Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2 Viewers)

[Greg_S_H]

Did the Purple Coin Tree Slide. I agree with you about the sea manta thing, and the similar water skiing from Sunshine, but I really enjoy this tree slide. The 40 coin margin of error was enough to make it fun. If you had needed every coin, it would have been unbearable. Not to say I didn't die a few times in the attempt.


I won't mind if the mantas are not in ths game.

 

[Hanson]

Here's a quintessential Mario moment:


I struggled with Boss of the grand star level in the 5th world for 40 minutes -- because of the 1UP loop at the save point, you can practically go on indefinitely. I eventually quit that level and went to bed. The next day, I fire up SMG2, jump into it again, and proceed to earn the star without even dying.


So after racking up 58 stars in 5 days, it looks like it will take me at least another week to beat the game. Probably one or two stars day at this rate.

Shit started gettin' REAL.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I opened up World 4 and have about 52 stars (I think--I didn't look closely at the number last time). I have crowns on all of World 1, but no message about the World being finished. I guess that's because of the green stars and whatnot.

 

[Hanson]

I got over 70 stars and will go after Bowser later today. My original estimate of one week for getting to the end was blown out of the water when I discovered that World 6 is, on the whole, easier than World 5. Aside from one devilishly tricky clockwork level, the rest of the world wasn't really all that challenging. But lots of fun stuff including a throwback level from Mario 64 that had me smiling throughout.

 

[Brown00]

Super Mario is one of the best video games. With the added features, it has become more exciting and adventurous.

 

[Hanson]

So after one week and an accumulated playtime of 22 hours, I got to the end credits. I am at stalled at 95, and I might be able to get to 100, but 110 is looking more and more remote. And 120 is not gonna happen.


I said before that this was like SMG 1.5, and I stand by that. In terms of pure enjoyment, SMG2 can't beat the first game because the first game was so fresh and new -- the second game, while more polished and offering more challenges to the gamer, isn't offering me a play mechanic that absolutely wows me. In fact, some of the new play mechanics introduce control issues that ruin them a bit. Take Yoshi, for example. I'd Z-jump to get extra jumping height while riding Yoshi, only to dismount at an inopportune time because the same button combo controls both functions. Cloud Mario had a similar problem -- I'd shake the controller to get extra air in my jumps only to have a cloud form under me. In Flip Switch, shaking flips the tiles from red to blue -- lots of dying as the tile under me disappears. They could have utilized the unused C button on the chuck to accomplish any of these functions. Its a bit of a design flaw to change the controls within levels like that.


But the hub world is much better (I wasted a lot of time in SMG just accessing levels) and there's a lot more variety in level design. It was a great ride, and I hope to accomplish a bit more before I move on to the next game, but I'm a bit puzzled as to how it got so many perfect scores from gaming sites, especially from sites that didn't give the first iteration the same due. I wouldn't say SMG2 is any less fun than SMG, but I would not say it was really any more fun. Although, don't tell my wife that -- she got 20 or so stars in the first one but quit SMG2 in frustration after just one. It's definitely more challenging this time around, but I think more so for beginners than SMG vets.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I'd agree that it would seem to be a little too much of the same for a reviewer and don't understand why they gave 10s, but I'm glad it got it. IGN, in particular, seems to have a generally low regard for the Wii, so it was nice seeing them offer some praise.


I actually like the SMG hub better, but the SMG2 one is fine. I think the Flip Switch thing was kind of the point--they wanted you to have to rewire your brain to not do a shake to get extra distance. If they had just assigned a button, there wouldn't have been any challenge to that at all.


I haven't made any progress at all since you went on to finish the game. My last play time, I just picked up some comets and a challenge offered by one of those robots. No real forward movement.


If it was up to me, Super Mario Galaxy would be a permanent branch from the Mario 3D line. We'd get SMG3, 4, etc. as long as it was fresh, and we'd also get brand new 3D games along the 64-->Sunshine line.

 

[Hanson]

I've always been of the mind that making you fight the controls is a cheap way to generate gameplay. That's why levels like the ball rolling, slides, and the gliding are my least favorite parts of the game -- you're just trying to reign in out of control controls. Oddly enough, I loved the fiery pepper levels.


As a side note, I was running through the throwback galaxy at top speed, even over narrow planks. As I recall, I had to tiptoe over the same places in SM64 to keep from fallling off. Maybe I'm better at this now, but I think it's really because the controls in SMG2 are soooo tight.


