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[PhoncipleBone]

I think my biggest problem is that they actually start you out with a pepper challenge, so Yoshi is soured from the very beginning. There just hasn't been enough unique since then to redeem hum for me since then. The food light stuff also feels really annoying. I hate having to constantly eat new light fruits to see where I'm going.

The fruit light stuff was fun I thought, mainly because I could control Yoshi's speed during it. Would I want more fruitlight than we got? No, but I enjoyed what was there.

And add me to not really liking the Fluzzard or Ray stuff. I pass them easily enough and had fun, but I was glad they didn't go overboard with it. Same with the tree trunk slide.

 

[ratcliffja]

Also, I should point out that I don't think SMG2 is a bad game by any means. It just really disappointed me. I ended up enjoying NSMBWii a lot more. I don't want to derail the thread into a comparison of those games, though.

 

[MYE]

Okay, after having played this nearly all night last night, I can finally say that:

A) The game doesn't suck

B) There are some places that make it actually better than the first game

C) Music isn't as good, lol

Nice way to out frustrated haters :lol

 

[ConradCervantes]

The best Mario game ever made. The only thing that its predecessor has over it is the music, which falls just a little bit short of being legendary but still a worthwhile listen.

 

[Haunted]

Okay, after having played this nearly all night last night, I can finally say that:

A) The game doesn't suck

B) There are some places that make it actually better than the first game

C) Music isn't as good, lol

Agreed on all counts.

It has one of the best soundtracks ever by default since it reuses songs from the best soundtrack ever, but I didn't like some of the new tracks (mostly those Yoshi related). Didn't have that with the first one.

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

This thread should be nuked to oblivion.

 

[CreatureX3]

I think my biggest problem is that they actually start you out with a pepper challenge, so Yoshi is soured from the very beginning. There just hasn't been enough unique since then to redeem hum for me since then. The food light stuff also feels really annoying. I hate having to constantly eat new light fruits to see where I'm going.

Uh Yoshi is not introduced in a pepper challenge. Plus Yoshi controls like a dream in SMG2, especially compared to the atrocious way he controlled in Sunshine. Yoshi controls so perfectly that I'm hoping we get a 'Yoshi's Galaxy' game next!

Also glad to see the OP realize what an amazing game SMG2.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

I'm sorry you feel that way, but I really have to disagree.

Mario Galaxy 2 is one of only a handful of games I can honestly say is perfect. While playing, there was never a moment where I was angry at the game because of a flaw.

The Green Star hunt is a masterpiece in platforming, and forced you to pay attention to the details in the world, making you appreciate just how stylish and great looking they are.

The music ranks as my number two favorite soundtrack, with only the original Galaxy beating it. It's well written, catchy, and nerely every level has a unique song. It really feels like an epic space adventure with the music.

 

[lethial]

Love the neck beard rage when someone has something negative to say about a Mario game.

 

[Shiggy]

The green stars were pretty bland. In linear worlds you cannot really hide them, that was the main issue. And then there were stars which were difficult to get because of the camera/ lack of objects for orientation...not very much fun.

While it's still better than most other games, it was a huge disappointment for me after the beautiful SMG. It only felt like a simple add-on and not like a completely new experience, which Sunshine and 64 as well as Galaxy 1 definitely were. I only hope that EAD Tokyo is doing something entirely new instead of a simple sequel right now - that's what they can do best.

 

[zoukka]

Gaming forums YEAAAAAAH!

You don't hate it. You dislike some parts about it and still happily play on. If you'd hate it, you would've already quit and sold the game.

 

[mokeyjoe]

Gaming forums YEAAAAAAH!

You don't hate it. You dislike some parts about it and still happily play on. If you'd hate it, you would've already quit and sold the game.

Hyperbole is the language of the internet.

 

[Ranger X]

Okay, after having played this nearly all night last night, I can finally say that:

A) The game doesn't suck

B) There are some places that make it actually better than the first game

C) Music isn't as good, lol

I knew it wouldn't take long.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

Okay, after having played this nearly all night last night, I can finally say that:

A) The game doesn't suck

B) There are some places that make it actually better than the first game

C) Music isn't as good, lol

Glad you came to like it. And this thread made me change my avatar back to the one I had when Galaxy 2 came out.

 

[Garcia]

LOL. This thread. :lol

 

[_Alkaline_]

This raises an interesting question on subjectivity.

Just what /is/ good level design to you, for instance?

The Galaxy games are so highly praised because they're unrivaled in ingenuity, creativity, and use of 3D space and mechanics. Their stage designs pull out every conceivable trick in the book, and usually each level is its own unique idea that's almost never repeated through the entire game.

Their camera system is also pretty objectively just about the best camera so far in a 3D platformer in terms of clarity and how rarely it gets confused or loses a good perspective, and most of the time, manages to do it automatically without the player constantly adjusting it.

In terms of character physics, Ratchet & Clank is also below not just Mario Galaxy, but a number of other 3D platformers (including some N64 games). Ratchet has just never had any weight and tends to feel as if he is sliding along surfaces rather than attaching to them. It's not /bad/ but it's not great either. Kind of average.

