u/e_Z_752

There are four galaxies in Super Mario Galaxy that require you to both possess a certain amount of Power Stars and fulfill an additional condition. There is a good reason behind each one, as outlined in this table.

Galaxy	Additional Unlock Condition	Reason Behind the Additional Condition
Buoy Base	Complete Beach Bowl Galaxy mission 1: The Sunken Treasure.	You need to learn how to swim underwater.
Bonefin	Complete the Drip Drop Galaxy.	You must be familiar with how to control and attack with shells underwater.
Matter Splatter	Complete Toy Time Galaxy mission 3: Bouncing Down Cake Lane.	You must be familiar with how your movement will significantly change with the Spring Mushroom.
Bowser's Galaxy Reactor	Obtain 5 Grand Stars.	The 5th Grand Star will >!activate the Engine Room, allowing Rosalina to pilot her Observatory to wherever Peach is being held hostage!<.

There are also similarly two Hungry Luma Galaxies that require you to complete two missions as opposed to one to bring out their Hungry Lumas for Star Bit feeding (Sand Spiral and Boo Boneyard), and the extra mission both of them need (Ghostly Galaxy mission 1: Luigi and the Haunted Mansion) has the same good rationale: you must be familiar with the controls, abilities and weaknesses of your Boo Mushroom form.

The replay with the first 90 seconds of play missing can be watched here.

In Super Mario Galaxy, you'll get to pilot three different unusual vehicles - the Ray, the Rolling Ball and the Blowing Bubble. I made two interesting observations about them all collectively:

1. The three vehicles comprise one for air (Blowing Bubble), one for sea (the Ray) and one for land (the Rolling Ball).
2. All three vehicles make additional use of the Wii Remote's motion controls and emphasize them to the point where the Nunchuk is almost not used at all. When riding the Ray, the Nunchuk is absolutely not used at all, but you still need to hold it, as you steer the Ray by just twisting the Wii Remote left/right in one hand. When rolling on the Rolling Ball, the Nunchuk becomes completely useless and you would better be playing a Rolling Ball course by laying the Nunchuk on its side and gripping the Wii Remote with both hands like it's a giant joystick. When piloting the Blowing Bubble, the only thing you need on the Nunchuk is the Z Button to exit the bubble, while you use the Wii Remote's pointer and A Button to blow the Bubble around.

I'm playing Luigi mode for this game and have thought up about making it different than the Mario playthrough by holding off on fighting Bowser until I've collected 105 Power Stars, the maximum you can have before needing to fight him, since beating Bowser the first time around per character unlocks the last 15 Power Stars in the form of Coin (Purple) Prankster Comets. Who else has tried playing Luigi mode this way?

Spoiler 1: get your impersonated ID bracelet upgraded to gain access to the Webb R&D base command center

Spoiler 2: turn yourself in as David Sommerset

One of the ways you can get your ID bracelet upgraded to gain access to the command center is to read the security memo that targets David Sommerset, Bond's first false identity when infiltrating Webb Industries' R&D base. Bond can then choose to claim that he's David Sommerset and turn himself in to a security guard. He would then lead Bond to the security room to have his identity and files verified. Then and there, Bond must fight three guards as opposed to two if he entered the room by any other means.

After discovering the "turn yourself in" path for the bracelet upgrade problem, I decided that the combat encounter that you must win to get the upgrade could be made a little harder to make things interesting - if Webb Industries regarded Sommerset as a more serious threat. The guard would then handcuff Bond and you would have to follow the security guard to the security room as usual. Then Bond has to fight three guards while handcuffed. Because he can't use his hands, he cannot punch, grab or throw. He can, however, kick, dodge and headbutt. After defeating the guards with these restrictions in place, he must then interact with a key to unlock his handcuffs, then upgrade his bracelet.

Would this be a more interesting version of the surrender path for the ID bracelet problem?

Someone once brought this up already, but I have thought about whether or not this game should be novelized because it is a great game to begin with. The only major obstacle I see with a novelization of this game is that it can't account for the multiple ways Bond has available to solve certain problems or overcome certain obstacles, like sneaking into the security room of the museum in Chapter 11: Uninvited, which is a unique issue with adapting games into other mediums.

Do you think that kind of problem is serious enough to make a novelization unthinkable, or could it still be done?

Spoiler 1: THEIA's core

Spoiler 2: it's stolen by Isola Vale, after being dunked in water

In the final fight between James Bond and Damien Webb, Bond throws himself and Webb into the water to drown themselves, with THEIA's core still attached to Webb's exosuit. Isola Vale then fishes out the soaked core and saves Bond, before heading off. The theft of THEIA's core by Vale would be considered a setback for MI6, but how much more of a setback would it be for Vale if the water damaged the core she stole, given that electronics can be damaged when dunked into water?

I forgot that I could hold the attack button in melee combat to charge up a heavy strike, and I think it's because the brawling in this game is so fast and frenetic that I don't have time to wind up a heavy attack. I went through the whole story without using it. Who else forgot about charging attacks?

...is one that lets you drag unconscious or dead enemy bodies so that other enemies can't see them.

You can do this in the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, so I'm a bit baffled over why you can't do it in this game.

Do you think not being able to drag bodies was a missed opportunity in this game?

You will need the Flash Mines to complete the online challenge "Deadly Delivery", and they can be helpful for the "Stay Stealthy" online challenge, which requires you to kill 4 enemies that arrive after>! Roger Finch sounds the alarm!< before they see Bond. And if I'm not wrong, they can also >!blow up military-grade Webb androids!<!

Your latest chance to take the Flash Mines is in Chapter 15: Man of the Hour, when you go to the Q-Lab.

These costs are based on the Intended difficulty. The gadgets are divided by category and order of unlock in the story.

Electronic Gadgets

Gadget	Energy Cost
Q-Watch hacker	33%
>!Shockwave Camera!<	33%
>!Laser Strap!<	50%

Chemical Gadgets

Gadget	Chemical Cost
>!Phone Dart!<	66% (33% on non-targets)
>!Smoke Pod!<	33%
>!Flash Mine!<	50%
>!Missile Pen!<	50%

The Nothing to Report challenge requires you to eliminate all guards in the workshop without being seen, but a stupid bug prevents the challenge from completing even after I have done three successful stealth takedown runs, including one when I eliminated the two guards in the storage room before the workshop with stealth takedowns. In all three of the runs that I did that should have counted as completing the challenge, an enemy saw an unconscious body. Is that what breaks the challenge?