There are some minor spoilers ahead, but nothing that gives away solutions to anything. Hope this is OK. Also
bolded some stuff for the tl;dr crowd.
I must be one of the few people left playing this. I know I'm way late to the party, so hopefully my thoughts here prompt some more of the latecomers to start playing.
So after getting through SM64 a little over a week ago (my first time 120/120'ing it!), it was time to finally dust this off and go to town...
I really liked a lot of the newer suits/abilities for Mario, like the Rock, Drill, and Cloud, which were just a lot of fun to use.
I could tell that the designers really liked the Cloud form since it seemed to make many more appearances than the others. Like many, I hated the Spring form from the first game, and pretty much smacked my forehead when it appeared in this game again. Thankfully it was only used once, which was a relief. Having Yoshi back in the game was a lot of fun, too, and
I liked the direct nods to Super Mario World on the SNES. I totally got into that bongo'd-out music!
Regarding the hub world, it kind of stunk that the flying tower from SMG1 wasn't playable. The little Mario Head ship didn't have a whole lot you could do on it, but at the same time, I'd argue that this kept the game moving forward. I remember that there were times in SMG1 where I would feel a little aggravated that I would have to go all the way to the other side of the ship just to get to the right world/galaxy.
With the new hub, it's great that you just step on that yellow panel, and you're up on the very convenient world map.
I would say my least favorite levels were the flying ones, where the controls just felt too loose. The purple coin levels were challenging, but nothing like the 8-bit Mario one from SMG1. I love the Daredevil "beat the level w/ 1 health" challenges, and those score attack ones are pretty cool/hairy too.
One of the coolest pure moments from the game was the one in the last underwater galaxy. When you emerge on the other side in that little pool, and the sunset is glimmering in your eyes and you hear the ocean and seagulls, I thought, damn, to be able to recreate something like that in a game that really didn't even need it? That's pretty inspired.
I also loved Throwback Galaxy. It made me smile so much!
It's validation that they could totally do SM64 - or even a direct sequel to it - in the style and quality of SMG. Although, would they need to? Regardless, that made me feel pretty darn excited about Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS. Man, I hope that game's good!
Oh, an important sidenote here:
I played SMG1 solo, but I played this entire game w/ my wife on the 2P side. It was actually the perfect way to play the game! She could collect all the stray star bits and manipulate enemies and other obstacles, and I could focus on clearing areas, platforming, and all the rest of the stuff that I like doing. She can't really wrap her head around controlling Mario in most of these environments, so for her to be able to play and stay interested the whole way through was actually quite impressive. While this could be considered making the game easier, I would still say it's my preferred way to play it... after reading about it, it sounds like they made some nice changes to how the 2P side worked, giving them more to do and alter the gameplay.
The co-op mode is ideal if there's a casual/non-gamer type in your household.
The soundtrack, like the first game, is exceptional. I think I still prefer the first game's music. I don't know if I heard anything in SMG2 as good as that Gusty Garden theme. That track is just pure musical perfection. Still, this soundtrack is wonderful with lots of variety and beautiful movements.
The game as a whole, although not feeling as new and fresh as the first game (which had such an impact on me), still manages to provide a consistently fun and smile-inducing experience. They throw just about everything they can from the first game at you while building upon those original concepts and giving us lots of brand-new stuff to do as well.
I love that the series in general feels as if the designers were basically let loose to come up with as much as they could in terms of concepts and variety.
So after we beat the first 120 stars, we're now working our way through the extra content. We're up to 138 stars, and we're just loving it still!
These feel so much more like what people loved from SM64: a sense of exploration, discovery, and rewarding risky moves and precise platforming. It makes each galaxy feel completely different, and the challenge so far has been perfectly tuned. So much better than the SMG1 postgame.
This game is a shot of pure bliss... it really needs to be experienced by more people, especially those who were on the fence thinking it was just a retread of the first game. IMO, this is the superior game.
A+
