21st April 2003, 2:12 AM
Review: Super Mario Sunshine
Platform: GameCube
Release Date: 8/27/2002
Rating: 6.5/10
<blockquote>Super Mario Sunshine was the hotly anticipated sequel to Super Mario 64, widely considered one of the greatest games of all time. It released to a lot of fanfare, and quickly became the feature game in Nintendo's first GameCube/free game bundle packs. Mario and Peach are heading for some fun and sun on a tropical island resort called Isle Delfino. Isle Delfino is home to the Piantas, a multicolored fat people with awful eyesight. Upon arrival, however, it is discovered that someone who somewhat resembles Mario is going around and plastering everything with graffiti. On top of that, someone's stolen all the Shine Sprites, which happen to be the sole source of solar energy in these parts. Since the perpetrator bears a marginally passing resemblance to Mario, he's locked up. Later, he is released on the condition that he cleans up all the graffiti. To do this, he is given a backpack called FLUDD, which has various water-spewing functions.
A true prize-winning story, to be sure!</blockquote>
GAMEPLAY: 5.0
<blockquote>If you played Super Mario 64, there is really little that is new outside of the various functions of the FLUDD pack. The FLUDD can spray a water jet in any of it's forms, but has three special functions as well. The default special function is the Hover jet, which will allow Mario to float for a few seconds, and is generally the most useful. Then there is the Rocket function, which blasts you skyward, and is essential for reaching high places. The most fun, if not functional, is the Turbo pack, which launches you at insane speeds, even over water. All of these functions require your pack to be filled with water, so you will always have to keep in mind where the nearest source of water is, lest you find yourself without.
There are some times when you won't get to take advantage of the FLUDD, and that is in the varied special stages, which are by far the most frustrating, the most fun, and the most inspired levels in Super Mario Sunshine. Abandoning the static mission-like gameplay of the rest of the adventure, the Special Stages are good, old fashioned platforming, with moving platforms, rotating platforms, disappearing platforms, you name it. Had more of the levels been in this vein, the score would be higher. And you might be asking yourself: Why is it so low?
Well, I do have a number of problems with the game. For one, it's far too easy. I'm not an expert master at most games, especially platformers, but I had this game beaten with 90 shines in less than a week. Second, quite a few of Mario's moves from SM64 are missing! Like Super Mario 64, there are 120 shines to find. Unlike Super Mario 64, many of the shines can only be found by locating a myriad of blue coins, placed all throughout the levels of the game. That is one of the many signs of sheer laziness evident in the development of this game. There are fewer stages to play in than in SM64, with more shine challenges, and while that might seem okay at first glance, you'll soon notice that there are MANY repeated objectives even in the same stage. Many stages have multiple red coin challenges, multiple fights against the same miniboss, and the ridiculously inane challenges against Shadow Mario. Factor in that many of the game's shines come by way of blue coin collecting, and you'll just scratch your head and wonder why Nintendo didn't put nearly the same level of care into Sunshine that went into Super Mario 64. </blockquote>
GRAPHICS: 7.0
<blockquote>The graphics are not really that bad. Sunshine is host to some of the nicest-looking water effects seen in a game, and the environments are of decent detail. It's a shame that the levels weren't more varied in appearance, as you have to spend so much time in many of them, but since the game is built on a tropical theme, that really is to be expected. There are some moments, though, where the sheer beauty of the game will stun you, Noki Bay being one of those. The Special Stages are always an odd assortment, bringing back memories of the childlike design that made Yoshi's Island so neat to look at. The main detriment to the game graphically is that some of the levels just do not look very inspiring or unique.</blockquote>
SOUND: 6.5
<blockquote>Really not much to say. Since the game is thematic, most of the music is tropical in nature, and that is average at best. The Special Stages, like in most aspects of the game, excel with a kickass remix of the classic Super Mario theme. </blockquote>
OVERALL: 6.5
<blockquote>Super Mario Sunshine is hardly a bad game, but it is most definitely not up to Nintendo's usually golden standards. As a game it stands well, and it is better than most other 3D platformers, but as a sequel to what is almost unquestionably the greatest 3D platformer ever made, from a developer with the highest standards in the industry, it falls far short of expectations and one cannot help shaking the feeling that this game is merely a footnote in the great history of Mario. With Super Mario 128 upcoming I hope that they learn from this experience and look back to it's magnum opus predecessor for inspiration, because it's obvious that something was lost in the transition from 64 to Sunshine. I also hope they look at the great job they did with Sunshine's special stages (the frequency of them pretty heavily contributed to the overall score being as high as it is), as those were incredibly fun and straightforward, honest Super Mario gameplay. Sometimes you have to keep in mind that you don't need to fix what isn't broken.
