Super Mario Sunshine review by Tyson

Overall

Rent

     Super Mario Sunshine is a game that fails to live up to the expectations that Super Mario 64 set. While Super Mario Sunshine has some great moments it’s bad momemnts sadly drown them out. Sadly this ends up being one of those games that you should borrow from a friend and play over the weekend. Go in and collect a few Shine Sprites then call it a day.


Gameplay

     I came away enjoying the setting and story in Super Mario Sunshine. The game starts off with Mario and Peach flying to Isle Delfino for some fun in the sun vacation. Sadly as they arrive Isle Delfino is in all sorts of panic due to a Mario imposter covering the Isle in various paint like goop. Sadly Mario is accused of causing this mess and is forced to clean up the island. This story allows for a new tropical setting for a Mario game which felt so fresh and fun for me. This tropical setting was probably one of my favorite aspects of the game.

     The big gameplay innovation for Super Mario Sunshine is a device called FLUDD. This is a water spraying backpack thing that Mario uses throughout the game. You can use its spray nozzle function to do things like attack enemies or clean up the nasty goop around the game. You can then swith to a secondary function that will do things like allow Mario to hover in the air, shoot up high in the air, or allow him to run at incredibly fast speeds. I really did enjoy the FLUDD mechanic in the game and I liked how you could combo in Marios abilities and FLUDD functions as well.

     I felt that the level design is a big issue for the game. While I liked the look and feel of each level but going through and collecting the various Shine Sprites wasn’t always a fun endeavor. Collecting these Shine Sprites is similar to the stars in Super Mario 64. Each level is broken up into 8 episodes that focus on a particular Shine Sprite. You will do different things like defeating a boss, collecting red coins, chasing down the imposter mario, or various other activities to get these Shine Sprites but sadly most of them aren’t fun. Many times I found myself just exhausted in a bad way after collecting a particular Shine Sprite. Having to do the similar themes in each level like collecting red coins or chasing down the imposter mario got old real quick. Each level also had an obstacle course stage that I found to be very unenjoyable. Not only do they take your FLUDD away but a miss jump will almost always result in a death. Just terrible design.

     I found Super Mario Sunshine to also suffer some mechanical problems as well. The games camera has a lot of issues. Objects will constantly block your vision throughout the game. Even some fixes that you could tell that Nintendo tried to innovate with like Mario become a silhouette when he his blocked from the camera view suck because you still can’t see any of the environment around him. There is also many times throughout the game were the camera is just broken and would rather show you a wall then Mario. Collecting some Shine Sprites became a major pain because of this.

     Still with all the problems that Super Mario Sunshine has there is still something fun about it at times. Going through and exploring each of the levels was fun. I really loved how I could experiment and do fun things with Mario’s abilities and using FLUDD. I liked how the Isle Delfino overworld had different events that would occur as you collected more Shine Sprites. I just really wish that other aspects of the game could match these moments.


Control

     I felt that Super Mario Sunshine pulled of its control setup very well. The left analog stick is used for controlling Marios movement while the right C-stick is used for camera control. The other buttons on the control are used for jumping or various FLUDD functions. I liked how you could lightly press the R button which would cause Mario to shoot water out of FLUDD but still let you move around. While pressing the R button all the way in would cause Mario to stay stationary while shooting water from FLUDD.


Graphics

     I loved the graphical look of Super Mario Sunshine. The bright and colorful areas, the water and goop effects, and little animations or effects that the characters in the envinroment have are all great. Character models look fantastic as well. This is such a beautiful game.


Sound

     Another fanstic area for Super Mario Sunshine. The background music has this nice tropical feel to it. The only down side to the audio is that the character voices aren’t delivered in the best possible way. I would love to have characters like Princess Peach not sound so ditzy.