Super Mario Galaxy 2 Review

The design philosophy here is the one Nintendo talks about and rarely achieves: introduce an idea, develop it, discard it before it wears out. Galaxies last a few minutes each and almost every one has a mechanic of its own, whether that is a rock Mario roll, a cloud suit, a drill that takes you through a planetoid or a rhythm based platform sequence, and none of them return long enough to become tired. Cutting the observatory hub for a simple world map was the right call, because it removed the wandering that padded the first game.

Yoshi's return adds three distinct fruit powers and gives some galaxies a second layer. The difficulty ramps far higher than the original too, and the green star hunt afterwards is genuinely demanding. What it gives up is atmosphere. The first game had Rosalina's storybook and a melancholy the sequel does not attempt, and this one is content to be a toy box. As a pure collection of platforming ideas nothing else comes close.