I've been in a bit of a nostalgic mood lately, and I saw they had one copy of this game lefta at the resale mall and picked it up. It's been maaaany years since I last played this game, and while I did beat it when I was a kid, I never got all 120 shines. Well this time I did! With the help of a guide for a few of the most hidden ones as well as 50-some odd blue coins, and after 20 or so hours with the Japanese version, I 100%'d Super Mario Sunshine~.
Mario Sunshine sees Mario & Peach & Co taking a vacation to Dolphic Island (as it's called in Japanese). Mario is framed of painting graffiti all over the whole island, and is ordered by the island government to clean it all up before he can leave. Luckily, he has the aid of his mechanical sidekick Fludd (or "Pomp", as he's called in Japanese) who can spray water to clean stuff up and help Mario with his platforming. It's as lighthearted a story as ever, but it does introduce Bowser Jr. to the cast and also gives us some of the first instances of Bowser just trying to be a good dad, which is super wholesome and I love it ^w^ As in Mario 64, you go around 7 stages doing 8 missions in each (as opposed to the 6 missions in Mario 64) for the reward of a Shine (the collectible here instead of stars). There are additionally two extra hidden shines in each level, which are often just doing a red-coin time trial of a particular stage, but not always (and some are damn deviously hidden). The main plaza of Dolphic Island also has over a dozen shines to collect, hidden all over it, as well as 240 freaking blue coins hidden throughout the game (and you can trade in 10 of for a shine). While the game does have a lot of really fun mission designs, ranging from platforming puzzles you need to complete without Fludd (like Odyssey would replicate later with Cappy-less platforming challenges) to a hotel mystery where you need to find your way through all the secret floors/walls to your objective, the game overall has a weaker mission design than the other 3D Marios. This is what I would say is its biggest flaw, and often 2 or 3 of the missions in each stage do not really feel terribly substantial and the game overall feels like it has a bit less content than Mario 64 did despite having just as many stars. A lot of the hidden blue coins are also really deviously hidden, falling into a trap that Mario Odyssey also falls into in terms of trying to 100% it, but this is way worse. You'll likely appreciate coming across those kinds of minor collectibles in playing the game normally as they'll help you get towards the Shine total you need to beat the game, but it's a real pain trying to find ALL of them without a guide. The blue coins are a fairly minor complaint though unless you're going to try and get every Shine in the game. While I feel the mission design to be overall weaker (although still very good) compared to Mario 64 and the other 3D Marios, the way this game plays is WAY better than Mario 64. Mario starts to control in large part how he would for the rest of his 3D games, particularly in how wall jumps are far less difficult now that you can hug a wall for a bit before jumping off of it. In addition to that, Mario also has Fludd to assist him with its various nozzles. There's the default nozzle for shooting out at enemies and cleaning up spills, but there's also a hover nozzle that lets you hover for a short time in addition to 2 different sub attachments you can find in each level. It really varies up the ways Fludd can help you move around, and it does a great job of varying up the platforming, much like how Mario Galaxy would spice things up with gravity switching. The game holds up aesthetically really well, looking really nice played through the component cables on my Wii. The music is also great, and the main plaza theme is as catchy as ever. The VA in the game curiously is all in English even in the Japanese version, only having Japanese subtitles to aid Japanese players in understanding what's going on. The English VA that's there isn't terribly frequent or of an amazing quality, but it was very interesting to see them continue that after Mario 64: Rumble Edition also had all English VA here in Japan. Verdict: Highly Recommended. Fludd does certainly change up how Mario moves compared to the other games, and the mission design may be all around weaker, but this is still a fantastic 3D platformer. I understand that some people may not like it for how much it changes Mario's basics of moving around, but I still think this game is a blast and is totally worth checking out for fans of the genre who haven't gotten a chance to try this one yet.
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AuthorI'm an avid gamer who likes to detail their thoughts about what they play in the hopes it might aid someone else's search for a game to play. Archives
April 2024
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