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When did Super Mario Galaxy begin to get difficult for you?

T

TOP SHOTTA

Member
I apologize if this belongs in a different thread but since I haven't seen one that spoke to the difficulty of Galaxy, I thought I would give it a shot.

I am 49 stars in. I am playing in a very methodical way, getting each and every star, hidden/comet before progressing even if a new Galaxy has opened.

I've had a few trying moments and I wanted to see where yours were.

Mine... in reverse order of difficulty for me...

3. The Daredevil Comet in the Ghostly Galaxy
when you need to defeat the Bouldergeist without being touched
That took me quite a while but I managed it in less than 15 tries. Not too bad but it was the first time I was struggling (all of these "struggling" moments I mean in a good way as I respect a certain level of difficulty, and I wanted/expected it in this game so I am glad to be presented with these sorts of challenges).

2. The Hidden Star in the Battlerock Galaxy
where you need to clear the garbage with bombs in under 30 seconds.
That took me probably 30 attempts - no lie. That may be a conservative estimate. Then I learned after the fact that you could
get some help by aiming at the yellow dots and that you could carry more than one bomb at once
. I did not know about either of those techniques so that probably contributed to my challenges with that star.

1. And, where I am currently stuck...on that Galaxy anyway... A standard star called The Dirty Tricks of Major Burrows in the Gusty Garden Galaxy. At first I died several times
learning how to use the flowers to fly far enough to reach the last planetoid
, but then upon reaching, and battling Major Burrows - I realized that this is where the game will start to ramp up in difficulty for good. It will probably swing somewhat easier, and far harder from here, but this is the first star that has me realizing that this is not an entirely easy game.

So - those are mine. There have been other challenging portions but nothing like what I mentioned above, for me anyway. What were/are your moments where the game hit you with a level of difficulty that you didn't expect?

Thanks,
AA
 
awesomeapproved said:
2. The Hidden Star
where you need to clear the garbage with bombs in under 30 seconds.
That took me probably 30 attempts - no lie. That may be a conservative estimate. Then I learned after the fact that you could
get some help by aiming at the yellow dots and that you could carry more than one bomb at once
. I did not know about either of those techniques so that probably contributed to my challenges with that star.
Click to expand...
More than one at once?! I did them the hard way! Noooooooo...

Oh, and the "Challenge" monkey ball level was painful because it had no checkpoints.

All and all I think the game is quite manageable. The
purple coins
are tedious and not terribly fun for me, though.
 
I have had a lot of trouble with many of the
purple coin
stars - so much that I have yet to get all of them. The second
garbage clearing
star was also really difficult for me. They give you just enough time to not make any mistakes.

I also had a rough time with the
rolling ball and ray surfing stages on the green star galaxy thing
... a very rough time.
 
your #2 is the only place I got stuck...took me probably 20 tries
till I saw the yellow marks on the ground telling you where to throw the bombs
...wasn't difficult per se, but quite...um...stupid. Probably my least favourite star.

Other than that, Bowser's level was pretty challenging...but overall I found the whole thing pretty easy.
 
Never really. I think the hardest levels were the PC stages invloving moving platforms. The rest of the game was pretty easy. I even beat the LPC on my first try.
 
awesomeapproved said:
2. The Hidden Star in the Battlerock Galaxy
where you need to clear the garbage with bombs in under 30 seconds.
That took me probably 30 attempts - no lie. That may be a conservative estimate. Then I learned after the fact that you could
get some help by aiming at the yellow dots and that you could carry more than one bomb at once
. I did not know about either of those techniques so that probably contributed to my challenges with that star.
Click to expand...

I still have to clear that.. Thanks for the tips
(although I fail to see how carrying more than one bomb can be useful)
 
Besides my carelessness at Daredevil Bouldergeist and Daredevil Melty Molten, it never got difficult.
 
When I brought it home from the store and never opened it, because it's a gift for my girlfriend. Most difficult part is not opening and playing it, definately.
 
The earliest case of real difficulty for me was Sweet Sweet Galaxy. The amount of times my very first jump was straight into one of the moving holes was absolutely comical. I didn't find number 3 on your list that hard, got it on my third try, but 1 and 2 definitely. 2 just seemed like a crapshot. 1 is all about timing your pounds when he goes red, but it took me some time to figure it out.

Can I recommend "finishing" the game as soon as possible? It allows you to mix up the challenges a bit more afterwards, as they do keep getting harder.
 
Hmm, I did the
garbage cleaning one
on probably the third attempt. You can carry two at once though? That would probably make it a bit easier.
 
The game got more difficult for me towards the end because I'd deliberately avoided the speed, daredevil and purple comets. Once I started doing those though, I would also say the game went from joyous awesome to frustrating but still awesome. Everything was just difficult enough that you knew you could do it, but it would take multiple tries.

