Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Video Game)

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Mario and Yoshi blast off into a new galactic adventure!

"Shining stardust falls on the Mushroom Kingdom once every hundred years. That time had come again..."

A sequel to the original Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2 was released in May 2010, two and a half years after its predecessor. Like the previous game, Mario goes into space once again on a quest to rescue Princess Peach from a building-sized Bowser, who once again plans on creating an evil galactic empire at the center of the universe. Riding on a spaceship-planetoid built in Mario's likeness, Mario must once again save the universe. Also, Mario's brother Luigi and their buddy Yoshi tag along for the ride.

Like Super Mario Galaxy, this sequel features both 2D and 3D platforming, as well as gravity-related challenges as the mustached one careens through the cosmos. It's much more challenging than the original; Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that the game is geared toward players who felt the previous game lacked challenge.

This game was re-released as a digital download on the Wii U's eShop on January 14, 2015.

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This game features examples of:

#-C

100% Completion: After beating the game, you unlock World S. Getting all the stars and Prankster Comet stars across all seven worlds gets you 120 stars. You must then beat the game a second time to unlock the Green Star challenge, which gives you another 120 stars to collect. Then after that, you unlock the Grandmaster Galaxy, which contains the final two stars. There are 242 total stars.
2½D: Several areas of the game, most notably, the Rightside Down and Upside Dizzy Galaxies, and an unusual case in Honeybloom Galaxy, which involves traveling around a cube-shaped planet, but being locked in 2D after every turn of a corner.
Abnormal Ammo:
- Star Bits, which can either be fired at enemies to stun them, or at Lumas to feed them.
- Yoshi can spit several enemies out after eating them as an attack and to break glass cages, such as Spinies and Bullet Bills.
Absurdly Short Level:
- The second star in Honeybloom Galaxy. It's right after the start of the level and can be completed in less than one minute - if you know where it is, of course.
- A lot of green stars are located right next to the entry of a level and can be obtained within 30 seconds. Some particularly egregrious examples:
  - In the first level, Sky Station Galaxy, a green star is right next to the start, hovering above the ceiling of Yoshi's house. Granted, it's the first level and will likely serve as the introduction to how green stars work.
  - In Boulder Bowl Galaxy, all three green stars can be received within the beginning area of the game. They are all on the first two planets.
  - The cake takes the first green star in Fleet Glide Galaxy. Once you start the level proper with the bird, it takes one second to reach the star.
Accordion to Most Sailors: The music for Starshine Beach Galaxy, the game's obligatory Palmtree Panic level, includes an accordion in its instrumentation.
Air-Aided Acrobatics: In Cloudy Court Galaxy, Mario and Luigi can take advantage of the Cloud Flower's ability to create clouds in conjunction with the windmill's blows to maneuver upward while the cloud platforms move along with the wind.
Alliterative Name: Various galaxy names are alliterative. In their order of appearance: Sky Station, Puzzle Plank, Boudler Bowl, Cosmic Clove, Bowser's Lava Lair, Tall Trunk, Haunty Halls, Cloudy Court, Freezy Flake, Beat Block, Bowser Jr.'s Fearsome Fleet, Bowser's Gravity Gauntlet, Space Storm, Bowser Jr.'s Boom Bunker, Melty Monster, Battle Belt, Slimy Spring, Bowser's Galaxy Generator, Twisty Trials, Boss Blitz, and lastly, Grandmaster Galaxy.
Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The final part of the final boss takes place in, apparently, the middle of a black hole, which has an enormous vortex that is constantly Sucking-In Lines.
And Your Reward Is Clothes: The Banktoad gets new clothes/items when you give him enough Star Bits. A shield and spear, a pickaxe, etc. Interestingly, though, he reverts to previous appearances if your "balance" dips back below what it took to get him them.
Antepiece: Nearly every boss level features a game mechanic or enemies with unique defeat strategies (if the boss is a King Mook) that will be used to defeat the boss at the end of the level. Here are four examples:
- Digga-Leg, Megaleg's relative, is in a level introducing the Spin Drill powerup. The Spin Drill is activated by a spin and digs through planets. Digga-Leg is defeated by drilling through the planet and breaking the glass cage on his bottom half.
- Megahammer. The level before the fight focuses on Yoshi spitting Bullet Bills at glass cages to continue through the level. To defeat Megahammer, you have to spit Bullet Bills at the glass domes on its front and back. And then its head when it leans forward.
- Glamdozer, the Queen Mook of the Pupdozers◊, is defeated both with a game mechanic and an enemy kill strategy. The Pupdozers have the several-pointed star-like Ground Pound symbol on their bellies. To kill them, you have to pound through a grate that will flip you onto the other side of the (flat) planet and wait for it to crawl onto the grate. Then pound again, and they will be tossed on their backs and die. Glamdozer, a giant, morbidly obese, female version of the Pupdozers is on a disk-shaped planet with such grates all over it. She is sleeping, and you have to wake her up by pounding the grate she is covering. During the fight, you will have to repeat the process three more times, but she is fast, so it requires good timing and patience to do so.
- Bowser is defeated by ground-pounding meteors that strike his planet into him. You do something similar to open the door leading to his boss fight in his fortresses.
Anti-Frustration Features:
- The Cosmic Guide feature, for those who die too many times on a level. Using it, however, gives you a Bronze Star - functionally identical, but must be re-earned without the Cosmic Guide to unlock the final bonus level.
- Most speedrun challenges take out all the checkpoints. However, the developers decided the last Bowser level is just too long and kept one checkpoint. This doubles as Suspicious Videogame Generosity overlapping with Continuing is Painful, however, as if you die after the checkpoint, you start back at the checkpoint with a mere 30 seconds on the clock. Continuing from said checkpoint leaves you with so little time that you'll either bail or finish with 1-3 seconds left.
- Every time you use the Spin Drill, you leave a patch of upturned earth at the entrance and exit of your path, telling you where you've already drilled so you don't get confused and waste time.
- In "The Adventure of the Purple Coins" in the Clockwork Ruins Galaxy, there are numerous purple coins on each of the wheels and the nature of the level makes it quite hard to backtrack, so there's an NPC before the final wheel to tell you how many coins you should have at that point.
Anti Poop-Socking: Lubba will remind you to take a break if you've been playing for a while or have died repeatedly in the same level. He will also give you these reminders after you get a Game Over. Since it comes after a game over, the message seems threatening if anything.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Poor Bowser. "My powers... gone... My empire... shrinking... My huge cake... Never got a slice..."
Art Course: Rolling Masterpiece Galaxy, hence the name, is art-themed and has many art supplies including paintbrushes, a paint palette, rulers, rolls of tape, and colored pencils.
Artificial Atmospheric Actions: In Boudler Bowl Galaxy, some toads are tasked to mine the gigantic crystals present on two planets in the level. Once Mario destroys the crystals for good, they comment on how easy it was for Mario - however, their animation still shows them hacking with their pickaxe into what is now thin air.
Artistic License – Space: All of the examples from the first game are still present in this one. Rule of Fun applies.
Ascended Extra:
- The only "appearances" of Yoshi featured in the first game is one of the menu icons as well as a secret planet crafted in his image (even the mission refers to it as "Yoshi's Unexpected Appearance"). Here, he's not only a rideable character, but serves as the Deuteragonist; with the box art having him front and center alongside Mario.
- The Toad Brigade still mostly goofs off, and they don't appear quite as many times, but this time around you can get letters from more than just the princess, and one of the Toads even starts a Star Bit bank. Plus unlike before, they're with you at the ending.
- There are now 120 Green Power Stars, which form a complete extra set; in the first game, there were only three, which were part of the main 120.
- Life Mushrooms now appear much more frequently. While some appeared in levels in the first game, their main purpose was a pre-boss buff. Now they're more generous about providing them in tricky levels.
Attack Its Weak Point:
- Bowser Jr. tells you Gobblegut's weak point — the red bulging areas on his body.
- Regarding the Pupdozers in Flipsville Galaxy: "The soft bellies look so squishy!"
- Sorbetti's weak point is his big red nose.
- While he's bigger, the Whomp King's weakness is the same as ever, and in true Super Mario 64 fashion, he outright tells the player how to defeat him.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Bowser spends 95% of the game at a size comparable to his Giant Bowser battles in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.
Attack of the Town Festival: The game begins once more with the onset of the Star Festival, which is once more interrupted by Bowser. Only this time, he's huge.
Autosave: Where previous 3D Mario games left it to you to save, or gave you the option after finding a Plot Coupon, this installment just does it for you (it's still possible to save at any time on the Faceship). This is carried over to the next 3D games in the series.
Band Land: Cloudy Court Galaxy briefly mixes this with Level in the Clouds. Bouncy drums and ground-poundable cymbals make up one small section, placing them alongside ridable clouds and windmills.
Batman Can Breathe in Space: Most all of the cast has no problem breathing in, well, space. Interestingly, though, both Mario and Luigi have Oxygen Meters underwater.
Battle Boomerang: Unlike other enemies Yoshi can spit out as projectiles, Crabbers will return like boomerangs instead of flying in a straight line.
Battle Theme Music: Like its predecessor, the game features a wide array of boss themes, meaning that only a small handful of boss share a common track with each other. Namely:
- Frantic or fast-paced battles play this theme (heard with Peewee Piranha, Rollodillo, Sorbetti, Prince Pikante).
- Slow, yet methodical battles play this theme (heard with Digga-Leg and Whomp King).
- King Lakitu plays a frantic theme, later borrowed by a duo of Stink Bugs in Puzzle Plank Galaxy.