Platform: GameCube
Release Date: 8/27/2002
Rating: 6.5/10
<blockquote>Super Mario Sunshine was the hotly anticipated sequel to Super Mario 64, widely considered one of the greatest games of all time. It released to a lot of fanfare, and quickly became the feature game in Nintendo's first GameCube/free game bundle packs. Mario and Peach are heading for some fun and sun on a tropical island resort called Isle Delfino. Isle Delfino is home to the Piantas, a multicolored fat people with awful eyesight. Upon arrival, however, it is discovered that someone who somewhat resembles Mario is going around and plastering everything with graffiti. On top of that, someone's stolen all the Shine Sprites, which happen to be the sole source of solar energy in these parts. Since the perpetrator bears a marginally passing resemblance to Mario, he's locked up. Later, he is released on the condition that he cleans up all the graffiti. To do this, he is given a backpack called FLUDD, which has various water-spewing functions.
A true prize-winning story, to be sure!</blockquote>
GAMEPLAY: 5.0
<blockquote>If you played Super Mario 64, there is really little that is new outside of the various functions of the FLUDD pack. The FLUDD can spray a water jet in any of it's forms, but has three special functions as well. The default special function is the Hover jet, which will allow Mario to float for a few seconds, and is generally the most useful. Then there is the Rocket function, which blasts you skyward, and is essential for reaching high places. The most fun, if not functional, is the Turbo pack, which launches you at insane speeds, even over water. All of these functions require your pack to be filled with water, so you will always have to keep in mind where the nearest source of water is, lest you find yourself without.
There are some times when you won't get to take advantage of the FLUDD, and that is in the varied special stages, which are by far the most frustrating, the most fun, and the most inspired levels in Super Mario Sunshine. Abandoning the static mission-like gameplay of the rest of the adventure, the Special Stages are good, old fashioned platforming, with moving platforms, rotating platforms, disappearing platforms, you name it. Had more of the levels been in this vein, the score would be higher. And you might be asking yourself: Why is it so low?
Well, I do have a number of problems with the game. For one, it's far too easy. I'm not an expert master at most games, especially platformers, but I had this game beaten with 90 shines in less than a week. Second, quite a few of Mario's moves from SM64 are missing! Like Super Mario 64, there are 120 shines to find. Unlike Super Mario 64, many of the shines can only be found by locating a myriad of blue coins, placed all throughout the levels of the game. That is one of the many signs of sheer laziness evident in the development of this game. There are fewer stages to play in than in SM64, with more shine challenges, and while that might seem okay at first glance, you'll soon notice that there are MANY repeated objectives even in the same stage. Many stages have multiple red coin challenges, multiple fights against the same miniboss, and the ridiculously inane challenges against Shadow Mario. Factor in that many of the game's shines come by way of blue coin collecting, and you'll just scratch your head and wonder why Nintendo didn't put nearly the same level of care into Sunshine that went into Super Mario 64. </blockquote>
GRAPHICS: 7.0
<blockquote>The graphics are not really that bad. Sunshine is host to some of the nicest-looking water effects seen in a game, and the environments are of decent detail. It's a shame that the levels weren't more varied in appearance, as you have to spend so much time in many of them, but since the game is built on a tropical theme, that really is to be expected. There are some moments, though, where the sheer beauty of the game will stun you, Noki Bay being one of those. The Special Stages are always an odd assortment, bringing back memories of the childlike design that made Yoshi's Island so neat to look at. The main detriment to the game graphically is that some of the levels just do not look very inspiring or unique.</blockquote>
SOUND: 6.5
<blockquote>Really not much to say. Since the game is thematic, most of the music is tropical in nature, and that is average at best. The Special Stages, like in most aspects of the game, excel with a kickass remix of the classic Super Mario theme. </blockquote>
OVERALL: 6.5
<blockquote>Super Mario Sunshine is hardly a bad game, but it is most definitely not up to Nintendo's usually golden standards. As a game it stands well, and it is better than most other 3D platformers, but as a sequel to what is almost unquestionably the greatest 3D platformer ever made, from a developer with the highest standards in the industry, it falls far short of expectations and one cannot help shaking the feeling that this game is merely a footnote in the great history of Mario. With Super Mario 128 upcoming I hope that they learn from this experience and look back to it's magnum opus predecessor for inspiration, because it's obvious that something was lost in the transition from 64 to Sunshine. I also hope they look at the great job they did with Sunshine's special stages (the frequency of them pretty heavily contributed to the overall score being as high as it is), as those were incredibly fun and straightforward, honest Super Mario gameplay. Sometimes you have to keep in mind that you don't need to fix what isn't broken.