I’ve said before that although Super Mario Galaxy is a fantastic game, it isn’t as good as Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. I was never able to really put my finger on why, though, until this playthrough. There’s three main things – it’s a bit disjointed, in that each world is very small and there are so many of them so it doesn’t feel like you get to spend much time learning them like you do in the …
I’ve been playing this since completing Bioshock 2 the other week, and last night I claimed my 70th Star, beat Bowser, saw the credits roll, then played for another couple of stars afterwards. And I got this message on my Wii: Obviously, the game is excellent. And yes, I’ll be returning to get the rest of the stars. It’s also at least as good as the first game, with the “hub world” being much better to navigate. However, I’m surprised …
How can so many amazing ideas be crammed into one game? Some levels in Super Mario Galaxy 2 have more fantastic, original, gameplay ideas than most entire games. Even more amazing, is how they managed this even after already filling an entire game with them! I’m now up to 24 stars collected, on the 3rd “World” (you can’t really have worlds containing galaxies, can you?), and really loving it. It’s still very easy though – easier than the original was …
For just one level. For a reason. I have my daughter to thank for buying me the game, which ordinarily I’d have had to have waited months and months for, since it’d take an age to drop in price to below my self-imposed £20 limit. But that level? Glorious. Blue skies, happy music, bopping Goombas, bright colours and everything lovely about great games. Hurrah!
With the last of the stars collected yesterday, all that was left was to defeat Bowser again. For some reason, I had problems getting to him this time – losing several lives (all regained through mushroom collection) on the way. He was just as easy as before (of course, he was exactly the same, that’s why), and then the end sequence with a bit extra. And then! “You may now play as Luigi!” comes up on the screen, and Luigi …
120 STARS! Amazing! I came to it today with just four stars remaining – all of which were actually comet stars, it turned out. First up was a Daredevil Comet on the Deep Dark Galaxy (killing the big Magikoopa without getting hit – easy!), and then I braved the Luigi’s Purple Coins star, which drained a good 8 or 9 lives before I nailed it. The last two (another purple coin one, and Fast Foe one) were both waaaaaay easier …
So close to the end now, with 116 stars complete. Just three more comet ones left, including what seems to be the hardest of all the stars by seven million miles – Luigi’s Purple Coins. Gah! Oh, and I finally managed to find the hidden star on Deep Dark Galaxy. It turns out it was under the wreck of a boat (well, it wasn’t, but the route to get to it was), where I’m pretty sure I’d looked at least …
113 Stars! Cleared out the last of the “normal” stars in the Garden and Engine Room, and now it’s just hidden and comet stars left. Also managed to find a couple of hidden stars, and one of the Speed Comet runs on Dreadnought Galaxy, the latter of which was much easier than I was expecting. There’s a Purple Coin collecting star on Dreadnought that I’m not looking forward to doing. I had one go, and it’s not easy! I’m also …
At the risk of these entries becoming little more than just updates into how many stars I now have, I’d just like to say “108 Stars!”. Thing is, it’s hard to describe what levels I’ve done to get those stars for two reasons: the first being The Spoiler Problem, and the other is because when you play the game it all blends into one gooey fuzzy lovely experience, and I forget which planet was in which galaxy and stuff. I’m …
I’m running out of game. That’s not right. Can’t we have 2,000 stars instead? As it stands, I’m up to 104 after today’s play (a couple more Purple Coin collecting levels taking up most of the game time), and I’m starting to think about it almost all being over. And that makes me sad. Bah.
100 stars get! A couple of Purple Coin collecting ones today and then the hardest star I’ve had yet – Bouldergeist with the Daredevil Comet. He’s the only boss I’d had difficulty with, and lost several lives to him even with full energy, so having to kill him again, only with no energy? Erk. He took 14 of my 15 lives before I beat him! Also killed a giant mole on Gusty Garden, and completed some more stars on Freezeframe …
Finished off Melty Molten Galaxy today (amongst other things) which included a Daredevil Comet Run (which was really hard) and a Purple Coin Collection “mission” which was also really hard, as some were floating over the top of the lava and those long crouch-jumps were required to get them else your bottom got burnt. A lot. And it did. But I’ve got 93 Stars now – only 27 left! Actually, that’s not quite true, apparently…
Got a few more stars, taking my total up to 83. That’s just 37 remaining now (although most of those done are the early ones, so it’s mainly tricky ones left). Found the final Green Power Star, which opened up a few more “odd” galaxies, like another Ray Surfing one, and a Monkey Ball type one. And Melty Molten Galaxy is amazing.
I’m now up to 77 stars. Most of today’s play was spent getting the purple coins on the water ring level, which actually involved totally avoiding the water and Bee Mario-ing from cloud to cloud stopping off at trees on the way. Also had another race with a Boo, as Boo Mario, and collected loads more purple coins in the bone yard place. And killed a giant rock! And defeated a mole in a cannon up a tree! AMAZING.
Now up to 71 stars! Had a difficult purple coin run on Battlerock, and a sedate purple coin run on Honeyhive – which took ages as there were a few coins that were difficult to reach. Also found a hidden star on the Beach Bowl level (Ice Mario wall-jumping up waterfalls! AMAZING) and completed another Haunted Mansion level which was a race against a Boo. I’ve done all of the first two observatories now – hurrah!
