The “Get To Know” line of articles are built to get a better impression of what I love/hate, and why, through a more direct means. While my tastes have been quite unconventional to the “norm” we’ve seen, I feel as if it’d be beneficial to run a series of articles that go into what I adore, and deplore, about gaming, and why.

I alluded to a major project I was going to work on throughout 2018, but due to repeated illnesses, I was unable to produce a healthy enough queue to get it going. That project was going to be my top 100 games of all-time, in which I would go into a great bit of detail on each game, and why it has a position on said list.

With this miniseries I have going with Get To Know, it’s given me a renewed sense of urgency to try and get some portion of this project revealed and shared with everyone. Instead of being overly ambitious, I’ll truncate the list to a top 25; that’s more than enough to show the kinds of games I adore the most, and the genres that they represent.

7 – Super Mario Galaxy 2

• Developer: Nintendo EAD Tokyo
  
• Publisher: Nintendo
  
• Platform: Wii
  
• Genre: 3D platformer
  
• Release date: 5/23/10
  
• Rating: 9.7

What is Super Mario Galaxy 2?

Following the near immaculate Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is, its self, just as near immaculate, if not more so. Gorgeous, bite sized stages felt like Super Mario Bros. 3 in 3D.

What warrants Super Mario Galaxy 2‘s inclusion on this list?

It’s hard to really talk up Super Mario Galaxy 2 when I already went over how Super Mario Galaxy was for me. In essence, they are very similar, though Super Mario Galaxy 2 feels a bit closer to a 3D Super Mario Bros. 3 than the first. They both shared so many similarities throughout, from its gorgeous visuals, to its immaculate controls.

The one thing that Galaxy 2 did better than the first game was hook me in harder. I loved both games, but the feelings of playing Super Mario Bros. 3 in 3D, based mostly around the bite-sized stages presented, is what left a larger impact on me over the first.

Galaxy 2 was more of what I fell in love with years before with Galaxy. They were two of the most magical 3D platformers ever created, and were as flawless as a 3D platformer could get. During a time where the Wii was printing money for Nintendo, mostly through inane shovelware and half-baked concepts that families flocked blindly flocked towards, being able to have pretty much two of the best games ever released during that console generation, more than made up for its shortcomings.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Super Mario Galaxy 2 could arguably be the last two major console hits that Nintendo had until Breath of the Wild. Super Mario Galaxy 2 alone was more than enough to sate the appetites of Nintendo fanboys for all those years, and it’s still a feast fit for a king today. This is the reason why you should never sell your Nintendo Wii, and even though I adore all of the Mario games on my list, this is the reason why I love the franchise as much as I do.

By the slimmest of margins.

I sat down and really thought about which I thought was better – Super Mario Galaxy 2 or Super Mario Odyssey. While Odyssey was as close as you can come to a perfect 3D platformer, Galaxy 2 felt like it was the perfect 3D platformer. They are both gaming masterpieces, and you can’t go wrong choosing one over the other.