Super Mario Sunshine

GameCube

Nintendo - 2002

What can I say? Go buy this game NOW. By now you must know that any game made by Miyamoto is by definition good... so what more do you want? Mario Sunshine follows this tradition nicely with refreshing gameplay and some puurty graphics to boot.

The plot of the game. Who really cares? Mario has never been in real need of plot, but this time he's got it coming out of the wazzoo. After the events in Mario 64, Mario and Peach (The princess, duh.) go to a tropical island to rest and recouperate. It apparently took them 6 years to get there, or time in Mario's world is different, I dunno. But during this time Mario managed to forget how to crawl, and Peach learned how to be a ho. Look at her sometime, would ya? She's not the same young woman Mario met 14 years ago. Of course, Mario still looks the same, but that's never a good thing. Afterall, Mario is a fat plumber, and never forget that. So when they get to the island, they find a big pile of gloop. Yes that is the technical term. So he finds a giant supersoaker backpack like we have always dreamed of getting but our mother's said it was too expensive and not practical. Or maybe that was just me. Anywho, Mario waters the goop with his talking water spraying backpack, and then gets arrested. Apparently the inhabitants liked having goop all over the place. I have no comment there. So then they tell Mario he has to clean up the town of graffiti, for someone is running around looking like a blue version of him and spraying graffiti everywhere. No, it is not Luigi getting revenge for too short of a game, Luigi's Mansion. It turns out (SPOILER) that it's Bowser's son, JR. who wants revenge for his father's loss in Mario 64. Sigh, the times we live in. Jr steals Peach away from Mario, she screams in a high pitched voice helplessly, and Jr. explains that Peach is his mom. Yes you heard it here first. Sorry to ruin it for you, but they tell you this really early in the game anyways. You can now call Peach the town bicycle, for she gets around. Well, think about it. She's the smurfette of the Mario world. Have you ever seen a female toad? I sure haven't. So Mario's job is officially to "Clean up the world." Wow, that's asking a lot from one person. But with a talking waterspout/backpack, who wouldn't want to? Especially if you can jump like Mario as well. But he's not alone this time, he's got Yoshi to help. Not that Yoshi is that much help.

So, who actually cares about the plot anyways? The gameplay is the most important part by all means. So let's discuss that for a while. Have you played Mario 64? Yes. Did you like it? Yes. Well, you will like Mario Sunshine. There you go. Everything you did in Mario 64 you can now do in Sunshine, with the exception of crawling. But who needs to crawl anyways. That was always the annoying part of 64. You can do the triple jump, backflip, slide, butt-stomp, and more. You can now also do a spin-jump and have all sorts of cool additions with the backpack.

The backpack has 4 different settings. Unfortunately you can only carry 2 at a time. So the normal spray stays all the time, the hover-jets will be switched out with a turbo nozzle, which makes the game feel like Sonic, and a rocket nozzle, which can launch you really, really, really high in the air. All of them are used, but the extra nozzles, in my opinion, could have been used more. Oh well. It doesn't detract from the game though.

I can't as of this moment think of anything I really disliked with the game. There is one stage where you have to wear a scuba suit, and the controls are a bit annoying. They are Resident Evil esque, and were confusing for the first few moments. But after about 5 minutes, I got the hang of it again, so it wasn't too big of a deal.

What liked: Although I hated it at first, the minigames where you don't have a backpack and have to do a butt-load of platformers. It hearkens back to the old school Mario days of Lost Levels (My favorite game ever) and is quite fun. It was well made too, and while extremely hard, never TOO hard. AFter around 15 tries, you can get it. But you do keep playing those 15 times.

What disliked: Yoshi could have been more fun. Don't get me wrong, he is fun, but he's not used much, and he can't open doors, so I never found him that much helpful. He was a secondary character though, so I guess I can't ask for too much. Oh well. Another thing I disliked was that you really had to talk to the people in each level each time you did a mission to find out what to do. That got annoying fast, since Mario is supposed to be a fast-paced platformer.

What to expect: Classic Mario playing for mini games. Mario 64 plus better graphics and a waterpack. Excellent controls. Just plain fun.

What not to expect: Umm.... a first person shooter. That's Metroid's job.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: It's that much better. Miyamoto perfected the 3-d platformer on his first try, and since then all platformers have tried their best to recreate it. Mario Sunshine manages to do so, and add another great layer of depth.

Ratings on:

Control: 10 - It's a sheer masterpiece to play.

Graphics: 8 - Not the best on GameCube, but some cut-scenes were incredible. Wowsers, look at the water in the ocean.

Sound: 10 - Just because of the a-capella Mario theme in the mini games.

Style: 6 - It's Mario 64. Yes I admit. But it adds a new layer of depth. I'd give it lower, but I just can't seem to bring myself to do so.

1st hour: 10 - Oh my gawd!

5th hour: 10 - I've waited 6 years for this!

1st week: 10 - I can't find anything to keep me away.

5th week: 10 - Man, I guess I should go to class, but... Mario!

#1 reason why I hate this game: The princess is a ho. Sob, my childhood sweetheart has resorted to the oldest profession.

by Hawke