Super Mario Galaxy 2

[JezMM]

Never did, never said that either, I said that nothing of Galaxy's ending hinted on a sequel.

I know, I'm sorry, I might have phrased that badly. It was actually more aimed at those who were arguing it was than you replying to it.

As long as they give us damn epic opening and ending like they did with Galaxy 1, I'll be happy, regardless of their excuse for why Mario's returning to space. But a few plot twists and cut-scenes during the game would certianly not go amiss.

[SuperLink]

Nothing of that warrants a sequel.

The return of the Luma leaves it open ended. Clearly Nintendo wanted to leave the opportunity for a sequel, even if it was something they decided much later.

But then again, it's mainstream Mario. His games are hardly about story. Sunshine had the biggest plot, with Galaxy only really having a plot in the storybook. But ti doesn't matter- stories don't make Mario.

Agreed. However Galaxy was originally meant to have a more indepth story, with Rosalina being related to Peach in some way. The opening FMVs showed Peach holding a Luma. Why? We never found out, probably because the FMV was made before the idea to take most of the plot out was finalised.

In any case the sequel leaves a chance for Nintendo to actually give the plot a chance for once.

[JezMM]

Agreed. However Galaxy was originally meant to have a more indepth story, with Rosalina being related to Peach in some way. The opening FMVs showed Peach holding a Luma. Why? We never found out, probably because the FMV was made before the idea to take most of the plot out was finalised.

In any case the sequel leaves a chance for Nintendo to actually give the plot a chance for once.

I just want to say, Mario Galaxy's cut-scenes weren't FMV so they could have taken it out if they wanted to I guess. I don't say this to be nitpicky of your post, to be honest I actually love the fact that Galaxy's cut-scenes aren't FMV. It makes them all the more cool to me.

[SuperLink]

I was pretty sure they were FMV (Full Motion Video, often made with game models). I know they clearly aren't CGI (Computer Generated) but there is a difference between them.

I'm just not sure if those scenes are FMV or real time. If they're real time then my bad ^^;

To me though it just begs the question, why didn't they take out Peach's Luma? Couldn't have been too hard to change her model a little, it clearly has no story relevance.

[Carbo]

But then again, it's mainstream Mario. His games are hardly about story. Sunshine had the biggest plot, with Galaxy only really having a plot in the storybook. But ti doesn't matter- stories don't make Mario. I just hope that SMG 2 doesn't feel as recycled as it looks.

You're missing my point and you're acting as if I don't know the Mario formula already from living through it since my childhood. My point was just that it didn't really feel like it warranted a sequel storyline wise. Just that oh hey they're still there and we can have Rosalina in Mario Kart.

[Patticus]

Storyline-wise it doesn't really need a sequel, but we don't play Mario for the story, any story there is is just a thinly veiled excuse to go stomp on some Goombas and have fun.

[JezMM]

I'm pretty sure they're not FMV just by how good the quality is. Even using a component cable, the cut-scenes are as detailed looking as the in-game graphics. There's no artifacts of encoding into a video file at all. To be that quality AND have doubles for all the ending cut-scenes with Luigi instead of Mario, that'd take up a crapload of space on the disc. D= It'd be way more space efficient to use in-game cut-scenes if you're gonna use in-game graphics anyway, as in-game cut-scenes only take up as much space as a set of instructions for the character models to follow, basically.

But... yeah I agree, it's a mystery why Peach had that Luma. =S

[SuperLink]

Actually that's true, hadn't thought of disc space.

Storyline-wise it doesn't really need a sequel, but we don't play Mario for the story, any story there is is just a thinly veiled excuse to go stomp on some Goombas and have fun.

I know we all play it for gameplay, but I'm a firm believer that game plots have no excuse to not be better or as good as film/book plots, to make everything just that much more awesome.

Like the Paper Mario games. The plots aren't incredible but they're still "great".

Edited June 4, 2009 by #385 Jirachi

[JezMM]

I agree, I'd love to see a plot of Paper Mario's nature in a platformer Mario game, though as long as it doesn't make the game linear. I like the fact that the 3D Mario games let you play whatever levels you like out of what you've unlocked to reach the finale.

What I would like is just something where, like, you get a new cut-scene every 10 stars or something. Maybe at 30 stars an asteroid hits the observatory and the hub would have the power out, and you'd have to do a single stage there to get the power back on before you could carry on getting stars. Except... assume a slightly more interesting scenario - and obviously the hub probably won't be the observatory again. Something like that'd be nice, just to keep us on our toes.

Or at least give us some interesting letters from Peach as we progress further. Apparently she had a photocopier and a giant pile of 1-up mushrooms in her cell in Galaxy.

