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. :(
About Star World, I liked the idea of taking stages from past Mario games and throwing them together. I loved Mario and Luigi's purple coins, that had to return though it was easier. The rainbow level was great. Loved that they had the Sunshine level which I feel was the basis of what Galaxy would become. Stone Cyclone, yeah one of the hardest levels of the game, and more frustrating than hard. Boss rush was cool cause it was Galaxy 1 bosses. I thought it was well done, at that point I felt its ok to have bonus levels as it was star world. I know it should be the most expert of levels but that is kind of what it was, it just used older levels to do so. But I agree about the pacing.
Anyway keep playing, you have more to discover.
I'm currently at 112 stars right now. I feel pretty much the same as you guys. Great game, some things are better in this one and some were better in the first. Lots of boss fights which I like though. I'm progressing the same as Iga. I have Worlds 1 - 5 complete.
Yay! I finally got 120 stars. Actually now I have 123 stars.
No, you're just too slow.How many stars do you have?
Well I have now 130 something stars
Okay the flip out Galaxy, (the one with epic wall jumping) was just plain fucking awesome. The last few prankster comets were insane. The rainbow purple coins caused death upon death. The stone cyclone speedrun was difficult until I realized that I had to reach the star at the end, not collect 5 silver stars. I made many death defying shortcut jumps.
The sunshine level was much better when it moves twice as fast. Once I died there, because I wanted to long jump on another cylinder, only to face plant my face on the cylinder I was tying to jump on. I thought the cylinder was much further, but it was very close. Interesting, this would probably not happen on the 3DS.
The boss blitz speed run, took a few tries, all because of Bouldergeist. Fuck him, he was annoying in Galaxy 1 and he is annoying in Galaxy 2. he is nothing if not consistent. The flip out Galaxy with shadow clones was hard. Especially the last part with spikes. You can't just wall jump and wait until the spikes get down, you will get hit and die. Man I went game over a few times, but then I completed the whole level without taking a single hit. So awesome.
I have seen the comic witch a few times already. In Rainbow purple coins, Flip out Galaxy and Flip out Galaxy shadow clones. So I got 120 stars and finished the game again, to get a SMB2 like surreal ending. It was just a story!
Ah the green stars, I already knew they were coming. People saying that the last secret was like SMW and reviews mentioning green stars, was enough to put two and two together. The first green stars felt like SM64. You know go around and collect the stars. But they were hidden, but not really difficult. But they became awesome really quick. finding them is easy, you hear that distinct sound to find them quickly. Sometimes they are cleverly hidden, but with the first person view, it will not be too hard.
Getting to them is an entirely different ballgame. I had to triple jump multiple times, never had to do that in the game proper. Sometimes if you miss the star you will die. I had to triple jump, then wall jump to get another star. I even had to do your traitorous swine tactic with Yoshi to get yet another one. Sometimes you have to pull out a death defying stunt and get to places you would not normally do, like the first green star in the first Bowser Jr. level. I got all the green stars in world 1 and it was awesome, best gift ever for completing a Mario game 100%. This will probably unlock the very last level in World S. Can't wait.
Oh and replaying the game, you really start to appreciate the levels again. Same for the music. Fluffy cloud theme is epic, Yoshi's theme is stuck in my head and the dig dug theme is such a laid back theme. World 2 is next.
BTW guys GET AS MANY STAR BITS AS POSSIBLE. Save them all.
Already on it. I already have 3000+, 6999 to go.
Yeah those last few stars to reach 120 were pretty epic. I agree with you on getting those after 120, gets pretty crazy and pretty awesome real quick. I'm currently at 141 stars. I guess only 100 left to get. I also have a little over 9000 star bits so I'm guessing I should be well prepared for whatever later on.