- Like in the first game, Bugaboom and King Kaliente share the same battle theme. Glamdozer (who debuts in this game) plays a heavily modified remix.
- Like in the first game, Dino Piranha and Fiery Dino Piranha share the same theme. Gobblegut and Fiery Gobblegut (which debut in this game) share theirs analogously.
- All remaining bosses and minibosses play their own battle themes, with Bowser Jr. and Bowser having two each. Of special note is the theme played for Squizzard's fight, as it's composed and structured in a manner such that it incorporates Variable Mix to transition into a Boss Remix of the Fire Flower theme (this was done to prevent the latter from simply overriding the former whenever the Fire Flower is grabbed, a problem that occured with Baron Brrr's theme when Mario or Luigi used the Ice Flower in the original Super Mario Galaxy).
Battle Tops: The Topmen return from the first game, though Topmaniac does not.
Big Boo's Haunt: Haunty Halls Galaxy, Boo Moon Galaxy and Flash Black Galaxy. The former two are traditional spooky levels with haunted planetoids and corridors. The latter is a more unique approach where it rains and the clouds in the sky make sight a lot more difficult; the lightnings briefly illuminate the level.
Bizarrchitecture: Bowser's Gravity Gauntlet looks like Bowser got M. C. Escher as one of his architects.
Blackout Basement: Flash Black Galaxy is a large mansion where everything periodically goes dark.
Blatant Lies: In the second mission for Haunty Halls Galaxy, there is an... unhelpful sign...
"The Boos won't hurt you as long as you don't look them in the eyes, OK? ...tee hee."
Bonus Stage: In almost every stage, there are pads that you can stand on that will warp you to a planetoid filled with enemies, coins, and Star Bits. Defeating all the enemies in the time limit will give you three 1-Up Mushrooms. You have to grab them before time runs out, though, otherwise it's all for naught.
Bookends:
- Same example as last time, condensed into one level: Boss Blitz, which begins with Dino Piranha and ends with Fiery Dino Piranha. Also, because Boss Blitz is only unlocked after Bowser's Galaxy Generator, Fiery Dino Piranha is the last boss in the game, while Peewee Piranha is the first.
- To even more of a ludicrous extent, Dino Piranha being the first game's first boss with Fiery Dino Piranha being the second game's last.
- Grandmaster Galaxy counts as well: The music for Sky Station Galaxy (the first level in the game) is reused for the second portion of the last level (but not the last star), while the music for Good Egg Galaxy (the first level in the first Galaxy) is reused for the second portion of the last star.
Boss Bonanza: Boss Blitz Galaxy in the Special World has one of these against five of the first game's bosses. Specifically, Dino Piranha, King Kaliente (both from the Good Egg Galaxy), Major Burrows (Gusty Garden Galaxy), Bouldergeist (Ghostly Galaxy), and Fiery Dino Piranha (Melty Molten Galaxy), in that order. They are even accompanied by their battle theme tunes from the first Super Mario Galaxy.
Boss-Only Level:
- Boss Blitz Galaxy features five boss fights (against bosses from the first Super Mario Galaxy) in a row — and nothing else.
- Some of the Prankster Comets also count: Digga-Leg's Daredevil Run, Fiery Flotilla Speed Run, Megahammer's Daredevil Run, and Squizzard's Daredevil Run. Here, you land in the arena (or in the case of Squizzard's Daredevil Run, an area where you don't get too close to the sinkhole in which Squizzard makes his lair) where the boss appears.
Boss Remix: Squizzard's battle theme features a remix of the Fire Flower theme, which is heard as soon as Mario or Luigi grabs the Fire Flower. The transition between themes is done via Variable Mix.
Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: In Honeybloom Galaxy, there are sections with plenty of water bubbles and clouds. Once you lose your Bee Power-Up (by being hit), you will fall through all of them unobstructed. Thankfully, in the first trickier section, below all the obstacles there is a single vine spanning the entirety of the area, so you're just directed back to the beginning instead of falling to your doom. Later sections of this galaxy are true bottomless pits though.
Brutal Bonus Level: World S is a collection of galaxies accessible after the game is cleared for the first time; and many of them offer a bigger challenge than the standard worlds' galaxies. In turn, this world has Grandmaster Galaxy, unlocked after all stars (including green ones) are gathered; it features a very difficult obstacle course that requires skill and reflexes to be conquered. Lastly, in that level, there's the mission "The Perfect Run", unlocked after getting the corresponding Comet Medal and depositing 9999 Star Bits in Toad's bank; it requires completing the obstacle course without taking damage at all nor having any checkpoint flags available, offering a formidable challenge.
Bubblegloop Swamp: Parts of the Cloudy Court and Boo Moon Galaxies from Worlds 3 and 5 respectively take place in a poison swamp. The purple water is so toxic that it kills Mario and Luigi instantly upon contact.
Build Like an Egyptian: Like its predecessor, the game features a desert-themed galaxy with planetoids with the shape of double-sided pyramids: The galaxy is called Slipsand Galaxy, and also has a pyramid with sand-slides for good measure.
But Thou Must!:
- Early on, when Mario is asked if he's trying to save Peach, the possible responses are "That's right," and "Yes".
- Also done with The Chimp in one of the galaxies where you have to score 10,000 points to get his star. No matter how many times you say no, he'll keep asking you to take his challenge until you say yes.
By Wall That Is Holey: The final planet encountered in the "Clockwork Ruins Galaxy" has giant stone cog wheels crashing down at either Mario or Luigi. However, you can duck under the teeth holes when the cogs roll toward you.
Call-Back: In the third Bowser Jr. level, you come across the destroyed body of Megahammer, the boss you fought in the second Bowser Jr. level. Its Bullet Bill cannons are still working, too.
Canon Immigrant: The Grand Paragoombas that show up in the Supermassive Galaxy first appeared in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon.
Captain Obvious:
- Bowser, early on.
  Bowser: I'M HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE!
- Many of the signs and NPC dialogue, such as a sign that tells you not to fall into a lake of purple liquid that has skull signs sticking up out of it, or a Luma fifteen times bigger than Mario who tells you everything is big in the Supermassive Galaxy.
Celestial Body: The Cosmic Spirit, an avatar of Rosalina whose body is made of stars in a similar way to Cosmic Mario and Luigi.
Checkpoint: Galaxy 2 is the first 3D game in the Mario series to use Checkpoint Flags (by the time of its release, they were only seen in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which was developed during the same period but released six months prior). This means that, unlike in the first Galaxy, just reaching a new planet in a level no longer provides an automatic checkpoint, so reaching a flag and touching it will be necessary in order to resume from that point in case Mario loses a life. Fortunately, in almost all levels with a boss, the flag is placed right before their whereabouts.
Checkpoint Starvation: The majority of Comet missions lack Checkpoint Flags, meaning that they have to be completed in one go without dying; this includes "The Perfect Run" from Grandmaster Galaxy, which further raises its difficulty. There is one exception; one of the speedrun levels in the second game takes place in a Bowser level, which is naturally longer than a standard level. There's one checkpoint in that specific challenge because the level is simply too long for players to keep restarting if they fail every time.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
- Polari, The Spooky Speedster, Guppy, Topmaniac, Tarantox, Kamella, Kingfin, and Megaleg are the only characters from the first game that do not appear in the sequel. Especially if you consider what happened at the end of the first...
- Several game mechanics from the first game, most notably Ice and Flying Mario.
- Cosmic Comets were somewhat re-implemented into Clone Comets, although the two work vastly differently: Cosmic Comets pit you in a race against a cosmic copy of yourself, while Clone Comets spawn Cosmic Clones to hunt you down.
Colour-Coded Timestop: Slowing down time makes everything fade into greyscale, and the music matches it by changing into a tinny, flat-sounding version of the normal BGM, almost like an early television.
The Computer Shall Taunt You: There is exactly one Star Bit in "The Perfect Run", right at the beginning, and the Star Bit count doesn't reset after a death. This means that, if the player doesn't use them as projectiles, the Star Bit counter effectively becomes a running tally of how many times they have failed to beat the level.
Convection, Schmonvection: In one mission in Freezy Flake Galaxy, there is a pool of lava with snow-covered islands. You can even roll big snowballs over the lava for a temporary bridge.
Cool Starship: Starship Mario.
Co-Op Multiplayer: As in the first game, a second player can drop in at any time, adding another Star-Bit-collecting-and-shooting pointer, and the ability to freeze some foes and obstacles. Player 2 has more to do in this game, though, because he or she also takes control of an orange Luma that hangs out over Mario's shoulder, who can fly over gaps and through walls in order to grab Power Ups and Purple Coins and bring them to Mario. The Luma also has its own spin attack that works just as well as Mario's, which can take a lot of the pressure off when the screen is crowded with enemies.
Corridor Cubbyhole Run: There's a pair of areas in the Clockwork Ruins Galaxy in which enormous stone wheels roll down a hill Mario must traverse. There is one alcove in the first hill to take shelter in, and the wheels themselves have Mario-sized cutouts to aim for.
Cosmetic Award: If you get every single star in the game, Rosalina becomes a passenger on your spaceship. Also, if you max out your Star Bits on hand (as opposed to in the bank, which has a proper reward), then the coconuts turn into watermelons.
Crate Expectations: Like in the previous game, there are crates in several levels, which can be broken up with spin attacks or fireballs via the Fire Flower; there are two minigames involving the latter, in which Mario and Luigi use fireballs to break crates under a time limit. This game also introduces heavy crates reinforced with metal, which can only be broken with the Fire Flower.
Creative Closing Credits: The credits are overlaid over little vignettes in which you can control Mario or Luigi. In fact, with some extremely unintuitive messing around, you can even die in them.
Cut and Paste Environments: Various assets from the first game have been reused, and occasionally planets from the same game are reused later as well. One particularly striking example is the volcano in Yoshi Star Galaxy, which was directly taken from the first game's Melty Molten Galaxy.

