Super Mario Sunshine GC - You are my sunshine, my only sunshine...

Intro:
It’s been six years since we’ve last seen Mario on his own platforming adventure, and what do you think he was doing while we craved for another Mario game? Well, he had a few parties, played some Tennis, played a few games of golf, had a few races, and thinned out quite a bit for a little while. So when the Gamecube release had came and gone, and gamers were left with Luigi’s Mansion, Nintendo had been working on Super Mario Sunshine and polishing it up for a summer release, nearly a year after the Gamecube was released. When the Gamecube came out, it was the first Nintendo console that had launched without Mario leading the parade, cause’ this time Luigi booted Mario out of the line-up, leaving Mario with an extra 9 months to clean himself up for an August 26th release.

Plot/Story:
Mario’s had a pretty hectic 8 or 9 years, saving Princess Peach more than he probably wants to, and I think it’s time he should take a nice vacation and have a little fun and get a little brown on the Italiano body of his. And that’s just what he does, so of course he brings along his chick Princess Toadstool or “Peach” as she’s referred to now and an entourage(I’ve expanded my vocabulary) of Toads. Mario and Peach arrive on Delfino Island which is in the shape of a dolphin, however Mario isn’t exactly met with the welcome he was expecting. Instead, he’s put in jail by the locals for spreading graffiti all over the once peaceful and sunny island, and the Shine Sprites have been stolen, which were what kept the Island such a lovely vacation spot.

But wait, there’s a twist to this situation. How could Mario have caused havoc on the island, when he was accused for doing it right when he gets off the plane? There has to be some sort of explanation, so Mario agrees to clean up the island to figure out who’s framed Mario. Sure enough, Peach is kidnapped by non-other than Mario himself...err, wait! That’s not Mario, it’s a look-alike with a paint brush in his hand, which must be what he’s polluting the island with. So now, your vacation being interrupted, you’re off to save the princess and return the island to it’s jolly old self by returning all the shines.

I agree with Search66 wholeheartedly that the story in Super Mario Sunshine( SMS from now on for my typing comfort) isn’t going to win any kind of award like the Emmy or Grammy or even Kids Choice(alright maybe it could win kids choice), however the Mario games have never been known for in-depth stories like a Final Fantasy game, but are simple and fun, which is all that matters with any kind of Mario game. Heck, knowing Miyamoto, he could make a game of Mario cleaning his shoes and turn it into the best game ever, but it’s nice to try a little change of story by adding a little more to it than just “save the princess” and the annoying “Princess Toadstool is in another castle” back in the old school days.

Gameplay:
Mario’s back yes, but is this a sequel or Super Mario 64 version 1.5? Well it’s a little bit of both, however the gameplay in SMS has grown on me and thus has begun my addiction for another six and half months. First off, SMS is in now way lame or worse than Super Mario 64, in fact I think I’ve enjoyed SMS more in the past few days than I did SM64 at all, purely for the fact that the new gameplay elements that Nintendo has added have caught my attention and won’t let go. At the beginning of the game, you’re introduced to Mario’s new friend and companion, FLUDD, which is sort of a water gun that straps to Mario’s back. At first I thought the control would be a little bit heavier because of this pack on his back, but you actually can’t tell the difference, and so you’ll be controlling Mario just as well as you could in SM64, only better. You’ll be using FLUDD to clean up the island and also to defeat or sort of paralyze enemies, and there are two basic nozzles that you’ll be able to switch between the Squirt nozzle which is the default nozzle which is used for a variety of things, mainly to spray the graffiti up. I like how Nintendo used the pressure sensitivity “R” button to control how you spray with the squirt nozzle, as pressing and clicking the button will have Mario stand still and you can aim using the control stick, or by pressing slightly without clicking you can run and shoot, but the water will have a constant stream ahead of you, so you won’t be able to control the water to go up and down, but this is a nifty way of doing stuff. You can also spray in look mode, whereas you’ll have a better view from behind Mario’s eyes in order to aim your spray with better accuracy. There are a variety of combinational moves that you can use with the squirt nozzle such as different types of jumps, so just experiment around.

