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« on: December 17, 2010, 10:45:44 PM »
You're being disingenuous.
The storyline in Super Mario Galaxy is far from "reasonably fleshed out" and is more of the same we get in every Mario game. "Mario, please come to the castle for a festival. Oh no, it's Bowser! He's taking Peach! Go get him Mario!" Only this time, it's in space. Super Mario Galaxy 2 does the same, but streamlines it into a much shorter and simpler form. I'm not in-love with the storybook-style personally, but it's so short and unimportant that I don't see how it matters. The storyline in either game serves no more purpose than to give you a reason to go to a bunch of worlds and collect stars. I think Mario Galaxy tried harder in regards to its story, but I don't think it gave me anything more for that effort. If you're looking for what I would consider "a reasonably fleshed out" story, then you're playing the wrong kind of game.
I actually did not care for the hub world in Super Mario Galaxy. It's not overly complicated or anything, but it becomes tedious to get to certain areas quickly and as a whole seemed to get in the way more than it helped. I'm not saying it's bad or detracts from the game in any respect, but it serves the purpose of acting as a gateway to the actual levels. I found Mario Galaxy 2's "bare bones world maps", or classic 2D Mario world map to be much more efficient in navigating to the actual levels. I feel like it also presented relevant information (such as comets and discovered/undiscovered stars) in a more readable and immediately recognizable fashion. Super Mario Galaxy 2 also has the "Star ship Mario", which sort of takes the place of the free-roaming "hub world." It's much smaller, has some minor explorable sections as you gain power-ups, and is more-or-less optional. I like that approach, myself.
Let's be fair here, Super Mario Galaxy's "supporting characters" really only boils down to Rosalina. Sure, there's the Toad Brigade, Luigi, and the star-sprites or whatever but they're all in Super Mario Galaxy 2 and serve essentially the same purpose. Rosalina is a decent addition, and I did actually enjoy the story-book sequences in the first Mario Galaxy, but outside of those she serves the exact same purpose as everyone's favorite Luma in Super Mario Galaxy 2.
So, yes, ShadowBrain, I would say Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a refined experience. Of your grievances listed above, I would personally say only one is really substantial and that being the hub vs world map complaint. Super Mario Galaxy 2 streamlined the experience, making it faster, easier, and I would argue a smoother experience getting you to the meat of the game from start to finish. On top of that, it offered fewer and less intrusive story cut-scenes, a smaller and optional "hub" world, and a quickly readable and accessible world map.
With that being said, what I was really referring to originally was the actual game play and level design. Super Mario Galaxy 2 took the foundation built by Super Mario Galaxy and distilled it to its purest form while also bring in new and different elements for a large portion of the game. You've now got 2-D style levels, neat ideas like flipping between two sides of a planet, worlds built specifically for the old and new power-ups, and plenty more. Also, Super Mario Galaxy 2 doesn't make any one world over-stay its welcome, with each Galaxy having fewer stars to gather, but more Galaxies to explore. Often, galaxies that do have more than one star change dramatically in structure between those stars as well, offering further variety.
Both games are amazing, but I still feel Super Mario Galaxy 2 improved upon the original.
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