Want to know how to beat every inch of Mario Galaxy 2? Read on my friends.

Welcome to my first attempt at offering tips and tricks to a popular video game. For me, I’ve always felt as if I was a fairly good game player, but I was never sure if that translated to teaching. We’ll find out today as I offer Tips From a Grandmaster for one of the best games of the year: Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Nintendo Wii.

Before we begin, know that I’ll be giving away a handful of spoilers about the game. Namely, all of them. I’m going to tell you every little secret you may encounter and I’m going to do it very quickly and unforgivingly. I will tell you what you get for collecting 120 stars, what you get for doing what comes after that, and your ultimate reward. Hopefully I’ll also be telling you how best to play, but that’s all speculation on my part.

This is your final spoiler warning.

Bowser will have none of this spoiling. Leave now or feel the burn of a spoil.

Okay, now that it’s just us devoted Mario Galaxy 2 players, let me jump right into saying that I’ve now successfully 100% completed Super Mario Galaxy 2. Overall it may just be my favorite Mario 3D platformer now due to how spot on everything about it has been. But there are still some unfortunate downsides that I will address, specifically limitations you’re going to have to find ways around in order to proceed at the Grandmaster level. We ready to begin? First, the basics.

Collecting all 120 Power Stars isn’t too difficult in the long run. I’d say that the more difficult levels tend to be ones where motion controls are required, such as gliding or using the giant rolling ball (I LOATH those levels). Get those out of the way first so as to alleviate stress later on. Two trains of thought dictate that when coming to a particularly difficult star you either A. Take a break from that star and go onto something different, or B. Struggle through it until you succeed. I’m very much of the second option, but that doesn’t work for everyone. Sometimes the best course of action is simply shutting the game off and allowing yourself to unwind for a bit.

Once you’ve collected all 120 stars and beaten Bowser yet again, you’ll learn of the Green Stars. These will double the number of stars in the game. Take stock of your skills at this point and above all take a break. It can be soul crushing to see Trickster Comets hit every single level again, right after you’ve just “finished” the game in your mind.

So it's basically a star, but it's green. Pretty simple concept to wrap your head around.

The basics of Green Stars are fairly simple. Green Stars in a level are proportional to the number of Power Stars in the level, meaning either two or three. Green Stars do not have a special condition to appear. Rather, they’re floating out in the open, waiting to be grabbed. They will not be inside boxes, chests, balloons, or enemies.

Most important to know for Green Stars is their distinctive sound. They make a sort of shimmery glowy noise when you are near them. This will be your big indicator as to their location or if you’re close to them. Sometiemes it works best to take it slow in a level and pay close attention to everything you see or hear. Many Green Stars will be painfully simple to grab. The very first Green Star in the first galaxy is pretty much right above your head, more or less, requiring a backflip at most to collect. Others will be downright nasty to grab.

My general rule for Green Stars comes down to going in order of your least-favorite galaxies first and working backward to something simpler. This will reduce your stress, as I mentioned earlier, and allow you to motor through some galaxies faster. I started collecting Green Stars from the S World first and worked my way back through all galaxies with gliding or ball rolling, then through boss levels, then all galaxies with two stars, then World 6 and so on. I ended with the Puzzle Plank Galaxy, my favorite for one reason or another. If you prefer to start simple and work your way towards more difficult galaxies, start in World 1 and move upwards that way. Nothing says you have to go in order though, so use that to your advantage.

And nothing said you had to like these stages either. They're unfair and I hate them.

Okay, now that you know how you’re going to be proceeding with the Green Star Challenge, you’ll need to know some techniques the first 120 stars didn’t teach you. Here they are:

This dude in now your best friend. Get used to it.

Get Comfortable With Luigi: You can switch between using Mario and Luigi at any time on the starship once you beat Bowser the first time. They play slightly different with the main change being jumping height. Luigi can noticeably jump higher and further than Mario. However, Luigi has less traction and takes a bit of extra time to stop, making precise movements tricky. Once you get the hang of Luigi, you’ll prefer him to Mario due to the game-breaking jumps you’ll be capable of. A vast number of Green Stars are placed in locations that seem only Luigi will have the jumping ability to hit, so you need to know how to use him and get really chummy because he’ll be your go-to guy for the second batch of 120 stars.

Sometimes you gotta break a few Yoshi eggs when baking a cake.

Learn How to Sacrifice Yoshi: Up until the Green Stars, I had never been in a situation where I needed to jump off Yoshi in order to get a little extra oomph to my jumps. Knowing the proper time to dismount from Yoshi to gain a little extra air is vital to collecting Green Stars since most galaxies with Yoshi in them place the Green Stars floating over an empty void reachable only with some well-timed flutter jumps and a hasty dismount/spin. Yoshi is your friend but you can’t get every star without dropping a few Yoshis to their untimely demise. Get used to this fact and learn how to dismount, a skill as simple as performing the backflip while on Yoshi.

It's fluffy. Learn to love it. Make that fluff an extension of your body.

Savor the Cloud Suit: It seems like a fairly simple rule of thumb that whenever a Cloud Suit is available in a level, you’ll be expected to utilize it to its fullest to get at least one Green Star in said level. Many times you’ll be asked to reach a Green Star only reachable with the Cloud Suit, meaning you have to know how to make really far leaps and create a cloud at the correct distance. Whenever you find a Cloud Flower and gain the Cloud Suit, don’t waste your clouds all willy-nilly. It is very likely you’ll be required to use all of those clouds at some point in the level. The Melty Molten Galaxy is a prime example of this. If you don’t save at least one or two clouds for late in the level, you won’t be able to get to one of the Green Stars. Be comfortable with the extra floatiness of the Cloud Suit and know when to spin and when not to spin.

