Topic: Best of the Wii: Super Mario Galaxy 2

[NWR_Josh]

Another helping of Mario's best stuff.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/connectivity/31891

Mario's second excursion to the stars was just too good to leave out of our list of the best first-party Wii games. 

Hear Josh, J.P., and Mike Gamin discuss what makes Galaxy 2 worthy of the No. 4 spot!

[AV]

I thought this would be higher, I wonder if the original will outrank it. ( Haven't listened to it yet)


I love this game

[John E G]

I also got to 241 stars in 2010 and just got pissed off at the no checkpoint 1 hit kill last star.  I ended up watching my girlfriend play Super Mario Galaxy a few months ago and got the itch to finish what I started.  It took many tries, but I got that 242 star. 


This has got to be the hardest level ever created for a Mario game.  Half the battle is just the fear of the one hit to failure.  If you put it out of mind and play normally, you'll probably find that your chances for success will increase.

[HeyItsMe]

For the last star try using Luigi instead of Mario. It's not any easier but his jumps helps through the level

[Pixelated Pixies]

I got 242 stars in the original but the Grand Master Dare Devil run in the second game destroyed my cool facade. I cursed, I threw, I give up, I came back, I give up, I came back. So difficult. In the end I just couldn't do it. The fun was in the trying though...*twitch*

[Ceric]

I got 242 stars in the original but the Grand Master Dare Devil run in the second game destroyed my cool facade. I cursed, I threw, I give up, I came back, I give up, I came back. So difficult. In the end I just couldn't do it. The fun was in the trying though...*twitch*

I have a game for you called FTL...

[broodwars]

I was wondering how far up the list the $50 Super Mario Galaxy Expansion Pack would go.  I wouldn't have placed the game this high, but I did like the game a lot more than the original SMG.  If only I could have played this game with a normal controller, I probably would have liked it better.

[Pixelated Pixies]

I would have placed it on top. Galaxy 2 was a tour de force. Without a doubt my favourite game this generation.

[Ceric]

Personally enjoy Galaxy 1 a lot more than 2.

[Kytim89]

This would have been my favorite Wii game had it not been for thise stupid time trial levels and that one level with the spring suit that required you to bounce over those wrecking balls.

[Pixelated Pixies]

This would have been my favorite Wii game had it not been for thise stupid time trial levels and that one level with the spring suit that required you to bounce over those wrecking balls.

That raises an interesting question. Should you judge a game on it's entire content, or rather on the amount of enjoyment you took from it? I for instance really enjoyed Monster Hunter Tri. When it got too difficult I simply stopped playing. Had I forced myself to play all the way through the latter, more difficult hunts, I would have probably hated those sections.

Instead, however, I played those sections which I thought enjoyable and avoided the rest. I might not have accessed all the content but I had at least 100 hours of enjoyment.
 
I guess what I'm asking is, can the difficult (but optional) time trails of Galaxy 2 really detract from your appreciation of the game? Would the game really be made better by their removal?

[Kytim89]

This would have been my favorite Wii game had it not been for thise stupid time trial levels and that one level with the spring suit that required you to bounce over those wrecking balls.

That raises an interesting question. Should you judge a game on it's entire content, or rather on the amount of enjoyment you took from it? I for instance really enjoyed Monster Hunter Tri. When it got too difficult I simply stopped playing. Had I forced myself to play all the way through the latter, more difficult hunts, I would have probably hated those sections.

Instead, however, I played those sections which I thought enjoyable and avoided the rest. I might not have accessed all the content but I had at least 100 hours of enjoyment.
 
I guess what I'm asking is, can the difficult (but optional) time trails of Galaxy 2 really detract from your appreciation of the game? Would the game really be made better by their removal?

Do not get me wrong, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is one of the best games I have ever played, but those parts that I am stuck do not make sense to me. My enjoyment of the game is hindered by the fact that I can not complete a few time trials, and a few challenging levels. What Nintendo should have done was to allow the option to opt out of the more challenging parts in the form of a super guide or something. The time trials would give you the star and you could return later if you wanted to make it on your own steam. As a penalty, some kind of reward would be upheld from you.
 
