Super Mario Sunshine

Nowhere near as good as Luigi's Mansion, the game's puzzles are so repetitive and frustrating much of the game's fun is taken away. The camera angles are nearly impossible and Mario's moves are hard to learn. Spraying off graffiti, hanging on hooks that are nearly impossible to grab onto, balancing on tightropes, talking to Delfino residents and some of them punching you all the way across the town, a bunch of new, useless moves and even the music is pretty annoying after a while. Granted, the game is not entirely bad, it never gets boring just very, very frustrating. Maybe it's just me but I think Nintendo didn't put as much effort and thought into this game as they have with so many others.

Overall rating: 4/10

Nintendo just keeps delivering the goods. While this may debate-ably fall slightly short of later outings like Super Mario Galaxy, this game seemed to make for bigger and better things in the 3D Mario gaming sector. Mario Sunshine came out on a system which it helped boost install-bases for: The Nintendo GameCube, which would remain Nintendo's worst-performing home-console, sitting at 22 million + units, until the Wii-U under-performed the GameCube in 2016 (13.5 million+ total). It's amazing that Mario Sunshine managed to sell over 6 million units worldwide, because this game is one of the best Mario games in the character's 32 years of history. Even an under-performing console doesn't keep quality games down from getting the attention they deserve.

This game was effectively the true successor to Mario 64, and it shares a lot of the same sound effects, jumping mechanics and feels like what would have happened if that game got polished up and thrown into a different environment to the Castle. In this case Mario is at Isle Delfino and the setting is an emphasized tropical and sunny paradise that feels like everything basically takes place at, or near the beach. The only time the beach aesthetic doesn't come into play is when you enter the areas where Shadow Mario takes your squirt nozzle away. Some of the time those levels feel like they could be outside the world of the game itself, like in the far reaches of space.

Taking everything into account, Mario Sunshine is a fine piece from Nintendo's massive gaming library. Give this one a shot; it deserves it.

Adds many unique elements to the classic Mario scenario. A great sequel to Mario 64. Controls are familiar to those who know the previous adventure on Nintendo64, though slightly enhanced. What can I say? It's addictive and a must-play for GameCube owners, and it gives most video game addicts a reason to rent or own a Gamecube.

SMS is definitely a gorgeous game to look at and a perfect game to get you in a summertime mood. The perfect blue skies, glorious sunshine and beautiful water effects make you just want to pass through the screen and into the Isle of Delfino in the game itself. Mario vacations in this sunny resort only to find it's covered in pollution when he arrives. So now it's up to him to clean it up across the various levels and worlds.

It's one of those games that you can just keep on playing over the years and even put aside for a while before going back to it. It doesn't really have the same charm in the winter months however. The music, the graphics, the humor are all cute and colorful. It makes for perfect escapism.

However, the designers have simply tried to cram in too many controls on the Gamecube pad and, as a result, it's a very hard game to control. Many levels and missions require precision manoeuvring and can often take several minutes of painstaking balance and ascension only for it all to be undone, as Mario plummets several hundred feet, by a tiny little flaw in your button-bashing. It will seriously drive you C-R-A-Z-Y.

Had it not been for this, I would probably have stuck with SMS to the end, but I had to just be done with it once and for all, otherwise I would have chucked my Gamecube at the wall.

Graphics A Sound A Gameplay C Lasting Appeal B

Super Mario Sunshine lives on the classic Mario, but takes it another level with even less side-scrolling than Super Mario 64, and a whole lot more sense of freedom. The boss fights are fun instead of frustrating, the levels create more and more challenge, and the controls, despite the Side Somersault, are easy to master.

Mario, Peach, and Toads head for a nice Hawaii plus Disney World vacation to Isle Delfino(watch for the inside joke on the GameCube's old working name "Dolphin") when Mario is accused for polluting the island with slimy graffiti, taking away Sunshine and the Shine Sprites, which have vanished, and making everywhere an unhealthy, dangerous, depressing-looking place. The real culprit is someone who we all know, but has dressed up to look like Mario. He repeatedly steals Princess Peach away, just like a famous relative of his. Mario must now use the new F.L.U.D.D.(Flash Liquid Ultra Dousing Device, watch for the bottom left corner of the screen when it analyzes Mario)water pumping backpack, which gameplay is based on, to defeat enemies, triumph over obstacles and solve the mystery of Who, Why and What happened? As he collects Shine Sprites from missions, Sunshine will return to the darkened island.

The music is great! I love the mysterious and remixed tunes that appears in the Shadow Mario scenes, plus the obstacle courses, though some of the sunny, bright music doesn't fit the mood even if it fits the setting.

Nintendo is starting to regain its' reputation to not have the best possible graphics, but having original gameplay that's fun and smooth.

The variety of activities that you are aloud to do it great, and the ways to collect Shine Sprites are numerous. The voices are fantastic and never boring, the graphics are as good as the many computer-generated images of Mario you see in video game magazines, and the cut-scenes are great and hilarious! I fully recommend this game, and to get a guide or a couple Nintendo Power magazines to help you out, but you should really be "Okey-Dokey!"