A much shorter gap between 8 and 9 than 7 and 8!  Going into Progress Update 9, I had 1 star remaining (that I know of) before the Kitchen Observatory’s Bowser battle.  I jumped back into the Ghostly Galaxy for the final star.  This level introduced me to the Bomb Boos, black ghosts that would explode when spun into an object.  Mastering spinning the ghosts where you want is the only way to progress through this level and defeat the final boss, who was quite the doozy.  Being unable to obtain the comet star of the Ghostly Galaxy (as there were no comets in orbit), I continued on to the Bowser battle with 41 stars in tow.  The Bowser battle galaxy gave me my first taste of the launch cannons I so loved from Super Mario 64.  Defeating Bowser Jr.’s airship attacks was fairly simple, and yet another Grand Star was mine, opening up a new Observatory on the Comet Observatory!  The newly opened Bedroom Observatory galaxies were already completely opened to me because of my high star count.  I have four galaxies to get through before the Bowser Battle of the Bedroom Observatory, after which the final Observatory (the Engine Room) will be available to me.  The Bedroom Observatory, in a departure from the other Observatories, contains only a single one-star galaxy, and three three-star galaxies, whereas the other Observatories contained two of each.  That’s it for this update!

Tune in next time for Progress Update 10!  We’re nearing the finish, I think!