[Agent York]

Super Mario Galaxy 2 might use Motion-Plus controls?

http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=17727

[Tailer]

Lol, for some apparent reason I get some hype now when I look at the video, now that's kind of annoying .

Hopefully you won't run around a small planet all to much but being on a big planet instead(hated the camera )

[Carbo]

Two things I desperately want to see which I didn't get in the original Galaxy game.

1. Bigger field-like planets. While the Galaxy games had much more bigger terrain and level sizes than Mario 64 lets say, the levels themselves were extremely linear at times and didn't leave for much exploration and just enjoying the spectacle on your own will like Super Mario 64 offered. Sure there were some ocassions and some relatively big levels but these didn't match up to what Mario 64 could offer in terms of doing non-linear gameplay and getting most stars by your own in whatever order. I found that rather innovative. The only planets having non-linear gameplay in Galaxy were rather small, and Galaxy is pretty much the perfect game to put in the level style of Mario 64 in seeing as there were huge invisible walls and cut-offs of mountains or so on most levels. On Galaxy it can be justified since it's all on a single planet and not a floating invisible square box.

2. The return of the Wing Cap or Free-Flying. Again, Galaxy's graphics and visuals blow Mario 64 out of the way, but it also goes limited. The flying sections when you went into a star were impressive but they were automated. I can understand this, but when I saw this for the first time I was hoping so much for that there would be a free-flying mode; which there is in fact. But its so slow and short compared to what Mario 64's offering was. It was only halfway pleasure. I hope that they extend on this in Galaxy 2 and make it more faster, high paced and longer.

[JezMM]

2. The return of the Wing Cap or Free-Flying. Again, Galaxy's graphics and visuals blow Mario 64 out of the way, but it also goes limited. The flying sections when you went into a star were impressive but they were automated. I can understand this, but when I saw this for the first time I was hoping so much for that there would be a free-flying mode; which there is in fact. But its so slow and short compared to what Mario 64's offering was. It was only halfway pleasure. I hope that they extend on this in Galaxy 2 and make it more faster, high paced and longer.

Gotta agree. I was really dissapointed the red star didn't appear on any other levels. I think it'd be great to have a few more levels designed for flying and make it so on most levels, your reward for collecting all the stars is a "free mode", which has all the planetoids present from all the previous missions (so for example, planetoids usually only present as a result of hungry lumas would already be there), and red stars on each one so you can just fly around and do whatever. Perhaps incorporate a bonus scavenger hunt type mission in which you can freely explore the level with red stars and have to use your knowledge from the previous missions to identify clues and work out where the next silver star is hidden or something. There could be a few enemies and rings to fly through for bonus star bits in the air between planetoids to keep you entertained on long flights (like how Wind Waker had those barrel/rupee minigames randomly generated as you traveled on the sea). And a metre added so you know how much red star power you have left. Losing it in mid-air would just send you zooming to the nearest planetoid possible, or, if you're unlucky, the nearest black hole.

[Patticus]

Anyone who thinks there was 'nothing new', or not a lot of it, in the SMG 2 trailer...

- Giant Mario/Mini world

- Castle environment

- Yoshi

- Yoshi tongue swing

- Yoshi balloon

- Drill into a world

- Snow level

- Water turned into ice

- Light/Dark Ghost level

- Bounce pad worlds

- Flower level

- Time slowdown

- Shadow Marios

That's all new stuff, well new to 3D Mario at least, as well as new enemies, new worlds and new uses for abilities found in the original game. And all in a two minute video. If you wanted more, then there's obviously no pleasing you, although that Red Star idea is a nifty one.

[Erazor]

Anyone who thinks there was 'nothing new', or not a lot of it, in the SMG 2 trailer...

- Giant Mario/Mini world (SM64)

- Castle environment (Every Mario Game Ever)

- Yoshi (SMW, SMS)

- Yoshi tongue swing

- Yoshi balloon

- Drill into a world

- Snow level (SM64,SMG,SMW)

- Water turned into ice (SMG)

- Light/Dark Ghost level

- Bounce pad worlds (Oh come on)

- Flower level

- Time slowdown (Every game ever made)

- Shadow Marios (SMG, SMS, Sonic, Zelda)

That's all new stuff, well new to 3D Mario at least, as well as new enemies, new worlds and new uses for abilities found in the original game. And all in a two minute video. If you wanted more, then there's obviously no pleasing you, although that Red Star idea is a nifty one.

Yeah. Lots of new and original stuff.

