With the announcement of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Nintendo fans are collectively asking one big question, where is Super Mario Galaxy 2? This question came up a lot in the comments of our recent video on the collection, which features Mario 64, Mario Sunshine and Mario Galaxy. But not for some reason, Galaxy 2. This is perplexing, given the fantastic reception that Galaxy 2 initially received. According to Metacritic, it was actually the best-reviewed game of the entire decade. Yet it didn't even feature in Nintendo's retrospective timeline of Mario games during the announcement of Super Mario 3D All-Stars. Nintendo hasn't given an official explanation for why Galaxy 2 has been forgotten, but reading developer interviews about the game makes it clear that this was a contentious title during its development, and that many key creators who worked on the game have a complex relationship to the entire project. The team described low morale as they worked on a title informally known simply as More Mario Galaxy. To hear Shigeru Miyamoto tell it, Super Mario Galaxy 2 evolved organically out of its predecessor. The creator of Mario claims that, after working on Mario Galaxy, the team had many leftover ideas, and were eager to experiment, creating a remastered version of the first game that eventually grew in scope to become a full sequel. Many other developers who worked on the game remember things differently. In a Nowater asks interview about Galaxy 2, Yoshiyaki Koizumi said, just after we made the first Super Mario Galaxy, Miyamoto-san suggested another one, since we had put so much effort into making an engine that could serve as a good foundation for another game. But it wasn't really the best time to say, now use that engine to make another one to the developers. They weren't really in the mood for simply saying, alright, we'll do it! Gwichi Hayashida, who served as the director on Galaxy 2, said, I was completely dried up. I felt like I had done everything with the first one. We had come up with tons of ideas and then packed in all the good ones, and I didn't think there were many left over. One of the programmers for the game, Kenzo Heikawa, describes his colleagues as having really low spirits during the initial planning meetings for Mario Galaxy 2. So Yoshiyaki held a special meeting with his team. He instructed them to not say anything negative, but instead to look back on the first Mario Galaxy and talk about everything that went well, and that they enjoyed. He listened attentively, without commenting himself. According to Yoshiyaki, I took those responses and consulted Miyamoto-san about this project, and he said, why not just make Super Mario Galaxy 1.5? The project then was downgraded from a full sequel to a master quest style expansion. The team felt better about working on what they were simply calling more Mario Galaxy, and work pushed on. Yet the team struggled to implement some of Shigeru's ideas. Yoshiyaki described Shigeru's obsession with a whole-based mechanic in the first game, and how the team was pushed to find a way to include it in the new title, even though Shigeru hadn't entirely thought it through. Yoshiyaki said of the experience, it was like he was giving us homework. Meanwhile, another argument was brewing. Yoshiyaki and Shigeru were butting heads over the game's story. Shigeru forbade Yoshiyaki from giving Galaxy 2 a strong narrative, while Yoshiyaki was trying to sneak world-building and deeper lore into everything he was doing. The rest of the development team were caught in the crossfire as these two senior figures battled for creative control. Eventually, after feeling that Yoshiyaki was deliberately ignoring his instruction, Shigeru sat down with him for a long, five-hour talk, where the two discussed 10 years of brewing tension over game design that dated all the way back to Mario 64. Said Shigeru, we will like a married couple that had grown used to each other and not talked hard to heart in the many years since their wedding, suddenly having a long chat after the children have left the house. From this point onwards, the pair felt a sense of relief, although they still don't see eye to eye on the subject of storytelling to this day. Shigeru was clearly ultimately pleased with how Super Mario Galaxy 2 turned out. The game eventually grew into the full sequel he'd wanted all along. When it was finished, he raved about it to Satoru Awata, who later said, as for me, something that really struck me this time was that, while it goes without saying that Miyamoto-san's games are always fun, Miyamoto-san went out of his way to tell me that this time the game is really fun. It was quite a good feeling to hear that. Miyamoto-san doesn't usually say that kind of thing, that he told me that must mean that it really struck a chord with him. I think it's the high concentration of ideas that made him say it. When Satoru made this comment, the development team in the interview were genuinely surprised, with Yoshiyaki saying, Maybe he feels like we took care of some of his own homework left over from last time. Super Mario Galaxy 2 might be a beloved fan favourite, but it's clear that the game's development was less than enjoyable for all involved. It makes sense that the developers, aside from Shigeru Miyamoto, might see it as little more than a glorified expansion that they were strong armed into developing. We are not saying that this is the reason why Super Mario Galaxy 2 was left out of Super Mario 3D but it would make sense if many of the key overseers of the Mario series might be eager to overlook this particular title. That said, considering just how beloved Galaxy 2 is by fans around the world, the moral of this story is important. Sometimes, even if you're not thrilled with your own work, even if it feels like a slog to complete or even start a project, other people might love it. Don't be too hard on yourself. Remember that as you learn and grow, even creative efforts that you find embarrassing have more value than you realise.