Yeah, Gusty Garden. I also remember a terrific piece in either Battlerock or Space Junk. I think it was the former (as I remember the area being VERY active).

Thanks for the rip, Angela! I always loved returning to Good Egg Galaxy when I knew this adventurous piece would be playing...

Thanks for the recording, Angela. Good stuff! After hearing Zero beam in on the Rockman X2 OST, those little SFX are hardly noticable. Any plans on doing more tunes? I think my fave so far has been in the Honeyhive Galaxy.

SMG is WAAYYY too easy! I'm on my "2nd" run-through with 60 stars (approx). There is barely a single challenge in the game except Melty Molten Galaxy's Daredevil run. I ENJOYED dying, it felt like proper Mario. Still, I only died 5 times (I think). "2nd" run-through issue "There's 2 of 'em!" Lazy Nintendo AGAIN! That and traction. Anyways I've got to get back into it

SMG is pretty liberal with the 1-ups but I've found some of the levels to be infuriating. That goddamned water race and ESPECIALLY the level made out of food with the scrolling pitted floors in particular. I've also found some of the comet stars to be challenging. I've heard a great part of the challenge in the game comes from trying to get every star. It's not too hard to get 60 of them but if you're going for the best ending, be prepared for a fight. Or so they say.

SEMI SPOILER !!!

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there are actually way more stars to collect than 120

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END OF SPOILER.

I hate that manta ray thing too, but the food one felt like what made Mario in the 2D days---jumping at the right time.  A shame I've yet to get to 60 stars because I rented Assassin's Creed.  = /  Damn flags.

The food level actually reminded me a lot of the FLUDDless levels in Sunshine. Levels that made me swear every other word.

Avoid this post if you don't want to know about any specific stars, but the most difficult for me by FAR so far:

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1. Daredevil star vs. Bouldergeist
2. (definitely the worst) collecting purple coins in the toy galaxy.  That took me SO many lives to get through.

I was thinking that too.  I came across a green star... O_o!?  What in the world was that all about!?

MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT!!!! STAY AWAY IF YOU DO NOT WANT SMG RUINED FOR YOU!!! I'VE EDITED OUT THE SPOILERS INTO WHITE TEXT!!! THE REST ISN'T REALLY SPOILERS!!

At 1:25am (GMT) on Tuesday 20th November 2007 I beat SMG. 242 stars in total. The Grand Finale Galaxy is Princess Peach's Castle and you get Congrats from the SMG team in your Wii Message Board. As I said, WAAYYY too easy but extremely fun and charming to play. Bouldergeist was marginally challenging but the final boss was a bitter sweet affair. Sweet because of who it was, bitter because of how easy it is. The Loopdeloop/Loopdeswoop races are easy (Tip : Let go of the Nunchuk and remember you DO NOT have to beat the best times esp. for Loopdeswoop. You have 3 minutes. Btw my best time for Loopdeswoop is about 1:13:07 I think. GAME ON! CHALLENGE ME!

Any questions or help needed and I'll be more than happy to help. Thanks XLord007

I just started playing this today. It is absolutely pure magic. I could not possibly be more in love with this game. I'm totally blown away and it's been about ten years since agame really impressed me. This is stunning.

It was the final unlockable that did it for me. I really did feel like a kid again. I hope SSBB will be just as good.

If you want to spoiler proof stuff, you need to change the text color to white with the following tags:

{color=white}text goes here{/color}

only switch the {} to [] like below (highlight to see):

text goes here

Below is spoiler text meant for those who've completed the game with 120 stars.

I'm currently 36 stars in with Luigi and I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed any other subtle-but-huge differences in Luigi's attributes compared to Mario.  Here's what I've discovered so far:

+ Luigi runs faster than Mario
+ Luigi jumps higher Mario

- Luigi's traction is worse than Mario's (when you combine Luigi's speed with his less than ideal traction they combine to give him a notable flaw).
- Luigi's air meter depletes faster during underwater segments.

Overall, I'm loving Luigi's speed and hangtime, but I really miss Mario's traction!  On narrow ledges where you need precision handling, Luigi struggles.  But in areas where there's no fear of falling off a ledge or into a blackhole, Luigi is preferred.  Has anyone else discoverd any differences I may have missed?

I just beat the game with 120 stars today. I loved it, and posted a little blog about it over at CC's blog if anyone wants to hear my opinions... which are apparently just like everyone else's positive opinions.

http://chudahbloggers.blogspot.com/2007 … video.html

ROFL!

Dude, I did the same thing.  But as my previous post would suggest, I couldn't contain myself from running through it again.  This is the first time I've ever played through a game for the second time immediately after finishing if the first time.  But it's just a testament to how fantastic SMG is... and that unlockable incentive after 120 stars wasn't bad either!

Ok, so it's been about an hour or so since I made that post. I played Lumines for a few minutes, took a shower, and put on Dracula X OST. I'm thinking that life is back to normal, but all I can really think about is playing Mario Galaxy again. Something tells me I won't even make it through the night, never mind the rest of the weekend.

I didn't even peep at a FAQ or spoiler until after I finished the game, so that 120 stars surprise was quite nice.

I usually check FAQ's to make sure I've got everything, but I don't think I'll ever need to with Galaxy. The game's charm will ensure my replaying through it at least 3 times over the next couple of years. I still can't get over though, why they made it so easy to get EVERYTHING. SM64 was definitely harder than this. I'm not THAT much better at games nowadays.

Apart from all the things you pointed out Kenology, the "2nd" time through the game is also harder, think Cosmic comets.

I finished the game the other night with 114 stars.  I'll get the other six when I have some free time, but they're not exactly a priority for me.  I have no interest in using the unlockable to play through the entire game again.  That said, this is easily the game of the year and one of the most enjoyable games I've played in a long time.