The second nozzle is my personal favorite, and that’s the Hover nozzle. This has to be the most useful nozzle because it’ll send two jets of water downward, causing you to go UP, and it can be used in a variety of ways, including being able to get hard to reach spots by just plain jumping. For the Squirt and Hover nozzles, they won’t squirt water out forever, you’ll have a limited time before the pressure goes out, so if you’re really high in the air with the hover nozzle, you don’t want to run out of pressure and fall back to where you started. The squirt and hover nozzles are the default nozzles, you can switch between them on the fly by pressing the “X” button, however there are two other nozzles that are found in different colored boxes that will take place of the hover nozzle until you find the box with the hover nozzle in it. You know the caps Mario had in SM64, and each cap was in a different colored box? Well this sort of works like that, as aside from the Hover nozzle, you can find the Rocket Nozzle and the Turbo nozzle inside different colored boxes(example: rocket is white, turbo is red, hover is blue). The rocket nozzle isn’t really that useful, but what it does is you hold the “R” button down, and pressure will build up, and within a few seconds you’ll sky rocket up, sending you high in the air. I guess this can sometimes be useful for skipping all the jumping by taking the long way up, and just using this rocket nozzle to blast your way up to the to which would have normally taken an extra five minutes to get there. I didn’t use this much when I was actually playing the game, but when I was just screwing around town for a little bit, I’d use this to play around with. The other nozzle is the Turbo nozzle, which is the most fun out of all three of the switchable(notice I said the Hover nozzle is my FAVORITE one, I never said it was entertaining), and what happens with this nozzle is it’ll build up pressure, and then use water to speed you on your way. You can run on land with it, however you can barely even turn, but when you’re in the water you can take turns on a dime. You can also use this to jump and reach a few locations you haven’t been able to before, however in SMS, there’s always a way to reach whatever you can see. One thing to remember, the Squirt Nozzle can never be rotated out, so if you want to use the Rocket Nozzle, it’ll replace the Hover Nozzle until you either go into a level, or you find the Hover Nozzle box(same thing goes for the Turbo, so the Hover, Turbo, and Rocket nozzles are the only ones that can ever be rotated out). Also, water just doesn’t come out of nowhere or fall from the sky(well maybe it does, but not in this game), so you’ll have to watch your water level which is in the bottom right corner, and when you’re running low, just find some sort of body of water where it’s at least waist high to Mario’s “jolly red belly”, and press the “R” button and hold and your water will replenish.

Now SMS borrows a lot from SM64, and that continues with the way each of the levels are set up. Instead of being stuck inside of a castle and jumping into paintings, you’ll be on Isle Delfino Plaza, which houses the entrances to the different levels or “story”. Each “Story” as the levels are called in SMS, houses 8-9 “Episodes”, each one bearing a Shine Sprite for you grabbing. Speaking of Shine Sprites, instead of collecting the castle stars back in SM64, you’re now collecting Shine Sprites, which look like little suns with a circular body and spikes coming out of the outside. A lot of the episodes in SMS are rather easy to complete and should really take no time at all to complete, however there are some spots in SMS that will require all the skill of gaming you have to complete. Again, mostly everything in SMS has been built upon the foundation that SM64 has created back in 1996, including the general similarities between the different episodes you have to complete. Before you start any episode, a short little panoramic camera view will sort of give you a clue as to where you’re suppose to go and what you’re suppose to do, but not enough to ruin the experience of what you have to do. I love this new feature, because there are some episodes who’s title will have basically nothing to do with what you have to do, although there are some like chasing shadow Mario and collecting the red coins that are pretty obvious, so at least most gamers aren’t left in the dark as to what and where they’re suppose to do. The level also may change a little bit from episode to episode, so there may not be one way to do what you’ve got to do, so it adds a little extra to the game so the levels don’t get quite as boring as they did after awhile in SM64.

Again, Shine Sprites are your goal in life in SMS, so when you get a certain amount of Shine Sprites, you’ll open up new levels. Although finding each level is the difficult part, as some of them have you work in order to find them, which I think is really cool cause it’s not the same boring open this door and go into that painting blah blah blah like it was in SM64, so it’s nice to have something a little different. However like in each episode, when you have enough sprites for a new level to be opened up, a small little introductory cut-scene will sort of give you a clue as where you should go or what you should do in order to find or open the next level. Also, the levels aren’t in a complete to unlock next format. Once you have enough shines, the next level will be shown for you to find it and enter it, so you can have multiple levels open and not complete them but still be able to go on and beat the game. You see to find the entrance to the final bosses’ lair, you’ll need to complete up to episode 7 of each level in order to pass, which means you could finish the game with a minimum of 49 sprites or something like that. And there are 120 total Shine Sprites just as there were 120 stars in SM64, so if there are only 8 Shines in each level, one having 9, and there are 7 levels, where do I find the other Shines? Well like in SM64 before it which had secret stars in the castle, SMS follows its big brother’s footsteps and also has hidden Shines strewn throughout Isle Delfino Plaza, however venturing on it’s own, there are now 2 hidden Shines in each level that you can figure out how to get. Some are easy to figure out, while others require some hard thinkin’, and you also have to do find it in the right story to boot, so good luck!

