PixlBit

Dust off your PixlBit and see what the staff have to say after finishing Super Mario Galaxy 2. Well, most of us have anyway.

Jason: Hey everyone!

Kathrine: Hi.

Nick: Howdy.

Chessa: Herro.

Jason: Let me finish the new star I'm on real quick.

Chessa: lol

Jason: I cheated. Sue me. Yoshi flutter jump spam.

Chessa: Unacceptable.

Kathrine: What's your count now Jason?

Jason: So now I'm at 14.

Chessa: lol

Kathrine: *facepalm*

Jason: Ok, then, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a Wii game. It came out in May. And so now that everyone's had a chance to play it to it's fullest... And collect more than nine stars, we figured we'd talk about it. So, what's up first?

Nick: Not too much, looks like everyone has finally caught up to me and Chessa with finishing Galaxy 2.

Jason: Probably.

Nick: Well, except you.

Jason: Oh, there's more than fourteen stars in the game? I was shocked when I found star #10!

Kathrine: Anyways, the story is a good place to start. It's the first thing you see when you begin a new game.

Jason: Story? What story?

Nick: There was a story?

Kathrine: Yeah there's a story. It's simple, short, and to-the-point, and completely uninteresting.

Nick: Perfect!

Jason: Oh, right, I recall a story-book overlay on the first area. You know, it's like reading a book.

Chessa: Story = Peach got kidnapped... again.

Jason: Sounds like Super Mario Bros. And Super Mario Bros. 3. And Super Mario World. And Super Mario 64. Oh, and Super Mario Sunshine. Not Super Princess Peach, though.

Chessa: Don't forget New Super Mario Bros. Wii and DS.

Jason: Oh, right, I almost did!

Kathrine: Right, Mario games don't need a story. But it would still be nice to have something besides the tired "Bowser kidnaps the princess."

Jason: Like Bowser Jr. kidnaps Princess Peach?!

Kathrine: Bowser Jr. shouldn't exist.

Nick: I've never really considered wanting more out of a platformer. Honestly, I didn't like all of the story overhead in Galaxy 1.

Jason: I didn't like it, either. It slowed down the game before. Why's Bowser Jr. gotta tell me he's going to finish me off, and not Bowser? Why doesn't he just attack?

Chessa: The gameplay isn't story driven at all so it isn't surprising that Nintendo doesn't try too hard.

Kathrine: At least the opening scene was interactive.

Nick: Yeah, the story is pretty much a moot point for me. I honestly wish they'd stop even trying to pretend it exists. They could just start assuming I know the princess was kidnapped.

Jason: In a lot of earlier Mario games, they do!

Chessa: Peach could just yawn when she gets kidnapped.

Jason: I thought it was too much when you had to watch the cake-trapping animation in NSMBWii.

Chessa: I think the point of that was introducing the Koopa Kids. Well, reintroducing them, actually.

Nick: So what's this about the running speed? Was there some big issue with that I wasn't aware of?

Jason: I think Mario's too slow. Really. Everything's huge. And Mario just kind of chugs along. Since everything is bigger than earlier Mario games, since everything is more wide-open, he feels slower to me. I feel like it can take forever to get from point "A" to point "B."

Nick: Hmm, interesting, that never even crossed my mind, and I'm usually pretty sensitive to that kind of stuff

Chessa: I didn't notice any issue with his running speed. Slow compared to what other Mario games?

Jason: Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, specifically.

Nick: I suppose I do long jump everywhere and take shortcuts wherever possible, but that's always been part of the allure of the game for me.

Jason: Long jump is slower than it was in Super Mario 64, too, especially with the gravity manipulation.

Chessa: I've played plenty of Super Mario 64 and I guess I can't see that difference. However, I always felt that Mario moved a bit too quickly in Sunshine.

Nick: He was too slidy in Sunshine.

Kathrine: If you think Mario is slow then you must be pretty impatient... If Mario moved any faster than it would make things more difficult.

Jason: I suppose I am impatient, then!

Nick: You are, jerk. Stop having opinions.

Jason: But I definitely remember making it clearly across stages quickly in SM64, and it takes forever to progress in Galaxy and Galaxy 2. That's why I only have 14 stars!

Kathrine: I don't understand that. The worlds in Super Mario 64 were huge. Galaxy 2 has bite-sized stages.

Nick: I agree with Kathrine. I suppose there are a few stars that feel a bit slow moving, but most of the time they seemed about right to me. The levels in Galaxy 2 were much, much smaller.

