Coming: 2010
From IGN's Interview: "Reggie Fils-Aime on the Record"
IGN: You have a bit more insight on the development of Galaxy 2. What's the direction for the game? Do they really want to blow it out or will it be more of the same?
Reggie: What Mr. Miyamoto has shared is that if the first Galaxy was maybe more inviting in terms of all the audiences, what Galaxy 2 is going to be is maybe a little more Nintendo fan / harder gamer focused. A little tougher. The use of Yoshi makes it a little more challenging. We showed some of the snippets of some of the activities -- it's a bit more challenging. It's going to be, if you will, for more of that passionate Mario fan who grew up getting challenged with Super Mario World. It's going to be much more in that area.
From "Shigeru Miyamoto Roundtable LiveBlog"
"With Super Mario Galaxy, it's the first time we really worked with spherical worlds and we had a lot of ideas about how to use gravity. However, when we finished the game, we realized there were a ton of ideas we just couldn't fit in," he says.
More than 90 percent of what you will see in Super Mario Galaxy 2 is all brand new. Maybe even 95 percent . . . Galaxy 2 contains roughly the same amount of content as the original.
Galaxy 2 is very, very far along, but since Nintendo has New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it's going to hold off and keep Galaxy 2 for next year. :(
Dvader, what is the name of that cloud level?
It looks normal on my HD set when Wii games have a noticeable SD on an HD look to them. There has always been something off about Wii games, they look fuzzy, less defined, which is the whole point of high definition. It goes the same with trying to watch an SD channel on an HD set, it is a noticeable downgrade. This game looks fine, it looks natural. It may not be HD, but it doesn't have that SD downgrade look either. Yeah its the same engine as Galaxy 1 but with what I have come to call an HD filter or something. I don't know what they did but the game looks beautiful on my TV.
I dont remember, it had windmills, its in the videos. The music oh my god.
The music. I've been listening to the soundtrack all day and it's heavenly. Just the godamn music gives me that Mario Galaxy high.
Check the Raptor Jesus.
The final Bowser battle will have you in rapture.
Oh and yeah it was gg.
The variety is still very impressive with some new gameplay hook for each new level. There are some stand outs and some meh levels too. Above all my biggest issue is that it still feels way too easy. There are stars where you do a really simple objective that lasts a minute, I feel like that some are filler. Because new elements are being introduced all the time so much of it feels like tutorial level difficulty. I rather them explore some of these mechanics and put them in crazy elaborate levels rather than these simple ones. I haven't seen any secrets that were hard to find. It is starting to feel like just more Galaxy which is awesome, but not this giant leap over the original. There are moments where the game soars but right after that you may enter a galaxy where you say "thats it". I am hoping for some harder more advanced levels later on.
Galaxy 1 was easy to me for the most part. But it was so amazing and fresh that it didn't matter. I am expected something more advanced. it's not about dying or something being so hard that I want to throw my controller on the floor. Its about levels that feel complex, that feel they were made for someone that has played Mario all their life. So far to me, even though there is a ton of imagination and crazy awesome levels, it still feels like Nintendo is bound by chains to keep it simple. I would love for just once those chains to be broken and have them go all out, but that is not who they are. Still the most important thing is am I having fun, oh hell yeah I am. Is it better than Galaxy 1, yes. So far did I expect more, sadly yeah, but I have more than half of the game to go.
I'm glad the game doesn't overdo it on difficulty then.
NSMB got on my nerves a lot till I practiced, a lot.