Aside from collecting Shine Sprites, you’ll also have three colors of coins to find in each level; Yellow, Red, and Blue. Nothing too different from SM64 right? Well sort of, first off the yellow coins, which aren’t quite as easy to find as they were in SM64, in fact you basically have to search for yellow coins because as well as a few just laying around somewhere waiting to be picked up like in SM64, most of them will be hidden and you have to find them by spraying water on certain objects or in certain areas. I kind of like this scavenger hunt method of finding yellow coins, however it can get quite frustrating when you’ve looked and sprayed over every inch of the level that you possibly can. Also, some Episodes will have more yellow coins than others, so experiment with each episode to see which one you have luck with. One-hundred yellow coins equals one Shine Sprite, so happy hunting. Now for the blue coins, instead of them being a special equivalent to 5 yellow coins, they’re now classified as “rare” items that are well hidden all over, and every 10 is worth a Shine Sprite. I think I heard somewhere that there are about 240 blue coins, so if you do the math 240/10, and that would equal 24 Shine Sprites just from finding Blue coins alone. Like in SM64, one of the episodes in each level will have you searching for 8 red coins in order to get a Shine Sprite, nothing too different here, although Nintendo got quite imaginative in SMS such as the coin fish in Noki Bay. But of course Mario isn’t invincible now is he, so his life is in the top right corner and the number of lives you have left is in the middle of the screen at the top. Yellow coins restore one health point while Blue coins restore 2 health points, so since there are usually at least one or two coins hanging around wherever you are in a level, you should be able to find health if you need any.

Now for the fun part, aside from relying heavily on the water-pack to defeat enemies in the Hover nozzle for other related things, SMS returns to SM64 style in that Mario has the greatest vastness of different moves and jumps to use in the game. Mario returns in SMS with the same moves from SM64, only they’ve been completely revamped and worked on for the best possible control you’re going to get in any platform game. So first you’ve got the regular jump by pressing the “A” button, or you can do the 1-2-3 jump which is basically a small jump, medium jump, and then a high jump with a flip all in a row. This is useful in some areas, however it usually takes too long to complete, so that brings us to Mario’s next jump, which is the side somersault, and this is done by going one way and then immediately turning the opposite direction and pressing the jump button to send Mario up into the air, incredibly useful while being chased by anything. Now we come to my favorite jump, the wall kick which has been worked on for better control, and you know depend on this wall kick with your life as you’ll most likely use it frequently to get on top of things and to sometimes save your life if you’re about to fall into the dark abyss. Also new to Mario’s jumping arsenal is the spin jump, which is done by twirling the control stick around once and pressing the jump button to send Mario spinning upward, sort of like his spinning attack in Super Smash Bros Melee. Of course to be tricky, there are lots of spots that Nintendo added that will require you to use a combination of wall kicks, side jumps, spin jumps, etc. in order to get on top of something, or to chase something, or you could play around with the different jumping combinations to see what you get. Remember, there’s always a way to get on top of something, so if you can’t find a way by plain old jumping, try putting some of those jumps together and see what happens. Again, you’ll rely on your Hover pack a lot as it allows you to hover in the air for a short amount of time, which is just enough time to make it across a really big gap, or to keep you from falling where you don’t want to fall.

It would be nice if there wasn’t anything wrong with the game, but there is one slight con about it and I’ll go ahead and talk about it. Enemies. Where are they? Evidently they decided to go on vacation too, as the levels are sparsely populated with them and seem to have been replaced by all the goop that you have to clean up. I mean, it’s not like there are no enemies at all, because there are, but the emphasis Nintendo’s put in SMS hasn’t been in the enemies that’s for sure, as more likely they worked on the adventure part more than they did the action. Also, the absence of Koopa shells and Goombas should be noted as I miss jumping on those stupid shroom heads. However whatever Nintendo does, there’s usually a good reason to back it up, so I’ll just be content that I got my game.

