Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2010)
Graphics-8.5 Sound-8 Control-8/5.5** Challenge-7/7.5* Story-4.5
Level Design-8 Frustration-7/8* Fun-8/6.5** Originality-5.5
Overall Score-8
*100% or getting to the end of the special world
**Some optional challenges & the glide controls
+
Great variety overall
Some branching paths on the hub map
Five new power ups (cloud flower - create three platforms in mid-air, spin drill - go through the floor and end up on the other side while flipping gravity, dash pepper while riding yoshi - makes him run really fast (Quackshot) and able to run up steep slopes+on water, bulb berry (yoshi; not used much however) - temporarily fill in (show+materialize) the level paths around your avatar, rock mushroom - lets you do a rolling attack which is used for breaking obstacles and for some bowling/monkey ball-style parts)
A few large scale environmental effects (freezing the water in the penguin level or the lava in some other levels, covering a small planet in water by drilling into it, spawning new planet paths, puzzle plank level where most of the path falls down from being sawed off)
Some interesting new level gimmicks (rhythm-themed level with platforms disappearing and reappearing to the beat, escort puzzles where you guide a rolling chomp into a hole or walking bomb into a glass dome, some spatial awareness puzzles and one sliding puzzle, a few gravity manipulation puzzles, "slow down time for everything else" switches (Hammerin' Harry, D/Generation, Mario Kart, Max Payne, Trauma Center?), )
Starbit bank feature (deposited starbits collect interest over time and transfer across save files)
Can play as Luigi though he only shows up at the beginning of some levels (would've been better if you could just pick him at the ship hub; Luigi moves a bit faster and jumps a bit higher but otoh is more slippery to control and accelerates slightly slower)
Unlockable special world with hard levels+playable Luigi in all levels (beat the game)
Yoshi is back
Some shortcuts using more advanced jumps
+/-
Save in-between levels (one slot)
Higher overall difficulty than in SMG1
1-2+ checkpoints per level
Have the option to skip (let the game play) a segment or level but you'll get a bronze star at the end instad, marking your playthrough
More of an obstacle course focus to the level design (the penguin level is one exception)
Uses the standard NSMB-style hub map (less interesting but more efficient)+a home base of sorts in the ship which is shaped like a mini-planet and changes a bit over time with new NPCs and optional rooms. Would've been cool if the map wasn't basically a long railway with some branching paths and shaped more like in SMW or SMB3
No level timers besides for some comet star challenges
Some killathon segments (kill all enemies on a planet/heavenly body to proceed)
Throwback galaxy is heavily based on Mario 64's second level and supermassive galaxy on the giant world in SMB3
No manta ray race levels
-
Some control/interface issues (pretty often can't rotate the camera for seemingly no reason, too much knockback+falling over from various attacks (you just take damage without any knockback in the 2D games), so-so mid-air control while using the spring form, overly slow bee form flight, overly zoomed in camera during parts of the spinning wheels themed level, so-so glide flying level controls (the ones where you hang onto a bird and go through rings), )
Overly high collection quotas to progress (sometimes annoying if you're tired of a level or a set of them, even have to go back after fully finishing a world around world 3 or so if you didn't get most stars earlier on, points of no return in levels with a hidden star means you sometimes have to restart the level from one mistake) and sometimes to unlock optional levels (1000 star bits in world 3). This also continues in the special world so you have to go back and get basically every star in previous levels
Can't get more than one star per level visit - leads to a bunch of retreading your steps for a part of each level since you also have to collect more stars here (no additional mid-level entry points to use after beating it once)
Some trial & error (auto-scrolling rail segments, some surprise attacks)
Only get one attempt at a bonus level per level visit+the timer doesn't stop after taking out the enemies
No red star (flight) or ice mario (ability to walk and skate on water and lava by freezing it (can still do the latter with snowballs in some levels), including vertical jets of water+can wall-jump off of waterfalls) power ups. Also missing the other power ups not seen in SMG1
Forms/costumes and Yoshi don't carry over between levels
Sometimes uneven difficulty (difficult spring form segment in world 4, very easy level 4-2 boss, pretty easy final level and boss, getting to some stars is harder than actually beating the game, boom bunker boss, easy battle belt level besides the boss)
Generally have to get the stars/do the missions in a set order in a level and you can't collect more than one per run of a level - some have a hidden hungry luma in them which can be fed instead of getting the main star
Some of the challenges you have to beat to get stars aren't that fun (jumping on a bunch of enemies and grabbing the coins that come out - going back for the coins and the way you bounce higher after a couple of bounces breaks flow, bird glide flying levels, some "wack-a-mole" challenges, some of the coin collecting challenges as you also can't go backwards in those levels)
The fat purple star guy (Lubba) suggests that you take a break every time you get a game over - my nephew thinks it's hilarious that he thinks he can tell us when to take a break every time
10-12 seconds of loading on bootup
A couple of levels are too similar to SMG1 ones
Bugs:
-Fell through the floor while flipping gravity at one point in level 4-2 (flipsville - level with floor grating gates)
Notes:
-All Luigi differences: https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Super_Mario_Galaxy_2/Game_Mechanics#Mario.2FLuigi_Differences