Master the Triple Jump: You won’t have to use the Triple Jump until the Green Stars, but then it comes up a number of times. Green Stars will routinely be seen hovering just out of reach above your head. A backflip/spin won’t give you enough air, or even a summersault flip/spin. This is where the mastery of the Triple Jump is critical. The game won’t ask you to do a Triple Jump in any place that doesn’t allow for the running start, but it still demands careful timing. Practice in places where you aren’t likely to die from screwing this up. Once you have the rhythm down you should have less of a problem getting some of the more difficult Green Stars like the first Green Star in the Stone Cyclone Galaxy.

Line Up Your Shots: The Triple Jump is useful for gaining air, but the Long Jump/Spin combo will gain you the most distance, especially with Luigi. Problem is, some Green Stars are located outside your line of sight. You’ll frequently encounter instances where you can’t turn the camera to see straight, either, meaning you’ll have to manually look around to see where the Green Star is shimmering. Once you know where it is in relative distance and height, look for some markings on the ground to help indicate where to jump from. You’ll frequently find straight lines leading you right to the star, allowing you to have a better idea how to aim.

Hey, sometimes things get tough. You'll get over it. Sometimes ghosts chase you. You'll get over it.

Accept Failure: Some of the Green Stars are unfair, simple as that. I’d wager at least half of them are floating over an empty void, meaning that if you miss your shot you’re looking at one less life in your stash (or ‘stache). It is really easy to blame the camera in most places. Do that. It’s easier to accept that the camera is faulty rather than you as the player. Learn to accept when Green Stars are placed in a vague place in what appears to be an optical illusion and realize that you’ll need to just try again and again until you line the shot up perfectly. I can’t tell you how many times I was so dead sure I landed on the star from a crazy jump but fell right past it. Try again and you’ll get it eventually. It’s a pain, but learn to deal and you’ll be fine.

Come To Terms With What You’re Trying to Accomplish: Here’s where the End Game spoiler comes in: You aren’t getting anything from finding all 242 stars in the game. After collecting the 120 Green Stars, you’ll unlock the final galaxy, the Grandmaster Galaxy. This is a tough galaxy, and rightfully so. Once you collect the 241st star, the 49th Comet Medal, and accrue 9,999 Star bits with the Bank Toad, the final star will appear. It is a Daredevil Run of the Grandmaster Galaxy, meaning you have one hit point, no saves, and almost no chance to beat this one. I must have died fifty times just trying to collect this one single star. And what did I get for my trouble? You get three things, beyond the satisfaction of completing the game.

First, Roselina joins your starship. She will now sit on the starship and offer her thanks for having nothing left to do in the game. You don’t get to play as her or anyone else. She just sits there and says “Thanks” every time you speak with her. Secondly, you get a message on your Wii message board that shows a picture of your 242 stars lined up, saying basically, “Thanks for playing the game!” from the development team. Lastly, you unlock the death counter for your profile, letting you know how many times you died while playing the game. This isn’t a reward; this is an insult. “You won! Congrats! Yeah, but by the way, here’s how many times you died. Try harder next time.” Unacceptable. Worst completion reward to any game I’ve played in recent memory.

Look, Rosey, I like you and all, but your thanks isn't gonna cut it. Even Peach had the decency to bake me a cake.

But that’s the thing to remember: You aren’t pushing yourself to find every star because you’ll get anything. You need to understand that the whole point of you collecting everything in the game is so that you can say, “Yes, I did everything in this game.” Nothing more, nothing less. Once you understand this, the game is yours to make or break.

And that’s pretty much all I can say about Super Mario Galaxy 2. Any further Grandmaster questions can be directed to the comments where I will get back to you as soon as possible with an answer. Good luck and Godspeed young Mario star travelers.

Man, it is so on now.

We’re knee deep in my memories of Mario, and now that both the 2D platforming and 3D platforming aspects of Mario’s career are out of the way, I figured I’d give him a break and focus on some of the other stars Mario has made along the way. This part is all about the spin-offs. We’re talking Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, and Peach. So what did they do that was so great? Well, let’s take a look.

Yoshi’s Island:

Remember, in the Mario Universe, babies come from The Stork. Apparently.

A lot of people were wondering what Nintendo’s next move after Super Mario World would be, and as usual, the next move wasn’t an expected one. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island came out for the SNES as a platformer, but the main character wasn’t really Mario, it was Yoshi. Mario was still there as a baby riding on Yoshi’s back, but he wasn’t necessarily a happy inclusion since whenever Yoshi was attacked, Mario would begin crying. Suddenly everyone learned to hate Mario, a feat that isn’t easy to accomplish.

Whining babies aside, Yoshi’s Island did its own thing, establishing Yoshi’s traits and abilities for years to come, such as his ability to shoot eggs, flutter for short distances, and perform a ground pound, a move that Mario wouldn’t even learn until Super Mario 64. But probably the best moment of Yoshi’s Island came at the end during the fight against Baby Bowser. The term “epic” gets thrown around constantly during video game discussions, but the final battle truly was. Go check this one out for the usual reasonable Amazon price.

