Super Mario Galaxy 2 is just barely over a week away. Hard to imagine, isn't it? Like I'm sure many other Mario fans are doing, I'm playing the original Super Mario Galaxy again. Galaxy was not just another 3D Mario; it did a number of really cool things that set it apart—things that made me an instant rabid fan of Galaxy 2 from the moment it was announced. And so, to ring in Galaxy 2's imminent release, I thought I'd share five of my favorite things about its groundbreaking predecessor—I shared #3 last week—while we wait for it to hit shelves and fall in love all over again.
4 Co-Star mode Now here's a mode that took a little while for me to realize the full potential of. When I first picked up Galaxy, my daughter was barely five and had a lot more fun just running around Rosalina's observatory than she did actually trying to take on getting her own Power Stars. Now, she's going on eight, and she's doing just that—but a number of Galaxy's challenges are still, well, challenging. With Co-Star mode, a secondary on-screen star pointer controlled by a second Wii Remote, I can help out a little, holding enemies, giving Mario an extra jump, stunning baddies with fired Star Bits—you name it—and she gets better the more she takes on, with or without help. We tackled Sweet Sweet Galaxy together, which she never could have handled just a year ago, but she did almost the entire level on her own with just one save from me—and just last night, I came home from work to see her first time ever defeating Bowser.
Even when I'm not helping out, Co-Star gives the kids (both my daughter and my three-year-old son) an opportunity to join in while I play, collecting Star Bits, smashing rolling rocks and Chomps into each other, and other little things like that. They can test—and have tested—the limits of Daddy's patience by making Mario do unintended jumps, usually to his hilarious (to everyone but Daddy) doom. It's made Galaxy much more a game that can be played as a family rather than a single-player spectator sport.
The upcoming sequel does even more in this department. In Galaxy 2, the second player will control a cute (is there any other kind?) orange Luma who will be able to fetch things like air bubbles and coins for Mario and even execute his own spin attack against enemies. My daughter won't stop talking about this mode; we're both really excited to try it out. Well, at least we don't have much time left to wait!
4 Co-Star mode Now here's a mode that took a little while for me to realize the full potential of. When I first picked up Galaxy, my daughter was barely five and had a lot more fun just running around Rosalina's observatory than she did actually trying to take on getting her own Power Stars. Now, she's going on eight, and she's doing just that—but a number of Galaxy's challenges are still, well, challenging. With Co-Star mode, a secondary on-screen star pointer controlled by a second Wii Remote, I can help out a little, holding enemies, giving Mario an extra jump, stunning baddies with fired Star Bits—you name it—and she gets better the more she takes on, with or without help. We tackled Sweet Sweet Galaxy together, which she never could have handled just a year ago, but she did almost the entire level on her own with just one save from me—and just last night, I came home from work to see her first time ever defeating Bowser.
Even when I'm not helping out, Co-Star gives the kids (both my daughter and my three-year-old son) an opportunity to join in while I play, collecting Star Bits, smashing rolling rocks and Chomps into each other, and other little things like that. They can test—and have tested—the limits of Daddy's patience by making Mario do unintended jumps, usually to his hilarious (to everyone but Daddy) doom. It's made Galaxy much more a game that can be played as a family rather than a single-player spectator sport.
The upcoming sequel does even more in this department. In Galaxy 2, the second player will control a cute (is there any other kind?) orange Luma who will be able to fetch things like air bubbles and coins for Mario and even execute his own spin attack against enemies. My daughter won't stop talking about this mode; we're both really excited to try it out. Well, at least we don't have much time left to wait!