I don’t understand your complaints about being forced to beat Luigi’s Purple Coins when you’re not… You need 60 Stars to beat the game. I don’t know where this notion about 120 being halfway through came from. The “second round” you speak of is not mandatory, it’s an unlockable.

Yeah, I do believe Luigi’s Purple Coins is genius. This is a platformer, and LPC is straight to the point, skill focused, the purest challenge in the game. It’s in the concept, nothing to do with difficulty. I’m talking about the idea and you’re talking about the execution. (And I still disagree with you on that…)

What exactly are you having trouble with? Just pick either clockwise or counter-clockwise and work your way. I don’t know if this is the case with you, but some people don’t realize that there are 150 Coins on the board. The thought of being forced to collect everything you see can make things look a lot harder than they are…

The time limit is very lenient. In The Galaxy’s Greatest Wave (Loopdeeswoop), the penguin dude implies that you have more than enough time to complete the task. It’s the same deal with LPC. Just go in peace, focus on the platforms and forget the time.

I don’t smoke, by the way.

Wish it earned you all the secrets
of life, but you only get this….”

I’m leaving the last part out, because it was pure genius.
Good show.

Luigis purple coin galaxy the Best? Genius??? You ahve got to be kidding me.

I just tried for the 3rd time to get that doggone star and I’ve now blown probably 150 lives attempting it. I just can’t do it, whatever the reason, my lack of timing or talent, fine.

But making a level that you HAVE TO BEAT in order to progress through the game…THAT HARD is the single most frustrating experience I’ve had in a long time.

After 118 stars, all that hard work to try and get to the second round and I’m beaten by one moronically hard level.

It would be fine if it were optional. You “genius’s” could go have fun on that stage and revel in your talent and leave me behind, but it really bites that I can’t progress to the other stages.

I’ve played SMG For the last time and it’s all because of one stage Luigi’s coins. Put that in your hat and sit on it.

I don’t believe Galaxy’s Purple Comets are the bane of humanity as Sirlin wrote (at least not if we already consider them shameless playtime extension solutions, which most scavenger hunts are, anyway). We have to realize that there was probably a line of thought from designer to player — in a way, I can see them trying to figure out exactly what we’re doing as we do it, so they provided some goal leeway. First of all, Purple Comets aren’t necessarily the last thing you’re gonna solve in the game. We should always keep in mind that there’s a clear objective flashed our way every single time we get a Star and return to the Observatory: we need 60 of ‘em to save Princess Peach. I really doubt that players weren’t itching to view the ending as soon as they got 60. Purple Comets may appear as early as with 61 Stars or as late as with 105, so our perception of this feature might vary a lot.

My personal instinct was to save Peach and then worry about collecting all 120 Stars, something already suggested in Super Mario World (well, all the 96 exits), Mario 64 and Sunshine. In a nutshell, my proverbial ‘predictable’ Galaxy structure was shaken with a few collect-a-thon challenges here and there, so I had a lot more variety on my hands. When I didn’t feel like trying Rolling Gizmo again, I went on a relaxing hunt for Purple Coins in Beach Bowl Galaxy. And it was great fun. Maybe doing ‘em all in one go is what makes them so tedious for some players. Luigi’s Purple Coins is by far the best Star in the entire game, in my opinion. It’s a pure platforming challenge with fast path planning. Genius.

Nintendo’s real sin, the way I see it, is to have funneled all the Purple Coin challenges together in one group. Their actual merits are quite evident because they’re really solid challenges at heart (even here people seem to praise the timed ones, which I wholeheartedly agree). If you ask me, some of the other Comets are a lot cheaper than Purple, because they essentially force you to complete the objective again in the exact same way. I mean, seriously, Speedy Comets? Wouldn’t it have been easier and more ‘replayer’-friendly to add time trials for every single Star instead?

Another thing I feel iffy about is the structure predictability, something I predictably foreshadowed in one of my paragraphs above. We start ‘large’ Galaxies thinking we’ll have to find three Stars (as it appears on the map), and then the game suddenly throws a secret Star and a maverick Comet Star at us. Luigi being saved and aiding in the quest with pictures was a nice twist. Purple Comets are unlockables. Battlerock, Dusty Dune, Gateway and Buoy Base Galaxies all have one extra Star to collect aside from their usual 6 and 1. The three green Stars were valuable enough to be considered something special to seek, and the prize was very much emphasized as a big thing by the game. (”Trial Planet.” Sounds scary…) The final dome is somewhat unexpected, seeing as the game barely hints on another post-Engine Room nexus. While the basic skeleton remains predictable (generally five Galaxies per dome), there are still many surprises to be found as we advance.

[ ] Agree
[ ] Disagree
[ ] Heretic