Now, off the top of my head, one thing I can think Ratchet does have in its favor, is spectacle. Ratchet's sci-fi setting is used well with stage layouts organically worked into the art direction, especially in the PS3 games. I don't want to make assumptions, but is it a thematic thing for you? Is Ratchet's world just more appealing than the cartoon that Mario is?

The problem with calling Mario Galaxy "just mediocre" and saying "if it wasn't Mario, it'd be bashed to hell" is that it's a tall, ridiculous sounding statement because Mario Galaxy is a series that attracts people who /don't like Nintendo games/. It's not about the character, or Peach and Bowser, it's about the creativity, control, level design, music, and experience. That's why the Galaxy games have been so universally praised including by those who are on a mission to despise the Wii and hate Nintendo.

If Mario Galaxy was The Adventures of Cardboard Box and everything was featureless cubes, it'd still be an amazingly designed platforming experience.

So yeah, there's a longer and more reasonable response I think, to why people are going to laugh at someone who comes in and starts saying "bah, Mario is stupid and overrated and is actually a terrible platformer! Almost every other platformer that's not Mario is far superior!"

And this is not directed at you personally, but it's also pretty common for anyone who says a Nintendo game is superior to be called a "mere Nintendo fanboy" just because it's Nintendo, regardless of the game's merits. Nintendo isn't Cool for School like the bros enjoy, and is supposed to only be for Pokemon kids and "neckbeards". For some guys, they'll never accept that anything with Nintendo on the box will be for anyone other than "fanboys". Just as some people think all Blizzard games are for "fanboys", all Valve games, etc, for whatever reason the individual has an irrational problem with a brand identity.

What a fantastic post.

 

[farnham]

I'll be honest, I didn't care for SMG1 or 2. They're well made games but they did not grip me like previous Mario games. I'm dead serious.

Finally a brother that thinks Sunshine was better

 

[donny2112]

EDIT:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZpeDQBw3xg

Okay, this thread was worth it for that video. Just finished the last star a week ago or so. Thought it was clever the lengths they put you through to get all those stars. That video is so awesome. :lol

 

[Ponn]

Gaming forums YEAAAAAAH!

You don't hate it. You dislike some parts about it and still happily play on. If you'd hate it, you would've already quit and sold the game.

HAHA, i've only done that with one game ever, SAGA Frontier PSone. Played a hour and promptly took it back to EB Games. Dude actually gave me a refund for it to because I brought it back so quick and he could tell I REALLy hated it.

Never understood "hating" critically acclaimed games with nitpicking. It diminishes the word Hate and then we have to come up with a new word to express true feelins of disgust and revolt.

I vote Kotick. As in "wow, I really freaking kotick passing this kidney stone!"

 

[PhoncipleBone]

HAHA, i've only done that with one game ever, SAGA Frontier PSone. Played a hour and promptly took it back to EB Games. Dude actually gave me a refund for it to because I brought it back so quick and he could tell I REALLy hated it.

Never understood "hating" critically acclaimed games with nitpicking. It diminishes the word Hate and then we have to come up with a new word to express true feelins of disgust and revolt.

I vote Kotick. As in "wow, I really freaking kotick passing this kidney stone!"

I did that with Saga Frontier as well, but it was after a couple of days. I really tried to like it, but I couldn't.

The one game I did take back within a couple hours in a fit of rage was Yoshi's Story on N64. That is still the single most disappointing game experience I have had because I was expecting so much more because of the awesomeness of Yoshi's Island. I bought Yoshi's Story as soon as the store got their shipment, went home, beat it, then returned it very quickly after because I was so pissed off at hour mediocre the game was. Was it a horrible game? No. It was just mediocre and boring. It is shameful it was a spiritual successor to Yoshi's Island.

 

[V_Arnold]

yep we all know that a game to be goty needs to have a brown and grey color palette....

Keep up the good fight man, fight a stereotype with another stereotype.

 

[GrotesqueBeauty]

SMG2 is great, but still a bit flawed. At a minimum it shares all the same flaws as SMG, but with the added sin of blatant recycling (I found the re-use of SMG bosses in SMG2- some multiple times!- particularly offensive). It's certainly one of the best games of the year, best games on the Wii, and arguably one of the best games this gen. Yet it still manages end up somewhat overrated by the GOTF defense force.

 

[nincompoop]

SMG2 is great, but still a bit flawed. At a minimum it shares all the same flaws as SMG, but with the added sin of blatant recycling (I found the re-use of SMG bosses in SMG2- some multiple times!- particularly offensive). It's certainly one of the best games of the year, best games on the Wii, and arguably one of the best games this gen. Yet it still manages end up somewhat overrated by the GOTF defense force.

What? That's not true at all. SMG2 had a decent difficulty level instead of being piss-easy, the camera was much less of an issue than in SMG1, and the comet challenges were much better designed, just to name a few issues from SMG1 that were fixed in SMG2.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Nintendo ruins another Christmas.

