Super Mario Galaxy 2 is quite an unusual game for Nintendo. While they have made a lot of Super Mario games over the years, this is the first that could be considered a sequel – the same console, the same hardware and control mechanism, the same graphics engine and the same central idea, just new levels. A cynical gamer might, without playing it, write it off as a glorified expansion pack. They’d be wrong on so many levels. Despite its seeming similarity to Super Mario Galaxy, once you start playing the game you realize that there are more new ideas in a single level than most games have in total. In that way nothing has changed from the first game. Despite having played the previous game to completion and replayed it with Luigi, nothing feels rehashed. If anything, this one is more magical than before.

Destroy Bowser, rescue Peach, save world

A quick plot exposition reveals that Bowser wants to take over the world and Princess Peach has been kidnapped. Some friendly looking star-shaped creatures called Lumas need help with their starship and agree to give Mario control over its destination in return for the Power Stars he’s able to retrieve from the galaxies scattered around the universe. They also fashion the spaceship in the shape of Mario’s face. None of it makes sense, but the less the game makes sense the better it gets (just try and make sense of Nintendo’s understanding of Einsteins laws and you’ll see that those laws just get in the way of fun). The hub structure of the original has been dropped for a map-like structure similar to the recent 2D Mario games both called New Super Mario Bros. You can still safely explore and learn the controls on the Faceship, but in a few seconds you can be back at the map and choosing a galaxy to travel to. It’s a simpler, more streamlined system that works well.

The overall structure of the levels is the same as before – in each level the idea is to get the power star by completing a certain task. In some levels you’ll need to just get to the end. In others you’ll need to defeat a boss. The pace is broken up extremely well with levels that see you flying with the help of Fluzzard or sliding down tree-slides, or rolling down courses. Once comets start appearing then the more tough levels will be available – speed runs, one-hit boss fights and purple coin runs. But it isn’t the goals that are ingenious, as varied as they are. It’s the level design itself. When they announced the game I was surprised because I didn’t think they could come up with so many new ideas to fill up a sequel, but this is why I don’t work for Nintendo.

This is what a Mario game looks like when the team doesn’t have to come up with a brand new central idea, where the developers don’t have to spend time on the fundamental mechanics and engine, and where the scenario designers have level-design tools in place from the start. What you get is a ridiculous amount of jam-packed, creative, varied levels that are intently focused on fun – very little time is spent on “tutorial” levels. This means the difficulty curve is much steeper than before. To counter this, Nintendo have added little tip videos to give you tips in places that people might otherwise get stuck, and have included a Cosmic Guide in some galaxies which will complete the level for you so that you can skip one that’s particularly hard for you. Both these features are optional and non-intrusive, so you can play the whole game without them, but they do help the newcomer. Nintendo have also included a DVD that explains how to play the game, which might be worth watching for those who’ve never played a 3D Mario game.

Yoshi, peppers and new Mario suits

While the central idea is the same, Nintendo have added a bunch of new power ups and gameplay elements. The most obvious one is Yoshi, Mario’s trusty dinosaur friend. Once on Yoshi Mario can jump higher than before (with the Yoshi’s signature flutter kick) and eat enemies instead of stomping them (well, Yoshi eats them instead of Mario stomping them, although Yoshi can still stomp them since Mario’s sitting on him). When on Yoshi, your pointer changes to a small red circle, and to eat a nearby object you point your remote at it and press the B button. Yoshi can also shoot non-edible monsters out of his mouth and swing on strategically placed flowers with his tongue, both by pressing the B button. There are also a number of temporary power-ups Yoshi can eat, like the Dash Pepper which makes him run super-fast so that he can shoot up vertical walls and skim over water, or the Blimp Berry which inflates Yoshi so that he floats like a blimp, or the Bulb Berry which lights up the area around Yoshi which is a very useful ability in the dark of a haunted house.

Mario himself also gets new power-ups in Galaxy 2: the Rock Mushroom and the Cloud Flower. Both are great fun, and that’s all you need to know about them. There is also a new object called the Spin Drill which drills through a planetoid to come out at the other side. All of the objects are seamlessly integrated into the game so that they all feel very at home in the Super Mario Galaxy universe. The controls are, once again, absolutely perfect, and the new elements, while adding slightly more complexity in the form of the Yoshi controls, are completely natural and quickly learned.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 doesn’t have quite the same freshness as the original game, but it is more refined, more tightly focused and just as much, if not more, fun. The developers at EAD Tokyo have injected enough new elements and a massive number of new ideas – some of the gravity elements are so mind-bending if you stop to think about them that it’s just better not to try. If ever there was a game that deserved an “expanded” edition as this was going to be originally, it was Super Mario Galaxy. But it turns out that an expanded edition wasn’t enough to contain the creativity of the development crew and a full sequel was warranted, according to Nintendo. I agree wholeheartedly. If you’ve never played Super Mario Galaxy then get this game and be awed, or if you’ve have, play Galaxy 2 and marvel once again.

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