Yoshi’s Story:

There's an art style you don't see every day. Why don't we?

Yoshi somewhat missed out when Mario 64 came out, being included only as that pitiful 100% completion reward, albeit unusable. He wouldn’t get his next big featuring until Yoshi’s Story, a game that was surprisingly looked over due to it’s more colorful nature and definite E rating. Still, you’ll have a hard time finding a better-looking game on the 64.

Gone was Mario, completely absent in Yoshi’s new adventure. Baby Bowser would make a return, but no Mario whatsoever. It was nice to be free of that shrill cry when hit by enemies, replaced instead with sounds of Yoshi nomming fruits left and right. While a typical playthrough of the game didn’t take very long and wasn’t all that hard, to unlock all 24 levels was just brutally difficult and only the best Yoshi players could manage the task. My wife, the Yoshi Master, did this without any trouble. Keep in mind, she’s also the only one of the two of us to have a 100% completion score in Yoshi’s Island, so I suppose not everyone is capable of something this challenging. Otherwise, the Virtual Console has this one as well as Amazon for around $10.

The Wario Land Series:

It's like if Mario just let himself go for a while.

Wario gets introduced as the villain of Super Mario Land 2, but after his defeat he next shows up as, of all things, the main hero of Super Mario Land 3, subtitled Wario Land. Thus began Wario’s individual career separate of his archrival, and while the first game was doing everything it could to separate itself from Mario, it still felt like a Mario game. Wario had power-ups and platforming similar to a Mario game, but the emphasis was placed much higher on treasure collecting. Collecting all the treasures and enough coins would reward Wario with a larger castle in the end, possibly even a planet if you were good enough. Mario made his one cameo at the end of the first game, just to spite Wario more or less, but after that Wario was all on his own.

The games after the first really separated Wario from Mario by making him invincible in some instances, placing a higher value on the power-ups as a means to progress and definitely on the treasure collecting. These days you couldn’t even recognize Wario’s games next to Mario’s, making him his own franchise. Still, the first Wario Land game is a fun place to start. Heck, you can get it for under $3.

The Warioware Series:

Do you understand what's happening here? Trick question, because no you don't.

But Wario wouldn’t just be content with platforming. Nope, he’d invent a whole new genre of games with the Warioware series, known for the incredible abundance of mini-games fired at lightning speeds. Each mini-game lasts for less than 5 seconds in some cases with a simple instruction like “Pick” or “Land” or “Chop” or something like that, purposefully disorienting you to make the challenge that much greater. Add to this a weird factor I can’t do justice to in words and you have yourself a winner.

The Warioware series would have a number of imitators over the years, as well as it’s own sequels whenever a new piece of Nintendo technology was introduced, such as the DS’ touch screen, tilt sensors for the GBA, or the Wii’s motion controls. For me though, my favorite game was the GameCube version. The controls lacked a gimmick, which I was fine with, but is supported excellent multiplayer. Take advantage of its obscurity and pick it up on Amazon while you have the chance.

Luigi’s Mansion:

A simple concept that turned out to be extremely enjoyable. Bravo on the launch title!

A lot of people were disappointed to learn that Mario wouldn’t be starting the GameCube off as a launch title, but rather his green-clad brother, Luigi. He wouldn’t even be platforming. Instead, Luigi was thrown into a ghost-busting adventure in a haunted mansion and while most people couldn’t get into the concept, I was amazed with what the new hardware could do. The lighting effects were amazing, as well as some of the finer graphical points. But people just couldn’t get past the obvious omission of Mario.

Mario was in the game though. The whole point of Luigi going to the mansion in the first place was that Mario was missing, except this time it didn’t include geography and learning, thank God. It was all about Luigi going room-to-room with a vacuum cleaner that could suck up ghosts. I’m still wondering where the sequel for the Wii is since it seems like a no-brainer of a concept. Flashlight? Perfect for motion controls. Vacuum cleaner? Also perfect for motion controls. Where is this game Nintendo? Oh well, the original’s a steal wherever you go looking for it, and as usual, I recommend checking Amazon first.

Super Princess Peach:

If you don't give this one a chance just because the main character's a girl, you fail at video games.

What’s this? The Princess is the main character, not Mario or even Luigi? Yes, Peach got her first taste of stardom with Super Princess Peach, a platformer with its own style. I spent this last December tracking down a copy for my wife as a Christmas gift, and naturally I had to play it was soon as she was done. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that not only wasn’t the game lame, it was pretty darned good.

My only major gripe is the lack of a resolution to the umbrella’s story. They set up Peach’s umbrella sidekick with its own backstory, but they never really resolve it. At the end of the game Peach saves Mario and that’s that. No closure, not even with a 100% completion ending. Even if you have a slight curiosity, please do get this one. It gave me a solid week’s worth of gaming and I enjoyed every minute of it, more or less. Save some time and just take the online route rather than the painful trek I had from store-to-store.

Those are the main Mari spin-offs I played, though there are a lot more, believe you me. Yoshi, naturally, has a handful of games I didn’t even mention. And Wario only got a small section despite his dozen or so games. Of course, my Mario retrospective isn’t over yet. We’ve still got sports, karts, and RPG’s to talk about, but that’s something for another day. Come back late next week to read part 4. In the meantime, leave some more Mario comments, this time on his side-characters and the also-rans of the series. What is your favorite spin-off series? Or do you even bother? Me, I’ll just wait patiently for Luigi’s Mansion 2. I may just be waiting for a while.