One of the bigger parts of SMS that I like is the work that Nintendo did on the control in the game, because not only is it a lot easier to control Mario and they’re more responsive, but the camera has been revamped and is now slightly annoying instead of incredibly annoying. Since the C-Buttons were replaced with the C-Stick, you know have full control of the camera as you can rotate it fully around you by moving it left or right, and you can also zoom in and out on Mario by moving it up and down. You’re not going to want to have the camera be on right behind Mario all the time, so by zooming the camera out more, you’ll be able to complete more tricky maneuvers because you’ll be able to see more. Also, now if there’s anything obstructing the view of the camera, you’ll either still be able to slightly see Mario and a blue circle will start to surround the screen, or if it’s completely obstructed by an object, you’ll still see Mario’s shadow, and also any coins, enemies or anything else that may be lying around will be seen as “?”, so this was a great idea as it prevents any un-wanted deaths, and at least you can see Mario’s shadow and not nothing at all. The controls are responsive as not once have I messed up on stringing different jumping combinations together. Kudos to Nintendo, they’ve done an incredible job with Mario’s second 3-D adventure outing.

How could I forget one of the most popular game mascot’s pet dinosaur, Yoshi? I couldn’t! That’s right, Yoshi takes a major step into his first 3-D adventure game, and is more ready than ever to help his good ole’ pal Mario out. When riding Yoshi, they go slightly faster, although you don’t have as much maneuverability while you’re on Yoshi as you do with Mario, meaning you can’t jump or use the water pack, and you have to clear a jump all the way with Yoshi because Yoshi can’t grab onto the ledge( although it would have been cool if you could use Yoshi’s tongue to catch onto a ledge and hold or lift Yoshi and Mario back up). Yoshi’s flutter kick is back, so when you jump just keep holding down the jump button and Yoshi will automatically do it’s “struggling flutter” kick to go farther and/or higher to reach other places. Yoshi has it’s Juice that it can spit out of it’s mouth similar to how Mario squirts his water gun( that totally didn’t sound right), and there are certain “blob” things that can only be taken out by spitting it with Yoshi’s Juice. Also Yoshi can use his tongue to swallow enemies, and also swallow different fruits. Depending on what fruit Yoshi swallows, will affect Yoshi’s spit in different ways to create different effects( yes there’s a difference between “affect” and “effects”), so experiment a little to see what happens.

For those who want a little more of SM64 style gameplay, meaning ditching FLUDD, then I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that there are 1-2 bonus worlds in each level that have you navigating through some not so challenging and some hard as hell obstacle courses, where it’s just good ole’ Mario using his jumping and maneuverability skills to reach the shine at the end of the course. Since you’ve most likely been spoiled by using the hover nozzle as your protector, these bonus worlds will require the utter most skill to complete, especially when you get in the later levels, and also one wrong jump or miscalculation, and you’ll fall into the abyss, having to start over from the beginning.

Graphics:
Nintendo didn’t quite milk all that the Gamecube’s got, but they sure milked enough to satisfy my taste. Before anything else is said, I must talk about the levels. They aren’t quite as big as Nintendo was boasting them to be, however when compared to SM64, they’re huge. I’ve heard some say, and I even noticed it myself, that the levels actually looked smaller than the ones in SMS, however it’s just because the levels have been built more UPWARD( ^ ) than OUTWARDS( \/ ), and what I mean by this is the levels are actually higher in size than the ones in SM64 ever were, therefore giving that sort of effect that the level is smaller than that of SM64, however they’re not. Especially when you’re looking from a technical stand point and all the colors and activity that goes on in the levels, they’re very nicely done. Each level is robust with life, and since it’s a tropical island, most of the time there is lots of happiness in the air and the levels are, as I said, filled with different colors that really bring each level to life in their own unique way. Sadly though, SMS’ one and only major con, is that all the levels take place on the island which therefore means lots of sunny days and a bright sun, so unfortunately we won’t be seeing any of the traditional platform levels like Lava worlds and Ice Mountains or anything like that. Hopefully, since SMS was mainly used to build up the game engine and character models so future Mario games can be developed quicker, the next REAL Mario game will include the classic Fire and Ice levels.

