The 'Shroom:Issue XLVII/Should Have Been

Should Have Been by

Hello, it's me, MrConcreteDonkey, again, here to deliver you propaganda and lies the Should Have Been section of the 'Shroom. In this section, I state what I think should have been in a game, plus the Beta elements. I received no PMs throughout the month, but you still can PM me your opinion on the MarioWiki Forums. This month, I'll be covering Super Mario Galaxy 2.

What Should Have Been in This Game?
I enjoyed Super Mario Galaxy 2 thoroughly. It was my first game in the Galaxy series (and currently my only), because I thought Super Mario Galaxy was an overrated pile of junk (I must have been an idiot).

However, as I have said a few times before, no game is perfect, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 could be improved in many places.

Firstly, I think Rosalina should have had more of a role in this game. Personally, I dislike Rosalina a lot, especially due to all the fanboying over her. Sure, she's a good character, but not that good. However, she only got a small role at the end, plus a few tidbits here and there, and for this reason I think she should have been featured more prominently in the game. For example, she could have appeared in some galaxies as an NPC. Also, I believe more NPCs should have appeared. Rosalina, Lumas and the other allied species are okay, but it would be nice to see some unique, well-known faces, such as Wario, pop up. I hope the series as a whole starts to include different playable characters; I mean, the second game is a little bit too early, but New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario 64 DS pulled it off well, so why not?

Like when I did New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I was happy to see Yoshi return. While he had a big role in this game, or at least much bigger than in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I still wish that Mario could have kept him after completing a level. The power-ups were good; most of the power-ups returned from the original, except the Red Star and the Ice Flower. It would have been okay for those two to return, but it would be a little bit overcrowded with all of the items. I don't see why loads of people hate the Spring Mushroom so much, it's a pretty cool idea that works pretty well, and I think it should have appeared in more than one galaxy.

Along with my other whinings about Yoshi, I think there should have been more colors for Yoshi. Green Yoshi is okay, as I said before, but it would be nice for a more random version of what Super Mario Sunshine did. It might seem a little bit picky, but diversity in Yoshi colors is a good thing. Also, I believe that there should have been more power-ups for Yoshi. The Bulb Berry, Blimp Fruit and Dash Pepper are fine as they are, but three isn't much. This means I think Yoshi should have appeared more too. I also think all of these power-ups, plus any that could have appeared, should have appeared on Starship Mario, which I for one thought was a very good hub world

I think after using the Warp Pad, the player should have been given more time to kill the enemies, plus more time to grab the three 1-Up Mushrooms that appear after all of the enemies are defeated. After defeating all of the enemies, if you have done so anyway, you want to grab those 1-Ups you worked hard for, but you have about two seconds to do so. In other places where you can acquire three 1-Ups, they usually disappear quite quickly, and move away pretty quickly. In fact, Nintendo should have brought back 3-Up Moons. They were awesome, and would look even more awesome in 3D. Plus, they wouldn't scatter out around the place.

Most everything in the game worked well, in my opinion. Everything was smooth, the graphics were fantastic, Mario's mustache was as manly as ever. However, there's loads of glitches. Also, some things were fairly hard to control, mostly Dash Yoshi. The Prankster Comet of Hightail Falls Galaxy and the Dash Yoshi part of Bowser's Galaxy Generator were annoying. Also, The Chimp was really annoying, looked...stupid (and that's being nice), and had really hard games. I mean, he's an ape/monkey (I can't tell with him. Chimpanzees are apes, but he looks like a monkey). How can he jump on all those enemies in that amount of time, or hold his breath for ages underwater, let alone swim well?

But the worst thing by far? The crate burning. That was absolutely horrible. The first one, in the Rightside Down Galaxy, was actually not too bad, but the second one, in the Upside Dizzy Galaxy was absolutely terrible; your timing had to be perfect, you had to break about fifty boxes, you had to get the correct positioning, and the list goes on. Trust me, Super Mario Galaxy 2 will make you hate boxes. Possibly the most annoying species of the game are Gearmos. These nuisances are everywhere, and are complete jerks. These are the foul creatures that make you burn the boxes, kill you if you don't collect the Purple Coins they accidentally (I doubt this) spill on a slide and make you risk your life to bring them an enemy because "They look cute!". These evil beings should have appeared much less, and that would have given us all a rest. Luigi's Purple Coin Chaos also gave me a hard time.

And of course, Poochy should have appeared. It's not like that doesn't apply to every creation in the universe.

Enemies Who Should Have Appeared

 * King Bills - Hilarious.