[Carbo]

The mentions you did on the stage environments aren't so... surprising, like the castle environment world and the bounce pad world. But the snow level I do agree looks very new and promising, it looks big, beautiful and like it has a big area of exploration.

Another thing that would be sorta nice to see is more "powerups in the old school way" instead of temporary ones that disappear after 12 seconds or so of usage. The Fire Flower was the prime example. It felt amazing to have them return again into a full fledged 3D area, it looked so beautiful and nostalgic to see it return. Yet, you only use it for 12 seconds for just puzzle solving and hitting stuff can be rather difficult; which is why I feel like its a let down. I mean I took a darn Fire Flower, not a Star.

I kinda doubt it'll change but bleh. I can hope.

[Erazor]

The mentions you did on the stage environments aren't so... surprising, like the castle environment world and the bounce pad world. But the snow level I do agree looks very new and promising, it looks big, beautiful and like it has a big area of exploration.

Another thing that would be sorta nice to see is more "powerups in the old school way" instead of temporary ones that disappear after 12 seconds or so of usage. The Fire Flower was the prime example. It felt amazing to have them return again into a full fledged 3D area, it looked so beautiful and nostalgic to see it return. Yet, you only use it for 12 seconds for just puzzle solving and hitting stuff can be rather difficult; which is why I feel like its a let down. I mean I took a darn Fire Flower, not a Star.

I kinda doubt it'll change but bleh. I can hope.

I agree. I was really disappointed that some of the cooler power ups had timers. Especially since they didn't drastically change the gameplay to the point where they should be timed. Fire and Ice power was not the equivalent of Super Sonic. It was just an extra attack.

[Diogenes]

1. Bigger field-like planets.

I dunno about this one. The open galaxies in SMG were some of the weakest in the game, I think; the bee galaxies in particular tended to bore the hell out of me after my first playthrough (and there's two of the damn things!). I preferred the levels where there was a lot more of a direct focus on where you're supposed to go; I think it gives them more of a solid structure to build challenges around, whereas in an open area it's harder to make the player have to do it your way. Instead of the "open field" style of level, I think I'd prefer if they'd just "widen" the linear paths, add more stuff running alongside the main routes for players who like to explore.

[SuperLink]

I think the Bee Galaxies were boring because they just weren't made as well as Mario 64's worlds. NPCs take too long to talk to and aren't as fun as they should be. I like NPCs to tell me interesting things, that's why I always speak to every NPC in RPGs, to get as much info on the world ad characters I'm exploring as possible.

So I would like to see more Field-like Galaxies, just better made. Also I think the Bee outfit was a little boring to use because it was slow. It's returning anyway but hopefully it'll involve more than just slowly floating from A to B.

[SuperStingray]

Anyone who thinks there was 'nothing new', or not a lot of it, in the SMG 2 trailer...

- Castle environment

- Drill into a world

- Snow level

- Water turned into ice

Those four were in the first game. Nonetheless, I'm still confident that there will be a lot of new stuff. One of the benefits of Super Mario Galaxy is that they weren't restricted to realism so all bets are off for what will be in the second.

[Luigi52]

NOT ANOTHER SUPER MARIO GALAXY I LOVED IT BUT THEY SHOULD WORK ON PIKMIN 3 OR A STAR FOX WII

[Diogenes]

I think the Bee Galaxies were boring because they just weren't made as well as Mario 64's worlds.

I don't even think 64's levels were that good. Better than the open levels in Galaxy, maybe, but I think the rest of Galaxy's levels are far better than the ones in SM64.

[SuperLink]

Pikmin 3 is being made, and Mario has his own development team inside Nintendo anyway so they're not wasting much manpower on this one, especially since they can reuse the engine.

And, 64's stages were way better than Bee Galaxies IMO. As for the rest I definitely think Galaxy is a better game than Mario 64 but I do think that those who want more exploration and less linear stages have a point.

Edited June 7, 2009 by #385 Jirachi

[Solid SOAP]

Mario 64 was more timeless and memorable, but Super Mario Galaxy is the better game in my opinion. It has this charm about it that's just absolutely fantastic that no other game has come close to replicating. I get this warm fuzzy feeling playing it, like I'm playing someone from when I was a little kid, even though it's so new. One of Nintendo's best, an absolutely remarkable game.

[Remy]

I like Galaxy's more focused approach. 64 at times feels kind of like "here's a level, go nuts lol" Galaxy's stages were a lot better set out, in my opinion.

My only gripe with galaxy is most of the interesting stages open after you finish the game- once my drive to play had kind of worn off. Putting that much content after the "final boss" was kind of a bummer for me, I just moved on to other games.