Dreadnaught's purple coins had me screaming profanities at the top of my voice. I think that was the most unforgiving star -- miss one and you lose a life, start over. I'd heard a lot about Luigi's Purple Coins, and it did take a lot of lives from me, but once I realised where the densest pocket of coins where, and that I had enough time on the shrinking blocks to align the camera for my more tricky jumps, I was good to go.

Some of the daredevil ones were great. There's ones where you just fly straight into a battle with a boss, but the ones where you have to survive an entire level (Melty Molten for example) and not make any silly mistakes were great. The speed-dash ones make you learn a level inside out, and find one or two shortcuts.
 
Um... never? Luigi's Purple Coin was the hardest challenge in the game, but I only died a handful of times before finishing it. This was way easier than Sunshine.
 
Never !

This was easiest Mario game ever and it was too dam linear. Where is the freedom ? Well ok the gravity thing would be kinda hard to make with open world like in Mario64... Cool game but it is light years from Mario 64.
 
Daredevil Melty Molten. It was my 50th star I think and while I only died two times, it was quite intense. Several times I thought those fire rock enemies were going to get me and I shot like 30 star bits at the last enemy before the star.

a Master Ninja said:
Oh, and the "Challenge" monkey ball level wa painful because it had no checkpoints.
Click to expand...
At first, that level seemed almost impossible to me .. couldn't even make it past the first obstacle. Then I remembered that you can stop the ball and I did it on my first try.
 
The
two garbage cleaning stars
were the only ones that I began to get truly frustrated on. Most everything else wasn't too terrible once I learned to stop sweating it and relax. I had a much tougher time getting 120 on SM64, even as recently as this year.

I'm spoiler tagging, but I wonder how essential it is. I'm guessing this thread is for people who have already completed the game, more or less.
 
Gigglepoo said:
Um... never? Luigi's Purple Coin was the hardest challenge in the game, but I only died a handful of times before finishing it. This was way easier than Sunshine.
Click to expand...

Red coins and blue coins killed sunshine for me. That wasn't more difficult -- it was just stupid. Running around spraying water everywhere in the hopes of finding things... the 100 purple coin challenges of Galaxy are far far more enjoyable.

I also personally think this game craps on Mario 64 from such a stupendous height its ridiculous.

I know a couple of friends who didn't really like the camera and underwater sections, which I found weird cos I've never experienced problems with either. The camera was god awful at times in sunshine.
 
I'm at 105 stars and I'm starting to get frustrated.

BTW, how do you avoid the bouldergeist attacks when you are spinning a bomb to hit him and have reduced mobility?
 
When I had beaten the game and was going back to do the comets in the last couple of domes.

Alternate answer: when I realized it was over.

Alternate alternate answer: When the first Media Create thread after its release was posted.
 
MidiSurf said:
Never !

This was easiest Mario game ever and it was too dam linear. Where is the freedom ? Well ok the gravity thing would be kinda hard to make with open world like in Mario64... Cool game but it is light years from Mario 64.
Click to expand...

IMO the linearity made it a much better game. It makes SMG seem like a real 3D version of SMB3 or SMW, whereas Mario 64 is more of a spin-off.
 
speculawyer said:
I'm at 105 stars and I'm starting to get frustrated.

BTW, how do you avoid the bouldergeist attacks when you are spinning a bomb to hit him and have reduced mobility?
Click to expand...

Method I used:

When he's a stone head he throws rocks at you. Shoot the ones that are black and they'll turn into bomb-ghosts right by him. Get close, spin to collect up the ghosts and you should land blows straight away.

When he's a floating head, with his red bit exposed, don't spin and pick up ghosts until you're right on top of him.

When he gets his arms repeat the first step, but avoid his punches, and get the hell out of the way when you see the shadows on the floor (spikes are about to pop up). I personally long jump off to his side when he does that.
 
Never ever! Well I had some rough times with The Daredevil Comet in the Ghostly Galaxy as well, but it was never that hard. And...hehe...one more...the last one....well how the hell do you do spoiler tags?? (help)....well...hum, I say it this way then: The one with many coins, you jump about 500 times on flipping and disappearing blocks underneath you, and once you though you were done...sweating like hell, you had to jump all the way back to the beginning to collect your star, hehe! That one was tough!

Now I'm on my second round through and I have only 3 or 4 stars left, and I'm saving this very last course for that...hehe :D
 
caldazar said:
IMO the linearity made it a much better game. It makes SMG seem like a real 3D version of SMB3 or SMW, whereas Mario 64 is more of a spin-off.
Click to expand...

You got good point there and I totally understand it. My friend said something like that too :). But I guess i'm too used to these days games with their huge worlds and freedom.
 
the only one i've tried and haven't beaten in one sitting was the daredevil comet for melty molten. However I've still got like 40-50 stars to get
 
Trying to get all the stars in this game is very hard. I've probably died 160 times or more. I would say that this one of the hardest 3d platformers in recent memory. Not a bad thing, but surprising.