D-E

Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The Star Spin. The control itself is unchanged, but several new levels and features seem designed specifically to punish those who are too reliant on it — notably, the platforms in the Flip-Swap Galaxy (and later, the Flip-Out Galaxy) and the limited-use Cloud Flower. The latter is particularly nasty in Shiverburn's Green Star 3, where you have to grab a Cloud Flower in the first section and reach the third section while retaining at least one cloud, meaning you effectively have to navigate a long section of moving platforms over lava damageless and spinless.
Dark Is Not Evil: The Cosmic Guide is a mysterious-looking starfield silhouette, but is also a helpful Anti-Frustration Feature.
Degraded Boss: The Undergrunt Gunner is a Recurring Boss in Super Mario Galaxy. In the sequel, the Gunners are now ordinary mooks appearing in Bowser Jr.'s Fearsome Fleet and the Fleet Glide Galaxy.
Demoted to Extra:
- Rosalina, who remains unseen (except as the Cosmic Guide, and those who played the first game will probably recognize her) and just sends you letters, 1-Ups, and Star Bits. She only appears at the end of the game. Both ends.
- The already-uncommon Boo Mushroom shows up just once in this game. It doesn't even get a second appearance via Prankster Comets or Green Stars. The same can be said for the Spring Mushroom (which appears in only one galaxy for a grand total of two missions, one of which is a Green Star). Luckily, the Fire Flower and the Rainbow Star, both of which are series staples, did not receive the same treatment.
- The Bee Mushroom has significantly fewer appearances in this game as well, and is only in two galaxies. Pull Stars are also much rarer compared to the first game.
- Star Chips make fewer appearances in this game as well, with most levels being focused on platforming as the challenge toward reaching Launch Stars.
- Warp Pads, which appeared everywhere as transportation on the Comet Observatory, are reduced to just one pair on Starship Mario.
Denser and Wackier: Overall, this game is much more lighthearted than the first. Your hub ship and Big Good are comical here rather than mysterious and elegant like Rosalina and her Observatory, Bowser's motivations and plan are much less frightening and threatening, and there are more comical and quirky NPC types introduced in the game.
Developer's Foresight:
- If you're playing as Luigi and read one of Peach's letters, it's still addressed to Mario. The Mailtoad remarks, "I'm sure she just made a mistake!"
- If you lose enough lives to activate the Cosmic Guide but refuse to use it, when you finish the level, Lubba will give you a little pep talk for going the extra mile.
- Lubba talks to you if you complete a level after losing a lot of lives to suggest the co-star feature.
- If you play past 3 AM, Lubba will feel sleepy and complain about how early it is.
- If you park Starship Mario next to a portal on the world map, you'll be able to see the portal from the ship itself. Whether it's in front of or behind you depends on if you parked the ship near the world's entrance or exit.
- In Honeybloom Galaxy, there are places where you can forgo the Bee Mushroom, and a vine swing you can reach without it, but this segment leads right into a section where the power-up is absolutely required to keep moving, as the bouncy fruits that make it up disappear unless you're a bee. Rather than killing you for your stubbornness, however, your strategy will be gently corrected, because the power-up is right where you will land from the vines without the ability to fly. This means you will automatically get the power-up and be allowed to continue.
- If you get a Game Over before clearing "Peewee Piranha's Temper Tantrum" for the first time, instead of returning to Starship Mario, you return to the intro stage, just before the Launch Star, since Starship Mario isn't unlocked yet.
- Like the Battlerock and Dreadnought levels in the first game, completing Tall Trunk's purple coin mission with exactly zero coins will result in unique dialogue from the Gearmo at the end, who's legitimately impressed that you managed to do so (but you'll still die and have to restart the level regardless).
Digging to China: The Spin Drill power-up allows the Mario Bros. to dig through dirt. On planets comprised mostly or entirely of the substance, they can drill straight to the other side.
Dishing Out Dirt: The Rock Mushroom power-up replaces the Star Spin with a move that encases Mario or Luigi in a rock shell. They use this to roll forward at high speed, and the rock-based strength enables them to plow through enemies and defeat a boss (Rollodillo) in Boulder Bowl Galaxy.
Disney Villain Death: Subverted. After the fight with Bowser in his main base of operations, he shrinks back to normal and falls to his supposed death. However, when Mario goes to retrieve the Grand Star Bowser left behind, Bowser jumps back onto the platform and eats the Grand Star before Mario can reach it, setting the scene for the true final battle...
Don't Explain the Joke: "Hey Mario! I'm on CLOUD CONTROL! ...get it? Instead of "crowd"? Never mind. Wow, tough galaxy."
Double Unlock: In order to unlock the very last mission in the game, you must both get the normal star in Grandmaster Galaxy, get the Comet Medal in it, and deposit 9999 Star Bits in the bank located on the Faceship.
Down the Drain: Slimy Spring Galaxy from World 6 takes place inside a giant underwater cave. Due to the lacking number of bubbles and coins, the galaxy is a race against the Oxygen Meter.
The Dragon: Bowser Jr., who holds half of the Grand Stars for Bowser.
Driving a Desk: Starship Mario. The ship's wheel will turn back and forth, but the ship itself will not actually turn in any direction. Also notable is the fact that the backgrounds for the galaxy the ship is in will have radically different colours and lighting conditions, and yet the ship and everything on it will have the same lighting as always, with lighting dissonance between the rear-projected background and the physical foreground.
Drop the Hammer: Megahammer uses these as one of its prime attacks — besides potentially squishing the player, the hammers' impact will also shake loose the black-and-yellow strips on the platform, creating deadly gaps.
Earn Your Bad Ending: A downplayed example in that it's for a level rather than the whole game. In Tall Trunk's Purple Coin Slide you have to collect at least a hundred coins, otherwise you lose a life. If you manage to collect zero coins, you receive unique dialogue, with the Gearmo who would have otherwise given you the star noting that you must have done that on purpose and that it is impressive.
Easter Egg:
- The smokestack on top of Starship Mario actually serves as an alternate entrance to the ship's engine room, similar to a Warp Pipe.
- The "Hell Valley Sky Trees", which appear in the Shiverburn and Grandmaster Galaxies, and serve no other purpose other than to look creepy and to secretly watch you from far away on the background cliffs. They are seen if the player switches the POV to first person and carefully looks to the top of the cliffs on the background, appearing as a trio of shadowy, alien-like figures staring at the player. Due to the relatively tiny size of the levels, they will always be visible, almost appearing to follow you despite being unmoving flat images. The name for the figures comes from their texture files that can only be found by hacking.
- During the first mission of Sky Station Galaxy, there's a sign at Yoshi's house telling you to go around the back. During the Prankster Comet version of the mission, stopping to read the sign has it amended to say it's from "Yoshi the Space Dragon" rather than just Yoshi, as was the case with the original.
Eggshell Clothing: Peewee Piranha has an egg diaper. Breaking it off is key to damaging it.
Empathic Environment: Yoshi Star Galaxy does this after the boss fight in its second mission, Spiny Control, where the clouds darkening the area immediately disappear.
Escort Mission: It seems that Goombas and Topmen are like pets for Gearmos. However, the little monster is likely to get crushed under a boulder or fall to its death before you can lure it near its new owner. An interesting variant occurs in the Chompworks Galaxy, where you have to operate certain obstacles on a track to allow a Golden Chomp to roll safely into its destination.
Eternal Engine: Chompworks Galaxy and Fleet Glide Galaxy. Clockwork Ruins Galaxy seems to be an incredibly ancient version.
Everything in Space Is a Galaxy: Like in the original, the galaxies are very small and consist only of a few scattered Baby Planets. An exception is the more realistically sized galaxies that appear in the backgrounds of Worlds 4 and 5.
Extended Gameplay: Beating the final boss unlocks World S. Collecting all of the Stars including the ones in World S unlocks 120 Green Stars. Getting those unlocks the Grandmaster Galaxy. Beating that and getting its Comet Medal and giving 9999 Star Bits to the Banktoad will unlock the final Prankster Comet. You finish the Final Boss 2/5 of the way through the game, and even earlier if you didn't get all the stars up to that point.