-Got about 80 stars
Level Design-8 Frustration-7/8* Fun-8/6.5** Originality-5.5
Overall Score-8
*100% or getting to the end of the special world
**Some optional challenges & the glide controls
+
Great variety overall
Some branching paths on the hub map
Five new power ups (cloud flower - create three platforms in mid-air, spin drill - go through the floor and end up on the other side while flipping gravity, dash pepper while riding yoshi - makes him run really fast (Quackshot) and able to run up steep slopes+on water, bulb berry (yoshi; not used much however) - temporarily fill in (show+materialize) the level paths around your avatar, rock mushroom - lets you do a rolling attack which is used for breaking obstacles and for some bowling/monkey ball-style parts)
A few large scale environmental effects (freezing the water in the penguin level or the lava in some other levels, covering a small planet in water by drilling into it, spawning new planet paths, puzzle plank level where most of the path falls down from being sawed off)
Some interesting new level gimmicks (rhythm-themed level with platforms disappearing and reappearing to the beat, escort puzzles where you guide a rolling chomp into a hole or walking bomb into a glass dome, some spatial awareness puzzles and one sliding puzzle, a few gravity manipulation puzzles, "slow down time for everything else" switches (Hammerin' Harry, D/Generation, Mario Kart, Max Payne, Trauma Center?), )
Starbit bank feature (deposited starbits collect interest over time and transfer across save files)
Can play as Luigi though he only shows up at the beginning of some levels (would've been better if you could just pick him at the ship hub; Luigi moves a bit faster and jumps a bit higher but otoh is more slippery to control and accelerates slightly slower)
Unlockable special world with hard levels+playable Luigi in all levels (beat the game)
Yoshi is back
Some shortcuts using more advanced jumps
+/-
Save in-between levels (one slot)
Higher overall difficulty than in SMG1
1-2+ checkpoints per level
Have the option to skip (let the game play) a segment or level but you'll get a bronze star at the end instad, marking your playthrough
More of an obstacle course focus to the level design (the penguin level is one exception)
Uses the standard NSMB-style hub map (less interesting but more efficient)+a home base of sorts in the ship which is shaped like a mini-planet and changes a bit over time with new NPCs and optional rooms. Would've been cool if the map wasn't basically a long railway with some branching paths and shaped more like in SMW or SMB3
No level timers besides for some comet star challenges
Some killathon segments (kill all enemies on a planet/heavenly body to proceed)
Throwback galaxy is heavily based on Mario 64's second level and supermassive galaxy on the giant world in SMB3
No manta ray race levels
-
Some control/interface issues (pretty often can't rotate the camera for seemingly no reason, too much knockback+falling over from various attacks (you just take damage without any knockback in the 2D games), so-so mid-air control while using the spring form, overly slow bee form flight, overly zoomed in camera during parts of the spinning wheels themed level, so-so glide flying level controls (the ones where you hang onto a bird and go through rings), )
Overly high collection quotas to progress (sometimes annoying if you're tired of a level or a set of them, even have to go back after fully finishing a world around world 3 or so if you didn't get most stars earlier on, points of no return in levels with a hidden star means you sometimes have to restart the level from one mistake) and sometimes to unlock optional levels (1000 star bits in world 3). This also continues in the special world so you have to go back and get basically every star in previous levels
Can't get more than one star per level visit - leads to a bunch of retreading your steps for a part of each level since you also have to collect more stars here (no additional mid-level entry points to use after beating it once)
Some trial & error (auto-scrolling rail segments, some surprise attacks)
Only get one attempt at a bonus level per level visit+the timer doesn't stop after taking out the enemies
No red star (flight) or ice mario (ability to walk and skate on water and lava by freezing it (can still do the latter with snowballs in some levels), including vertical jets of water+can wall-jump off of waterfalls) power ups. Also missing the other power ups not seen in SMG1
Forms/costumes and Yoshi don't carry over between levels
Sometimes uneven difficulty (difficult spring form segment in world 4, very easy level 4-2 boss, pretty easy final level and boss, getting to some stars is harder than actually beating the game, boom bunker boss, easy battle belt level besides the boss)
Generally have to get the stars/do the missions in a set order in a level and you can't collect more than one per run of a level - some have a hidden hungry luma in them which can be fed instead of getting the main star
Some of the challenges you have to beat to get stars aren't that fun (jumping on a bunch of enemies and grabbing the coins that come out - going back for the coins and the way you bounce higher after a couple of bounces breaks flow, bird glide flying levels, some "wack-a-mole" challenges, some of the coin collecting challenges as you also can't go backwards in those levels)
The fat purple star guy (Lubba) suggests that you take a break every time you get a game over - my nephew thinks it's hilarious that he thinks he can tell us when to take a break every time
10-12 seconds of loading on bootup
A couple of levels are too similar to SMG1 ones
Bugs:
-Fell through the floor while flipping gravity at one point in level 4-2 (flipsville - level with floor grating gates)
Notes:
-All Luigi differences: https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Super_Mario_Galaxy_2/Game_Mechanics#Mario.2FLuigi_Differences
-Got about 80 stars