long platformer which gets a bit easier in the middle I don't blame the team for wanting to revisit the galaxy concept but it definitely loses a little something in the process this game has never left us strong and impression on me as the previous one but looking back carefully over both titles it's probably the better of the two if galaxy 2 had been released first this might be more clear personally I may prefer the more open level designs of Mario 64 but galaxy 2 is very focused in its linearity and this style of platforming works better with the galaxy controls anyway terribly implemented green stars aside there is less repetition and an even greater focus on platforming than before there's as many novelties packed in as last time and this time around they're woven together with the platforming instead of happening one after the other while galaxy was a giant leap away from 64 in sunshine galaxy 2 is more like a few small steps further in that direction as a result it's a more focused and polished experience but not quite a journey into the unknown in the next video we'll be donning our cat suits and playing with each other in Super Mario 3d World so I hope you'll join me then thanks for watching

Channel: Matthewmatosis

Views: 356,481

Rating: 4.9038553 out of 5

Keywords: review, analysis, critique, retrospective, comparison, mario 64, mario sunshine, mario galaxy, mario 3d world, super mario 64, super mario sunshine, super mario galaxy, super mario 3d world, platformer

Id: haz4uoY2jYA

Length: 24min 37sec (1477 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 22 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/AgeMarkus]

I liked the video, but I'm a bit surprised that he didn't mention the bronze stars while talking about the cosmic guide. He even has some dialogue about it pop up on screen.

Completing any star with the cosmic guide gives you a bronze star instead of a gold star, which is a constant reminder that you haven't completed the level properly, and gives you an incentive to return and finish the level later on. I think the final level also requires you to collect all power stars, and stays locked if you've only gotten bronze stars. That way, "cheating" is visible on any screen showing you your stars on the various levels, like the pause menu's star count of the various levels, and using the guide locks you out of 100% completion.

Super Mario 3D Land has a different way to reward good players, but it's done pretty poorly and unfairly. Dying more than 5 times on any level makes the stars on your save game profile dull, and there's no way to revert it. IMO, a very bad idea.

[u/Qwertyguy]

I must admit, back when Mario Galaxy 1 came out I played the absolute shit out of it all the way to the end and loved every bit of it (I played it all the way through as Luigi, too).

However, when I took on SMG2 I was getting a serious case of deja vu, I really didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much and stopped after the pointless green stars appeared. So as much as it pains me to admit, I can see exactly what he means in this video.

[u/Mr_Ivysaur]

I guess that I understand now one of the reasons why I prefer Mario Galaxy 1 over than 2.

I actually liked the galaxy themed stuff, the transition between each area of the stage. And it was kind removed from Galaxy 2, since it focus more on platforming. And some levels barely use the "gravity gimmick" at all.

I don't want straightforward platforming with few gimmicks. I actually liked all the space vibe from Galaxy.

[u/IAmAStory]

I honestly believe Galaxy 2 is the best Mario game ever made, probably among my top 5 games ever made. So, there's my bias.

I feel like this video was horrifically nit-picky. Complaining about tiny details and edge-cases as if they are representative of an overall experience--like the Cosmic Guide thing, it "devalues" your efforts to know that someone can get the star for free? Are you really that vain that that even crosses your mind when playing a single-player game?

Super Mario Galaxy 2 has some of the best, if not the best, and most varied platforming available. Almost every level takes the player on a seamless journey through learning a mechanic, mastering the mechanic, and achieving their goal, and nearly every level introduces something new in this way. I simply can't believe how many people say they got bored of the game feeling it was "more of the same" from the first galaxy. It seems crazy to me.

SMG 2 is also a pretty challenging game. The later stages and special versions of stages can be pretty tough, and super satisfying to play. Failure isn't frustrating because gameplay/gamefeel is so tight, it never really feels like the game is fucking you over...you do it to yourself.

In this video, he says: "I don't blame the team for wanting to revisit the Galaxy concept, but it definitely loses a little something in the process" but two seconds later says "looking back carefully over both titles, it's probably the better of the two." So we agree that the only thing worse about the game is that it lacks the "wow-factor" we got from Galaxy 1's setting the first time around.

But is there a valid criticism there? It's a 3D Mario game that doesn't do something new; Mario 64 was 3d (wow!), Sunshine had Fludd (cool!), Galaxy had gravity weirdness (neat!)...and Galaxy 2 has...more gravity weirdness? (Hmm...) So sure, it's less memorable, but that's because it refines the concept of the previous game, and refining the idea lead to the creation of a tremendously better game. So by that logic it is pretty much the perfect sequel, and it refines and polishes so well that it ends up being one of the greatest games ever made.

And that's a snippet of my feelings about super mario galaxy 2.

[u/[deleted]]

Nice, always great to see another Matthewmatosis video, and his videos on the Mario series, especially Galaxy 1, have been great. It seems like a lot of the issues with the sequel are oversights (like the green star challenges or the relative uselessness of coins), but the core platforming is still solid.

[u/[deleted]]

This review wasn't as interesting as I had hoped. I thought there would be a little more compare and contrast. I got bored with the Super Guide and other guide review. Worrying about if other people beat the game in easy mode isn't really a concern for me, and like other people have pointed out, the game gives you a bronze star, so you have motivation to go back and make it gold.

I'm really looking forward to the next review though. SM3DW was a game I thought looked like a disappointing successor to the Galaxy games but turned out to be a really fun surprise. I liked about as much as the Galaxy games, if not a bit more. The gameplay feels a ton different with a much bigger emphasis on platforming, jumping on enemies, and powerups. I think this will give him a lot more to talk about and give some of his clever insights since it's a lot more complicated than a quasi-expansion pack.

[u/[deleted]]

I think this is the weakest video in his series. It seems like all he did in this one was whine about how similar it was to the previous game and about macro factors like level selection and help systems.

I much prefer how in ealier videos he analyzed level structure, gameplay elements, and control schemes. You know, the actual GAME part of the game.

Maybe he's getting a little burned out on Mario.

EDIT: Look, I get that's his point, that it's almost the same game. But it shouldn't take 25 minutes to say that and it's just not an interesting thing to say in the first place, we all know that.

[u/Jademalo]

For anyone who hasn't seen his videos before, Matthewmatosis is doing a series of extremely in depth reviews on the 3D Mario games. He has also done a series on the 3D Zelda games, which was extremely well done.

The entire series is very much worth a watch, and he raises some very interesting points.

[u/Ced1214]

Nice! I loved his other reviews, I can't wait to get into this one. He really knows how to show the brilliance contained within the Mario series.