Need more Mario? You can find him in these articles:

-Mario: A Retrospective Part 4

-10 Games To Play on Thanksgiving

-Games You Should Have Played: Super Mario Bros 3

Who's gonna make the list?

I can’t stop thinking about the Super Mario series of games no matter how hard I try (which isn’t very hard actually). I keep coming back to my favorites and remember what made me fall in love with the plumber in the first place. So I thought, “Hey, New Super Mario Bros Wii is out now and this week is Thanksgiving, so what better time for me to rattle off my favorite Mario enemies?” I instantly agreed with myself and began searching through the Mario database to remember each and every enemy Mario has ever faced. After searching I discovered I couldn’t limit myself to just 10, so here it is, my list of the 20 Greatest Mario Enemies.

20. Wiggler:

Right, like this guy's gonna harm me?

One of the best parts about the Mario games is the way enemies don’t always make a whole lot of sense. Take Wigglers for example. Initially they look like cute, happy caterpillars just boppin’ around, doin’ their own thing with a pretty flower on their head. But then you stomp on their flowers and they go nuts. Suddenly they freak out, turn red, and bum rush you. All because the pretty flower is now gone. You heartless monster.

19. Blargg:

That's my reaction to Blarggs, too.

Fun to say, more fun to pretend to be. I’m assuming a Blargg is a type of fire dragon thing as they live in lava, only to pop their eyes out and lazily dive at you with a “Blargg!” sort of sound. Take a second now and go find your sister (or brother if he’s been particularly evil to you lately). Hide somewhere and when they come by, jump out with a “BLARGG!” If that isn’t fun, I don’t know what is.

18. Fawful:

Always play your Mario & Luigi before bed.

Sometimes people just don’t heed my advice. If you don’t know who Fawful is, you’re probably not heeding it. Have you heeded? I bet not. Go play Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and you’ll know exactly who this little bean of hilarity is. Known for his catchphrase “I have fury!” Actually, this may be the proper response to “BLARGG!”

17. Dino Piranha:

That's it, I'm replaying Super Mario Galaxy this week.

Super Mario Galaxy did a lot right, but it didn’t add too many new enemies that stood out for me. It did however bring back a favorite of mine in this Petey Piranha upgrade. The Dino Piranha is like Petey Piranha on steroids, and while I don’t endorse the use of drugs other than Super Mushrooms and Fire Flowers, I do support the revamped primal-urges of the Dino Piranha, such as “Destroy!” and “BLARGG!”

16. Francis:

It's like they took my high school self and made a video game character out of him.

The Paper Mario games have a way of getting funnier and funnier with each new sequel. When I heard about Super Paper Mario, I wasn’t too enthused since it wasn’t going to be an RPG like its predecessors but rather a 2-D/3-D platformer. And then I got to the third world and encountered Francis the chameleon, an uber nerd. When Princess Peach attempts attacking him, he boots Swoon.exe, a program that’s primary function is to talk to girls. I think this quote says it all: “Booting up Swoon.exe! Activating Nerd2Babe interface mod with real-time wooing!” That’s priceless.

15. Kriffid:

Beware the deadly fish-bush!

You’re going to find a good handful of Super Mario RPG enemies showing up here, with the first being Kriffid, a bush-like thing. Or maybe a fish-like thing? I think it’s closer to a fish-bush actually. The first time I encountered one of these things I thought there was a mistake and the game didn’t load the proper enemy. Then the bush opened up and a fish enemy scuttled around and wasted my face using electrical attacks. I’ve been terrified of bushes ever since, a trait shared only by a few select individuals in history such as Moses.

14. Super Koopas:

More powerful than the Justice League.

“Why haven’t we seen Koopas yet?” Is that what you’re asking? Well, I thought about them and determined that Koopas kinda suck. Yes, I enjoy them and all, but what does it say about you when you get stomped on and then killed with your own shell? That’s like if I was punched, my shirt fell off, and then someone strangled me with my own shirt. Well, Super Koopas don’t have that problem and they don’t take guff from no Mario. They can fly and they do so in groups, making normal left-to-right gameplay a massive hazard of flying doom.

13. Ptooie:

This is why I don't travel.

Ptooies are cheaters, plain and simple. I first saw these in Super Mario Bros 3 and since the day I witnessed a Piranha Plant walking about outside a pipe, keeping a spiked-ball suspended merely by blowing, I called foul play. Something about that just never seemed right to me as I was just used to the idea of deadly plants emerging from usually safe plumbing. Now suddenly they could walk about and become massive annoyances. No, that’s just too much. Red Flag called on account of absurd.

12. Jinx:

The original Napoleon Complex.

Here’s another from Super Mario RPG, and while I love this enemy, you don’t technically have to fight him if you don’t want to or if you suck at the game. The picture there doesn’t really do him justice as this dojo master is roughly the size of Mario’s foot, yet can lay the smackdown like no body’s business. He’ll leap at you with a flying kick, jump behind you and explode your Achilles tendon, or just hit you with a giant bullet that comes from nowhere. Simply, this guy owns you.

11. The Koopalings:

Glad to see you back, but what took so long?

