Super Mario Galaxy 2 Review 07-27-2011 - by Dante Alexander, Staff Mumbler How does Super Mario Galaxy 2 stack up against its predecessors?
Each Super Mario game has always seemed to have an original new touch. We've been introduced to the 2D format of the original games, to the classic approach that was taken in Super Mario 64, and finally when Nintendo seemed to have run out of formats, they simply took in in a crazy new direction with Super Mario Sunshine. Now, I can't exactly be sure how they came up with the last one- "Hey guys, let's make it like Mario 64, but he's going to shoot water out of a backpack and clean stuff..." -but despite what seems like the strangest creative process in the Mario series, it still sticks to the point I'm making about bringing in something completely new around every corner.
...and so now we come to the Super Mario Galaxy games.
This one in particular.
Now, at a glance you would think this game to be pretty innovative, and it's true that they do add a lot of interesting stuff, but it seems to me that they're only painting a thin layer of originality over their old formats. The gameplay varies, but overall it plays very much like the Nintendo 64 title, while still going into the occasional side-view reminiscent of the original Super Mario Bros. games. Nintendo seems to have gone with the safe road on this one and decided, let's just release a game everyone's already played, but with a bunch of extra features.
This game had a mildly interesting concept, I guess, and the whole idea of jumping from planet to planet seemed pretty cool, but this game got old fast. All of these new features, new power-ups, and new abilities give only a momentary satisfaction until you realize that- if you're playing a game formatted so similarly to Mario 64, you might as well just go back and play Mario 64. There's nothing all that interesting about this game that its predecessors didn't have, and I was massively unimpressed by this after the initial excitement of playing a game wore off. Oh but sure, all of you Mario fans reading this are probably going to be complaining about the gravity and the planets and what not, but we'll get to that next.
Pictured: the "gravity and planets and what not" that we're about to get to.
Many gamers are surely going to be foaming rabidly at the mouth over this. The SMG games featured some interestingly designed levels, I'm not going to argue with that. The thing is, however, that these experiments with gravity end up being much more of a pain than an interesting addition after a while. After the novelty of it all wears off (I'd give you about three worlds before this would happen) it becomes a nuisance to have an ever changing format- where you may fall off of some planets, you might just orbit others harmlessly -and with worlds that can go upside-down and sideways, the game tends to yield far more frustrating puzzles than Mario 64 ever did. And as much as I like a good in-game puzzle, if I wanted this much of a headache I'd just go play Portal 2, because at least that would be satisfying.
Another issue with the complex schemes of gravity is that is lessens your ability to control Mario or Luigi. There are occasions where something as simple as jumping onto an enemy becomes a frustratingly tricky endevour, with the gravity changing at the very last second and just in time to ruin everything you were trying to accomplish. And god forbid you were trying to get past an irritating boss battle while having to switch constantly between being normal and being right side up.
This isn't the asshole I was thinking of specifically, but he gets a dishonorable mention just the same.
Also there arises another strange problem with boss battles: the difficulty curve. Now call me old fashioned, but I kind of like the levels to get harder as I progress. That definitely isn't the case here. Instead we're treated to early bosses that much harder to defeat- and therefore infuriating -than even the bosses very late on in the game. Fighting Bowser was nothing, but damn if I could get past that burrowing dragon-looking-thing without dying.
And lastly I would have to bring up the level of creativity. This one gets both point for good and bad, as I found that the worlds were much more plentiful, diverse, and interesting than they had ever been before- but this was brought down by the fact that there were only 2-3 playable levels in each world (as opposed to the 8 you would get in Mario 64) and oftentimes one of them will be a timed repeat of a level you have already played. I can't fully say that I blame them for this, though: after designing dozens of completely unique looking worlds, I probably would have run out of ideas too.
Overall this game isn't bad, but it's becoming painfully evident that Nintendo can't do anything that wasn't already twice as fun on the Nintendo 64. For all they tried to add to the original format, you wont be as entranced by this game as you will be mildly amused, and halfway through the game you will be longing to play the old school Mario games instead.Though very impressive in many areas, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is hardly without its drawbacks, and deserves a 5.5 rating out of 10. And just to put this into perspective, I think Mario 64 would deserve an 8.5 out of 10. So don't get fooled by the impressive new features in Galaxy: unless you are very casual and indifferent about what game you play, I suggest going the retro route, pulling out your dusty, old game systems of console-generations past, and go for the classic Mario games instead.
