Bill Trinen, a senior manager of product marketing at Nintendo of America, spoke to The Wall Street Journal about the new game, out this week.
Wall Street Journal: What’s new about “Super Mario Galaxy 2”?
Bill Trinen: The first game pioneered platform games in spherical worlds, and the idea of playing with gravity. The development team originally thought about just creating new objectives for the same game, but they had a lot more ideas that they decided they would do a completely new game.
Can you give some examples?
There’s a new item, a spin drill, which drills through planets, but instead of drilling through to the other side, it pops you inside to collect coins. The developers are having fun by introducing you to a new mechanic and then having fun by playing with your expectations.
They also created a planet that is cylinder, where gravity keeps Mario close to it. Mario also has new drill powers and new suits including the Cloud Suit. The Cloud Suit lets you get to places that are normally out of place to reach, so we’re able to hide more things.
In the Fluffy Bluff Glaxy level, players can create cloud platforms for Mario when they find a cloud mushroom by shaking the Wii remote. Mario gets three cloud platforms for every mushroom, but if he touches water he loses the Cloud Suit and the ability to stand on the cloud.
Are there any other notable features?
The game is still primarily single-player, but a second player can help Mario by controlling an orange Luma star character that can stop enemies and hold them in place, so Mario can attack the enemies. It’s a great way for people to share the experience.
Yoshi, who was not in the original Galaxy game, is also a big addition. Yoshi gives Mario new abilities like jumping and running. He can also shoot his tongue out and eat enemies, or eat Blimp Fruit to flat around in the sky in the Tall Trunk Galaxy, one of the levels in the game.
The developers are really letting the creativity go.
Do you offer a way to help novice players in the game?
Yes, we have a super guide feature. Hint TV is a little TV that pops up to give tutorials or text-based hints to pass a level or get past an obstacle. There’s also a Cosmic Guide. After players have lost a certain number of live or have spent too long in one area, players can activate a cosmic guide that will possess Mario and run through the level for you. You can take control at any point by pressing the plus button.
It’s based on the understanding that particularly with the Wii audience, there are a lot of people that haven’t played video games for a long time. The idea is that we should let them get to the end and they should be able to learn how to do things that more advanced gamers are able to do. It’s a good way to include content that is more challenging for advanced gamers but without turning off the modest gamers. If you’re an advanced gamer, you won’t notice it until you lose a lot of lives.
Do you get tired of playing the game?
I’ve played it for three straight days (for demos) and I still love it.
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