Well, they didn’t quite break the top 10, but they came close. Why don’t they make it higher? Well, they got overshadowed by Bowser Jr, that’s why. First seen in Super Mario Bros 3, each Koopaling had its own airship and my budding gaming skills were no match for their “Jump on me three times” defenses. They returned in Super Mario World to get beaten again, and once more in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Finally they get revived for New Super Mario Bros Wii and for that I couldn’t be happier. But still, I’ve got better enemies waiting just ahead.

10. Fuzzy:

Remember kids: Don't do drugs.

“Touch Fuzzy. Get Dizzy.” Simple words for a simple concept. Everyone that’s played Yoshi’s Island knows what a Fuzzy is. Think of them as our real-world equivalent of a kick to the head, or really cheap beer (I prefer the kick to the head). If Yoshi so much as brushes up against these little puffs the screen gets distorted and causes much difficulty with controls. All you can do is just sit and wait for the effects to wear off.

9. Angry Sun:

Why I don't leave my house when the sun's out.

Super Mario Bros 3 was a hard game because everything wanted you dead. Even the sun. Yes, the sun would scowl at you from the sky until it eventually couldn’t take any more and began dive-bombing every chance it got. And it wouldn’t even smile if it killed you, either. I remained angry. You’d go “Whoop! I died!” and fall off the screen, but the sun would still scowl like you’ve caused him far too much grief for your death to matter anymore. What did you do to him anyway? Did you murder the sun’s son in a previous game? Something to think about.

8. World 1-1 Goomba:

"AHHH Motherland!"

No other enemy on this list has as many kills racked up as this one simple murder machine. Goombas as a people are pitiful, stupid enemies that hobble back and forth, hoping you’ll step in front of them as they slowly bump into you. But this one lone solider stands as the very first enemy Mario encounters in Super Mario Bros and somehow year after year, new players pick up the controller unaware that they should jump over this stupid Goomba and instead suffer the ultimate fate. Even worse is when a seasoned player loses patience and rushes headfirst into death by accident while their friends shake their heads in shame. Yes, I’m speaking from experience.

7. Booster:

I wish I looked like this.

One of the most memorable characters from Super Mario RPG was this rough-faced scoundrel that goes by the name Booster. He has his own tower that he typically just plays around in while riding a train, but Princess Toadstool fell from the sky after the events at the beginning of the game and landed on his balcony. Therefore, he figures he should marry her since he’ll get a cake out of it. Pretty much, I sort of want to grow up to become this guy some day.

6. Pionpi:

These WILL kill you, no arguing.

Super Mario Land was always odd to me, since the English version didn’t change the Japanese enemies’ names. I always thought they should have renamed everything so you could describe them easier to your friends, since we did that anyway. “You know those Jumpy-Spiders?” “Oh, you mean Kumos?” “No, I mean Jumpy-Spiders, jerk.” By the time you get to the fourth world, which has a very distinctly “Chinese” vibe to it, you encounter enemies that look like Chinese people hopping around without much thought. They’re actually called “Pionpi” and are based off of ghouls known to Japanese people, but come on, they look just like evil Chinese people mindlessly hopping back and forth. Like I’m going to listen to Japanese developers when they says, “No seriously, we weren’t making fun of Chinese stereotypes or anything.” Don’t believe you. Plus, these enemies never die! They just get mad!

5. Boss Bass:

I know you've been eaten by one of these at least once.

BLARGG! Second only to that stupid World 1-1 Goomba in aggravating deaths, Boss Bass is the fish from Super Mario Bros 3 that swims around and hops every so often. If it catches you in its mouth, instant death. No chance to get out of it, you just die. You can kill these with a well-timed throw of a block or a shell, with a fireball, or even just grab a star and give the jerk a taste of his own medicine. But then he comes back! What the heck?! These should have been called “Blarggs” instead of those lava dragons.

4. The Rawk Hawk:

"Can you smell what the Rawk is cookin'?!"

Now we’re talking. “Are you ready to get RAWKED?!” Yes, I am ready. You have a brief stint as the Great Gonzales partway through Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door where you fight your way through the Glitz Pit to take on the champion. And who is the champion? A hawk that knows Lucha-style moves and spews catchphrases similar to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. If he’s losing he’ll even jump up to the rafters and shake down debris. I was almost sad to kick his butt.

3. The Koopa Bros:

They're the world's most fearsome fighting Koopas!

C’mon, like I’m not going to include the obvious Ninja Turtle reference? The Koopa Bros show up as the first real bosses of Paper Mario and do a fairly competent job of dealing some punishment should you not focus your attacks very well on stopping their ultimate attack of hopping into each other’s backs and launching a spinning tackle. Plus they get cool theme music to beat your face in. I really want to see these enemies come back but we haven’t seen a bit of them since the end of Paper Mario.

2. The Axem Rangers:

Go Go Axem Rangers!

First the Ninja Turtles, now Power Rangers? You bet your sweet bippy. My favorite enemies from Super Mario RPG came near the end but when they showed up I was totally blindsided. I got destroyed the first few times I tried fighting this hardcore team of Smithy’s most loyal but with enough practice I figured out the secret. However, no fight with them is ever simple since each member gets an attack and the Black Ranger attacks twice. They can scrape your sorry team in one move if you aren’t careful. And once you knock out all five, that’s it, right? Wrong! They get behind the Megazord head and fire the Breaker Beam at you, leaving you clinging for dear life.

So who can possibly beat super Koopas, Blarggs, giant fish, cheating plants, Chinese stereotypes, a Lucha chicken, the Ninja Turtles, and the Power Rangers? Oh, I think you know.

