User:Nintendo101

Casual Nintendo historian. Otherwise an artist and a professional zoologist. Bio degree. I've had an account here since 2012.

I wrote the character sections for Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Super Mario Odyssey. I contributed much of the article for Super Mario Sunshine and am currently working on Super Mario Galaxy.

I have been a fan of Nintendo since a very young age. My first Mario games (and three of the first video games I ever owned) were Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, Super Mario 64 DS, and Mario Kart DS. These games were good company for a young kid who moved around a lot and had difficulty keeping long-lasting friends.

During the, I sequentially played some of my favorite games in the Super Mario series to 100% completion. This includes, in order, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. I will complete this marathon with Super Mario Odyssey. It's been really fun so far! These are great games, and I always wanted to marathon a series like this before but never had the time. It has been interesting to see where the series began and where it has ended up. The design philosophies, the characters, the art directions, world building, level design, narrative, etc. All good stuff. It might be fun to write something about it some day.

My favorite video game character is Yoshi.

Setting
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is set in outer space. With the exception of the prologue staged in the Mushroom Kingdom, all levels – referred to as "galaxies" in this game – occur on distant, offworld lands. A galaxy is a cluster of planetary objects and other celestial bodies that can be traveled between. Most of these objects have their own gravitational pull. This prevents Mario from falling off their edge and mitigates the chances of the player getting lost. There are few walls or ceilings on the planets to obstruct Mario's path, and if he keeps moving forward in one direction, he will return to his starting position. Most planets are spherical or at least have rounded edges to compliment this concept. Not all planets are structured like this: some are structured like traditional Super Mario courses and have their center of gravity below their mass.

Many galaxies take place on two-dimensional planes and Mario's movement options are restricted accordingly (i.e. when Mario is on a 2D side-scrolling plane, the player cannot tilt towards the z-axis to make him fall off the side). There are galaxies entirely on 2D planes, but also ones that feature both 2D and traditional 3D segments. Which one is usually restricted to specific planets and conveyed through environmental context. Many galaxies feature switches mounted into the landscape that change the entire level when interacted with. Some shift which direction gravity is pulled from the floor to the ceiling. Others slow down time, or shift placement when Mario spins.

The theme of space is more subdued in Super Mario Galaxy 2 than it is in its predecessor. While there are galaxies that feature skyboxes with nebulas and stars, the most recurring backdrop is a blue sky with fluffy clouds. However, the game does convey the outer space setting in ways distinctive from the first Super Mario Galaxy. As Starship Mario, the game's hub, travels through space, it passes asteroid belts, falling stars, and black holes. Lumas, star children introduced in its predecessor, appear in nearly all galaxies and on the hub. The game's thematic core is surreal and whimsical. Rather than resemble a spacecraft, the hub is a grassy planetoid shaped like Mario's head and has a wooden bow like a seafaring vessel. Gulls fly alongside the ship, as if it on the open ocean. The whole game is framed from the perspective of an unseen narrator reading a storybook to the player, and many locations have elements. A pair of robots have tea together in a garden on Starship Mario. Several galaxies resemble topiaries and dollhouses. There are planets that look like wooden blocks, candies, clouds, and musical intrsuments.

According to producer Shigeru Miyamoto, the integration of 2D levels derived from a desire to make Super Mario Galaxy 2 more accessible and less daunting to players inexperienced with 3D platformers. Integration of elaborate switch elements bore from the desire to differentiate Super Mario Galaxy 2 from its predecessor similarly to how The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000) was differentiated from Ocarina of Time (1998). Many elements not present in the first Super Mario Galaxy  informed the setting of the courses that feature them. For example, the first galaxy to feature the Spin Drill item, Spin-Dig Galaxy, visually alludes to construction sites and has enemies that tunnel through soil.

Galaxies
In Super Mario Galaxy 2, levels are accessed linearly within worlds. This is a departure from the proceeding 3D Super Mario games and is comparable to the 2D ones. The player accesses worlds from the Starship Mario, a small planetoid that serves as the game’s hub. When Mario steps on a panel on the Starship Mario’s bow, the perspective rapidly pans out to a view of the current world. Starship Mario – itself shaped like the protagonist’s head – is a stand-in for Mario himself that can be moved between galaxies. Galaxies are unlocked unilaterally – collecting a Power Star within one unlocks paths to the nearest galaxies. With the exception of World S, the final galaxy of each world is a boss galaxy that features a fight against Bowser Jr. or Bowser. Defeating them unlocks the following world. The earliest worlds have the simplest, linear paths between galaxies, but the paths become more divergent with each world, enabling the player to visit galaxies in whatever order they want (see right).

Departure from proceeding 3D games - the hub is not a sprawling area with individual level access points - it is more like a home. On the Grand World Map, its a stand-in for Mario himself, similar to sprite icons in past games, moving from galaxy to galaxy

Simplified "world" layout comparable to those of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Yoshi's Island (rather unilateral: not as complex as Super Mario World or Super Mario Land 2)

Organization of levels becomes a little more complex with each world, but it always begins with a normal galaxy and ends with a boss castle galaxy; no worlds can be skipped over to reach the credits

Bonus "World S", similar in concept to Star Road or World 9 from NSMBW

Normal galaxies have two normal missions, a prankster comet, and two "needle in hay stack" styled Green Stars unlocked once all normal Power Stars have been collected

Prankster Comets
No galaxy has more than one non-green Prankster Comet

Starship Mario
Hub terraformed to look like Mario's head by Lubba

Rouge group of Lumas live on it, inc. Lubba and Baby Luma

As Mario progresses, power-ups are added to the engine room. Cloud Flower and Yoshi Egg become usable. Visual mark of progress.

Stowaways
Another mark of progress - NPCs permently board the ship once specific criteria are met (what are they? Just finishing certain missions or are they tied to Power Stars?)

The NPCs share tricks on level progression and actions: some allude to late-game secrets, or are marks of progress for the player

As the Starship becomes more lively, the music becomes more flourished and complex

(include mini list for NPCs, unlock criteria, and their quotes - no pictures. The pictures for characters are in the following section)

No Piantas :< mw-collapsible mw-collapsed navbox mario border-collapse:collapse