How do you improve upon perfection? It is a question which has haunted the greatest minds since time began. From Plato to Einstein, Sorcrates to Hawking and Aristotle to Da Vinci, every one of them struggled to top or even equal their best work in later life. Rather it is more likely for them to spend their later years living off former glories. In the world of videogames, there is but one true genius; comparable in relative terms to any of these other legends. That man is Shigeru Miyamoto. Responsible for most, if not all, of Nintendo’s greatest successes, every one of his games is hampered with the same problem: how do you top your previous work, when it seemed that it couldn’t be bettered? For Shigeru and Nintendo the answer is a simple one: you give someone else the job.

Miyamoto-san has moved away from being in total control of the Mario games, and now serves as essentially a supervising producer. Ko-ichi Hayashida is at the reigns this time after serving as the level designer on the original SMG. His experience of working on the previous game is clearly in evidence from the word go. This is no major overhaul, rather he has attempted to hone the existing design to perfection.

From the very first few seconds, it is clear that this is not just a sequel to SMG in name only. A wonderful feeling of familiarity is in evidence from the very beginning and anyone who has played the original will feel right at home. And if the game feels familiar to play, the story remains firmly stuck where it began all those years ago. Once more Bowser has made off with Princes Peach in yet another case of unrequited love and it’s up to Mario to win her back and save the day. Thankfully the plot is like all Mario games: simply a background device and never truly matters. You won’t find the genre flipping delights of Paper Mario et al here. Not that it is any worse for that.

The structure of SMG remains intact, though the design has had a slight overhaul. Mario no longer traverses the galaxies from a central hub. Instead he is based on a starship and the movement from galaxy to galaxy is more in line with the linear style of the DS Mario games. Whether this is a change for the sake of change it is difficult to know and even though some players may miss the slight idiosyncrasies of the hub ‘world’, it does give the game a more streamlined feel.

As with the original, Mario has several universes to explore, each with their own galaxies and worlds within them. The completion of each level from the galaxies yields a star that helps power the ship towards a new location. Once enough stars have been gathered from each galaxy, Mario can move on to the next, ensuring that the desire to see what comes next is tempered by earning the right to do so. The balance always feels just right and it is very rare that further progress will be halted with a little perseverance. Most of the time it is not a question of not knowing what to do, rather it is a question of doing it. Seeing that star just out of reach is the same tantalising delight it always was, and reaching it after flicking a switch or acquiring a power-up remains one of gaming’s true joys.

The power-ups of old are all there along with some welcome new additions. Cloud Mario can spin to make clouds appear and use them to get to previously inaccessible places. Rock Mario can turn himself into a giant boulder and smash his way through hordes of enemies. Drill Mario can spin to the other side of planets in the blink of an eye, and takes players to the previously hidden wonders of what lies inside the planets they only touched the surface of before.

The true wonder of the game and the true genius of Nintendo is making it feel exactly like the first SMG and yet simultaneously brand new and exciting. It is perhaps the mark of a great designer that they can take all the original elements from a previous incarnation, rehash a few bits here and there, add a dash of new surprises and not only match the quality of the first but actually exceed it. In the hands of a lesser designer, this could have been labelled a simple retread of the first. Instead, this feels like the game that the original could have been. The designers have really embraced the concept of the galaxies in a way that makes it feel like they only scratched the surface before. Swimming through a moving body of water while simultaneously floating in space is just one of the new concepts that boggles the mind with its inventiveness.

So that’s not all. SMG2 does have one major new attraction up its sleeve: Yoshi! The world’s cutest dinosaur makes a very welcome appearance as Mario’s sidekick and although he isn’t always available or even realistically necessary on many of the levels, it’s still always nice to see him. His ability to grab enemies with his tongue and swallow them whole has been perfectly implemented into the game and feels incredibly natural in 3D. Holding down the B button lets him target enemies and it is possible to rapidly despatch several in quick order with a little practice. He even has his own special power-ups: the Blimp Fruit inflates him like a balloon, sending him floating upwards until he runs out of air. The Spicy Dash Pepper makes him run at an extremely fast speed, allowing him to run up walls and even over water. Finally, the Bulb Berry makes surrounding invisible areas visible. They are all great fun to play with and Yoshi is still the same joy to control as he ever was.

A special mention must also go to the music of Mahito Yokota. He really has created something special this time. It is rare for the music to a game to deserve as much praise as the gameplay, but here the masterful tunes he has created are every bit as worthy of praise. Every one fits the location perfectly and really does set the tone for each new level. From the whimsical charm of the Honeybloom Galaxy to the annoyingly catchy and distracting deviance of the Flip Swap Galaxy, every piece is a perfect accompaniment to the action on screen. The music from The Cosmic Cove Galaxy is an ambient masterpiece that will stay with players long after the game has been completed.

This is still the same old Mario: he runs, he jumps, he spins, he swims. The galaxies have been tweaked here and there but, again, they are the same old premise: the ice galaxy, the fire galaxy, the water galaxy, the beach galaxy. It’s all so familiar and, you could argue, somewhat repetitive in nature. And yet it is precisely this that makes the game such a joy to play. Nostalgia can be a wonderful thing in theory but in practice it rarely retains the warmth of feeling engendered by the thought. SMG2 is the exception to the rule: the old teddy bear from the loft that you still want to take to bed; the girl you fancied from school who still looks gorgeous twenty years later; that childhood TV show that still holds up and doesn’t destroy all your fond memories after five minutes with the realisation that it was actually total rubbish all along. SMG2 manages this feat with aplomb: it’s repetitive but enthralling; linear but mesmerising; frustrating yet joyful. It is a trick that perhaps only Nintendo has truly ever been able to pull off. Long may it continue.

Score: 10/10