F-H

Faceship: Trope Namer; Starship Mario is a planetoid-spaceship that is made in Mario's likeness, and Lubba coins the term.
Fake Difficulty:
- Present in most of the Green Star missions. Some of the Green Stars are located out in space, requiring you to make a Leap of Faith to get them (and if you don’t get them, you’ll die) and due to the occasional bad camera angle, it's next to impossible to gauge with any degree of certainty exactly where you need to aim your jumps. Flipsville Galaxy's third star ^note is one of the best examples.
- The Perfect Run, the last mission of the game, counts as well. It's incredibly hard to beat the obstacle course without damage anyway - but to make matters worse, the game forces you to beat half of it with the Cloud Mario power up. Which has different jump physics from normal Mario, making difficult jumps almost unpredictable.
Fake Longevity: The Green Stars, which send you on a scavenger hunt through all of the preceding galaxies. Nothing new is added. And to make matters worse, the Green Stars operate under one comet, meaning all of them (unless one is in another mission) will be on the map if you select one Green Star mission. However, only one Green Star can be collected per entry, forcing you to enter the level two or three separate times to get every Green Star, adding to the already-manufactured length. And you can't even skip the comet alert nor the introductory sequence to the galaxy, which is exactly the same as for the associated gold stars. It's not uncommon to beat a galaxy's green star with a total of two minutes of gameplay and three minutes of buildup between them
Fast Tunnelling: The Spin Drill. Mario and Luigi can dig extremely quickly through whole planets in seconds when using this powerup. Doing this is necessary to reach (and then hurt) the weak point of the boss Digga-Leg in Spin Dig Galaxy.
Feed It a Bomb: You kill Squizzard by hurling fireballs into his mouth.
Fertile Feet: On one planet in Supermassive Galaxy, flowers spring up everywhere Mario/Luigi steps. Covering the entire planet in foliage earns you a hidden Star.
Fire, Ice, Lightning: The first planet encountered in "Shiverburn Galaxy" is a U-shaped planet covered in lava, has several electric beam shooters, and will turn to ice after Ground Pounding a switch found halfway around that planet.
Fission Mailed: Losing The Chimp's challenge in Fluffy Bluff Galaxy results in the screen blacking out, you losing a life, then the screen comes back and asks if you don't think you can beat his challenge. The only way to leave is by Game Over or choosing to leave during the challenge. ^note
Floating Water: Cosmic Cove Galaxy provides a truly bizarre example; see Mind Screw.
Gameplay and Story Integration: In the playable credits, you can't use the Spin because the Baby Luma who gave you that power has gone home.
Gimmick Level: In addition to bringing back the rolling ball idea first seen in the previous game, Galaxy 2 also adds flying on a bird (Fluzzard); its levels revolve around performing a test aerial race in the first mission, and then an official race against one or more rivals in the second. Passing through certain rings will allow Mario or Luigi to grab a Comet Medal near the goal.
Godhood Seeker: Bowser's goal, though he doesn't state it directly, much like the last game. However, he takes it a step further, as instead of using the Grand Stars to power reactors, he uses them to power himself up.
Gotta Catch Them All: To achieve 100% Completion, the player has to collect not only the standard 120 Power Stars (which, indirectly, also requires collecting all 48 Comet Medals), but also the 120 Green Stars, and then the two extra Power Stars and one extra Comet Medal located in the secret Grandmaster Galaxy; and the very last star also requires depositing 9999 Star Bits in Toad's bank.
Grappling-Hook Pistol: Yoshi's tongue can be used this way when floating flower-shaped hooks are nearby.
Gravity Screw: A major part of the game in general, and the entire shtick of the Rightside Down, Upside Dizzy, and Flipsville galaxies as well as Bowser's Gravity Gauntlet. There are also cylindrical planetoids (such as in Tall Trunk or Space Storm Galaxy) that have physics-defying radial gravity, like an electromagnetic field, causing Mario and Luigi to fall indefinitely around them until stopped by an object — in other words, literal gravity screws.
Green Hill Zone:
- The Sky Station Galaxy has grassy sections, though there is a minor Remilitarized Zone in the second mission.
- Yoshi Star Galaxy, with a couple Prehistoria elements. It consists of planetoids made of plain grasslands and/or marble platforms, and only one is a mountain filled with fossils that has to be climbed.
Guide Dang It!:
- A few of the secret missions. For instance: to get the Hidden Star in Boo Moon Galaxy, you have to stay in the place where the Launch Star is for just a moment to wait for another platform to materialize just across from you. While you may catch a glimpse of it, there's absolutely nothing to tip you off that you need to do this.
- The locations of many of the green stars fall under this as well. Especially in Bowser Jr.'s Boom Bunker and Fleet Glide Galaxy.
- Exactly how to unlock the Prankster Comet for the Grandmaster Galaxy. While Lubba does hint that getting 9999 Star Bits does something, you'll probably be too busy plowing through every single level trying to work out what you've missed. Add to the fact that a lot of players don't know whether the Star Bits need to be in the Toad Bank or on Mario/Luigi's person, plus the fact you only got a cosmetic reward last time for collecting 9999 Star Bits, and you get a galaxy-sized load of people assuming the Star Bits are now pointless.
Gusty Glade: There are winds in some levels, particularly Cloudy Court Galaxy, but they're there to help you by pushing your clouds (created with the Cloud Flower powerup) along instead of hindering you.
Hailfire Peaks: Several galaxies:
- Shiverburn Galaxy, like Freezeflame in the first game, combines Lethal Lava Land with Slippy-Slidey Ice World, but it's like this from the start, while Freezeflame's missions take a while to mix them.
- Chompworks Galaxy and Fleet Glide combine Eternal Engine with Lethal Lava Land.
- Cosmic Cove Galaxy turns Under the Sea into Slippy-Slidey Ice World at the press of a button.
- Fluffy Bluff Galaxy combines Green Hill Zone with Level in the Clouds.
- For a brief section, Cloudy Court combines Level in the Clouds with Band Land.
- Clockwork Ruins Galaxy combines Ruins for Ruins' Sake with elements of Eternal Engine.
Hard Mode Filler: Like in the first game, most Prankster Comets revisit familiar missions in levels and remix them with unique perks to make them more challenging. In this game, the regular comets are of the same color and bring in more possible twists (such as forcing the player to defeat all enemies and a harder variation of the Speedy challenges where the time limit is so low that the player has to collect clocks constantly to avoid running out of time); Galaxy 2 also has 120 Green Stars after you've defeated the game which are hidden throughout the levels and require the player to make progressively harder jumps to reach them. And the last star ("The Perfect Run"), which remixes the standard mission of Grandmaster Galaxy, is bar none the hardest to get in the game.
Heli-Critter: Choppahs; a type of enemy that looks like a green parrot-like plant and flies by using four spinning blades around its neck.
Hoist by His Own Petard: King Lakitu and Megahammer are both defeated by launching their projectiles (Spinies and Bullet Bills, respectively) back at them with Yoshi. A similar method is used to defeat Prince Pikante (with coconuts as the projectile of choice), but with your Spin instead of Yoshi.
Hornet Hole: The Honeybloom and Honeyhop galaxies. The bees are friendly, and the sticky honey can be used to scale walls when the Bee powerup is in use.
Hub Level: Starship Mario. It's much smaller than the hubs of all previous 3D Mario games (and, since then, it has also been the last area of this kind to appear in the series), as it functions more as a sandbox or training room where you can practice your moves and power-ups, talk to characters you bring aboard from the levels you complete, and get basic gameplay advice.
Human Cannonball: Way less frequent than in the predecessor, but in Bowser Jr.'s Boom Bunker, you have to launch yourself out of a cannon to reach the next area or both Green Stars of the level. Interestingly, in the Throwback Galaxy, the cannon that was present in Whomp's Fortress was replaced with a Star Ring instead.