It may not seem like it, but this game is absolutely gigantic. From Delfino Plaza, which is basically the connector between all the levels like the Castle was in SM64, anything that you can see, you’ll be able to go to one way or another. Using the draw distance technique, Nintendo was able to create some really cool effects, including the blur effect you get from the sun when you’re looking at something from really far away. You can even see other levels when you’re already in a level, which in my book is actually really cool. Speaking of the sun, when you start collecting more and more shines, you may notice that the Sun gradually gets higher and higher in the sky, making Isle Delfino more and more brighter each and everyday. Of course since the Sun is bright, it will start getting in your eyes and such causing things to glare, which will then allow you to find a guy who sells sunglasses and ask him to give you some. The glasses are really cool, and there’s also a hidden outfit that you can unlock for Mario to wear. Anyway, no matter what level you’re in, or even if you’re just playing around in Delfino Plaza, every world is filled with lots of activity like people walking, kids playing, and other things that a lot of people may not take notice to.

Simply put, the water effects that take place in SMS are absolutely stunning, not to mention amazing that the kind of detail they put into the water for a Mario game. You actually see ripple effects, the waves of the water actually reflect real life wave movements, and best yet the way the water reflects every single object like it would in real life is also really cool. For example, you could use the hover nozzle and just spray real quick and land and see Mario’s reflection and how it cuts out as the water dries up. Also, a small little gameplay trick/technique that’s really fun, is using your squirt nozzle to spray ahead of you, and then running and diving by pressing “B”, and you’ll slide as long as you sprayed the water. It’s really cool, but also slightly true to life as water can get really slippery, especially on ceramic tile like what they use in High Schools(boy do I have a story about that).

Overall, I’d say that Nintendo did an incredibly good job with the visuals in Super Mario Sunshine, and the tropical atmosphere was even a good idea to boot, although I hope they boot it out of the next game and go for some classical gameplay/levels like Fire and Ice which sadly are absent from SMS. The massive amount of detail put into the water effects were also a nice addition to SMS, although you’d think they’d have enough detail in them as long as it took Nintendo to release another Mario platform game( six years for those who don’t know).

Sound:
I’m going to say this now, I have never been as addicted to a game’s sound as I have in SMS, let me tell you why. First off, the only tune that gets annoying is the Delfino Plaza tune which will probably start to eat your brain alive by the time you finish the game, but you’ll get over that. The sound effects aren’t too shabby, I mean you can hear the water, you can hear enemy squeals, and stuff like that, however the biggest surprise to hit SMS is the use of voice acting for the characters. Princess Peach has a slightly weird and but soothing voice, the Toadstools have incredibly annoying high pitched hoarse voices, and most of the locals talk also, although I think I came upon a few that didn’t talk and just had the dialogue boxes for you to read, and Mario has followed the steps of Crono and has basically become a mute. The only time you hear anything out of Mario is when he collects a Shine and he yells “Yea!” or something like that, or when he blurts out “Momma Mia” out of nowhere, and then there’s his other little voice effects like him yelling as he falls, head butts something really hard...you know, stuff like that. But c’mon what do you expect from a Mario game, grade A actors? I don’t think so, I think the voices for the characters fit the game rather well, although I wish a shotgun was handy so I could shoot the Toadstools.

Straying away from the sound effects, the music is the most memorable concept of the game, in that you’ve got your basic happy-go-lucky tunes, and of course the famous Mario midi that probably cements itself in anyone’s head for the rest of their life the first time they hear it. A lot of the songs are kind of remixed for a more hip-hoppy sound to them, including the Mario theme song which sounds like a bunch of Jazz and Bluegrass bands got together with a more hip-hoppy attitude that suits the game rather well. In fact I’m humming the tune to myself at this very second, trust me people, for those that don’t know, this gets VERY addicting.

Rock’s Thoughts:
Super Mario Sunshine is THE game to own if you have a Gamecube. None of that Mickey’s Magical Mirror or Universal Studios: Theme Park or Home Run King crap, but you MUST own SMS, even if it’s the last thing you do. Super Mario Sunshine has enough replay value to last for at least 30 or so hours of gameplay, which is really good for a platform game. Nintendo added enough into this game that will last a long time, including finding all 120 Shines which is no easy feat, unless you’re using a FAQ or strategy guide which sucks all the fun out of this game. There’s nothing to get serious about with this game, you’re not going to kill someone if you die right when you’re about to get a Shine or something, but it’s a super fun game that can be played and enjoyed by anyone of any age.

~ Happy Gaming ~