1. Giga Bowser:

"Please give me all your faces for I now own them!"

Like there was any doubt who was going to top this list? Bowser appears in just about every single Mario game and causes more than his share of chaos, but Bowser felt a little too simple to top the list. In comes Super Smash Bros Melee with a final boss battle against a Bowser reborn as Giga Bowser. Basically, take Bowser and increase his killing power, making him an unstoppable force of destruction. All he has to do is headbutt you and dark energy sparks from his noggin. Why? Who cares? Giga Bowser could take on every enemy on this list and not even lose a life, and that’s why he makes the top of the list.

Do you disagree with my list? I bet you probably do since everyone has his or her own favorites to talk about. So tell me about them with a comment or two. There are hundreds of enemies in the Mario universe and I only touched on 20. There’s plenty of room for your voice to get heard, so let’s hear it!

You see this? This is called a Grand Slam.

Oh joy! Not since my time as a wee child have I been so purely excited about a video game. Something about Mario always brings out the best in me. Given enough of Mario’s influence I might even go ahead and become a being of unadulterated elation, floating through the physical world as a glowing light that stops off every so often and anchors itself to New Super Mario Bros Wii.

So uh, I really like New Super Mario Bros Wii.

Now that the holidays are sneaking up on us, Nintendo has decided that we haven’t given them enough money. I say to them, “You fools, I’m not handing you any more money.” Their only response is, “Oh, okay, we’ll just take our new Mario game and be on our way.” So I have to rush over and stop them before they get away without my money. “Have double,” I say. And they say, “Nay, we only need $49.99. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”

Same Game, Different Day

I mentioned New Super Mario Bros Wii a while ago with a preview article. Now that it’s out I can safely talk about every facet of the fantastic game. Xbox 360 and PS3 owners have their Modern Warfare 2, but Wii owners have this one and no reason to be jealous as a result. Everything about the new Mario Bros game harkens back to the good old days of platforming where there was no need for a story and no need for overly complex gameplay. There was just you, the controller, and tricky jumps to get frustrated at and cause you to throw the controller.

The classic power-ups are back with two new additions in the Propeller Mushroom (fun for high-jumps), and the Penguin Suit (slide on your belly, freeze enemies, and look adorable). I’m most happy to see the return of Yoshi in a Mario game since his last appearance was in Super Mario Sunshine and while I enjoyed Sunshine, it wasn’t Yoshi’s best moment.

Still The Best

Tilting your controller will change the angle the light shines at. Hooray for simple motion controls!

Level design is once again at its best with this one. There is a very good mix of simple levels and aggravatingly difficult levels but everything is paced in such a way that you won’t feel too pressured to just turn the game off after a tough level. Beyond just this, I want to talk about a new feature that may just change the landscape of video games. Let’s talk about the Super Guide.

Assume you’re having a particularly difficult time with a level and somehow die eight times in row. At this point the next time you start a level you’ll have the option of hitting a green block to let Luigi come in and play the level for you. Yes, that’s right, the game plays itself when it gets too tough for you. The computer-controlled Luigi doesn’t go out of his way to grab power-ups or coins or any bonuses for you but he does complete the level. You can even take over at any point if you think you’ve got the hang of things. The idea of having a game alleviate the difficulty so that you don’t just give up and move on to something different is beautiful in concept since it entirely gives you the choice. You don’t have to use the Super Guide, but the option is there.

Co-op Mario

Look how cute they are!

Multiplayer in Mario has always been limited to one player at a time. In New Super Mario Bros Wii up to four people can play at once. At once! And you don’t have to play nice, either. You can help each other out by grabbing another player and managing the jumping while they shoot fireballs or something. Or you can just toss them into lava and start laughing. You’ll have fun with this game no matter how many people you’re playing with.

I can’t give enough reasons to pick this one up. New Super Mario Bros Wii is perfection as a Mario game and a platformer. This is yet another excuse to purchase a Wii. If you already own a Wii, this is the game you should be buying next. I’ll run down a list of reasons to own it: Yoshi, Penguins, Koopalings, Super Guide, Four-Player Simultaneous Play, Fun, Entertaining, Amazing, Merry Christmas. That’s it, review over. Go get it.

They are shooting pure joy from my heart.

Halloween is pretty much here, but for some of us that doesn’t mean much. Why is that? Well we’re too busy playing video games to care what’s happening around us. As a result, we may accidentally pass up the day in lieu of just playing something bright and cheery, but there are other options for us shut-ins that still want to celebrate Halloween with some good atmospheric games. So here are 10 Games You Should Play On Halloween.

Resident Evil 4:

Sure, the first game is great and the most recent installment is pretty good, but Resident Evil 4 knocked my socks off when I first played it on the GameCube all those years ago. It was the perfect mix of fluid gameplay with situations that terrified me to no end due to stuff like, oh, I don’t know, chainsaw wielding zombies or Wolverine-style monsters with their eyes sown shut. I freaked, but I never stopped playing.

The thing about RE4 is that it pushed games to be at least as good as it was by deciding what 3rd-person gameplay should be for shooters and what to expect with quick-time events (one of two games I was actually okay with the silly feature). You can pick up a copy for the GameCube, PS2, or PC, and the Wii has a version with motion controls that work extremely well (Amazon’s got it for under $15). Just do yourself a favor and play through if you haven’t already. Just tell me when you get to Del Lago.