I-M

Idle Animation: If Mario/Luigi stays in place long enough, he'll yawn, sit down, and take a nap. After a while, he'll lie back and continue sleeping.
Improvised Platform: Courtesy of the Cloud Flower, which grants Mario the ability to create up to three temporary cloud platforms without refreshing the power-up. This is often useful for Green Stars and shortcuts as well as standard progression, thus really putting the "improvised" in "improvised platform".
In Case of Boss Fight, Break Glass: All of the robot/machine bosses.
Infinite 1-Ups: Keep jumping on a giant Koopa's shell in Supermassive Galaxy. We'll wait.
Informed Ability:
- The Chimp's gaming skills. In his challenges, you're supposedly beating the high scores that he set, but you never actually see him do this.
- The Toad Captain is apparently able to Wall Jump (which is how he got so high in the Fluffy Bluff Galaxy).
In-Game Banking Services: The Banktoad holds on to Star Bit deposits and allows the player to share them with other save files.
Inflating Body Gag: Caused by Yoshi's Blimp powerup, which is a Call-Back to the P-Balloon from Super Mario World.
Instant-Win Condition: The green stars take this to the extreme. Many of them require you to actually leap to your death. As long as you can manage to collide with the star along the way, you're golden.
Interface Screw: The boss fight of the first star in Spin-Dig Galaxy, unlike the rest of either game, is not controlled relative to Mario, but by turning the stick to where you want Mario to go, as it is on a 2D plane.
Interface Spoiler:
- Players who diligently full-clear every galaxy early may wonder why the icon for doing so is a silver crown. Then the Green Stars roll in and you find out you're only halfway done. Only upon getting those will you receive the anticipated gold crown.
- Players who have all 120 stars may find it odd that according to the World Map, they are still missing a galaxy in World S.
- The casino room on Starship Mario seems to be too big for just one die.
Invincible Minor Minion: The Cosmic Clones, who only disappear by colliding with Mario^note or when the objective of the area is complete.
It's Up to You: A more standard subversion than the original's Double Subversion by having the option to switch out Mario with Luigi, as well as adding an orange Luma into the Co-Star mode (in the first game, it was only the second player's cursor that affected the gameplay).
I Was Told There Would Be Cake: Much like Super Mario 64, Mario is lured to the castle by the promise of sharing cake with Peach. Bowser wants Peach to make him a galaxy-sized cake. And in the ending, Mario, Peach, the Toads, and (if you're riding on him during the End Credits) Yoshi are standing by a cake.
Jungle Japes: Wild Glide Galaxy is a colorful jungle with a river where Fluzzard and the Jibberjays participate in races. In the first mission, Mario or Luigi has to do a trial race with Fluzzard to reach the goal. In the second mission, they have to compete against the Jibberjays (again with the help of Fluzzard) and reach first place.
Kaizo Trap:
- In the Grandmaster Galaxy, even if you've killed the Boomerang Bros and made the Power Star/Launch Star appear, you can still be killed if there's a stray boomerang still on the screen.
- The game has a glitch where you can die during the credits. The hidden ending suddenly becomes a lot funnier with this glitch in mind, as this video demonstrates.
- Timed Missions stop the timer whenever a cutscene occurs in which the star appears (for example, upon collecting the 100th Purple Coin or defeating the boss). However, bosses often reel from the final hit for a second or so before the actual cutscene starts, so if you defeat a boss at the last second, that moment of "Phew, just barely made it!" can quickly turn into "Aw, crap!" Still, it's preferable to the first Super Mario Galaxy, where timers continue ticking until the moment you touch the star.
Kill Enemies to Open: The Battle Belt Galaxy is built on this premise, with a collection of small planets with enemies that must all be killed to progress to the next one.
Kill It with Fire: Squizzard's weakness is fire, so when it opens its mouth Mario or Luigi has to shoot fireballs while under the effect of the Fire Flower to inflict damage onto it.
King Mook: King Lakitu, Glamdozer, and the Whomp King.
Kishōtenketsu: Level designer Koichi Hayashida developed his levels with this structure in mind.^note This allowed him to introduce a new mechanic in a safe environment (ki), raise the stakes for the player (sho), put an unexpected complication on it (ten), and finally bring all previous ideas together for the home run to the finish pole (ketsu).
Lame Pun Reaction: One of the Toads says: "I'm on cloud control! Ha ha! Get it? Instead of 'crowd', I said... Aww, never mind. Wow, tough galaxy". Becomes a Stealth Pun when you realize that the galaxy which he's in when he says this is a tough galaxy indeed.
Large and in Charge: Lubba, the biggest and fattest Luma (excluding those in Supermassive Galaxy), is the leader of the bunch. And there's Bowser and the various King Mooks.
Large Ham: Bowser, in more ways than one
Bowser: I'M HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE!
Last Lousy Point: There are a few Green Stars that are rather tricky to get, such as the third one in Shiverburn (bring a Cloud Suit to the end of the level, with at least one cloud left) or the first one in Stone Cyclone (pull off a well-timed Triple Jump, and don't get crushed by a speedy Tox Box in the process).
Legacy Boss Battle: Boss Blitz Galaxy is a Boss Rush level, where all five bosses are from the original game and not fought anywhere else.
Lethal Lava Land: The Melty Monster Galaxy is the most prominent example, but several galaxies have elements of it, including all of the Bowser levels. Shiverburn is partially this, but ice areas also appear.
Level Ate: Sweet Mystery Galaxy is a bonus level accessed by feeding a Luma in World 4. Many of its passageways and planetary features are made of sweet meals like cookies, chocolate bars and donuts, though many of them will only appear (and thus be safe to stand on) while Yoshi's Light Bulb powerup is in effect.
Level in the Clouds: The game has Fluffy Bluff Galaxy and Cloudy Court Galaxy. In this game, not only the Bee powerup allows Mario and Luigi to walk over the clouds; so can the Cloud powerup, which in addition allows Mario to create his own clouds! Cloudy Court also features windmills that make wind blow, which allows the plumbers to ride with their cloud platforms into areas that would be inaccessible otherwise.
Levels Take Flight: Wild Glide Galaxy and Fleet Glide Galaxy completely take place in the air, where you fly with the shy parrot Fluzzard.
Lighter and Softer:
- Compared to the first game, literally. At many points in the first game where there was a dark starry sky, there is now a blue sky with clouds here, even on the cover art. Also, Bowser's first attack in this game, growing himself giant, is much more nonsensical than in the previous game, which starts with him bombarding Toad Town via airships.
- Where the first game took the effort to make a darker, more poignant story for the game and backstory for Rosalina, this game goes back to the basic Excuse Plot of past Mario games.
Lily-Pad Platform: Starshine Beach has some lily pad rafts Mario can ride by walking in them in the direction he wants to go. These are actually required to transport Cloud Mario to certain locations, as the plumber loses the Power-Up when he touches water.
Long Song, Short Scene:
- The final boss theme. If you know what you're doing, the final phase of the last battle against Bowser won't last longer than a minute, not even long enough for the song to reach the halfway point.
- Squizzard's theme also qualifies, since you're going to be spending the entire battle with the Fire Flower powerup, which adds its own track on top.
Losing Your Head: Sorbetti is a Tap-Tap-like snowball that is fought on a planet made to look like its body.
The Lost Woods: The Tall Trunk Galaxy is a forest-themed galaxy which has a huge tree as a centerpiece.
Luck-Based Mission: Boss Blitz Galaxy Speed Run. The fourth boss, Bouldergeist, has a random attack pattern (only one attack summons the Bomb Boos you need to defeat him). If you're unlucky, you'll run out of time. So yet again, a normally reasonable to beat boss makes the level much, much harder for the Prankster Comet.
Lucky Seven: Getting 77 stars will prompt Lubba to say "77 stars! How lucky!" He'll say something similar if you have any amount of star bits with all digits being 7.
Macro Zone: The Supermassive Galaxy from World 4 is a more traditional example, similar to Giant Land of Super Mario Bros. 3 fame (where it was also the fourth world). All setpieces and enemies have an enormous size, so Mario and Luigi have to be careful when traversing the level.
Major Injury Underreaction: The Whomp King's last words, as he crumbles and dies:
Whomp King: ...Dang it! *explodes*
Marathon Level:
- Clockwork Ruins Galaxy. Numerous traps and hazards must be sorted to get the main star. So many that, for those wanting to hurry to beat the game, it's easier to proceed to the next galaxy by getting the hidden star.
- The second level of Cosmic Clove Galaxy qualifies as well. You have to slide across a lake, traverse a lengthy underwater section followed by another in space - and then you have just released the Luma that takes you to the actual challenge.
Mechanical Monster: The Megahammer is an enormous robot whose arms are shaped like hammers; Bowser Jr. challenges Mario with it in a battle for the Grand Star of World 3, and obviously loses. There's also Digga-Leg, a smaller version of Megaleg fought in Spin-Dig Galaxy which only guards a regular Power Star.
Mercy Mode: The Cosmic Guide becomes available for some stages if you die too many times. It is similar to the Super Guide from New Super Mario Bros. Wii in this regard. However, any stars you get will be tarnished bronze instead, preventing you from unlocking the Grandmaster Galaxy until you get it legit. She doesn't appear for Luigi, though.
Meteor-Summoning Attack: Bowser summons meteors as an integral part of his boss fights, sprouting out of the ground when he punches the planetoid you're on so that you can ground-pound them into his face.
Mickey Mousing: In certain areas, the environment changes in direct response to the music. For instance, in Beat Block Galaxy, the yellow and green blocks alternate being solid in time with the beat, and in Upside Dizzy Galaxy, the gravity changes its orientation in sync with the beat.
Mind Screw:
- Cosmic Cove has square blocks of water in the middle of space. And they move. And you swim in them. And when you poke your head out of the water, you get air... in space?
- Was reality reset? Yet Rosalina remembers! And was narrating the entire time. So did it really happen?
Mini-Boss: Most bosses in regular galaxies inadvertedly play this role, as they'll just guard a star and obstruct Mario's and Luigi's progression. The major bosses are the guardians of the Grand Stars (Gobblegut, Bowser Jr. with the Megahammer in World 3 and the Boomsday Machine in World 5, and Bowser), an in turn they're found in the corresponding final levels of the galactic worlds.
Mirror Match: The Cosmic Clones follow your exact route and actions, including pausing to "take damage", through any level they appear in, at least until you finish. This gets really annoying really fast in some levels, where likely error or necessary backtracking are made incredibly dangerous when the areas you've already tread are swarming with clones who can hurt you.
Mission-Pack Sequel: Was originally intended to be one, but after the game went through a bit more development, it ended up being made up of mostly new concepts. Lampshaded in the on-disc ID name: "Super Mario Galaxy More".
Mook Maker: Unlike the last game, where they only summoned fireballs, Magikoopas now summon Goombas and Li'l Cinders.
Moving Buildings: The Boomsday Machine, which resembles a castle turret on tank treads.
Multi-Mook Melee: Battle Belt Galaxy. Each enemy on each planet must be defeated in order to advance, ranging from one Micro-Goomba on the first planet to four Silver Chomps on the last one.
Multi-Stage Battle: The first phase of the final battle plays out just like the other Bowser battles, even relinquishing the Grand Star at the end. But it's a trap, and Bowser eats the Grand Star, grows gigantic once again, and initiates the final phase inside a black hole!
Musical Gameplay: Much like the first game, several sound effects will tune in to the notes currently playing in the galaxy's music.
Musical Nod: Several. Notable examples:
- Hightail Falls Galaxy = Super Mario World Athletic theme
- Haunty Halls Galaxy = Super Mario World Ghost House theme
- Throwback Galaxy = Super Mario 64 main theme
- Slider = Super Mario 64 Slider theme
- Supermassive Galaxy = Toy Time Galaxy = Super Mario Bros. main theme
- Space Storm Galaxy's second mission uses the Buoy Base music from the first game.
- A hidden star in Puzzle Plank Galaxy includes a fight against Bugaboom, previously seen in the Honeyhive Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy, and accompanied by the same music as in the previous game.
- Boss Blitz Galaxy not only features a Boss Rush against five bosses from the first Super Mario Galaxy, but it brings back each of their boss fight tracks as well: Dino Piranha and Fiery Dino Piranha, King Kaliente, Major Burrows, and Bouldergeist.
- "The Perfect Run" features three of the most popular pieces from the first game: Gusty Garden, Good Egg, and Bowser's Galaxy Reactor.
Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: As in the first game, a new power-up either replaces the old one or is kicked away. What's more, powerups are mutually exclusive with Yoshi (easiest to see on Starship Mario).
Mythology Gag:
- An infinite lives trick involves repeatedly bouncing on the shell of a giant Koopa Troopa in Supermassive Galaxy. This is an allusion to the level it's based on, Big Island/Giant Land from Super Mario Bros. 3, where an identical infinite lives trick was possible.
- World S is an allusion to the Special World from Super Mario World. This is backed up by the name for World S being "Here We Go!", which is also the official name for the main theme of Super Mario World.
- A pink Bob-omb in the Whomp's Fortress-replica Throwback Galaxy remarks that Mario looks familiar, and both of the breakable wall corners from the 64 level's mission "Blast Away the Wall" have been chipped off, as if Mario's doing so in 64 has carried over.
- Like the Toy Time Galaxy theme from the previous game, of which it is a remix, the Supermassive Galaxy BGM is audibly based on "Mario Syndrome", a 1986 Alternative Dance remix of the Super Mario Bros. overworld theme. The more New Order-inspired elements like gated drums and high-register bass are removed, but apart from that the instrumentation and arrangement is nearly 1:1 with "Mario Syndrome".

