Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) review "Greatness marred by a control style I struggle to enjoy. "

In a lot of ways, Wii reviews are the toughest for me to write. At least, my backlog of unplayed games shows that when I’ve struggled through this one, I’ll only have a maximum of one more to get through and I’ll be done writing about this frustrating-to-me Nintendo system.

In short, while Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a pretty wonderful game that is well worth the time of that long-running series’ fans, it was a struggle for me to consistently enjoy. The blame for that shouldn’t fall completely on the game, though. Nintendo had a new concept for how to control gaming protagonists with this system and they were determined to utilize it as frequently as possible. Meanwhile, I’m an old-school gamer who cut his teeth on that stiff-as-hell joystick packaged with the Atari 2600 before moving on to the original Nintendo’s control pad and eventually becoming acclimated to the analog sticks present on modern PlayStation and Xbox systems. The Wii’s motion controls, where a person operates a tiny analog stick with one hand and shakes, tilts and manipulates a second controller with the other? Not for me, unless I’m challenging a buddy in Wii Sports bowling.

It’s kind of a shame, really. Growing up, Mario and Zelda were two of my favorite series. In fact, they played a huge part in me purchasing my Wii. And the entire time I’ve played their games on this system, I’ve been singing those “This is cool, but it’d be WAY better with traditional controls instead of this…” blues. Galaxy 2 is no exception.



That kind of bums me out. Over the last few years, I’ve grown to really enjoy platformers that aren’t afraid to give me a real challenge and this one is notably more difficult than the first Galaxy. After playing both games, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the first one was designed to get players used to the motion controls and the second was the game everyone really wanted to make.

On the surface, both are quite similar. After Bowser kidnaps the princess again, Mario travels the universe to retrieve her. The average level has him going from one small planet to another and encountering all sorts of challenges. One location might be designed to resemble classic side-scrolling Mario and the next will be in three-dimensions. One planet might be a sphere and you’ll be able to run all around it. Another might give validity to the ramblings of a Flat-Earther and you’ll fall into a black hole if you stumble over the edge. Maybe you’ll just have Mario’s running and jumping abilities to avoid or dispatch various monsters or perhaps he’ll be given one of a handful fo power-ups to help him navigate challenges.

And, of course, there will be several boss fights. At the end of each of the game’s worlds, there will be an encounter with either Bowser or Bowser Jr., while a number of other adversaries step up to the plate in many other galaxies. For most of the game, your main goal will be to collect Power Stars. Whenever you access a new galaxy, you’ll be sent to a level and gain one as a reward for progressing through that challenge. Sometimes, that will lead to you gaining access to a new level in that galaxy possessing its own Star. Other times, you’ll find one by fulfilling an optional, often secret, objective in a galaxy or a supporting character will notify of you of a particular mini-game with a Star as the reward for completing that challenge.



Obtaining those Stars is crucial, as there will be occasional checkpoints as you travel through the game. If you’ve collected a sufficient number, you’ll be allowed to continue, but if you haven’t, you’ll have to scour through previously-visited galaxies until you’ve picked up a few more.

Overall, this game will feel very familiar to anyone who played the first Galaxy. A lot of the galaxies and boss fights were derived from those in that game and a number of power-ups, such as the bee suit, also return. And a few of the new additions, such as the presence of dinosaur companion Yoshi in a number of galaxies, are staples of the series, so one could easily say this game is a derivative, yet superior, version of its predecessor. There are many more galaxies to visit in this game. While the original had around 30 plus a handful of optional places that can be accessed by thorough players, this one has nearly 50, but with fewer Power Stars on average in each one.

This is good! Nintendo always has shown a great deal of imagination in crafting their Super Mario games, so having more places to go is a huge positive. Both because I get to see a bunch of cool locations ranging from beaches to haunted houses to spaceships to castles to about anything a person can imagine AND because in a game where you have to collect so many of a certain item to progress, it’s always nice to have a lot of options in the event a particular challenge simply isn’t resonating with me.

Sadly, that ties into the one big issue I had with this game that made it less enjoyable for me than the easier original, despite how every fiber of my being was screaming that this should have been the definitive Super Mario Galaxy. In the original, I recall only needing to collect something like 60 of 120 Power Stars to access the final confrontation with Bowser. Here, you’ll be able to obtain a maximum of 106 Stars before reaching the final Bowser fight and you’ll need 70 of them to do so.



As a person who isn’t a fan of the Wii’s motion controls, this definitely impacted my overall enjoyment of things. In the first game, I could ignore most, if not all, of the challenges I wasn’t finding particularly fun, since I only needed half of the Power Stars and, therefore, could focus on the ones that involved exploring planets as opposed to regularly making quick and precise movements. I wasn’t so lucky here. To advance through the final world to its climactic confrontation, as the number of Stars I needed to continue advancing grew larger and larger, I found myself realizing I’d have to endure stuff I wasn’t finding fun.

Maybe it was those Daredevil levels, where you have to beat certain bosses while unable to take any damage whatsoever before perishing. Or the Speed Runs, where the goal is to clear a level really quickly. Or what about the ones where you challenge a chimp to a number of tricky contests? Allegedly, these are done in the spirit of friendly competition, although the number of them in which Mario loses a life for failing might say differently. Or, saving the worst for last, there are the really awkward flying levels where Mario grabs onto a bird and helps it fly through obstacle courses and the damnable level in the fourth world’s Chompworks Galaxy where you get a spring power-up and have to use it to vault over enemies. Or in my case, struggle mightily with the timing and repeatedly watch Mario’s ass get fried in lava.

Let’s be real. There’s a lot of additional content to this game. When you finish it, you can go back through all the levels to find green versions of the Power Stars and there is an entire post-game world with really challenging galaxies that can be accessed if you’ve been very diligent in getting Stars of both colors. But none of that was in the cards for me. Super Mario Galaxy 2 has a lot of really fun stuff in it, but the Wii’s motion controls have never agreed with me and for me to progress beyond a certain point, I had to force myself to overcome challenges that simply felt awkward due to those controls. In the end, it creates one of those weird paradoxes where I feel this game is superior to the first Super Mario Galaxy, but at the same time, it wasn’t as consistently enjoyable because I had to do more levels that I found annoying or frustrating in order to reach its more strict star quotas.

Staff review by Rob Hamilton (August 30, 2024) Rob Hamilton is the official drunken master of review writing for Honestgamers.