"Kyros you can't seriously be arguing that Starcraft and Diablo are primarily single player games.. I mean really!"

Yes most people play them with other people but unlike Unreal Tournament or Quake Arena they have a strong solo campaign with nice cutscenes etc. pp.

I think it is a bit silly to make a category of games that are not played often in multiplayer mode and then say in this category game x has the best multiplayer mode.

I mean come on. If it had a better multiplayer mode perhaps people would play it more often in multi?

You could make a category that excludes RTS and FPS and Fighters and Racers and Flightsims and some other game types and say here SMG has the best multiplayer but this would be a bit silly.

Perhaps it has the best multiplayer mode of all platformers

actually, I'm including all games that have multiplayer. But how often can you go through your single player campaign, and then just have player #2 hop on and give you a quick assist?

I'm not arguing that this is the best game for two people to play together, but that it provides the best SUPPORT. Now I don't know about starcraft or diablo, but how many of these can you play solo, and then just have one of your buddies stop by and say: "Oh, hey, let me get in on that" and all you have to do is hand them a controller and keep playing? and then he looks at his watch and says "Shoot, man, I gotta go to work/classes/home now" and all he has to do is hand you the controller back and you can keep on playing?
You either play solo, OR you play multiplayer, and you have to decide beforehand which you are doing.

My daughter and I have teamed up to give King Koopa HELL! She really feels like she accomplishes something when she helps me get a star. I've played a lot of multi-player games with a lot of people, but I really think that playing SMG with my baby is going to be one of my fondest gaming memories ever. She's going to look back at these times fondly too.

I love when solo games have features similar to the ones in Super Mario Galaxy. I havnt the multiplayer in Mario Galaxy but when i was a kid games like Jet Force Gemini and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had second player support that worked really well when my younger siblings wanted to play along and not just watch. They werent very good so when i wanted to play games like Contra or Final Fight they could be a huge hinderence by stealing lives after they die but in games that supported mulitplayer we could both have fun and do well at the game.

Well, i have to agree that 2nd player integration is nice. At first i thought that it's only for collecting starbits, but freezing enemies, kicking mario and some other stuff makes it fun.

My GF is enjoying helping me trough the game, and i must say it's more fun than playing it alone.

I never really got why some reviewers criticized Mario's multiplayer features for not being "full" multiplayer. Why would you criticize something for not being what it never set out to be in the first place?

Zack & Wiki was the same way. Other players have the ability to write on screen to point to things or make clues. Brilliant idea.

What makes that feature so great is that Galaxy (and Zack & Wiki) is the perfect kind of game to play while other people are around watching. And now you can just sit and watch someone play, jumping in to help whenever you feel like it.

It'd be nice if some more games had options like it. How about Navi Control in Twilight Princess?

Navi control? Dude, MIDNA control. Lets get her out there taking names and chewing bubblegum

Kyros said: ""in a primarily single player game."" Starcraft/Diablo? I have played them mainly for single-player. But of course we could argue what "primarily single-player" means. Seems to me like a phrase for taking out all games with good multiplayer from the equation . A bit like Apple is the 99% market leader for white Notebooks.

I'd define a primarily single player game as a game that belongs to a genre that is primarily known for single player and (the game) doesn't lend itself to multiplayer.  I could claim I played Halo 3 mostly for the single player, but that doesn't make it primarily single player.

I have to say I agree. I only just found out that the second player could stop those shrinking platforms, damn I wish I had known this before I tried luigi's purple coins.

In some cases it really helps, and it's great for me because my girlfriend is not very good at games, and with normal multiplayer she usually just feels useless, but in this case not only is she really helpful to me, but I can help her play as well while she does all the hard work.

We both love it, and I think it's a fantastic idea, especially for Nintendo's goal of getting non-gamers into the action. What better way to get someone interested in gaming than to give them a go at a game where they can watch you play and help out at the same time