Why Super Mario Galaxy 2 isn't coming to 3DS

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 1 December, 2011

"Mario looked like a speck."

Nintendo won't port Super Mario Galaxy 2 to the 3DS because Mario looks like a "speck" on the smaller handheld screen.

The Japanese game maker explored the possibility as it was creating Super Mario 3D Land, which launched last month to critical and commercial acclaim - but quickly found the superb 2010 Wii platformer was inappropriate for the 3DS.

"When we started developing [Super Mario 3D Land], we displayed Super Mario Galaxy 2 on a small TV monitor and found that Mario looked like a speck and that the game was difficult to play," Super Mario 3D Land director Koichi Hayashida told IGN (via VG247)

"This led us to look into the camera and terrain types that would be conducive to playing on a portable screen with a relatively large Mario. If we were making a console game, from the very start, we wouldn't have been thinking about any of those things, and I think the game would have probably been a lot different."

Eurogamer's Super Mario 3D Land review returned a 9/10. It is the fastest-selling portable Mario game ever in the US.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Hellion83 #1 6 months ago

    Post deleted at 20:12:17 01-02-2012

  • KennyLickLick #2 6 months ago

    Why make a new game unless you REALLY have to? Sounds like they would've loved to re-release galaxy 2 and save themselves the bother of making mario land 3d.

  • neilka #3 6 months ago

    Got to hold back some remakes for the 3DS Lite, 3DSi, 3DS XL etc. etc.

  • midnight_walker #4 6 months ago

    I don't think you can say that these days. I think "He looked like a Scopey" is the PC way to say it.

  • abigsmurf #5 6 months ago

    Perhaps if they'd given the 3DS a resolution that's bested by the far older PSP, having a main character that's a tiny mess of pixels would be less of an issue.

    Still, less lazy ports is a good thing.

  • The-Bodybuilder #6 6 months ago

    I read that as he look like a "spack" as in "spacker". :-/

    @midnight-walker, I see I wasn't the only one.
    Edited by The-Bodybuilder at 01/12/11 @ 09:21

  • captainCandy #7 6 months ago

    And in reality Nintendo 3DS just doesn't have the CPU & GPU power to run Super Mario Galaxy 1 or 2...

  • MattEdWithCheese #8 6 months ago

    @The-Bodybuilder I read it differently, my response was he's Italian! not Spanish...

  • Muddtallica #9 6 months ago

    Egh...hate doing this, but I have to point out that the angle of this news story is terribly misleading. At no point in the interview is it suggested that a 3DS port of Super Mario Galaxy 2 is on the cards; he's saying that they examined how Galaxy 2 looked on a handheld screen as part of the development process, and that their findings helped to inform the ultimate direction they took with the visual design of 3D Land.

    Frankly, that should be obvious even just from reading the quote in the story. But no, let's all bash Nintendo for the LAZY REMAKE they aren't releasing, were never making and never even said they were making. Go team!

  • midnight_walker #10 6 months ago

    @Muddtallica So far only one person has even come close to bashing Nintendo for the LAZY REMAKE they aren't releasing. But don't let the facts get in the way of a good rant.

  • Centrifugal #11 6 months ago

    He's not even saying they were going to port Galaxy 2; they considered doing a game in similar style to it for the 3DS, realised it wouldn't work and tried something different. Bloody hyperbolic journalism...

  • JohnnyHeaven #12 6 months ago

    @midnight_walker Muddtallica's right though. maybe not about the bashing but the news headline is incredibly misleading. it mislead me and i have the reading age of an 8 year old

  • Muddtallica #13 6 months ago

    @midnight_walker Sorry, maybe I got carried away a wee bit and pre-empted the "oh Nintendo and their remakes" discussion before it actually happened. But the misleading nature of this headline really invites it, don't you think? It's either sloppy reading comprehension or bad writing. No need for it.

  • George-Roper #14 6 months ago

    Of course they were looking at a port, stop being so naive.

    It's the Nintendo way, everyone knows it and the 3DS is far from immune to it.

  • Kay #15 6 months ago

    Yep, article headline is extremely misleading. Almost tabloid-esque journalism here nowadays.

  • orangpelupa #16 6 months ago

    this EG article like actress-gossip newssite/magazine/television show...

    take a snip of long interview, then overblow it out of context.

  • Serebii #17 6 months ago

    @abigsmurf It'd still be small, regardless of resolution. Increased resolution doesn't mean it's no longer small
    Edited by Serebii at 01/12/11 @ 10:52

  • TonyHarrison #18 6 months ago

    It's far more likely that they would have wanted to re-use assets for the 3DS Mario game than give us a direct port.

  • Mister-Wario #19 6 months ago

    I wouldn't really expect them to port Mario Galaxy to the 3DS. It strikes me as something quite tricky to put on a portable. I mean, you have these vast, sweeping levels: Mario 3D Land looks quite small and self-contained by comparison.

  • 5lectro #20 6 months ago

    It is somewhat dissappointing that a 2011 device has a screen with sub-SD resolution.

  • MoGamer2006 #21 6 months ago

    It is somewhat disappointing that a 2011 gamer obsesses over the perceived limitations of a console's hardware, not the quality of its games.

    And can't spell disappointing properly.

  • Ryze #22 6 months ago

    @Muddtallica Yep, and Nintendo haven't ported ANY games to the 3DS yet, have they?

  • J.C #23 6 months ago

    @MoGamer2006 Couldn't agree more. If the games are good, then its all good. However. You cannot deny the 3ds is, technically under powered. The innards resolution etc, are far behind the competition. But like i said, great games, great console :)

  • J.C #24 6 months ago

    @MoGamer2006 Couldn't agree more. If the games are good, then its all good. However. You cannot deny the 3ds is, technically under powered. The innards resolution etc, are far behind the competition. But like i said, great games, great console :)

  • MoGamer2006 #25 6 months ago

    I just think the obsession with tech specs is tedious and redundant. When I was younger I used to obsess about number of bits and colours on-screen, just like da yout' do today about resolutions and GPU power.

    But as I've got older - and, I hope, wiser - I've realised it really doesn't matter. It's the games that are important, not the supposed 'superiority' of the tech running them. No matter how powerful the hardware, the shit:greatness ratio doesn't fluctuate much.

  • JeroenZM #26 6 months ago

    I'm from Holland, so pardon me when I ask: What the hell is a speck?

  • MattEdWithCheese #27 6 months ago

    @JeroenZM It just means something really small e.g. a speck of dust or it can also refer to a spot or other sort of marking e.g. Old Speckled Hen!

  • Toothball #28 6 months ago

    I think a better reason for Nintendo to not release Mario Galaxy on 3DS is that it's a Wii game to begin with (that's a good thing, stick with me). Instead of trying to port that, they made Mario 3D Land which was far more suited to the 3DS's screen, controls and overall portability. The result was way, way better for the 3DS than a straight port.

    This is the same issue that comes up when developers tried to port PS2 games directly to the PSP. There generally arose complaints that there weren't enough control sticks, or they got cramps when they tried to play for hours. The best games on any given system (including the PSP) are built specifically for that system.

  • marmaduke #29 5 months ago

    Just testing the mark-up on comments

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