Super Mario Galaxy 2

Next up in our demo session was Boulder Bowl, a harsher environment of bare volcanic rock and sticky tarpits, populated by rock-spitting mushrooms and the venue for my first boss encounter. It's in Boulder Bowl where you will also come across one of the new power-ups for the first time, the less-rebellious-than-it-sounds Rock Mushroom. This flinty fungus swathes Mario in stone, granting him the power to curl up and roll around with a shake of the Wiimote. Doing so turns our hero into a thundering sphere of rubble, crushing most enemies and exercising a turn of speed. The rolling dash can also be used to clear obstructions and shatter rocks or crystals to reveal goodies. Plus it can be used, as I quickly discovered, to knock down the safety barriers on the edge of planets and tumble to a slow death in the vacuum of space.

In true Nintendo style, it's a mechanic which is quickly used for purposes of playfulness as well as practicality. Before long, after a quick ring-fenced scenario crushing some itinerant meanies, a hugely tempting ramp appears over the horizon, prefaced by a set of querulous ten-pins.

Striking through these and over the ramp spins me through one the series' trademark dizzying shifts in perspective, following Mario as he soars, arms akimbo, towards another distant moon. But wait, that's no moon - it's made of girders for a start, and it's inhabited by a giant, fuzzy blue armadillo. Darth Vader eat your heart out.

Rolladillo is pretty much what you'd expect, judging by both his name and his inclusion as a boss in a Mario game. He trundles around his little planet, attempting to crush the hero with just enough poor judgement to expose his fluffy blue bottom when he overshoots the mark. When he does, it's time to break out the new power-up and slam his booty with a quick boulder-roll. And what a lovely booty it is - covered in the oh-so-cuddly fur effect which made the first game's queen bee so charming.

With Rolladillo dispatched to the chemist for a family tube of preparation H the demo moves on to the delightful Cosmic Cove, probably the prettiest of all the environments being shown. It's a water level, and the mechanics of swimming, including the air gauge and the underwater bubbles which refresh it, return. It's a different world in the aquatic element, slower and less precise, requiring less twitch judgement and a bit more forward-planning. That is until you hit the giant switch up by the elderly penguin hanging around on the surface. Quick as a flash the water is turned to ice and, in a way which looks like it'll define the series, one environment quickly undergoes a costume change to become another challenge entirely.