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. Unlike its predecessor, no levels – referred to as "galaxies" in this game – take place on Mario's home planet. A galaxy is a cluster of small planetary bodies and other celestial objects that can be traveled between. As in the first Super Mario Galaxy, most planets have their own gravitational pull that prevents Mario from falling down pits and makes it less likely for the player to become lost. Not all planets have their own centers of gravity: some have layouts more comparable to the courses of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. There is a great emphasis on two-dimensional gameplay in Super Mario Galaxy 2, with entire galaxies exclusively or mostly taking place on a 2D plane. The presence of these types of levels derive from an intentional design choice to make the game simpler and more accessible to players daunted by three-dimensional platformers. Many galaxies focus on the integration of switches to change the mechanics of a galaxy as it is played, a concept loosely influenced by design choices made to differentiate The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask from its predecessor, Ocarina of Time. There are galaxies built around using switches to shift the gravitational plane from the floor to the ceiling; ones that slow down time; and ones that grant access to new areas.

Because Super Mario Galaxy 2 was built in the same engine as Super Mario Galaxy and inherited most of its assets, the games visually look very similar to each other. Super Mario Galaxy 2 has inherited many of the same visual cues to communicate that the game takes place in space in addition to establishing its own. Starship Mario, the spacefaring hub, flies by stars, asteroid belts, and black holes as Mario progresses. The outer space theme, though still present and explored in some different ways, is overall a little more muted in this game with the deemphasis on traversing 3D planets and integration of blue skyboxes over dark, starry ones. The game's core is whimsical.

Galaxies
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 :<