Hot on the heels of New Super Mario Bros. Wii comes equally big news: Super Mario Galaxy 2!!

http://kotaku.com/5275848/mario-galaxy-2-announced

E3 2009 Debut Trailer:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09 … ario/50233

Dare we hope for a 2009 release?

I'm soooo happy about this. It looks like more of the same, almost like an expansion, but that's more of one of my favourite games in the last few years and that, for me, can only be a good thing. I'm really happy they're making a sequel. It will give me a reason to see if my Wii is still behind my television somewhere.

Finally! A reason to turn on my Wii!

And, another reason to dust of your Wii... right here:

http://kotaku.com/photogallery/metroidotherm/1008543060

what would me most happy with Nintendo is if they released another Fire Emblem game (on Wii)!

cheers,

-avatar!

It's not easy to get a sense of the Metroid game from the trailer. Just looks like a big ol' combat game to me which wouldn't be what I'd want but they may have just wanted to cut an exciting trailer. I guess we'll have to see how it turns out.

Really poor show for the DS, which is my main system of choice. Now a proper DS Metroid would have got me excited.

Golden Sun 3 is coming, although it doesn't look very pretty. Most of the interesting DS stuff wasn't from Nintendo.

I'm most interested in how New Super Mario Brothers Wii will work. I predict a disaster in terms of gameplay balance (as opposed to Team Ninja's Metroid, will just be an overall disaster)

Let's post the non-SMG2 posts in another thread please.

Galaxy 2 looks hot, but I hope there's not too much recycled content.  Miyamoto said is started out as Galaxy 1.5 but then the team got "excited" or whatever and now the game has around 90% new content.

For whatever reason, that whole sentence made me laugh.

Maybe this will give me an excuse to finally finish SMG1.... kinda left it by the wayside...  There was just too much of it, me thinks.

I know my wife is looking forward to this one.  She was a great 2p on the first game!

Couldn't trust her beyond Star Bits collecting duty?  Come on, man.... hand her that 1P controller!  It's a big galaxy out there!  Expand her horizons!

Ha, I tried, but all she wanted to do was collect the star bits!  Now with Mario Kart Wii, that's completely different.

I remember once bringing the Wii over to my mom's place and having her try the game. My mom isn't a gamer. She couldn't get past the first star in the first galaxy. But it was twisted entertainment to watch her try and cope with the shifting perspectives (WHOA, I'M UPSIDE DOWN!) and swinging the remote around to collect stars.

*is evil*

Yeah, those last two planetariums, I skipped their levels almost completely. No new graphics, and no new music just made those levels seem like more of the same.

I mean, seriously, though. They were at least 4 tropical penguin beaches, and only one of them was a full-length level with more than one star to win...and that WAS actually a nice level, too.

...

SMG2? Sounds like something that ought to be downloadable content for the first SMG.

SMG was friggin' awesome when I first saw it and played through it, but it has since kind of worn off of me. I liked the chill, spacey atmosphere of the game, but it didn't have the "WOW" factor that Super Mario 64 gave me.

Uhh... the last planetarium had Melty Molten Galaxy, which has (in my opinion) the very best graphics, music, and gameplay in the entire game.  And that music is unique, I might add.

Bring on more Galaxy... it's easily my favorite 3D platformer and probably my favorite game since Ocarina of Time came out in '98.  Seriously... the entire thing is just pure joy encoded onto a DVD.

Kotaku reports:

"Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto says that, like the recently released New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the Wii sequel to Super Mario Galaxy will be "a really challenging game." Does that warrant a little Super Guide-style help?

Miyamoto tells the Official Nintendo Magazine of the UK that he "cannot tell" whether the Super Guide's hand-holding assist will be included in Super Mario Galaxy 2. But the tech will be implemented in Nintendo games "wherever and whenever appropriate."

Super Guide or no, I'm a little wary of the news that Galaxy 2 will be really challenging.  I was definitely all for it with NSMB Wii, but I wonder if a higher difficulty will diminish the superb enjoyability and pacing that was the first Galaxy?  I mean, are we to have a repeat of the Purple Coins levels, but this time for the entirety of the main quest?

I'll probably get lynched for this, but I was playing Super Mario 64 at Game Exchange in the neighboring town and it didn't do a thing for me like it did when it came out. Still, I'd probably be saying the exact opposite if I had picked the N64 over the PSX in 1997. I was a teenager and I guess I wanted games with an edgier and grittier persona.