Silent Hill 2:

This is Pyramid Head. This thing should not be.

I was forced to play both Silent Hill 1 and 2 by my friends and I made fun of them the whole way through, especially number 2. And why? Because I didn’t want to let on that I’d probably be crying unless I found a means of coping with fear since Silent Hill 2 throws you into a bad situation and just makes it worse. If you haven’t heard of a Silent Hill game, you probably live a happier life than I, otherwise Amazon has the PS2 version for around $10.

See, Silent Hill is a town that’s cursed since a little girl was pushed to become pure evil and fill the town with demons (yes, I hate it when this happens, too). The combat is awful on purpose as the main character isn’t a great fighter or solider. He just wants to find his dead wife because she told him to meet him in Silent Hill (if your dead anything ever says this, don’t go). You will see horrible things and you will hear horrible things and by the end of the game you will have had to do horrible things and you won’t sleep with the lights off for a while. Seriously, if you ever want to terrify someone who’s played a Silent Hill game, flick off the lights and blare a disaster siren. They will go hide in a corner; I guarantee it.

Super Ghouls & Ghosts:

And that's about as far as I get.

No, not every game has to be extremely terrifying to make for good Halloween playing. Super Ghouls & Ghosts (and really any entry in the Ghosts & Goblins series), will give you nightmares just realizing you can’t make it past the first level. I’ve put the game on easy, cranked up my lives, and still I couldn’t make it anywhere near the end of the first level. The first level! And I’m not a bad game player. I’ve even beat I Wanna Be The Guy (go search this on Google to see what it is), so you know I’m hardcore.

Super Ghouls & Ghosts has you jump in the shoes of Arthur on a quest to save a princess from a demon. Along the way, Arthur will die and die and die because he will be attacked by every manner of zombie and skeleton and unholy death with only two hits before he dies. If that sounds merciful, it isn’t. Ten hits before death is even being stingy. But the game is still worth playing even if you can’t make it past the first few zombies, so go find this on the SNES or the Virtual Console. In fact, this is so dificult that it looks like people are practically giving away used copies on Amazon for under $4.

Super Castlevania IV:

The box art sort of says it all.

Yes yes and more yes. I’m not going for scary here, I’m just telling you to go play games that put you in a Halloween mood and Super Castlevania IV (so super it needed it in the title), is such a good game that you’d be a fool to just let it pass you buy. It’s on the SNES but also on the Virtual Console, making it an extremely easy and affordable purchase.

Simon Belmont goes toe-to-toe with Dracula yet again, but at this point the structure of the Castlevania games is nearly perfected. The game is tough but fair and beating it yields a sweet sense of accomplishment that games don’t typically give anymore. Just whipping zombies and horrors and Death itself makes this one a game you should be playing anyway.

Luigi’s Mansion:

Don't care; Great game.

There I said it. Go play Luigi’s Mansion, one of the first titles released on the GameCube. It gets a bad rap but the game was great, albeit extremely short. So what better game to play through in a single day? This was Luigi’s big chance to shine (the only other game he’s starred in since Mario Is Missing and that doesn’t count), and while he doesn’t get a chance to stomp Goombas, he does get a chance to rid a haunted mansion of ghosts and spirits and such.

Surprisingly, this was one of the best looking games on the system, and it was a launch title. I always found that strange. You’re going around a mansion filled with ghosts and everything makes spooky noises. It’s cartoony but it works. It’s a small diversion but it pays off, especially since you can probably find this title for $5 at a video game store, Amazon inclued. Just think of it like Ghostbusters but with Luigi instead of Bill Murray.

Ghostbusters The Video Game:

Or heck, why not just play Ghostbusters The Video Game? It’s new this year on the PS3 and Xbox 360 (there is also a pretty good Wii version, too), and if you are wondering, yes, it is just what you’d expect from a Ghostbusters game. And by that I mean it’s awesome.

Those games on the NES from back in the day? Yeah, those sucked. This game is like seeing the 3rd movie that never was (but will be due to the high sales of the game). Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis all reprise their roles for the game, and for a video game that’s simply amazing. You play as the rookie, a nameless new guy that the other Ghostbusters don’t want to get attached to since they think you’ll probably get killed testing out the new equipment. The best part of the game is the humor, but they still don’t skimp on the actual gameplay, which is also great. It’s just the perfect lighthearted Halloween game to play, plus it’s under $20. Good deal.

Eternal Darkness:

No don't try to figure out what they're talking about. You'll just go insane.

But maybe you don’t want lighthearted. Maybe you want to go over the edge with insanity. So go ahead and pop in Eternal Darkness for the GameCube and watch your mind slowly retreat into itself to hide from whatever you’re about to see on the screen. This game was the answer to anyone that ever called the GameCube a kiddie system. You dare challenge me? Snag it on Amazon for $15 and prove me incorrect.

What sets Eternal Darkness above other horror games is the way you play through multiple characters’ doomed stories. You know that each of these characters will die by the end of their chapter, but you want to see where their section of the plot takes them. Naturally, it takes them to the brink of madness as you have both a health meter and a sanity meter to deal with. If your sanity gets too low then weird things start to happen like the TV volume fluctuating, the screen turning on and off, and even a message telling you that your memory card is being erased. I freaked out around the point that my character thought her head fell off and she had to go pick it up. Read that sentence one more time if you didn’t catch that. Oh yeah is this game messed up.

