Away game special: Galactic extras

Being able to play as Luigi in Super Mario Galaxy 2 is refreshing. It changes up the game's controls, and offers an extra challenge. Such is especially so because Luigi has slippery controls, so skidding off of edges is regularly risked.

Unfortunately, though, Luigi's appearance during the game suggests that Super Mario Galaxy 2 lacks the first game's Luigi mode. True, this mode's just a matter of playing through all of the same levels again. But it still works as an extension of the game's content. Super Mario Galaxy 2 looks like it's going to lack that extension.

Instead, being half-way through World 4 and having only 37 stars (out of a probable 120) suggests that this game's extra content is merely hidden.

After all, only a handful of the previous levels are "complete." Having so much hidden content is fine, but there's so much of it in the game that it can hardly be called "hidden."

Away game special: Of patterned bosses

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is strangely quick. Levels take less than 10 minutes, and most that are incredbly challenging are a matter of speed, rather than precision or puzzle solving.

The game's bosses are a different story. Yet, they all have patterns that are unwavering. These bosses' difficulty lies in executing these patterns faster and faster and sometimes with extra obstacles in the way. Because of this, patience and observation are enough to make short work of the challenges that the game's bosses offer.

It has to be mentioned that bosses in the Super Mario universe have never been terribly tricky, though.

Actually the most memorably frustrating Super Mario bosses are from the 8- and 16-bit eras. That's because Mario had only his jump and a few minor power-ups (and the odd axe at bridge's end) to rely on then. More attacks and power-ups mean more things for a game to show, and as a result creative uses of said things are stifled.

But who would want a NES/SNES-style Super Mario game big enough to fill a DVD? And who would develop it?

Away Game Special: A recanting and a ranting

So it seems that each previous entry about Super Mario Galaxy 2 was wrong. Not entirely so, but major points of them. Not only can you do the air-getting jump from Yoshi's back while jumping, the game also still features the wildly swinging camera of the first game. That camera's just not so fully featured as it was.

The game's lack of the broader exploration of the first one is something to dwell on though. Since Mario's not jumping from planetoid to planetoid as he was in Super Mario Galaxy, the game feels flatter, and more linear. The level design feels more like that of Super Mario 64, where there was freedom to wander around large levels as there is in Super Mario Galaxy 2, but in a much more restricted way. This change makes it seem like Super Mario Galaxy  is going backwards, rather than forwards.

Mainline Super Mario games are hearkening back to the 2D platforming days of the NES and Super NES with each new iteration. With some three years between Super Mario Galaxy 2's release and this entry, each mainline Super Mario game released in between has been a tweaked version of the classic platformer. Some might complain about the similarity between the New Super Mario Bros. games or the DS and 3DS releases. But, the biggest change in those three years (and really, in something more like the last 15) is that Mario has branched out.

Super Mario RPG begot the Paper Marios and the handheld Super Mario RPGs; Mario Kart begot the subsequent iterations of the same, and, arguably, the other Super Mario sport titles. The straight-up adventure/platforming Super Mario games are their own thing as well now, and since this categorization's in place, none of them seem particularly innovative.

However, as Super Mario Galaxy 2 has shown so far, each Super Mario game does what its type and title suggest, and do it well.

Away Game Special: Flattened space

So, the double jump from Yoshi's back is possible. A lack of experimentation and Super Mario Galaxy 2's weird fixed camera are my excuses for not realizing this sooner.

Writing of which, the game's camera is a major problem. In Super Mario Galaxy, the camera seemed more willing to swing around as you wandered over planetoids. Instead, in Super Mario Galaxy 2, the camera only flips with you if you use a pipe to move from one side of a planet to another. This discrepancy in the camera could be explained away with the presence of Yoshi or the second player's luma, having the extra player-controlled character on screen may've created problems with a more free-flowing camera.

In any case, with the camera being so much more fixed, Super Mario Galaxy 2 has a much more side-scrolling, isometric feel to it. It just isn't as a free and open as Super Mario Galaxy was, and thus doesn't have the 3D feel of its predecessor. 

Away Game Special: Getting started in a new galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy 2 has a remarkably improved two player mode. Bringing the second player out from being nothing more than a star-shaped reticle of sorts to a small luma side-kick really expands what a second player can do. The second player can't give Mario a boost in his jumps anymore, but that's a relatively minor sacrifice.

The addition of Yoshi, though, seems like it's just a gimmick so far. A very cool on, definitely, but not quite as cool as it was in Super Mario World; the boost Mario'd get from jumping off of Yoshi's back mid-jump doesn't look like it's matched by hopping out of Yoshi's plush 3D saddle.

Using Yoshi's tongue as a grappling hook definitely opens up some interesting possibilities. Hopefully it doesn't just wind up replace the sling stars from Super Mario Galaxy.