Good job, Nintendo.

Those devious bastards!

 

[GrotesqueBeauty]

What? That's not true at all. SMG2 had a decent difficulty level instead of being piss-easy, the camera was much less of an issue than in SMG1, and the comet challenges were much better designed, just to name a few issues from SMG1 that were fixed in SMG2.

I disagree. The whole thing about "increased difficulty" was heavily overstated when this game came out. SMG2's challenge plateaus around world 4 and never really gets harder, outside of maybe 2 levels in the post game. I actually went back and played SMG a bit after getting 100% in SMG2 and found (to my surprise, actually) it was just as difficult, and perhaps even more so in some of the later levels. The level design itself in SMG is generally more complex and multifaceted (although even SMG suffers from oversimplification in this area imo).

I also disagree that the camera was any better. Both games suffered equally from lack of manual control (not that this is a deal breaker in either game). Then again, I'm one of the rare people who thinks SM64 still has the best camera control of all the 3D Mario games. It had several presets in most areas which the camera could quickly "snap" to, as well as the ability to follow from behind at multiple distances regardless of how you were positioned. Hell, you could even use Lakitu to set a fixed camera if you liked. It wasn't perfect, but it struck the best balance imo. In the case of SMS they gave the player full control, but you had to babysit the camera, as it would constantly start drifting in unwanted directions. The freedom to precisely control the position would have been nice, if it wasn't so bad at following the action when you didn't. In contrast the SMG games gave you a reasonable view most of the time, but severely diminished the player's ability to manipulate the angle, even when it would have been a godsend. There were multiple places in SMG2 where the fixed camera angle made the depth of certain objects ambiguous. This was especially bad when you were required to jump into pit or "black hole" to acquire a star.

I'm also unclear as to what exactly is better about the comet challenges from SMG2. In fact, I think the game had waaaay too many of them- more than even Galaxy which was already excessively padded out. With the exception of perhaps the challenges where you had to combo off the heads of enemies for points (which were admittedly fun) I thought the comets in SMG2 were pretty ho-hum.

 

[nincompoop]

I disagree. The whole thing about "increased difficulty" was heavily overstated when this game came out. SMG2's challenge plateaus around world 4 and never really gets harder, outside of maybe 2 levels in the post game. I actually went back and played SMG a bit after getting 100% in SMG2 and found (to my surprise, actually) it was just as difficult, and perhaps even more so in some of the later levels. The level design itself in SMG is generally more complex and multifaceted (although even SMG suffers from oversimplification in this area imo).

I also disagree that the camera was any better. Both games suffered equally from lack of manual control (not that this is a deal breaker in either game). Then again, I'm one of the rare people who thinks SM64 still has the best camera control of all the 3D Mario games. It had several presets in most areas which the camera could quickly "snap" to, as well as the ability to follow from behind at multiple distances regardless of how you were positioned. Hell, you could even use Lakitu to set a fixed camera if you liked. It wasn't perfect, but it struck the best balance imo. In the case of SMS they gave the player full control, but you had to babysit the camera, as it would constantly start drifting in unwanted directions. The freedom to precisely control the position would have been nice, if it wasn't so bad at following the action when you didn't. In contrast the SMG games gave you a reasonable view most of the time, but severely diminished the player's ability to manipulate the angle, even when it would have been a godsend. There were multiple places in SMG2 where the fixed camera angle made the depth of certain objects ambiguous. This was especially bad when you were required to jump into pit or "black hole" to acquire a star.

I'm also unclear as to what exactly is better about the comet challenges from SMG2. In fact, I think the game had waaaay too many of them- more than even Galaxy which was already excessively padded out. With the exception of perhaps the challenges where you had to combo off the heads of enemies for points (which were admittedly fun) I thought the comets in SMG2 were pretty ho-hum.

My first time completing SMG1 with 242 stars I died 147 times, my second time I died 53 times (and around 20 were on the Dreadnought purple coin level). When I finished SMG2 my death total was at 335 (probably around 300 ignoring The Perfect Run and intentionally killing myself while grinding for star bits to unlock The Perfect Run). That's all that needs to be said about the difficulty. About the camera, it's true that they both give you very limited camera control, but SMG2's camera did a much better job framing the action while SMG1 repeatedly presented you with unchangable awkward angles, especially when you tried doing something the game didn't want you to do. But then again, if you think Mario 64 has the best camera then you're probably not the person to discuss camera angles with :lol Finally, the comet stars in SMG1 felt extremely tacked on. Every single one with a time limit gave you literally twice as much time as you needed, the Cosmic Mario races were pathetically easy (although the Luigi races were much better), and most of the purple coin challenges were nothing more than lame scavenger hunts. The Daredevil comets were just rehashes of earlier levels (or parts of levels), and played almost exactly the same since avoiding damage is trivial. The Fast Foe comets were the only good ones, but there were only 2 of those in the whole game. Mario Galaxy 2's comets felt like they actually spent time designing them and testing them for balance, rather than just throwing you into a previous level with one minor change.