Most of the people were saying it was easy in the official thread. I got the game late, and I was expecting a relative cakewalk but it absolutley demolishes sunshine and mario 64's difficulty, even just to finish it, not to mention getting 120 stars. The people in the official thread that are saying it's easy, have to be fantastic gamers. Finishing it is doable without playing more than 10 or 11 really hard stars, and the game is very forgiving about death, which is a good thing because you're going to die a lot. Getting over 60 stars will immediatley start to test your skills in a big way.

Imagine the hardest fluddless levels in sunshine and make them 5 times as long, then add more complex elements like gravity, more enemies and lots of stuff flying around on screen. Now add in the fact that mario can only take 3 hits before he dies, unless he finds a coin to refill his health, and that generaly means jumping on an enemies head. There are tons of levels in galaxy that are just like this, and sometimes you have to play through them with special conditions, like beating a set time limit or getting through without getting hit. The red mushrooms make things a bit easier but you generaly only find them before boss fights.

I'm 73 stars in, and the most recent major challenge for me was the
dreadnaught canon
star. I saw a game over on that star, and it adds to a large list of stars that have given me at least one game over. Some have given me 3 or more game overs. Including some listed in the original post

Galaxy is an absolute love letter to 2d platformer difficulty elements, from bottomless pits to instant death from getting squished. It's almost shocking to me that nintendo would make such a hard game in this day and age. Bravo to Miyamoto for urging them to raise the difficulty. Now they need to bring this kind of difficulty back to zelda.

Comparing to platformers from last gen, one game that gets a lot of cred for having oldschool challenge is maximo. It was certainly a pretty tough game (also fantastic), but I think getting all the stars in galaxy is tougher than anyhing in maximo. Maybe getting 100% in maximo might be comparable, but that's more about finding stuff. The biggest platforming challenge in maximo is just getting through the levels and I think there are levels in galaxy that are much tougher than the hardest maximo levels. I've certainly died 3x as many times in galaxy and I'm only 73 stars in.
 
radioheadrule83 said:
Method I used:

When he's a stone head he throws rocks at you. Shoot the ones that are black and they'll turn into bomb-ghosts right by him. Get close, spin to collect up the ghosts and you should land blows straight away.

When he's a floating head, with his red bit exposed, don't spin and pick up ghosts until you're right on top of him.

When he gets his arms repeat the first step, but avoid his punches, and get the hell out of the way when you see the shadows on the floor (spikes are about to pop up). I personally long jump off to his side when he does that.
Click to expand...
Thanks! . . . it never even occured to me to
shoot at the stones he throws

BTW, I can't believe the xbox 360 has been out for two years and no one bothered to make a 3D platformer for it leaving the market wide open for Mario. MS should have had Rare make Banjo before Viva Pinata since a 3D platformer was more of a known quantity than a resource management garden game.
 
Boo in a Box. First star that took me more than two tries. That being said, nothing in the game took me more than twelve tries. LPC included.
 
at star 1!

no joke. i got 120 stars in mario 64 and i finished mario sunshine (didn't get all stars because i didn't enjoy the game that much).
but SMG... the small planets and (sometimes) the upside-down-view confuse me so much, that i think it's hard right from the beginning!

i'll try to finish the game anyway. i'm at 14 stars now ;)
 
It never got really difficult, although I had to retry more often on some of the later levels. Cosmic Luigi was intimidating at first, but in actuality he's a push-over.
 
MidiSurf said:
Never !

This was easiest Mario game ever and it was too dam linear. Where is the freedom ? Well ok the gravity thing would be kinda hard to make with open world like in Mario64... Cool game but it is light years from Mario 64.
Click to expand...

Where is the exploration? Did you hate the 2D Mario games?

Anyway, I thought the third star on Beach Bowl Galaxy was the first really difficult star. I really rush through all levels in Mario games, but for obvious reasons playing a "wait and see" approach works much better on that level. The second Bowser reactor also had a wonderfully difficult gravity puzzle -- I might have died 3 times before I finished that one. The other difficult stars include the daredevil and purple coin challenges. Luigi's Coins and Dreadnought Galaxy, in particular. I died 10+ times on both.
 
TwinIonEngines said:
It never got really difficult, although I had to retry more often on some of the later levels.
Cosmic Luigi
was intimidating at first, but in actuality he's a push-over.
Click to expand...

Spoiler tag that!
 
About 100 stars in, I think. Some of those 100 coins tasks can be an pain in the arse, especially the timed ones that make you panic more, even if there is sometimes 150 of them on the level. That Luigi shaped stage one is a particular pain in the arse.
 
Not necessarily difficult, but it's definitely a challenge to adjust to the game's new mechanics. I'll catch on in time, but I tend to have an issue with having to "learn" almost every Wii game I play.

Maybe it has to do with me only having played 3 since I got the console.
 
the only time I thought it was anyway near hard was
the purple star collecting, to be more specific, it started with the ice level.
 
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