And yes, I wouldn't really mind a new SMG every couple of years. Or even DLC for SMG2. But those levels better be AMAZING.


BTW, I goofed in the above post -- I had 85 stars at the time I wrote that, not 95.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Yeah, the ball and especially the manta rays pretty much suck. Well, the ball is sort of cool in a Marble Madness kind of way, but I lose patience with it quickly. My least favorite thing in either game is probably that dandelion thing you float with. That really pissed me off.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Well, this game was kicking my ass last night. First of all, I got to a second one of those "burn the trash" areas, and was stuck there for nearly half an hour. It's at least better with a fire flower than bombs like in the first game, but I was still about to smash the TV. Then, I was going for the hidden star in Boo Moon with Luigi and kept dying over and over. I didn't even realize how close the star was at the end, but his propensity for continuing to move forward even when you stop was sending him into the black goo a lot. Then, I went to the Prankster version of the Flip to the Beat level. I wasn't stuck as long as the other two, and it was fun, but I did die a good number of times.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Next up for me is the Mario 64 throwback level, so I decided to get in some Mario 64 time. I started from scratch and ended up going four hours and 17 minutes. When I first played it over several days, I only got 14 stars. Tonight, I got almost 30. I don't think I really got the concept of replaying the levels several times for stars when I first got it. It was a lot more fun this time.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I've got 105 stars and am ready for the last level. There is, however, one more star left in the Slimy Spring Galaxy. Is that second star only available after the game is beaten, or am I missing how to activate it? I know I have to wait for a letter, but it doesn't seem to be forthcoming. I don't want to continue if I can get this star first.


By the way, this is a beautiful level. The cave you fly through at the beginning is awesome, and then you emerge from the final cavern into that breathtaking sunrise. Incredible.

 

[Greg_S_H]

With almost exactly 24 hours of gameplay, I finished the game and then got the last two regular stars in World 6. Now, it's on to the Special World and whatever else is ahead.

 

[Hanson]

Slow and steady wins the race again!


I'm stuck at 92 stars and had neither the skills nor the self-control to complete all the stars before venturing the next world.


I think (hope) that I can get to 100 stars using a guide (I'm hoping there are patterns I can use for a couple of the levels). But 110 is out of reach for me.


Out of curiosity, how different are the green star levels? Are they the same levels with increased challenges or are they newly designed levels?

 

[Greg_S_H]

I'm not the best one to answer, since I haven't ventured onward yet, but I believe the green stars are just hidden somewhere in a level. I was curious about them a while back, so I looked at a guide and it said something like, "The green star in the slide level is hidden in the branches of a tree," or something like that. It seemed like they were hidden and that there could be three of them in a level.

 

[Hanson]

Did they ever release cheat codes for SMG? I hope there are cheats for SMG2. I mean, I'd love to play all of the locked levels without "deserving to" considering I paid for them and all.


EDIT: Is there a way you can use someone else's save file on your Wii? Like if someone who unlocked everything saved their file to the memory card, copied that off in Windows, and I reversed the process. Or is the save file locked to the specific console like Wiiware?


And if so, can someone email me one ;-)

 

[Greg_S_H]

Did you get the Special World just for beating the game? I thought that was the only requirement. I saw that the first level was that damned Mario shape and died inside.


It looks like green stars aren't unlocked until you beat Bowser a second time with 120 stars.


From the gamefaqs cheats page, it looks like there aren't any codes.

 

[Hanson]

S-World is available right after defeating Bowser in world 6.


Oh, and that Mario shaped one is actually pretty easy -- I defeated on my very first try. The comet version? Uhh... not so much.


Yeah, the green stars are only opened after 120 stars are collected. That's not gonna happen for me.


I can safely say that SMG2 is harder than SMG. I got to 108 stars the first time. This time, I might eke out 100 if I refer to playing guides, but even that's a shaky proposition.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Is one of the ones you're stuck on the chimp challenge in Honeyhop? I hated that one. Give me just five more seconds, Nintendo, and it would be reasonable. As it is, it made me scream like that German kid trying to play Unreal Tournament.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I think you can download save files from GameFAQs to an SD card and replace existing ones. That said, getting to 120 stars isn't that hard, but the remaining 120 after that are. And yes, the green stars are just randomly hidden in the regular levels.