I have invested about fourty hours into the game with sixty-eight stars and I am near the final level, but the time trials keep me from earning more stars. I could easily invest another fifty hours into the game, but alas, it seems like that is not likely. 

[Pixelated Pixies]

What Nintendo should have done was to allow the option to opt out of the more challenging parts in the form of a super guide or something. The time trials would give you the star and you could return later if you wanted to make it on your own steam. As a penalty, some kind of reward would be upheld from you.

I don't know, man. Don't you already have the choice to opt out of the more challenging parts of the game? You can simply ignore the time trails if you want. A Super Guide might also have let you bypass those sections, but in a less efficient way.
 
Anyway, it's an interesting question. I think I tend to judge games based on my experience with them rather than all the content available (primarilly because I often ignore whole modes and sections in games). I didn't touch The Last Story multiplayer for instance. Not even once. If that mode was terrible (which from accounts it isn't) would that depreciate the value of the game for me? Probably not, because I got more than enough enjoyment from the story mode.
 
If there were sections of a game which could be said to be compulsory, however, then those of course must be considered in valuating the game. I guess the question is, where do you draw that line? What might be thought of as compulsory by one person might be optional to another.

[Kytim89]

What Nintendo should have done was to allow the option to opt out of the more challenging parts in the form of a super guide or something. The time trials would give you the star and you could return later if you wanted to make it on your own steam. As a penalty, some kind of reward would be upheld from you.

I don't know, man. Don't you already have the choice to opt out of the more challenging parts of the game? You can simply ignore the time trails if you want. A Super Guide might also have let you bypass those sections, but in a less efficient way.
 
Anyway, it's an interesting question. I think I tend to judge games based on my experience with them rather than all the content available (primarilly because I often ignore whole modes and sections in games). I didn't touch The Last Story multiplayer for instance. Not even once. If that mode was terrible (which from accounts it isn't) would that depreciate the value of the game for me? Probably not, because I got more than enough enjoyment from the story mode.
 
If there were sections of a game which could be said to be compulsory, however, then those of course must be considered in valuating the game. I guess the question is, where do you draw that line? What might be thought of as compulsory by one person might be optional to another.

Mario has always been a traditional platforming game. Those time trilaed levels detract from what the game is meant for: challenging platforms. Nintendo must have thought of those kind of levels as sald dressing. There is always an option to eat the sald plain. This is what I want from this game. I wanted to be able to play straight through the story and come back to the time trials later.

[Sundoulos]

I finally got around to listening to a few more of these.  Galaxy 2 is still my favorite game on the Wii.  It outshines the original Galaxy since the boss battles tend to lean a bit harder, but I sort of enjoy the atmosphere and music from the first game a little more.  I still like to hum the themes from Battlerock and Buoy Base quite a bit; while the music from Galaxy 2 is also superb, I have a more difficult time remembering it.

As for future installments, I've wondered a lot about where the series might go from here.  Will continue to focus on a smaller setting, such as Super Mario 3D Land or a setting more like Super Mario 64?  I know it won't happen, but now would be an excellent time for them to bring Mario back to a setting like the Dream World subcon (like in Super Mario USA or the western version of SMB2).  I think that a dream world setting could be sufficiently varied and abstract enough to continue the crazy world design that the Super Mario Galaxy series sports.  Plus, re-exploring other villains such as Wart, Birdo, and Mouser would hit the nostalgia button for many of us older Mario fans who grew up playing and loving SMB2.  (When it was released, I knew nothing of the game's true origins.)  Getting away from the Bowser and Bowser Jr. as the main villains would help the game seem a little more fresh and interesting.  I think the western markets would eat it up, but that's just IMHO.

[Mop it up]

It's a great game for sure, but I give the first game the nod largely due to being first. Super Mario Galaxy 2 definitely has some great level design, but since it uses the same mechanics and ideas as the first game, I already know how to tackle everything. I also kind of missed some of the larger levels from the original. Oh, and the recycled content in the game was a big letdown, especially since much of it was in the special world. All in all, both great games, but I enjoyed the original more since it was much more of a fresh experience.