N-Q

Narrator: Rosalina.
Night of the Living Mooks: Octoboos are ghostly versions of Octoombas that move in a circular pattern (similar to Boo Buddies). They cannot be defeated, as they merely turn invisible for a split second when they receive an attack (likely to evade it).
Nonindicative Name: The Chimp, despite his name, is not a chimp. ^note His name is possibly a pun on the word "champ", as he considers himself a champion game player.
Noob Bridge: A lot of people forget or never learn the long jump when playing the first Super Mario Galaxy. This is due to it never being mentioned in-game (but it is in the manual) and never required to finish the game (unless you're going for 100% against Cosmic Luigi). The long jump is required in SMG 2 starting in World 4, and these gamers can get stuck; some have even accused people who use the long jump on Youtube videos of hacking. Fortunately, the first significant use (Supermassive Galaxy) takes time to give a tutorial on the move.
Nostalgia Level: The game references several previous games in the series this way:
- The prologue level is based on New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
- The Chimp's Stomp Challenge in Fluffy Bluff Galaxy and its successor, The Chimp's Score Challenge in Honeyhop Galaxy, are minigames based around Scoring Points from doing Goomba Stomps. The scoring is reminiscent of the 2D games, with consecutive stomps gaining extra points and 9 or more stomps in a row resulting in an extra life.
- Supermassive Galaxy is a nod toward Giant Land from Super Mario Bros. 3 and/or Tiny-Huge Island from Super Mario 64. Fittingly, it is the first level of World 4 (Giant Land is the fourth world in its game).
- Starshine Beach is a direct nod to Super Mario Sunshine, complete with Piantas.
- The Throwback Galaxy is based on Whomp's Fortress from Super Mario 64, complete with a remix of the stage music. There are chips in the wall from one of the missions in the original, where one of them had to be blasted apart to reveal a Star. It is even called Nostalgic Fortress Galaxy in the Japanese, Spanish and Italian versions.
- In a more subtle version, the layout of the second half of Flash Black Galaxy is cribbed almost entirely from the final section of Matter Splatter Galaxy from the first Super Mario Galaxy.
- The Twisty Trials Galaxy is a scaled-up reproduction of "The Secret of Ricco Tower", a FLUDD-less platforming level in Super Mario Sunshine.
- The Rolling Coaster Galaxy evokes both Super Mario 64's Rainbow Ride and Mario Kart's Rainbow Road.
- The Stone Cyclone Galaxy is a replica of to the Cyclone Stone from Beach Bowl Galaxy in the first game, and Mario Squared Galaxy is very similar to the 8-bit Mario planet in the Toy Time Galaxy from the first game. The mission "Luigi's Purple Coins" also appears in both games, with the same general name and premise in both, though the second game ups the difficulty with Cosmic Clones.
- Boss Blitz Galaxy is simply a marathon of boss battles from the first Super Mario Galaxy.
Not Quite Flight: Fluzzard, who glides with minimal potential for ascending in height.
Old Save Bonus: All the Star Bits you bank are accessible to other save files on the disc.
Ominous Latin Chanting: Like the first game, Bowser's battles, but also remixes it into the Super Mario 64 Bowser's Road theme. How to make good music better? Change it so half of it chants the tune in pseudo Latin. And as in the first game, this is of the "only reminds you of ominous Latin chanting" variety.
One-Hit Kill: Getting crushed by anything and falling in toxic water and dark matter. Smacking straight into anything in a Fluzzard mission is an instant-kill, though bouncing off obstacles obliquely is not. In Daredevil Comet missions, anything can kill you in one hit.
One-Hit-Point Wonder: If a Prankster Comet shows up and makes a mission with the word "Daredevil" in it, that's you.
Orchestral Bombing: Mahito Yokota once again provides his musical flair for the Bowser battles. Also, Gobblegut is the first non-Bowser boss that has orchestral music accompanying his battle.
Oxygenated Underwater Bubbles: An instant refill for the Oxygen Meter, like before.
Palette Swap: Gobblegut has a fiery counterpart in World 6 (Fiery Gobblegut), which fights similarly but is soaked in flames. And like in the first game, Fiery Dino Piranha is one to Dino Piranha, being once again an Incendiary Exponent to make its attacks more dangerous than those of its standard counterpart.
Palmtree Panic: The game has one in World 4, namely the Starshine Beach Galaxy, which is inhabited by Piantas. The large amount of water makes the collection of the Silver Stars (used to assemble a golded Power Star) difficult, but Yoshi's powerups make it easier.
Pass Through the Rings: The rings found in the Fluzzard races are optional for the Power Stars, but required to get the Comet Medals.
Path of Most Resistance: Invoked in World S's Rolling Coaster Galaxy. At a fork, a toad informs you that "Experts go right" - The right path is a lot more difficult than the left one, but it contains the level's Comet Medal.
Perpetual Molt: Fluzzard when he's flying.
Pickup Hierarchy:
- Primary: Power Stars. Grand Stars.
- Secondary: Purple Coins, Silver Stars (5 for a Power Star), Launch Star Pieces, and Comet Medals.
- Tertiary: Star Bits. Coins, Notes.
- Extra: Green Stars.
Pivotal Boss: Subverted by the Boomsday Machine, as it becomes mobile once you get two hits on it. Megahammer and Squizzard are straight uses of the trope, though.
Platform Hell: The final Power Star mission, The Perfect Run. First, you have to swing Yoshi through a minefield, where even one mistimed jump can result in getting blown up, while also having to dodge the Choppahs and Bullet Bills. Then, you get a board of blue switches you have to activate while avoiding a Sentry Beam's lasers. After that, you have to use the Cloud Suit and navigate through a sidescrolling maze of electric fences. Then you have to go through a segment where all the ground is either green tiles that disappear when you step on them, or flip-flop tiles that switch positions whenever you shake the Wiimote. In this area, you also have to dodge lasers from spiky robots, and later on, Octurrets appear and start shooting at you, though thankfully, these can be killed by knocking a coconut back at them with a spin attack... but that flips the panels! And slowing down for even a second only makes it easier for the robots to kill you. Then, you have to get through a section of moving electric fences using Pull Stars, the former of which move back and forth so quickly that you barely even have time to get past. Finally, you jump across a field of spinning platforms that try to flip you off (the platforms!!) while dodging Hammer Bros, after which point you have to fight three Boomerang Bros at once. And if this sounds like it's just regular Nintendo Hard, keep this in mind; You only have one hit point, and there are no checkpoints, meaning that the slightest slip-up will send you all the way back to the Yoshi section.
Playable Epilogue: There's an entire world (World S) accessible after the final Bowser battle. And after collecting every single star (normal and green), the Grandmaster Galaxy is unlocked, which contains two new stars.
Point-and-Click Map: The first 3-D Mario game to (mostly) abandon the hub system and return to the world map from the classic games (in the same sense as New Super Mario Bros.) for stage selection.
Post-End Game Content: Combined with Double Unlock, the Green Star Challenge, as you need the 120 stars to start it plus ending the game.
Power-Up Food: Yoshi can ingest Dash Peppers, Blimp Fruits, and Bulb Berries to help along the way.
Power-Up Mount: Downplayed with Yoshi. Yoshi can flutter jump, use his tongue as a hook to swing over wide bottomless pits and to eat enemies, and transform into Dash/Light/Balloon forms as power-ups. However, this game is one of the few instances where Yoshi does not provide an extra hit point at all. Taking a hit while riding Yoshi will result in Mario/Luigi losing a health wedge/life, and Yoshi will flee in the chaos.
Prehistoria: Yoshi Star Galaxy has a prehistoric element, along with being the first time you encounter Yoshi.
Pumpkin Person: Jack-O-Goombas are Goombas that wear Jack-O-Lantern masks, which protect them from being stomped on. A spin will smash the mask, turning them into a regular Goomba, and a Ground Pound will take out the mask and Goomba. They occasionally create ghostly flames behind them, making a ground pound risky.
Quicksand Sucks: As in the first game, quicksand in the desert levels can either suck down a character or move in a different pattern, depending on the gravity. The quicksand in the second mission of Slipsand Galaxy is wide enough to require Mario or Luigi to ride a Sand Sailer (a creature made of sand) to traverse it safely.

