Name: Flipsville Galaxy
Debut: Super Mario Galaxy 2
I've been replaying Super Mario Galaxy 2 lately, and wow! What a lovely game. It's fun to just run around delightful, well-crafted worlds that Mario can explore that are also in outer space.
But while running through Hightail Falls Galaxy, my sibling asked me a very important question:
"Who built this Galaxy?"
In the Super Mario Galaxy games, we aren't supposed to question this. We are supposed to suspend our disbelief because the levels are fun, and that's what truly matters. But if you leave your disbelief unsuspended, then it's a very interesting question!
Hightail Falls consists of large, wooden structures, but there's not really anyone around who could've built them! (I mean, there's Penguru but he just seems to be visiting.) This is an entire galaxy-sized superstructure! Where did it come from! My sibling suggested I should talk about it on the blog, and so here we are.
...But I'd rather talk about Flipsville Galaxy so instead we're talking about Flipsville Galaxy.
I think Flipsville Galaxy might be one of my favorite galaxies in the game. It has such a unique concept and aesthetic! Flipsville Galaxy is stylized like an old-fashioned suburban household. Faded wallpapers, wooden tiling, this is an entire galaxy that looks like your grandma's house!
But this ain't your AVERAGE grandma's house... Because Flipsville Galaxy has wacky gravity! There are grates all over the place that you can ground pound, taking you to the other side of the planet, and seemingly inverting the gravity of the galaxy itself. If you walk off the edge while you're on the galaxy's B-side, you'll end up falling upwards into the air! One of the Green Stars actually makes a puzzle out of this, it's really cool.
The second mission switches the focus from the grates to Spin Drills, which makes it feel a little redundant with the Spin-Dig Galaxy, but it uses it for this cool gravity-switching Silver Star room so it's fine.
I like the music in Flipsville Galaxy. It's the same music as Chompworks Galaxy, which is another of the best galaxies in the game. I don't know how to describe this music, I think it's best described as "weird music" but that can really entail anything! Weird and... vaguely mechanical? It's definitely meant for Chompworks, I think, but it still fits Flipsville surprisingly well.
But the question from before still applies: Who built this galaxy? I mean, again, if we can suspend our disbelief, we can say that no one built Flipsville, the Galaxy just looks like that and always has. But again! Disbelief unsuspended! I want answers and that one is NOT satisfying me enough!
The only NPCs in Flipsville that you can talk to are the Toad Brigade, who are clearly just here on an expedition (as we can tell from the Starshroom being parked just before the Glamdozer boss fight). None of the other Sapient Super Mario Galaxy NPCs (Bees, Star Rabbits, Penguins, Gearmos, Whittles) can be found in this galaxy, which is interesting! While this galaxy is pretty clearly stylized like a residential area, it has no residents!
Or does it?
The boss of this galaxy, Glamdozer, has a crown, one of those royal neck frills (whatever they are called), and make-up so you know that she's a girl, seemingly implying that she is the queen of this galaxy! Does this imply that the Pupdozers are in fact a sapient species, and its main residents?
Maybe, but I still have my doubts that they built the place. Look at those stubby little legs! I don't think those are equipped for using tools! And if they are, they'd have to be pretty rudimentary.
I kind of got the vibe the Pupdozers are the pets of whoever lives here, though. Might just be the name. "Pupdozer," like a puppy! I must admit, I'd love living in a galaxy where the go-to pet is a squat lizard thing. The people in Flipsville have good taste.
But on that tangent, I think this also means Glamdozer is the Pupdozer equivalent of a pug, selectively bred to have her face all squished together. Some people might think it's cute, but it causes serious breathing issues that will hurt Glamdozer later in her life.
I think that even if Glamdozer isn't the galaxy's queen, she makes a lot of sense as some obnoxious rich person's pet. A rare breed of Pupdozer with a pink pelt, spoiled by her owners through overfeeding and dressed up in cute clothes.
I think Glamdozer could belong to the galaxy's landlord, but that implies that this entire galaxy has a landlord, and if that's true then I take back what I said about wanting to live in Flipsville! Landlords are awful, and we certainly don't need galaxy-scale space landlords out there!
...What was I talking about again? Oh right.
WHO BUILT FLIPSVILLE? WHO LIVES HERE? WHO IS SELECTIVELY BREEDING PUPDOZERS?
Perhaps this is why we're meant to suspend our disbelief. When we don't, then we just end up with more questions than answers. In Super Mario Galaxy 2, we never spend long enough in Flipsville to learn about who lives here, if anyone, and maybe that's okay.
Now if you excuse me, I'm going to Flipsville to see if I can get its residents to organize against their space landlord. See you later!
