Super Mario Galaxy 2 Preview

• by Dave Rudden
• February 24, 2010 21:07 PM PST

In Super Mario Galaxy 2, the weight of Mario's world lays on the squarely on the shoulders of Yoshi. Can the dinosaur support a sequel with his new moves, or is this more of the same Galaxy?

It seems like every Mario "sequel" has made a big to-do about bringing Yoshi back. Super Mario Sunshine followed up Super Mario 64 by bringing Yoshi into 3D, while New Super Mario Bros. Wii added the adorable dinosaur to the plumber's 2D exploits. It's what accompanies Mario's dinosaur pal, however, that seems to mark the difference between making said sequels true classics in their own right or "just another Mario game." Sunshine added water-based moves and floundered when the rest of the game played just like Mario's first 3D adventure. New Super Mario Bros. Wii, on the other hand, has become a hit on the heels of a new Super Mario mechanic; multiplayer.

Super Mario Galaxy 2's debut trailer at E3 2009 seemed to indicate that there was little change over the original's innovative planet-hopping other than doing it on the back of a green dinosaur. And based on my time with the title, I've deduced that to be true. However, this time, Yoshi's new moves alone may be enough to make a sequel of substance.

If any part of the original Super Mario Galaxy's gameplay could be considered a letdown, the pointer controls made a strong case for it. Collecting and shooting star bits almost felt like an afterthought when put next to Mario's new moves and power-ups. Thankfully, Yoshi's moveset makes much more judicious use of the mechanic, making his stages really stand out.

As prominent as he's been in most of Mario's adventures, Yoshi's almost never been necessary in the grand scheme of things. While hopping on his back and making use of his moves made things a lot easier, you could get through stages just fine on foot. In Galaxy 2, however, his moves are key. I started the stage with a simple puzzle; a large glass dome blocked my path, with Bullet Bills being shot at Mario and Yoshi from every direction. By pointing at a nearby Bill and pressing B, Yoshi was able to eat the artillery. From there, I set the pointer squarely on the dome and hit B again, destroying the structure and allowing the duo to continue on.

After adding a few variables to the equation (like moving platforms that inched slowly towards the dome and larger quantities of animated ammo), we were able to take on the largest boss in the demo; a robot controlled by Bowser Jr. that shot out Bullet Bills and created jolts of electricity by slamming its mallet-shaped fists onto the circular platform surrounding it. Defeating Bowser Jr. required precise timing to avoid getting hit by electric shocks while being able to accurately pluck Bills from the air and send them back towards the robot's weak point. The addition of Yoshi's moves made the battle feel differently than any other fight in Mario history, and I hope the final version has more of these unique battles.

I was able to try out a few other new moves, both with and without Yoshi, that offered up varying degrees of awe. One stage had a power-up that turned Yoshi into a floating balloon, which was fun, but felt more or less like the power-up Mario had in Super Mario World. More impressive was the stage that allowed Yoshi to swallow a pepper. Much like how Mario sped up but lost a great deal of subtle control for a brief moment after being burned in his previous 3D adventures, eating a pepper caused Yoshi to turn red and gain great amounts of speed, allowing the dinosaur to run up walls traverse greater areas of land (handy when said land would disappear after a short period). With long stretches of stunt-filled stages, it felt like a merging of Mario and Sonic's gameplay, and it certainly felt better than any of the blue rodent's 3D adventures of late. The drill bit allowed for some puzzle-based gameplay, as we had to make note of the lay of the land on one side of the planet before plowing through the other. A boss fight against a mine-dropping octopus-looking robot made good use of the drill as a weapon later on. Avoiding the enemy's appendages while up close and the mines that bored directly through the planet, I had to match Mario up directly underneath the enemy when it showed its weak point.

All drilling aside, the lion's share of Super Mario Galaxy 2's new moves belong to a dinosaur. Thankfully they may be engaging and innovative enough to satisfy the hardcore Mario fans hoping for something new.

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