I LOVE Mario Galaxy 2

What do I have to say about this. It's the other thing that has been occupying my time lately. The latest adventure of arguably the most iconic character and supporting cast of all time in video games. Is it even necessary to explain the appeal of the brothers Mario? The original Mario Galaxy made players rethink how they play so-called "platforming" games. The sequel takes everything great about the original and builds on it substantially. Also, it finds appropriate sections to go into gameplay that's more or less side-scrolling and 2D. This is handled perfectly because neither 3D or 2D gameplay is allowed to fully dominate the experience. Having both major styles of Mario Bros gameplay in one game is amazing. Adding Yoshi really adds quite a bit to the already established 3D gameplay of Mario Galaxy. The best thing about Yoshi is that most sections you use the dinosaur in MUST be completed using his special abilities through items. That was one thing that I didn't really like about Yoshi's use in Super Mario Sunshine on the Gamecube. Yoshi's juice based abilities could have easily been made abilities for Mario's water backpack that was already central to the gameplay in this game. In Galaxy 2, Yoshi's special abilities are the most unique they've ever been. Further, it wouldn't make sense for Mario (or *spoiler alert* Luigi) to hold those abilities. The gameplay reinforces the fact that the player must figure out how to use Mario & Yoshi's abilities TOGETHER. Mostly, I appreciate Mario Galaxy 2 for having levels that are substantially more difficult than the previous game. My only qualm with this game is that the main storyline and levels of the game are too short. I'm glad that each galaxy and planet has several stars to obtain. A major problem with the first game was that some galaxies had single stars while others seemed to have too many, thus making those levels repetitive. Each galaxy or planet has 2-4 stars minimum. I appreciate that. There are also these coinss called Comet medals that cause additional stars to become available that are sometimes even more difficult to obtain than the previous ones.

If you have a Nintendo Wii, you owe yourself the opportunity to play the original Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel that ups the ante heavily and melds 2D and 3D style Mario gameplay into one amazing monster of a Mario game