Dead Space:

That hand there isn't going back on any time soon.

Yup, another game for the 360, PS3, and PC with play control similar to Resident Evil 4. You are one of very few survivors left alive on a space mining facility where a plague of alien something or other…yeah, it doesn’t matter. All that’s important is the fact that crazy stuff happens all around you and you have to fight off hellish monsters with futuristic mining equipment. Also, that the game is a Bestseller, meaning it’s only $20 these days.

The main draw here is the ability to sever various limbs from the enemies in order to rendering them unable to walk or attack. Instead of headshots being the best way to go, some enemies had more of a weakness in their legs or midsection or something similar to that, making you have to rethink the genre slightly. Not by much, but just enough to be extremely creepy and keep you playing past every insane challenge that comes up.

Left 4 Dead:

At least the Dead Space guy's hand still had a thumb.

Okay, so you could play this on your 360, or you could play it right on the PC. I suggest the PC version. Left 4 Dead is a Valve title and currently it is one of their best (which says a lot). You are one of four characters alive after a zombie apocalypse and you must work with the others to stay alive through swarms of the typical zombie fare. You can play this as a single player, but the best reason to play Left 4 Dead is to blow zombies away with three friends in cooperative play.

This is simply one of the best multiplayer games on the market right now, and Valve has been hard at work delivering patches and new content and a sequel hitting not too long from now (which promises to be just as great, if not better). If you saw Zombie Land this past month, this is pretty much the game that the movie is based off of, even if it wasn’t aware of it.

Bioshock:

Why won't you love me?!

I will never stop telling everyone to go play Bioshock. Maybe it’s my own guilt for not playing it until just recently, but Bioshock stands out as a game that understands what it means to create atmosphere in order for things to be scary. Out on the 360, PS3, and now on Steam for the PC, everyone can play Bioshock and figure out what I’m going on about.

You play as a character that survives a plane crash and swims to a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean, only to find the entrance to the city of Rapture, a dystopian society that’s been utterly destroyed after people spliced their genes way too much for God to allow. You’ll get to encounter Big Daddies, Little Sisters, Splicers, and Andrew Ryan, my new favorite villain. I can’t wait until Bioshock is made into a movie since the plot alone has me sold.

And that’s my list off the top of my head. I promise that there is something here for everyone, from the hardcore gamers out there to the casual players. But I know this isn’t a complete list, so tell me what I left out. Are there some games I should be ashamed to omit? Let me know with a comment or two in the comments section and let your voice be heard.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is the third game of the series and it’ll be on the DS this September.  Surprisingly, the Mario & Luigi role playing games don’t get nearly as much credit as they deserve.

Look, I’m a Mario addict, especially anything that plays like Super Mario RPG.  The Paper Mario series is also great, but people forget about the Mario & Luigi games on the Game Boy Advance and DS.

So why should you be buying it?

The Mario & Luigi games are turn-based role-playing games that put you in control of Mario and Luigi.  Different from most RPG’s is the ability to increase the damage you can inflict on an enemy by timing a button press correctly, so when Mario is about to stomp on a Goomba for instance, a quick press of the A button before he lands will do increased damage.

Likewise during defense, pressing the A button will save Mario from damage if timed correctly.  For Luigi, just insert the letter B instead of A.

That’s where the fun comes in as you have to keep track of Mario and Luigi individually and time things right, so if an enemy swings a bat or something, you have to evade as Mario and then Luigi.

It’s tricky to figure out, but once you get going, everything just feels awesome.

The biggest draw of these games is the humor.  Few games are written with as much obvious humor as the Mario & Luigi games.  When people say, “Oh, this game is funny,” it’s hard to believe them.  But I promise, with these games, I’ve found myself guffawing multiple times, running to find someone to show off the funny thing that just happened.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is one of the few games I actually plan on getting the day it comes out.  It’s both lighthearted enough for kids to play, but offers a great deal of challenge for the older gamers.  Thus far the game has been fairly popular in Japan, but why gamers in the US haven’t gotten excited is completely beyond me.

Metroid Fusion: Metroid became my bread and butter after I first got a chance to play Metroid Fusion, (I’m still terrible at them, but I readily consume them if possible).  The game is tough, especially if you want to get the best ending, (beat the game with 100% items in under 2 hours), but it is so worth it.  I still pop this one in and play it every now and then. Amazon can hook you up with a copy for under $15.

Golden Sun: RPG’s are everywhere on the Advance, but this was one of the first and still one of the best.  The graphics were amazing for a handheld, (still amazing actually), and everything about Golden Sun kept me playing for hours.  Overlooked, but simple to find and cheap to play.  Go get it.

Advance Wars: I am bad with tactical games, but not Advance Wars.  I picked this one up on a whim and it was one of the best whims I’ve ever picked a game up on.  There are a handful of sequels including a DS version, but if you’re strapped for cash, you can’t go wrong with this original.  It’ll keep you busy for quite a while.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: If you’re still waiting for Super Mario RPG 2, then this may tide you over for a while.  The Mario & Luigi series doesn’t get nearly as much love as it should, but the games speak for themselves. Get yourself started/hooked on this series as soon as possible.

Wario Land 4: Surprisingly, there were no new Mario games made specifically for the Advance.  However, Wario saw the fourth game in his series come to the Advance, and it was pretty darn good.  Truly a worthy platformer for a worthy system.

Be sure to check out more of my video game reviews here.