R-Z

Racing Minigame: The main concept in the two Fluzzard flying levels. In both of them, the first mission only consists of reaching the end, while in the second you have to beat the AI opponents by reaching the end of the course first.
Rainbow Motif: The worlds on the map select screen follow these colors. World 1 is blue, 2 is orange, 3 is green, 4 is indigo, 5 is violet, 6 is dual-layered with yellow on top and red below, and World S is rainbow-colored.
Recurring Boss: Like in the first game, multiple bosses are fought more than once each, whether by way of a Prankster Comet challenge that remixes an existing mission, or by simply reappearing in a later level.
Recurring Element: Besides the obvious, there are a few touches calling back to the first game, perhaps to strengthen the idea that this is the reconstructed universe from the end of the first game.
- The first non-tutorial areas have light/dark themed disc planets as the very first place you're sent.
- Both games have an early boss that returns late in the game on fire (Dino Piranha, Gobblegut).
- The Hungry Luma planet from the Good Egg Galaxy reappears as a pre-existing planet in Yoshi Star Galaxy.
- Both games have Octoomba bosses defeated by the coconuts they shoot (King Kaliente, Prince Pikante).
- Both games have purple-clad Koopa bosses who provide the shell projectiles needed to defeat them (Kamella, King Lakitu).
- The first boss of each game is a Piranha Plant dinosaur whose egg being broken begins the fight and is defeated by spinning something on its backside (Peewee Piranha, Dino Piranha).
- Like before, Bowser Jr.'s three fights. One has him summon an unrelated boss (Kaliente round 2, Gobblegut), one has him using a giant robot (Megaleg, Megahammer), and one has him attacking you with one of his militaristic machines (airship, Boomsday Machine).
- There's a mission in each that involves a long underwater swimming segment in order to free Captain Toad from a treasure chest (Bigmouth Galaxy, Slimy Spring Galaxy).
- The Topman Tower in Space Storm Galaxy is essentially a waterless copy of the Buoy Base from the titular galaxy in the previous game.
Remixed Level: Prankster Comets change a lot of galaxies substantially, varing from extra platforms to new collectibles (purple coins).
Renovating the Player Headquarters: At the beginning of the game, the barren planet is transformed into the Mario Faceship. During the progression of the game, you will gradually recruit new people to live on the spaceship, and gradually new elements are added as well.
Rolling Attack: Rock Mario travels and attacks this way, and it's how the large crystals in Boulder Bowl Galaxy can be shattered. Also, due to the large size of the boss Rollodillo, its weak point can only be hurt by the strong impact of the Rock Mushroom's attack.
Rule of Cool: Let's go fight Bowser in the core of a black hole with meteors. Sounds like a blast.
Sand Is Water: One part of the "Slipsand Galaxy" level has Mario navigate a large river of quicksand on top of a large bird-shaped raft while at the same time avoiding the cacti and Magikoopas dwelling in the quicksand.
Save-Game Limits: You can only have three save files, as opposed to the original's six. And you can't copy to another file, again, unlike the original game. This is likely due to the Star Bits banking system.
Saw Blade Of Death: Grinders appear in Puzzle Plank Galaxy. In addition to damaging Mario, they saw through wood, making pieces of planks to fall off the map.

