Yes, it’s SMG time again. I finished off the cluster of galaxies I was in and it did indeed open up a ‘secret’ cluster, though it’s not much of a secret when you get it by just playing through the game normally… I also got to go back to the area you first start in, and completed the coin collection challenge there and gained the ability to fly in some areas. The only place I’ve noticed so far where it will let me is in the main galaxy selection hub, and so far all I’ve really found is a few extra 1up mushrooms.

Of the galaxies I did, of particular note was the Matter Splatter Galaxy, which is a weird one in that the terrain only exists as long as it’s either under a spotlight or has recently been touched by these bouncing lights. If a wall moves into the shadow, you’ll just fall off the map if you then try to go wall-jump off of it. At one point you take the spring powerup and the spotlight slowly moves up the screen, and you have to try to keep up with it. Easier said than done when you factor in the spring’s awkwardness and spring-blocking obstacles… It must have taken me a dozen attempts to finally pass just that one section.

At one point, I noticed that I had 31 lives (they’re certainly not scarce in SMG), and although I hadn’t planned on it yet, I figured I’d take a stab at the final Bowser fight while I had all those lives just in case I needed them. But I didn’t; it wasn’t really all that difficult in the end, with the only frustration coming from how far back it sometimes puts you when you die, making you redo certain easy parts repeatedly. Overall though, there were probably separate galaxy stars that were tougher than the final one.

I’ve still got 41 more stars to collect, and beating the game lets me do the purple comet challenges now. In the purple challenges you just have to collect 100 purple coins, but that’s harder than it sounds when a lot of the stages have some tricky platforming in them and you have to redo the whole thing if you die, not just continue on from the last checkpoint…

I’m not sure if I’ll get all of them, though. I need to collect them all to unlock the ability to play as Luigi, but then I have to recollect all 120 stars all over again as Luigi (who’s harder to control) if I want to unlock a special galaxy, but I don’t know if I have that much patience or time. Maybe I’ll just chip away at it bit by bit in brief, spare moments…