I'd sum it up as more of the same, except with some of the magic gone. Though I do think the racing levels have been improved. I think it's definitely worthwhile for people that really love platforming. But they probably don't need a review to help them make up their mind about this one...

I thought SMG2 was a great step-up from the original, but thats just my own personal opinion. Sure, the overall game diffuculty seemed lowered from the first one, but it still had plenty of challenges of it's own. I liked the fact that you could choose between playing Mario or Luigi practically from the start, instead of having to beat the game first as Mario before getting to play as Luigi like you had to do in the original. I especially thought the music was better, but again this is my own opinion because my favorite Mario game is Super Mario World, and as I remember, a lot of music from that game was used. But, probably what I liked most about the game was the fact that they took out the those goddamn stupid mirror races. Personally, if someone had just started playing the Super Mario Galaxy series, I would suggest that they start with the second game and then more on to the first.

I've got the first one...played it for probably 1-2 hours and did that thing I always do and got distracted with other things. It was fun though...good to see I'm missing out on little with the sequel.