I wasn’t originally going to review this game. Yes, it can count as action and it is one of the better selling games on the market right now, but in all honesty it just seemed like Super Mario Galaxy 1 all over again. Well, eventually I saw Super Mario Galaxy 2 climb the charts to become the highest rated game of all time and, since I pride myself on having played all the best games of all time, I finally sat down and played through it … the whole thing … all of it.

I have to say, I need to learn to ditch my prejudices at the door because Super Mario Galaxy 2 is more than Super Mario Galaxy 1. It’s not quite a sequel, but it is certainly more than just an expansion pack. Galaxy 2 basically takes everything that was great about Galaxy 1 and expands it in new and interesting ways while making the whole game simpler on the whole. It’s a game for the gamer, without any allusions to a coherent plot outside of Mario’s standard colorful cartoony imagery. If you are playing this game you are playing it for one reason and one reason only: to get stars … lots and lots of stars.

The game starts as many Mario games do, with Bowser terrorizing the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnapping Princess Peach … again. This time he has taken a cue from the final battle of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and has grown super sized! With Mario and Peach being the size of his toenail he crashes down from space, grabs peach, and decides to start building an empire in the middle of the universe. As Mario it is your job to rescue the Princess but first you have to collect enough power stars to make your giant flying Mario-head space ship run. Oh, and you have to play games with a monkey, slide down a slide, swim with penguins, ride a Yoshi, and a whole bunch of other stuff too. Peach isn’t taking high priority these days is she?

Gone is the observatory world that acted as a central hub. Instead Mario simply steps on a button and advances the space ship through a menu like over world, which is also very reminiscent of New Super Mario Bros. Stars and goals are listed right on that menu, and secret stars, hidden paths, and prankster comet challenges like time trials or one health perfect runs are everywhere. Along the way you can find Lumas that you can feed star bits or coins to, in order to unlock even more secret paths and galaxies. You can beat the game with a little over 70 stars, but there are 242 stars to collect between Mario and Luigi for the completionists out there.

The gameplay is, admittedly, pretty much the same as it was in Super Mario Galaxy 1. Mario has an arsenal of jumps, spins, and power-ups that he uses in order to complete many different goals. Sometimes he just needs to get to the end of a level but other times he has to defeat bosses, collect coins, or solve puzzles. It’s the same formula that you remember from Super Mario 64 except this time around there is a lot of variation. In addition to the normal gameplay you have gliding, sliding, ball rolling, and even certain stages that are totally controlled with the Wii pointer, so no two stages feel the same.

Mario’s power-up arsenal keeps the game feeling fresh even after you have exhausted all the control types. The fire flower, bee shroom, boo shroom, spring shroom, and rainbow star come back from Super Mario Galaxy 1, but this time they are joined by the rock shroom, spin drill, and cloud flower. The rock shroom makes your spin attack turn Mario into a rolling boulder that destroys nearly anything in its path. The spin drill allows your spin attack to drill down into the planet, many times coming right out the other side. The cloud flower makes your spin attack generate a cloud platform in midair, allowing you to take shortcuts and paths that sometimes circumvent half of the level. They are all cool new toys to play with and you will get a lot of use out of them.

In addition to Mario’s new power-ups, Yoshi makes a reappearance as well. You can ride on him, much like you could in other Mario games, but doing so disables the use of all your special jumps such as the long jump or backflip. He can flutter jump and eat enemies as always, and he can even move objects and pull switches from afar with his tongue. His tongue controls are simple, simply point the cursor at what you want to eat and press B. It gives you a lot of freedom, especially since you can basically use your tongue to eat stuff that is behind you as well. Yoshi also has his own string of power ups as well. There is the blimp fruit, which turns him into a blue yoshi, the bulb fruit, which turns him into a yellow yoshi, and the hot pepper, which turns him into a red yoshi. Blue Yoshi fills with air and flies until his air runs out. Yellow Yoshi shines light around himself that can reveal hidden paths. Red Yoshi runs so fast he can scale vertical walls and even ceilings. Each of these fruits only affect Yoshi for a limited time but many are necessary for completing several levels.

Like before, a second play and join in, and while they still can’t do much they can still do more than they once could. As before, they can collect star bits with their pointer, hold enemies down, and shoot star bits at enemies to stun them. However, this time around the second player can take a more active role in helping Mario as well. Though the second player still does not have a character to control, they are represented by an orange Luma on screen. They can use the pointer to send the Luma to do different things. For example, they can have the Luma spin to defeat enemies, hold back obstacles to make Mario’s path forward easier, or even collect coins to restore his health. It’s not much, and player one will always have more to do than player two, but it’s something at least.

The graphics are the same and the sound is basically the same and by that I mean, pretty damn good. It’s bright and colorful in appearance, and the tones change to suit what you are doing, with fast epic beats during time trials or battles and slow methodic tones whenever a tiny hazard might send you to your death. There is still no real voice acting to speak of in the game, but it’s a Mario game so what do you expect.

If there is one downside to Super Mario Galaxy 2, it would have to be that it simply isn’t as addicting as Super Mario Galaxy 1 was. Oh it’s a great game. Don’t get me wrong. It’s innovative and creative and astoundingly fun. It’s just not new anymore, and that does count for something. Super Mario Galaxy 1 had me glued to it for hours on end, forsaking food, sleep, and social life just to collect one extra star. I completed Super Mario Galaxy 2 at a much slower pace, simply because it kind of felt as if I was playing Super Mario Galaxy 1 again, as I originally thought would be the case. It’s basically a more expanded and creative Super Mario Galaxy 1, which is a great thing, but it certainly doesn’t feel like a “sequel” as much as it feels, almost like a fan mod, although a very professionally done fan mod.

There isn’t much more to say about Super Mario Galaxy 2. It’s a good game that manages to be exactly what it was built to be, a game. No story, no cutscenes, no quick time events, just pure platforming gameplay like none other. The controls are tight, the difficulty ranges from easy to mind exploding, and above all else it’s just fun. If you liked Super Mario Galaxy 1 then pick up Super Mario Galaxy 2, although that statement is kind of like saying “If you have a pulse pick up Super Mario Galaxy 2.” It’s well worth your time, no matter what type of gamer you are.

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