Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a Wii video game by Nintendo. It is a sequel to Super Mario Galaxy and contains new features such as Yoshi, new powerups and returning favorites. It was released in the US on May 23, 2010, and will be released in Japan on May 27, 2010, Europe on June 11, 2010, and Australia on July 1, 2010.

Plot
The citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom once again get a chance to celebrate the Star Festival,which is supposed to only happen every one hundred years, but since the entire universe was recreated in Super Mario Galaxy, the festival came again early, which has already caused confusion among fans. Bowser, this time massive in size, attacks the castle. He reveals that he has used the power of the stars to make him grow. He then shoots off into space, carrying Peach in the palm of his hand. The Star Festival is once again put on hold as Mario sets out on another adventure in outer space to get to the center of the universe.

Gameplay
The game plays similarly to the original Super Mario Galaxy. Mario will travel from planet to planet using star launchers. The gravity system is once again fantastic, though there are an incredible amount of new features.

Developer Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed that there will be at least 240 stars in the game. While most 3D Mario games have 120 stars, it should be noted that Super Mario Galaxy had over 240 stars when the second quest with Luigi is taken into account, however there are indeed 242 unique stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2. After collecting 120 regular stars, 120 new Green Stars will become available. These are found in usually hard to reach places. After finding all 120 Green Stars, the final galaxy, Grandmaster Galaxy becomes available. As the first mission suggests, this is "The Ultimate Test".

Yoshi
For one, Yoshi is in the game and will help Mario just like in Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Sunshine. Yoshi can be found in eggs that Mario can hatch by jumping on them or using his famed spin attack. Once Mario is riding on top of Yoshi, the dinosaur can gobble up many enemies and items. His tongue can be directed with the pointer. Yoshi can grapple onto objects using his tongue. Yoshi's color will change when he obtains a power up. When Yoshi turns orange he seems to be able to move faster, though when he turns light blue he'll inflate into a balloon and send Mario to greater heights. It appears that the fruit to make him run like a blue hedgehog looks like a pepper, while the other is a "blimp" berry when he eats a glimmering bulb berry he turns yellow, starts flashinmg and can illuminate, and walk on invisible ground.

Regarding the inclusion of Yoshi, Shigeru Miyamoto said:

"In Super Mario Galaxy, one of the features of the game was the pointer functionality — you were able to point at things in the game, and grab onto them, and pull yourself through, and things like that. We felt that was somewhat similar to one of the things that Yoshi could do, and in bringing Yoshi in, it felt like a new approach to it and that there was a lot of fun that could be had.

I think it’s kind of difficult for us to have Mario running around and carrying things in the world, but by incorporating Yoshi there’s a variety of different ways that we can have Yoshi carrying things and using that as a new gameplay element as well."

When Mario jumps aboard Yoshi, drums will be added to the music that's playing (similar to previous games in the series).

Items and costumes
As in the previous game there are many items that Mario can acquire. One of the new items is a top-like drill. Considered a weapon rather than a costume, the top will let Mario dig into the ground and access new areas. In one portion of the game Mario will shoot underground and come out at the other side of the planet where he'll then be able to attack a menacing, hulking boss. The drill is inspired by the "China syndrome", the idea where when you drill in one point of the Earth, you'll pop out at the other end, which the developers wanted to explore in the original, but ultimately weren't able to.

Another new item is the Rock suit. It will let Mario roll around inside a rock, and let him go faster, although he will be harder to control and have worse traction.

The Bee suit from the original game makes its triumphant return after being the most popular costume from the game. In one portion of the game Mario is seen making a large snowball in a snow based stage. He also destroys snow statues with the Fire Suit. In a recent trailer on one of the planets it was shown Mario will be able to play in his Boo form once again.

Finally, the cloud suit grants Mario the ability to generate clouds by using the spin attack. The clouds are strong enough to support Mario and can thus send him to higher places. Clouds that Mario has created can be destroyed by ground pounding.

Development
Super Mario Galaxy 2 was revealed during Nintendo's E3 2009 press conference. During the event, Cammie Dunaway of Nintendo of America had already revealed New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!, but then revealed that Nintendo had yet another surprise to show its fans, and subsequently showed the trailer for Super Mario Galaxy 2. The game, produced by Yoshiaki Koizumi (director of the previous game) and Shigeru Miyamoto is being developed by the team in Tokyo.

Confusion
During a round table event at E3 2009, Miyamoto explained that the game contained at least 95% new content (some sources say 90%). Fans quickly came to assume that he was referring to the stages in the game, thinking he meant that up to 5% of the galaxies would be returning from the first Super Mario Galaxy game. This quickly led to many questions during interviews, in which he was able to clarify what he meant. Instead of there being old galaxies, he meant that some of the suits such as the Bee Suit would make a return, but would be exploited in different ways. When asked if there would be any returning galaxies from the first title in an issue of Official Nintendo Magazine, he explained that there wouldn't and even questioned why they thought it was a possibility.

Reception
Edge, a British magazine widely known for being strict, was the first to publish a review of the game, rewarding it with their highest score, 10. In the history of the magazine, very few video games have been scored such. The Mario series has notably been rewarded more tens than any other video game series, with Super Mario 64 and the original Super Mario Galaxy also having this grade. The American publication Game Informer gave the game an impressive 9.25, though it should be noted that the original was give a higher 9.75. Some of the criticisms that the magazine had was that several of the stars were too challenging to obtain. One in particular allegedly took the reviewer four hours to get. GI also claimed that in some portions of the game, motion controls were poorly implemented, not working as effectively as they would have liked.

Prior to IGN's review of the game, Nintendo editor Craig Harris explained his progression on Twitter, saying such things as "I'm struggling to find something wrong with it. Super Mario Galaxy 2, why do you have to be so damn good?", and "Mario Galaxy 2 continues to wow me with some seriously creative level designs". One of his Twitter posts said "I can officially confirm that no characters unlock after 120 stars in SMG2. But it's after 120 stars the game unlocks...[TWITTER OVER LIMIT]".

Trivia

 * Shortly after the Nintendo Media Summit in February of 2010, Super Mario Galaxy 2 became one of the "Top Trends" on Yahoo.com