Nintendo's Media Summit in San Francisco today began with a short opening speech by vice president of sales and marketing, Cammie Dunaway, who led the presentation into the first game demo of the day, Super Mario Galaxy 2. We were given a quick tour of a couple of levels of the game, which primarily highlighted the use of the drill and we got a chance to see Yoshi basically eat everything that is digestible.
The first level we saw was set in outer space, with several brown mounds of smaller planets that can be accessed by warp stars. By holding the circular red drill over his head, Mario is able to dig through the planet and pop up on the other side. Using this new skill, our favorite plumber is able to reach platforms that are otherwise inaccessible by conventional jumping methods. We also watched as Mario was able to drill inside a hollow planet and collect a ring of coins within. Like the last game, part of the appeal is finding out how each planet works as they all have their own unique set of rules.
We will have an opportunity to get some hands-on time later, but for now it looks like the controls will remain the same. You control Mario with the analog stick and shake the Wii remote to do a spin attack and use the drill. In the next portion of the demo we were able to see a cousin of the Megaleg boss from the first game. We watched Mario dodge drills that were being thrown while trying to wait for right moment to dig through the small planet to stab its exposed belly. After making short work of Gigaleg, we jumped to another level to see what Yoshi can do.
Yoshi functions the same way as he always have, except now you can control his tongue by pointing with the Wii remote and pressing B to inhale almost anything on screen. On this lush green planet with goombas and spikey plants, Yoshi can eat wind fruits that will cause him to expand into a blimp and float. A counter indicates how much time you have left before he deflates, but by grabbing more of these delicious goodies you and your green pal can float continuously.
We were able to see a couple of 2D platforming areas as well, and watched Mario and Yoshi work together to try and avoid falling off a rotating log, dodging hazards and grabbing wind fruit. After collecting all the pieces of a warp star, we jumped to another area that looked like a cut out of a log and eventually find our way to the star to end the level. What makes these levels particularly cool is that it still looks like it still could be explored in 3D, especially with so many moving parts, but you're limited to a 2D plane.
Following the demo, we saw a trailer of Super Mario Galaxy 2 that showcased the variety of levels that will be seen in the game. Not only will Mario hang out in space, but we saw worlds with a ghost house theme and a giant world with extra large bad guys waiting for you. One boss that caught our eye was a giant snake that looped through and around planets and we watched as our hero weaved around to stay out of its way. Yoshi's tongue is truly a powerful tool as we saw him help Mario tug and pull large moving platforms.
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