Mario Galaxy 2 on the Wii continues the focus on providing the player with hundred of different nuggets of fun. Each level is different from the last and offers a new way to play with Mario's abilities. Whether you are simply but-stomping your way through a more traditional platform based world, or flying from star to star the feeling of exhilaration and fun is the game.

The controls that worked so well in the original Mario Galaxy haven't been tampered with. A combination of Nun-chuck and Wii-mote is enough here to provide all the options required without overcomplicating things. The game steers away from incorporating the new MotionPlus enhancements, but this restraint is no bad thing as Mario Galaxy 2 has all the nuance it needs from the standard Wii controls.

Although more of the same when it comes to Mario Galaxy is no bad thing, there are not a few new additions to the party this time. Firstly and most importantly is Mario's favourite side kick - not Luigi, he was already in the first game - Yoshi get's to explore the stars too. A co-operative two player mode enables works well at combining different abilities in the same space. Although not quite the split-screen campaign mode some would hope for, there is enough collaboration here to suite friends and family.

Bowser returns as well, although in his new Doppelganger form - Shadow Bowser. Apart from a meaner, harder exterior this doesn't make a huge difference to game play. That said, it's a good excuse to roll out some great end level battles that made the first Mario Galaxy so popular.

To combat all this badness (fully explained in an inconsequential but un-skippable story), Mario has a hatful of new powers too. Along with the usual Fire-Flowerand Size-Mushroom and Invulnerability-Star powers, the diminutive Italian plumber adds a new Clone suite to his repertoire. This enables him to duplicate himself over and over to tackle harder sections of the games. It's an ability that sounds simple but adds considerable complexity to the problem solving side of the platforming button pressing game play. This is also true for his Aged power that enables him to freeze and slow down time. This all adds up to one thing - more puzzling action this time around for Mario.

Although there is simply so much to talk about here, a classic Mario Galaxy 2 moment for me was trying to herd a flock of hapless Goomba's into frustratingly small pens in a certain time. As the clock ticks down I become increasingly frustrated and my kids fall about laughing as the sheep-like mushrooms refuse to be directed. What we need here I realised was a sheepdog-trained version of Yoshi.