New Mario verdict in: tricky, but could be the best yet

by Mike Smith

Planning to pick up the newest Super Mario game this Sunday? According to critics, you're in for one heck of a ride. The verdict's in: Super Mario Galaxy 2 is one of the Italian plumber's best-ever outings -- and considering the solid-gold quality of many of his past games, that's a tremendous achievement.

IGN was one of the first to weigh in, giving the game a perfect 10 -- their first since 2008's Metal Gear Solid 4 -- and calling it "absolutely amazing."

Particularly impressed by the way the game's structure will make Mario noobs feel at home, "It might be designed to be accessible to anyone of any skill level, but it's the hardcore completionists who really get the reward" IGN said, concluding "this is the absolute pinnacle of Mario gameplay: everything that makes a Mario game so incredibly fun is represented here."

But IGN's take on the game's accessibility isn't shared by everyone, notably CVG, which points out that, in its later sections, "Galaxy 2 is a significantly more challenging game than the first, and you're barely standing on a surface that's not moving, dissolving or swinging you in the direction of a black hole."

"We can't see many of the majority of Wii's audience making it to the end of the game," CVG said, "let alone the super-tough secret stages beyond that...good news for the hardcore then, but not necessarily for the spouses and relatives who enjoyed the original Galaxy."

Giant Bomb's Ryan Davis doesn't necessarily agree, saying "I don't think Galaxy 2 is actually that much more difficult than the first, it's just that a lot of the harder stuff ends up being part of the critical path," and also hauls out the site's highest accolade: a 5-star perfect score. Mario's latest is "as consistently exciting and inventive as ever," he says, concluding that "when [Nintendo] brings its A-game, it's still able to deliver a fun, accessible game experience that's second to none."

1UP also fell in love with Galaxy 2, awarding it an A, and saying "'more of the same' doesn't have to be a bad thing." Far from it: "this fan-service laden sequel feels just as new as the first Mario Galaxy," 1UP said, singling out the "sweeping" orchestral score and the "ingenious" level design for particular praise, saying they "[speak] to a level of craftsmanship that only comes from years of refinement and reinvention."

Looking for a dissenting voice? Beyond a few minor points of contention, you won't find one: at the time of writing, no outlet has scored the game below a 9/10, and fully half of them (including several outlets usually known for their stinginess with scores) have given it a perfect score. It's currently at an aggregate score of 97% on Metacritic.com, marginally behind its predecessor, Super Mario Galaxy, which currently remains the best reviewed Wii game ever. But scores are still coming in, and while its ranking may change over the next week or so, it's clearly among the very top tier of Nintendo's output. You won't be disappointed.

Source: http://videogames.yahoo.com