Chessa: I felt most stars felt a bit too quick.

Jason: Sure, but in Super Mario 64, with more walls, with all the easy tricks to do, with more precise controls, Mario felt a lot more acrobatic!

Chessa: Oh, I absolutely think that Mario 64 was much more about the complicated platforming. They've sort of watered that down a bit in the galaxies.

Nick: Yeah, I can agree with some of that

Kathrine: More precise controls? Now you're just trolling. Wall kicks have never been as easy as they are in Galaxy 2.

Nick: Yeah, the controls are definitely better in Galaxy.

Jason: Wall jumps, sure. However, the long jump is sluggish, the back-flip doesn't control as well... The somersault is harder to do. Side jump, somersault, same thing. I'm very picky, nonetheless.

Chessa: I think side jumps are harder to execute.

Nick: Side jumps have always been a sticky point

Kathrine: I find none of those issues.

Jason: I'll never agree! I'll just admit I'm out-numbered.

Kathrine: You don't have to agree, everyone has different play styles, different ways they hold the controller...

Nick: It sounds like you are a Super Mario 64 fanboy. (I am too)

Jason: Nah, I'm not. I just like an acrobatic Mario. I really liked the linear sections of Sunshine, too. And really, I liked a lot you could do with the water pack. Most people didn't like FLUDD, but I thought it was a great addition, and it was level-design and item-collecting that got in the way.

Nick: Sunshine is my favorite, so I'll hold my tongue.

Chessa: I think Mario is basically still as acrobatic, I just think the levels aren't conducive to utilizing those abilities like they were in earlier 3d Mario titles.

Jason: That's true, Chessa.

Kathrine: I miss Mario's dive move, but other than that, it's the same Mario.

Jason: Oh, I do miss the dive move, too.

Nick: Same.

Jason: Anyway, yeah, I go on record for saying I think he feels a bit more sluggish than in other Mario games, maybe due to level-design.

Nick: I think you need to play a bit more of the game.

Jason: Probably.

Kathrine: Shall we go on to what's new in Galaxy 2? It introduces several new powerups, as well as the return of Yoshi to 3D.

Jason: I've seen several new power-ups! My favorite so far is the cloud.

Nick: Am I the only one who just doesn't care about Yoshi?

Kathrine: In this room? Yes, you are Nick.

Chessa: Yoshi is awesome. I thought he was a great addition to the game, in fact I don't think there was enough Yoshi, just like NSMBWii.

Kathrine: There's never enough Yoshi.

Jason: I don't know if Yoshi worked out so well. I love Yoshi... but he doesn't feel the same so far. Why don't you like Yoshi, Nick?

Nick: I just didn't feel like he was that exciting of an inclusion. They did a couple interesting things with him, but they felt very forced.

Kathrine: Well, I think part of that was due to his limited appearances.

Jason: I kind of felt like he needed to be faster and more maneuverable.

Chessa: Eat a pepper then.

Jason: Those sections were all right, I'll give it that, but I hated running out of pepper juice.

Nick: What I liked about Yoshi back in Super Mario World were the untraditional ways of using him. Like flying everywhere with blue shells, and jumping off of him in opportune spots to reach new places.

Jason: Mario did seem more maneuverable back in Super Mario World with Yoshi, didn't he? At least here, Yoshi can flutter-jump-fly, though. It's not like it counts, since it's a glitch, but he can do it.

Chessa: And swing on daisies, run super fast, walk around on water, poop star bits.

Kathrine: Ew.

Nick: Ha ha.

Chessa: Well he can! And you could utilize Yoshi in unique ways, especially during the green star challenges... but that is later.

Jason: Eh, the daisy swinging hasn't been fun so far.

Nick: That gets better towards the end of the game.

Kathrine: Using the pointer to direct Yoshi's tongue is the best possible way it could work in 3D, I think. It's a lot easier than just using an analogue stick could ever be.

Jason: I'll give it that. It probably works the best.

Nick: I felt that was awkward at first. I did become accustomed to it though, and when I did, I felt it was intuitive.

Jason: Did anyone else use the flying Yoshi glitch much? I used it to get the 14th star, just because I didn't feel like doing accurate Yoshi-pepper running.

Nick: I tried it, but didn't do anything with it. It's tough to do consistently. It seems like something you could possibly do some neat things with, but I'm not good enough at it to do those things.

