It really surprised me how, early on, I heard so many people dissing how Mario Galaxy implemented multiplayer support. About 5 days ago, I broke down and grabbed Mario Galaxy and started playing it along with my sister. I also created a different file that was specifically for playing purely single player.

My conclusion is that Mario Galaxy is honestly the best implementation I have ever seen for multiplayer support in a primarily single player game. Nintendo has already tried it before with Windwaker having the Tingle tuner, but that was cumbersome to set up, and created the situation where the second player had few points in which they could readily assist the main player, but much more often they could easily become a hindrance.

I've already rescued Peach, and there is NO point in the game that I have seen that I have needed 2nd player support in order to get through a level, but there is also NOT EVEN A SINGLE INSTANCE in which the benefits of the 2nd player could not be seen.

There is a lot of multitasking to be done while playing solo, starbits can easily become a distraction, and as much effort has to be focused on dealing with the enemies and not getting injured as it is just managing to keep control of mario during weird inversions of mario or the camera.

When Player 2 steps into the game, they can collect starbits out the wazoo, and also help keep enemies from being able to harm you. Which leaves you to concentrate solely on navigating the level and collecting coins and Life plus mushrooms. The 2nd player also has the ability to make mario jump, super jump(if timed properly with 1st player) or do a spin jump when Mario is midair. The jumping feature has become much less essential as I have gotten better adjusted to the controls, but there have still been numerous times in which the second player adding that spin jump has been the difference between getting onto that ledge and missing that ledge, sometimes making the difference between life and death.

The most important feature of the 2nd player is the ability to stop enemies and some projectiles. everything from goombas and coconuts to bullet bills and (chainless) chomps. By stopping bullet bills, the 1st player has ample time and leeway to move around in order to get the bullet bills lined up to crash into the various cages that they are needed to break. If mario is down to just one life point, you no longer need to worry about whether the enemy you are trying to bounce on for a coin will end up killing you instead, because when the 2nd player holds them still, the enemy can't hurt mario at all. Bounce on the enemy for a coin and suddenly you've taken all the pressure off of the 1st player.

Player 2 can stop coconuts that are hurled by enemies, making it easier to reach them in order to send them back to hit the enemies they came from. King Kaliente becomes significantly easier to beat with 2nd player support. Player 2 can also stop shrinking floors from disappearing, allowing you to relax and plan out your course of action while running on them.

That's not even getting into the ability to shoot starbits at enemies(and those stupid rabbits). Sure, if you have someone who's trigger happy, it could get annoying, but there are enough other ways for them to help that as long as you aren't trying to play with a complete asshole, you're practically guaranteed to benefit from having the 2nd player support.

Even a master gamer will be able to see benefits from having even a novice 2nd player support them, and a novice gamer can greatly benefit from the support of a fellow novice gamer or a master gamer alike. It's totally optional, and the second player can walk in and out of the game as they want without the game having to be stopped for them (unless the first player wants the second player's help that badly)

As far as the game itself goes, I actually prefer the original Mario 64, but in my eyes, the way that multiplayer support in Mario galaxy has been implemented makes up for that by leaps and bounds.

ohhh ur title of the thread wasnt sarcasm :)

anyway dident now the second player could do more than collect starbits and shoot them at enemys, gotto try some of the other stuff u mentioned but in my opinion a second player should be able to play a character (luigi, yoshi,..) aswell to really make it worthwhile for both

It's a good implementation, sure, but it's not the best multi-single player use. Gears of War comes to my mind, at least.

Brawl's multiplayer will be over nine thousand times better! But I really do like the Co-op in SMG!

 Brawl will develop a new word for playing together when its out, something like..Ultraplaying?

As an older brother and older cousin to less experienced realtives with this game, it's just nice for me to do more than just sit there and tell them what they're doing wrong. =P

Pointer is useful in itself is I can just hover over whatever they may of missed. Freezing enemies is also really useful 
in Bonefin Galaxy since the damn things constantly fires torepedos at you.  

"Mario Galaxy has BEST multiplayer support EVER"

Oh come on get real. Nobody argues that SMG is a bad game but best multiplayer support? Not even worth a laugh. Diablo, Starcraft, Quake, Halo if you want splitscreen of course racers and fighters. The number of really great multiplayer games is in the gazillions. Mario is not even worth to be considered in this list.

You are wrong Grey Acumen.

If Mario Galaxy had deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag and online co-op it would ACTUALLY deserve all the praise it has got from videogames sites. Multiplayer modes on the past Mario incarnations were much better. I don't understand why they give the game 10's and 9's.

On a more serious note, I haven't played multi on Galaxy :(

kryos he said for a single player game, diablo, starcraft, etc are designed for MP

 This guy has obviously thoroughly gone through the OP and dissected it word by word.  He clearly noticed the phrase "in a primarily single player game."