Scenery as You Go: Bulb Yoshi to an extent, but the platforms aren't created as you walk, they're just made visible and solid in a winding-down range.
Scenery Porn: This game looks every bit as good as the last one did, possibly even better. To cite some examples: the lush foliage and waterfalls in the mountain pass in Wild Glide Galaxy, the cascading lava in Melty Monster Galaxy, and the gorgeous sunrise at the end of Slimy Spring Galaxy. World 3's backdrop on the spaceship hub is also gorgeous.
Schizophrenic Difficulty:
- World 6 features a mixture of easy parts and difficult parts. On the one hand, Slimy Spring Galaxy and Throwback Galaxy are relatively easy (though this may be justified in the latter's case, given its Nostalgia Level status). On the other hand... Clockwork Ruins has likely the longest mission in the game, the second level of Melty Monster has been known to drive players up a wall, and Battle Belt features a boss fight against Fiery Gobblegut. And finally, reaching the Final Boss requires 70 stars, so if you've skipped most of the optional missions, you'll need to go back and finish them.
- Also, the Green Stars. Some in difficult late-game levels are incredibly easy to get, while some near the beginning of the game will make you weep.
Sentient Stars: Lumas, just like in the first game, are fully living little stars that can grow into planets when fed with enough star bits.
She's a Man in Japan: Lubba is actually dubbed a female in the German version.
Shifting Sand Land: Slipsand Galaxy. As with Dusty Dune Galaxy in the first game, the nonstandard gravity makes sand move and behave in unique ways (sometimes working in Mario's favor, sometimes not).
Shock and Awe: The game marks the debut of Fizzlits, which are purple, malleable enemies that can blend with the ground's surface and electrify themselves in the process.
Shout-Out:
- World 2's background solar system sure looks familiar, doesn't it? Especially that third planet from the sun? The blue one?
- Flipsville Galaxy has a straw hat in the background that looks remarkably similar to the one Luffy wears.
- The first mission in Throwback Galaxy is called "Return of the Whomp King".
Skewed Priorities: One of the reasons Bowser kidnaps Peach is so she can make him a cake.
Slide Level: The second star mission of Tree Trunk Galaxy revolves around sliding through the interior of a large hollow trunk; hazards include thorny flowers, Wigglers and holes.
Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Freezy Flake Galaxy. Shiverburn Galaxy's hot side turns into this, as does the underwater Cosmic Cove Galaxy, when you press a certain switch.
Snowy Sleigh Bells: Sleigh bells are used sporadically in Freezy Flake Galaxy's theme.
Solid Clouds: Mario and Luigi can't stand on clouds without first acquiring a Bee Mushroom or Cloud Flower, but once they have either of the two, they can stand on clouds like platforms. The latter power-up also lets them spawn their own temporary clouds to be used as platforms.
Soundtrack Dissonance: The Perfect Run is already hard, but at the point where it really starts getting sadistic, it plays music from the original's first level.
Space Zone: Technically the entire game, but Space Storm Galaxy is a classic example.
Spikes of Doom: Seen in Clockwork Ruins and Flip-Out Galaxy.
Spinning Out of Here: You activate teleport pads by spinning on them.
The Spiny: In addition to the trope-naming Spinies (thrown at Mario and Luigi by Lakitus in Yoshi Star Galaxy), the game also introduces the Pupdozers; they can only be killed by Ground Pounding them from underneath via flippable gravity-reversing platforms. Thankfully, these enemies only appear in the one area where these platforms are found.
Stealth Pun:
- The mission "Bugaboom's Back" obviously refers to the fact that Bugaboom was in the first Super Mario Galaxy, making his appearance known in "Big Bad Bugaboom", the boss mission of the Honeyhive Galaxy, but then you remember that Bugaboom's weak spot... is his back.
- There's also the name of Honeybloom Galaxy's "Bumble Beginnings" mission. Beside the obvious "humble beginnings" pun, it's also the first time you use the Bee Suit.
- The Spin-Dig and Flash Black galaxies are subtle puns on the terms "shindig" and "flashback", respectively.
- There's also the Supermassive Galaxy. In real life, the term does exist, and the meaning is almost the same, with the exception that while the galaxy itself is much bigger, the things within it are not.
Tactical Suicide Boss:
- Bowser attacks by summoning meteorites and punching very, very hard. Said punch is strong enough to both imbue the meteorites with energy and toss them right back out of the planet's crust. You then have to kick said meteorites back at him. If he didn't do any of this, he'd be invincible.
- Just like King Kaliente in the first game, Prince Pikante mixes up his fireballs with coconuts which you can whack back at his face. Again, if he'd just stick to fireballs, you wouldn't be able to beat him.
- Squizzard opens his mouth at certain times. He's just inviting his opponent to feed him with fireballs this way. Or a better strategy for him would be to not have them in the arena at all.
- Digga-Leg would be invincible if he kept his head upside-down. That thick skull is hard enough to protect him from the Spin Drill.
Temple of Doom: Clockwork Ruins Galaxy. It consists of giant stone blocks forming its planets, decorated with carvings and dotted with a variety of traps such as blocks of stone that try to push Mario into the void and rolling millstones that must be carefully navigated to progress.
Temporary Platform: Several varieties.
- The shrinking checkered tiles from the first game reappear.
- There are some stone platforms that collapse after being stepped on, which do not regenerate.
- This game introduced the Beat/Beep Blocks, which switch from one set to the other with the music.
- Flip-Swap Panels are a player-controlled version, switching with a spin and making planned jumps necessary.
- Cloud Platforms created by the Cloud Mario power-up also fade after a few seconds.
Tennis Boss: Prince Pikante spits fireballs and coconuts at you. Avoid the fireballs, Spin to Deflect the coconuts back at him. However, unlike his predecessor, he doesn't begin to deflect them.
That's No Moon: Sorbetti is actually a planetoid Mario was traversing on just before he lands on the boss planet.
Thematic Sequel Logo Change: The "Galaxy" portion of the logo has a clear sky to represent the increase of non-space themed locales, and the "2" is the exact color of the Co-Star Luma who makes their debut in this game as Mario's partner in co-op.
Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack: The music for the levels Wild Glide Galaxy, Freezy Flake Galaxy, Starshine Beach Galaxy, Space Storm Galaxy and Slipsand Galaxy are all remixes of the music for the "Sky Station Galaxy" level, as with the game's title and ending themes and the bonus rooms. The theme was originally first heard in the latter half of Gusty Galaxy's music in the original Super Mario Galaxy.
This Is a Drill: The Spin Drill power-up, used for burrowing through soft earth on some planets.
Timed Mission: The Speedy Comets, some of the purple coin levels, and several mini-games. Thankfully, in this game, the clock does stop once you complete your objective (assuming it's something other than simply reaching the star), giving you all the time you need to grab the star. (This was not always the case in the first game.) Good thing, too, because the clock is much less generous in this game than it was in the first.
Time-Limit Boss: The Speedy Comet versions of Gobblegut and the entire Boss Blitz Galaxy.
Toggling Setpiece Puzzle:
- The Red-Blue Panels are unique in that they're not controlled by switches, but by Mario's and Luigi's Spin Jump. By default, they'll face upward with the red sides, but performing a Spin Jump will make all of them flip 180 degrees into an adjacent position and face upward with their blue sides. This proves vital in the level Flip-Swap Galaxy, where you have to time carefully the Spin Jumps to land onto a panel and avoid falling down. The presence of moving electric barriers and spawning round Chomps (which will roll forward if the nearby panels are placed properly in front of them) adds to the complexity.
- The final regular level, Flip-Out Galaxy, uses color-coded walls whose states can be controlled with Spin Jumps. By default, the red walls are protracted from the standard mortar walls and can be used for a Wall Jump, while the blue ones stay retracted; but with a Spin Jump, the red walls will retract and the blue ones will protract, and vice versa with the next Spin Jump. To complete the level, it'll be necessary to not only time the wall jumps, but also the spins to swap the walls' states whenever necessary; the last part in particular is very devious for this reason, and the Comet Mission requires you to tackle it while fleeing from Cosmic Clones.
Took a Level in Badass:
- As if Bowser hadn't already done this in the first Galaxy, he takes it further by using the Grand Stars to power himself up.
- The Whomp King. In addition to being massive compared to his previous appearances, the Whomp King can stun Mario with a Shockwave Stomp, summon smaller minions called Whimps, and his signature attack has been upgraded to a One-Hit Kill due to the way crushing works in the Galaxy games. Also, there's no Good Bad Bug that lets Mario pass through the Whomp King during his attacks.
- Luigi can now actively help Mario without having to mess around. If the player is skilled, then Luigi might not mess around at all. And at any rate, he's much less of a Butt-Monkey than in most other post-2000 Mario games.
Toy Time: Large portions of the Rightside Down Galaxy are made out of wooden building blocks, as with the Upside Dizzy and Puzzle Plank Galaxies; also, Flipsville Galaxy appears to take place inside a giant dollhouse.
Tree Trunk Tour: There's an unusual example in Tall Trunk Galaxy. Mario never gets inside the level's resident big tree, but he climbs it through its branches. He also does get to traverse a giant log and slide down a long, hollow tree in the same level.
Truck Driver's Gear Change: Almost all of the returning music from the first game has been shifted up or down one tone, depending on the track.
Turns Red: Multiple bosses turn red as soon as they were hit once or twice. Afterwards, they are faster, their attacks are more powerful and sometimes the music changes.
Underground Level: Spin-Dig Galaxy and Slimy Spring Galaxy. The former takes place within a very large hollow planet that houses multiple smaller planetoids, all of which can be dug into with the help of the Spin Drill. The latter is an aquatic variant where Mario and Luigi navigate across a prolonged subterranean river filled with many enemies; it ends with an exit that provides a beautiful look at the sunset.
Under the Sea: Cosmic Cove and Slimy Spring Galaxy, and parts of Starshine Beach.
Unique Enemy: There is a single spiked Cheep-Cheep rolling towards you in Cosmic Cove Galaxy. It doesn't serve a purpose for any star. In the same level, there is a single Jam-o'War in a corner of the big lake. It's so out of the way that some players might not even see it.
Unwinnable: Averted fortunately for the main game, but not so much with some Green Star missions.
- The third green star in Shiverburn Galaxy requires the Cloud Flower, and is found on the third planet; however, the Cloud Flower is only found on the first planet. If you lose your clouds on the second or third planet before reaching the star, it becomes impossible to get, and you have to start the level over from the beginning. Made worse by the checkpoints, which must be avoided if the player doesn't want to exit the level every time they fail, because otherwise they'll spawn past the Cloud Flower and have no way of getting it again.
- In one mission, you have to lead a Goomba over to a Gearmo to receive a star (see Escort Mission). Unlike the Topmen in a similar mission, the Goombas don't respawn if they get killed, so if you run out of Goombas, it's back to the beginning of the level with you.
- Any of the green stars in the Wild Glide and Fleet Glide Galaxies (both of which are Fluzzard levels) can potentially become this. If you miss them on the way (which is far too easily done given the controls), then you have no choice but to start the level over.
Variable Mix: As in all Mario games where he's ridable, getting on Yoshi adds bongo drums to whatever music is playing at the time.
Vent Physics: There are levels where Mario or Luigi has to deal with powerful blowing fans with the Cloud Flower. The Solid Clouds formed with that powerup will be pushed by the wind gusts.
Verbal Tic:
- The Jibberjays have a habit, habit of repeating words twice, twice.
- As in the first game, the rabbits have one too, boiyoing!
The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Bowser's Galaxy Generator. World 6 gets a special mention for being represented by a huge black hole comparable to the one in the first game.
Video Game Cruelty Potential: While the Co-Star Luma function can be lifesaving and very convenient, the second player controlling it can opt to be unhelpful by being passive to dangerous obstacles or picking up useful items and refusing to give them to the player.
Violation of Common Sense: Most of the green stars require you to risk certain death to obtain them. Hope you don't miss.
Voice Grunting: No complete sentences are spoken by voice actors, only certain words and nonverbal vocalizations.

Weird Moon: In Boo Moon Galaxy, there is a literally waned crescent moon. Mario has to carefully tilt it in order to get the five Star Chips that take him to the next planet.
Welcome to Corneria: Subverted. If you get defeated by the Whomp King, subsequent fights will have him say:
Whomp King: It makes me so mad! We build your houses, your castles, your… Arrrgh! I'm tired of this speech!
What Happened to the Mouse?: What happens to Bowser Jr. after you defeat him in World 5? He doesn't appear in the game again after that.
Wide-Open Sandbox: The Green Comet affects all galaxies at once, so the Stars can be taken in absolutely any order you want.
Windmill Scenery: The Cloudy Court Galaxy, which has a rustic flair to it, features numerous floating windmills. Instead of using wind to rotate their blades, the reverse happens: the rotating blades create the gusts of wind.
X-Ray Sparks: While still present, unlike the previous game, Mario will not die as a skeleton if he is killed by a shock.
You No Take Candle: Whittles speak in a very simple, direct manner without articles.
Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: See Disney Villain Death above.
Zero-Effort Boss: Bowser's final form. Any damage you take is automatically negated by a coin released from his only attack.

Video Game / Super Mario Galaxy 2

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