Thank you so much for-to playing my game!

One of my best parenthood moments came when I realized my firstborn enjoyed watching me collect stars on Super Mario 64. She still loves to watch Mario jump around and get the stars (although she does NOT like it when I die repeatedly). I finally succumbed to getting a Wii after watching her adore Super Mario Galaxy when some friends brought over their Wii.

Fast forward a couple years: Super Mario Galaxy 2.

I actually found this game to be a great improvement on the original (which was pretty good to start out with). The original game has 242 stars, but the second 120 stars are just repeats using Luigi instead of Mario, and the last two are just glorified cut scenes. Yes, I got all the stars. A couple weeks ago I got all the stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2 as well. However, the second 120 stars in that game are hidden in the levels and thus not as redundant as in the first game. Also, the last two stars come from a "Grand Challenge" galaxy that is easily the hardest level in the game.

Here's proof of all 242 stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2:
I tried to just find this picture on the net, but the only one I could find was badly focused and in a foreign language. Since the Wii doesn't allow for exporting pictures to email, I had to just take a picture myself.

Full disclosure: I did not beat either Super Mario Galaxy game by myself. During both games I had my wife helping out as the second player. This helps immensely. I may have eventually been able to beat all the levels without her, but I more likely would have given up and moved on. During Super Mario Galaxy 2 I had my kids watching and helping too (that is actually helpful when we looked for the hidden green stars).