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. :(
Mario Galaxy 2: Best reviewed game of All time BAM, there it is
Vader thwarted. Zelda beaten.
Give it another week. Zelda will take back its crown.
Keep bringing the impressions.
I feel what Dvader said. Each galaxy only has a couple of stars max.
They get great concepts and then just sort of casually toss them into the bin as if they were nothing. I want to go back into deeper levels and explore these concepts more. It's a huge talent to be able to do what nintendo are doing here, I guess I just wanted more time to toy with them myself.
I don't like the world map, I'm a hub guy. I like the interconnected feeling, the cohesion of it all, unlocking entrances and all that.
Played this level with water suspended in space, how cool. Lots more 2D mario in this game too which is a bonus. I only got to play a couple of galaxies last night without my glasses too.
There was this underwater level where you turned it to ice. Very cool how the last star was acheived. Anyhow the game doesn't have the same wow factor as the first game just cause it's building upon concept rather than creating them. Still bloody awesome game. It will be interesting to see if the rest of the levels live up to the reviews.
Am now 73 stars in and the game is getting more awesomer by the minute. Still do not see the depth criticism that is being leveled there. Most concepts to come back in other levels. There are more then one 2D underwater level. You will be using Yoshi's dash pepper and other powerups multiple times. Cloud and Fire Mario will be back. It might not be the same setting, but the concepts will return.
Galaxy 2 has undoubtedly better level design, better pacing, better bosses, better use of power-ups, more variety and much less filler than Galaxy 1. That being said Galaxy 1 is still not obsolete, because there are still some levels in Galaxy 1 that are awesome and have no equivalent like level in Galaxy 2. Which you had all the levels of Galaxy 1 in 2 but without the stupid hub.
Galaxy 2 feels different because of the streamlining and better pacing, but yet it kinda feels very much like Galaxy 1 too.
And hubs can die in a fire, they are nice in Zelda, but totally useless and a waste of time in Mario games.
Preach on brother.
Played a few more hours tonight. I'm currently at the start of World 4 with 39 stars and 19 comet coins. This game is simply fantastic, totally loving it.
Okay this is what I was talking about! The first time I played with rock Mario, I was disappointed. I expected Goron like rolling, but all I got was a dash. After beating, the level I got Vader's patented, "Is that it?!" feeling. Where is the racing along a dangerous narrow track? After experiencing rainbow star Mario and dash pepper Yoshi, I just accepted that I needed to get my speed trills from other power ups. I accepted that my Rock Mario was just not the Goron like power up I wanted.
Oh boy was I wrong. I really should have known better. Omg, omg, Rock Mario, our in my case Rock Luigi rocks. It is a Goron like power-up. You want more depth, you get it. You want more flip swap galaxy? Well try it gain with purple coins. You found the gliding to easy? No worries there is a second more difficult one. You think the moving platform over lava was to short? Again there are 3 more. You think beat block galaxy was easy?! Try it with the prankster comet. I lost tons of life there. In conclusion the Galaxy 2 critique that it throws away stuff only after one use and has no depth is false.
I just finished the game with around 80 stars. The last level was just awesome, need to complete it once more, because my attempt was shameful. I am pleasantly surprised that Throwback Galaxy was actually fun and just one level. I was worried that there would be a full world with remakes of old Mario levels. Oh, I spoke too soon there is a Flashback Galaxy. *Plays that Galaxy. Okay spoken too soon again, it's a complete new level. I don't want remakes of older Mario games, because quite frankly Galaxy 1 and 2 absolutely blow the shit out of all the other Mario games when it comes to level design.
There are some thing I do not like however. The map is a little too simple. I hate that you need to feed Lumas to open secret routes. It is not really a secret if you can see a huge fat Luma standing there, now is it? Still better than any hub world, but SMW map is still the best by far. Also the Luigi ghost are a disappointed, they really should have made you race against a developer times. Missed opportunity if I ever saw one. Also don't like feeding Lumas coins to get a secret star, for the same reasons mentioned above.
Not like is actually a strong wording, it's more like not as good as in some other Mario games. That being said, it is better than Galaxy 1, so far and Galaxy 1 was my favourite game this gen and probably ever, so you do the maths.
Played some more, I have about 28 stars. Some levels are good but sort of over familiar, you know, it feels like galaxy part 2. Then you do some levels which are just whoa.
There was this flip galaxy where you break through grates and it's like someone has stuck a finger inside your brain and is wiggling it about, mashing up your brain matter. I had to stop several times, it was mind bending running about upside down and flipping perspectives.
Part of me was thinking WTF, how can anyone possibly design something like this? It's incredible! Game has some cool ass bosses as well, they are more challenging too. Oh I did this level where suddenly you were swallowing bullet bills and spitting them out to destroy things. FAN tastic
So a question I have, the game has 240 stars, is it just 120 stars and then repeat as alternate character?