Chessa: I couldn't get that to work. I’d say the thing I enjoyed most with Yoshi was the Bowser Jr. machine fight.

Jason: You know what's better than Yoshi? Clouds!

Nick: Agreed.

Chessa: The only good new powerup.

Jason: I think the boulder has its places. But they're all better than the bee suit. That thing is slow as molasses.

Chessa: I hated the boulder. Though nothing is worse than the spring.

Kathrine: I liked the spring suit. The challenge was controlling it.

Jason: The spring is better than the Bee suit!

Nick: I thought the boulder was alright. The Bee Suit feels like a crappy water pack. It's so controlled. You may as well just be jumping.

Jason: Yeah, in a lot of ways, yes.

Kathrine: The bee suit is the least interesting method of flight in any Mario game. Does anyone remember the red flying suit from the fist game? I thought they would bring that back. I really don't know why they didn’t.

Nick: The red flying suit was great, I can't believe they didn't bring it back. It was basically a return to the Flying cap from SM64.

Jason: Red flying suit? I... uh... didn't get that far, I think.

Kathrine: Shame on you!

Nick: Yeah, that's a shame

Jason: Oh, and they didn't bring it back? That's odd. Still, getting to far-away places by using clouds sparingly is a lot of fun. The first cloud level had a few places like that, so I actually do know what I'm talking about.

Nick: I felt like that was an extension of long jumping all over the place. I love their implementation of it too: Three clouds at a time and then you need to collect a refill. It made for some really awesome platforming sections.

Kathrine: Yeah, the cloud suit is definitely the best powerup in the game. And having just the cloud suit makes Mario fall more slowly.

Jason: That leaves, what, the drill and the boulder?

Kathrine: Yes the drill! That was neat, but not used enough!

Nick: Man, the drill was a disappointment. That's exactly it, they could've done so much.

Jason: If only you could control the direction. I'd love it if you could.

Nick: Like Sonic Colors!

Kathrine: You did NOT just compare a Mario game to a Sonic game.

Nick: Well, the drill in Colors was absolutely awesome, and a ton of fun to use. Sonic Colors is the Sonic version of Super Mario Galaxy. But in Galaxy 2, every time I used the drill, I felt like they weren't using it in a particularly compelling way.

Kathrine: What did you want to be doing with it?

Nick: I wanted to use it to find hidden stuff. That's one thing I feel has gone missing from 3D Mario games over time: discovery. Both Galaxy games always felt like they were leading me along.

Jason: There's nothing wrong with that, I just think the option to backtrack should've been allowed more. Oh, and also, black holes suck. You can't jump off a stage to try to find more without one eating you up.

Kathrine: Well, I think that's because the earlier 3D Mario games were a cross between a platformer and adventure game, and the Galaxy games are more like pure platformers.

Jason: That has less acrobatics.

Nick: This is true, but I always felt like the hybrid version was better.

Kathrine: Keep playing, Jason.

Nick: Yeah, I have to agree with Kathrine. The game gets quite acrobatic.

Jason: Hey, I didn't even really want to be a part of this. Not because I didn't want to, but because of my lack of progress. Anyway, boulder. I liked the boulder, from what I saw, it's just teeny bit too hard to control.

Nick: Yeah, it was a tad sensitive. I didn't mind where it was used though, and it did have a bit of mastery about it.

Kathrine: It was a much more specialized powerup, so I'm fine with that one being a one-off type of thing.

Jason: It felt awkward, is all. Chris died about a thousand times on that one stage. You know the stage I'm talking about.

Nick: Yup, I had to beat that one for Chessa.

Jason: Really? I didn't think it looked that hard, either...

Nick: Yeah, it wasn't that hard in my opinion. You know what stages never needed to come back? The ones that involved motion control!

Jason: Oh, were there some like that? I remember hating a Manta Ray in the first game. Are those still motion controlled? Chris died on one of those stages doing a purple coin run, too.

Nick: Yeah, that's where the ball rolling really got frustrating for me. I never minded the manta ray, but the ball rolling ones are the devil.

Kathrine: I don't see what everyone's problem with those are. Granted, I do feel they would be better suited for Mario Party, where you and your friends can laugh at each other's failures... but I thought they worked just fine. What is it that was messing you up, Nick?

Nick: I just have a hard time keeping things that steady.

Kathrine: Nervous?

Nick: I’m not sure what it is exactly.

Check out Part Two »