Seriously, they'd be a pretty epic enemy. Imagine a King Bill flying through a hill at you; terrifying and epic. Maybe one could be a kind of boss, where Mario has to avoid it while traveling through some sort of tunnel on some moving blocks.
 * Monty Moles - Monty Moles are pretty epic; they could have jumped out of hills or walls at the player in some levels, possibly in Honeybloom Galaxy or Honeyhop Galaxy.
 * Wasps - Now, this is kind of an odd one out; wasps haven't appeared as enemies in a Mario game as of yet, but I think they would have been a great enemy for the Bee Mario-themed levels. Maybe they could have attacked the Queen Bee and her Bees, as wasps are natural enemies of bees.
 * Buzzy Beetles - I really like Buzzy Beetles. They'd make interesting enemies for subterranean areas, and places with the Fire Flower, as they are invincible to Fireballs.
 * Chargin' Chucks - Who didn't love these enemies? They were Koopa football players, looked cool, and are in desperate need of a return.
 * Tap-Taps - These guys really need to get out of the Yoshi series. They would be awesome in Mario games, as they are almost invincible, unlike most enemies.

Beta elements
Starting off, I'll cover the elements from E3 2009. A planetoid shaped like Mario's head can be seen, which is obviously the early Starship Mario. Yoshi was found in Cloudy Court Galaxy, and his Dash Pepper was called a "Dash Fruit". In Cosmic Cove Galaxy, the switch that froze the water was on a wooden platform, instead of a tower. The Time Switch originally had to be activated by Star Spin, and Ground Pound symbols were brighter and shinier. There was no Launch Star in Cloudy Court Galaxy on the cymbals. In Spin-Dig Galaxy, the mission Silver Stars Down Deep had the player collecting Star Chips originally, instead of Silver Stars, and when you approached Digga-Leg in the first mission, the sky would have turned purple.

A giant Silver Chomp appeared to be some sort of boss, and in Puzzle Plank Galaxy, there was a 1-Up in place of the Comet Medal. Whittles were seen to inhabit that galaxy, and there were originally two tree stumps in place of the Ground Pound Switches on the planet with the Wigglers; the two others were absent, but a Whittle was standing in the place of one. The Purple Coin room looked different too. Tall Trunk Galaxy's slide was originally its own galaxy, and was made of stone. The starting planet in Boo Moon Galaxy was originally going to look similar to the Crystal Planet in Space Junk Galaxy from the first game, and Hightail Falls Galaxy looked completely different, with a different color and terrain. The fruits Yoshi eats looked more like peaches. The Blimp Fruit was originally just a blue sphere, and the Dash Pepper looked more like a fruit, plus, when used, it didn't make the player glow or left a glowing trail.

The Spin Drill on Digga-Legg's planet was always there, whether you had one or not. Additionally, its dome didn't crack when it was attacked. Sorbetti's planet originally had Crystals on it, instead of mounds of snow, and Digga's eyes looked like those of Bullet Bills. Sky Station Galaxy's music originally had an extra part, from Gusty Garden Galaxy. In Supermassive Galaxy, on the "Blooming Garden Planet", Goombas were present. In a beta version of Cloudy Court Galaxy, it was shown that the cymbal had a checkered-like pattern and that the drums which bounce the player up to the cymbal were red. There were also green mushroom platforms, which were removed from the final version. In Flip-Swap Galaxy, there was once more than one Used Block.

Now for some more major changes: First, there was originally a galaxy called Sky Island Galaxy. It was scrapped early in development, but was going to be included. There are a few sketches and beta images from it, one showing a Red Koopa Troopa, which are absent in the final game. Megahammer was once known as "Malletoid", and Digga-Legg, "Digg-Legg".

There were a lot of unused tracks in Super Mario Galaxy 2, so many that they deserve a section in my opinion.

Track 19 on the official soundtrack was entitled "Puzzle Plank Blue Grass". This gave gamers confusion as to whether a "Blue Grass Galaxy" existed in the beta, and it shared its music with Puzzle Plank, or whether this was the music for the aforementioned Sky Island Galaxy. However, it was soon brought up that Blue Grass was actually a style of music, in fact, the one used for Puzzle Plank.

Track 9, "Galaxy Song 25" was originally also thought to be something to do with Sky Island Galaxy, but it was originally recorded for the Fleet Glide Galaxy. An unused track called "SMG2_galaxy08_strm" was found in the game's coding. It wasn't at the stage of orchestration when it was scrapped, only using synthesized instruments. There are two unused World Map themes and there is one unused Galaxy theme.