I actually think they're quite similar to each other as far as difficulty - I just replayed Mario 64 so it was an easy reference to make.  Both balance it how I'd like it - I had a tough time with some things, but I never felt frustrated to the point where I wanted to stop playing.

Bingo. Even the really bothersome comet challenges later in the game didn't make me want to quit.

Rainbow Ride and Tick-Tock Clock were harder than Melty Molten Galaxy and Dreadnought Galaxy. Neither of these games made me want to give up ever, but I wanted something slightly more challenging to completely beat the game. Getting 120 Stars on SM64 was harder than getting 120 Stars on Galaxy, it was that difficulty yet satisfaction that made SM64 feel more meaty than Galaxy. That said, Galaxy is easily as satisfying to play and complete as any other mario game I've ever played, including SM64, and in truth, Galaxy is probably a better game.

I beat the game yesterday 200% (100% + 100%) and I can't stress enough how beautifully crafted and entertaining this experience was.  I think the difficult was spot on in that it wasn't a particularly a cakewalk but it wasn't nearly at all impossible or frustrating either - I still feel like beating it with all the stars was certainly an accomplishment (and proof that I still got it!).

In SMG, the two hardest stages I had to deal with are Battlerock Purple Coins, Mario's Purple Coins, and Luigi's Purple Coins (the two shaped like their 8-bit counterparts).

The game is probably a bit easier than SM64 or Sunshine, but I think Nintendo balanced out the difficulty.  It's easy enough for the average player, and offers a bit of challenge for the star collectors.  I really hated SM64 and Sunshine for having "too difficult" stages.

The FLUDD-less stages in Sunshine were the best bit of the game, that was proper mario platforming action. I remember Tubular in Super Mario World, boy that was tough.

IGN posted a cool interview with Yoshiaki Koizumi with some insight into the development of the game and a little snippet of the soundtrack.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/838/838587p1.html

Well, after beating the game with Mario, I started again with Luigi. I'm 81 stars in, and it's still a fresh and exciting experience for me. I absolutely adore the water galaxies, and I usually dislike water levels. A lot. Beach Bowl and Sea Slide galaxies are two of my favorites, and my two favorite stars to get are two of the more notoriously difficult ones: Daredevil Bouldergeist and Purple Coins Honeyhive. The Honeyhive one is tough because of how spread out all the coins are... one bad move and you gotta start from scratch. There are some high coins in that level!

For better or worse, Luigi controls like my ex-girlfriend talks after a few Jack and Cokes: very sloppily. It hasn't hindered my playing much, though; unfortunately I can't say the same for my old relationship.

So, yeah. Awesome game, dying for the soundtrack, yadda yadda.

In the end, I actually preferred him to Mario.  His speed and hangtime made him greater than the sum of his parts.

Yeah, I forgot to mention how much I like Luigi's crouch-jump. If you pull back on the stick that dude goes FLYING! Very awesome.

GameLife's got a new interview with director Yoshiaki Koizumi up.  It's a fascinating and frank discussion:

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/12/int … .html#more

Wow, now that I'm having to do the purple coin bullshit, the fun factor isn't as high as it was.

Of course, maybe I'm just mad because I'm that snow stage and couldn't figure out where to go to get the last 20-something (made it to where you fight the boss), only to slide off the side of the stage to the black hole.

... and it doesn't matter how much I complain, I'll be back for more after I've gone to bed.

One complaint I do have is that the game leaves email/message board messages that makes the Wii glow.  And after the first star, every star thereafter doesn't need a special "oooh, I'm a star---get me!" animation.  Just drop the thing, preferably nearby, so I can pick it up and move on.

I think it only does that mail thing for about three stars. I finished it with 120 stars a few nights ago and I think there was only one of those that I found a chore (one of the really, really slow purple coin ones). Other than that I was constantly loving it. 119 out of 120 is pretty damn fantastic in my view.

I absolute love this game. I think it's one of my favourite games ever and has renewed my love of gaming. I've enjoyed some games in the last year or so but most that had people raving about them left me wondering what the hell was all the fuss about. I thought it was just me. That I just didn't enjoy games. But, no. Mario Galaxy showed me I still love games. Just not the overhyped rubbish ones.

Some of those purple coin stages are very frustrating, like Dreadnought and Freezeflame. But like you said, you'll always be back for more. The other one that I found infuriating at times was Toy Time's because... well, you (will) know why. Just remember to keep jumping.

Here are some of my purple coin memories that irritated me:

- Toy Time: getting 100+ coins then falling into the abyss, several times.
- Honeyhive: getting 80+ coins and then (somehow) rocketing off of the vine shoot into a black hole
- Freezeflame: same as you, Ryu. I got a ton of coins, then once I figured out where to go I slipped off the edge (twice)
- Dreadnaught: just... no. No moving platforms. Please. The reason I had so much trouble with this one was because sometimes I didn't realize which way was up. I'd push up on the control stick to move Mario in one direction and he'd go in the other and either I would get nailed by one of those cannonballs or I'd miss a coin or both.

That said, I have to say that getting the purple coins was a ton of fun. Beach Bowl and Sea Slide are probably my favorites, along with Honeyhive. Luckily for me, I am at a point in my second playthrough (95+ stars) where I'm doing a lot of purple coin collecting.

I adored the Dreadnought purple coins run. That was the type of run I loved.

The one that bored me was the one in the big water ring world where you had to use the bee costume and it was soooooooo sloooooooowwwwwww... And twice I had collected all 100 coins and then shot myself off the edge by accident. I was gutted.

But the fast challenging ones? Well I found them fast and challenging.

Hahaha, I loved that one! Diff'rent strokes. I liked it because of how long it took and how much fun I had exploring and flying around.