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. :(
Obviously the game is incredible. Its like Galaxy, what more do you need to know, its more of what you love and even wilder and crazier in terms of ideas. Now what happens in this game is that they have a ton of unique Galaxies, which should be a good think. At max a Galaxy 2 has 3 stars, very different from the 6 in Galaxy 1. So you spend less time in each Galaxy, problem is you feel like you just fly through these areas and don't get to the meat of them. Many of the three star levels have only one true star, which is a stage from beginning to end. The other two is some hidden star which is usually a mini game of some kind that you get transported too and one is the comet which is usually the same level but as a speed run or with purple coins. A lot of these Galaxies are really used for one star, they are so well made, the concept so interesting that you are left wanting to see more of that.
I am near the end and a perfect example came up. I opened up one of the bonus Galaxies which only have two stars. This Galaxy is a ghost house, the level is completely dark.With the beat of the music a flash of light will shine illuminating the level for a split second. It's a great platforming level and the dark mechanic makes it all the more interesting. I would have loved to see that idea be used else where, I don't want one star (and one comet, which probably will be the same level again). I wanted more of that, you can make a bunch of levels that play with that mechanic, but it will only be used once and you are off to the next stage. In my case I went to this water level which was meh. So I went from this awesome concept level to this poor level, all the while thinking that I much rather have more stars in that ghost level and have this dumb water level not exist at all. There are moments like that all over the game. It has so much variety that some concepts blow you away and some end up as misses but you never get a chance to explore them cause the game is always moving you to the next level.
This complaint is mostly a complement, the levels are so good that I want more of them. It is also a bit of a balance issue. I think the route Galaxy 2 was heading to was old school Mario, one level at a time, finish it move to the next but at the same time they kept the stars idea and ended up with this halfway thing.
Oh and after that...
I am at 109 stars. it took about 16 hours to get to that point.
The music for the final boss and then the credits music. It's wow.
So it seems that this game is longer than the first?
No, exactly the same as Galaxy 1.
Me neither.
So now its onto the green stars. It's definitely better than playing the entire game again though it does require you to go back to all the levels. There are three or two stars in each level, they are hidden in the level. Well most arent that well hidden, its more about how you are going to get them. You need to do some fancy jumping to get these. I am finding some new secrets in these levels, stuff that reminds me of running on top of a level as in the NES games and such. A lot of these green stars are right at the start of the level, I wish they were spaced out more so that you need to get to the end of a level more often. There have been a few green stars that takes about 40 seconds to get. I hope as I get deeper they hide them in more evil places. I am at 152 stars now.
Yeah, why is only Dvader playing this? Damn you america!
How many are playing in your gamespot thread?