That "Wow" factor was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, honestly. As much as I still love Mario 64, I will freely admit that I felt Sunshine and Galaxy were only steps up.

Actually, when looking back, Mario 64 is probably the number 1 Mario game that is now totally not as interesting anymore as it was before. I was totally hyped when it came out, but time has not been kind to it, IMHO.

Sunshine was ass from the start, so that one doesn't count, but geez, all the old 2D games are still fantastic.

Yeah, I'd rather play Mario 64 (which has definitely dated badly) over the craptastic Sunshine.

When I first played Mario 64, it did the opposite of wow me. I eventually warmed up to it, though it's still hella annoying, and I don't get why I seem to be the only person in the world with so much trouble on it.

Madness.  Mario 64 is still my favorite video game of all time, and I find myself going back for another playthrough every year or so.

I don't really know anything about these Super Guides but I'm also not sure about the news that they'll be making Galaxy a tougher challenge. I found the level to be absolutely spot-on in Galaxy. There were some tough challenges there but the main levels were all doable with some play and some fun and frustration rarely got in the way. And yet it was never so easy to be boring. It was a game that wanted me to beat it.

And there were extra challenges there too.

The balance was just right. Still, I'm still looking forward to this and I have my doubts about Nintendo actually making this too challenging. They've opened up their market to more people, many of who just wouldn't have the patience for a really tough game and I don't think they'll be in a hurry to leave those people behind.

Exactly right, thank you.  But you know, regardless of the challenge, we'll tough it out.... because, damn it, it's a Mario game.

I'm just wondering if this is something of a determined attempt for Nintendo in wanting to re-capture the hardcore audience.  It's no secret that they've been publicly straddling between the 'core and the casual market, with the latter largely winning out.  With a huge, well-known title like Galaxy 2, this proposal to make it extra challenging could be their way of compensating for the market shift.  Let's just hope it doesn't become an overcompensation.

So, uhh...how about Luigi's Mansion for the GCN?

Did all main series entrants of the Mario series on the GCN suck?

With the exception of some of the maddening purple coin stages at the very end of the game, I thought the difficulty in the first SMG was just about perfect, with probably the smoothest learning curve I've ever seen in a game.  Should be interesting to see just how much they really crank up the difficulty in the second one.

Blowout of new info from Nintendo's Media Summit event.  Tentative release dates have been set for the U.S. and Europe: May 23rd and June 2010 respectively.  A roundup of previews from the Summit's build: Wired, 1up.com, IGN, and Kotaku.

The new official trailer, plus a gameplay montage video from Gametrailers.  Yay for the return of the Super Mario World theme!

Was Mr. Yokota really so kind? 

I gave some of the songs a listen, but I'm saving the bulk of it for when I play the game itself.  I can at least confirm that Fluffy Bluff Galaxy is made of glorious win.

Holy f#@$ this better get a physical release.

I didn't think it was possible for Yokota or Kondo to make their second installment of SUPER MARIO GALAXY even better, but they did.  So far, I am amazed by the compositions.  If this soundtrack doesn't get an official release other than that YouTube account, I am going to be extremely pissed.  This.  Soundtrack.  Rules.

Here's my Super Mario Galaxy 2 music rip. Ripped directly from the streams on the game disc, converted to wav using the standard two loops + fadeout method, normalized then finally encoded to LAME MP3 VBR V0. I took the titles and general track order from those YouTube videos.

Throwback Galaxy is <3

Enjoy!

LINKS

Super Mario Galaxy 2 music rip (V3) by the_miker (folder)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Disc 1+2).zip (SMG2 Streamed Music V3)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Disc 3).zip (SMG1 Streamed Music V3)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Disc 4).zip (SMG2 + SMG1 Multichannel Streamed Music V3)

Hover over the video itself and look what it says.  "Soundtrack available for purchase soon!"

I sure hope that message is accurate, but I'm afraid it won't be, given Nintendo's attitude about releasing soundtracks to its own games.  Besides, something tells me that that site really isn't Mahito Yokota's.

I'm pretty sure that, at the very least, the soundtrack will be available again to members of Club Nintendo Japan, just like the prequel.

Fortunately, I have been saving my points