Super Mario Galaxy 2: A review from 4EVER

In 2007 there was a game which shook the Nintendo Wii's game pile like nothing it had ever seen before. That game, was the original Super Mario Galaxy. But three years later, Nintendo finally released the sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and it was awesome!

Very well designed.

For starters, Galaxy 2 looks amazing. The amount of detail, design and colour put into everything gives the whole world a lush, vibrant feel, much more so than the original. This is by far the best looking game on the system, thanks to the fantastic art direction and effort poured in to making the world look so fantastic. Some of the water, sky and lava effects are the best you will ever see in this generation of console. What also helps Galaxy 2's presentation is the design of the numerous locals across the many galaxy's you traverse. Unlike Super Mario Sunshine which sticks to a tropical Island theme, Galaxy 2 has a huge amount of different locations from beaches, to sandy planes, to volcanoes, to grassy fields, to intergalactic spaceships and even a toybox themed galaxy.
The story is....well, it's Mario. Bowser kidnaps Peach and Mario has to save her. Big shock right? The only real twist is that Bowser has been doing some serious nomming and is now the size of a small planet. Cool?

I can't actually continue with this review without mentioning the soundtrack. It's probably the best ever produced from a Mario game, almost as good as Zelda.

Onward to the gameplay. Galaxy 2 takes pretty much all of its mechanics from the original, which in turn takes most of it from Super Mario 64. But Galaxy 2 has a greatly improved camera to go with the action, making the game much less frustrating. You will be doing some awesome platforming and some fantastic boss battles. There are also some sections which see you using the Wii remote to maneuver. One example of this is holding the remote like a flight stick to steer a ball. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of these levels, but they are pretty interesting. There are several new power-ups in the game like cloud Mario and Rock Mario...trust me, it's cool. All of these powers make for some great and diverse gameplay. But the real star is Yoshi. He makes an impact in the Galaxy series, bringing with him the powers of the second jump and the ever awesome, swallow, spit, kill technique. He also has his own little fruits which he can eat to make for more variety in the gameplay. He has a fruit which gives him gas (flight) a fruit which allows him to see in the dark and of course the "OHMYGODTHISFRAKINGFRUITISSOFREAKINHOTWHYDIDIFERAKINGEATTHIS!" fruit (my favourite) It makes him run fast.

So much to do, so little time....

What impresses me most about this game is the sheer amount of variety that is present in each level. There will be one level where you have to eat a glow fruit, then quickly rush to the next one because you will fall through the ground if you don't have the fruit. There will be one level where you have to collect 100 purple coins off platforms which disappear once you touch them and you are being chased by clones which copy your exact movements and if you touch them you take damage. There will be one level where you have to fight five bosses in five minutes while only being able to take 1 hit. Yeah, hetic. And once you've finished all 120 levels, you have the green stars, which are...well, you'll just have to find out for yourself. Rest assure, there are a total of 242 stars to collect.


Super Mario Galaxy 2 is possibly the best game on Wii and without a doubt, a truly fantastic Mario game. You must own this game, if you don't already. 4EVER out.