Super Mario Sunshine

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(The 100th page on the now-deleted Awesome Games Wiki!)

Super Mario Sunshine
"On a tropical island far from the Mushroom Kingdom, among a people enchanted by sunshine, Mario has taken a break from the hopping, the bopping, and saving the princess to take a well deserved vacation... or so he thinks."
Protagonist(s): Mario
Genre(s): Platform
Platform(s): Nintendo GameCube
Release Date: JP: July 19, 2002
NA: August 26, 2002
EU: October 4, 2002
AU: October 11, 2002
KO: December 14, 2002
Developer(s): Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Series: Super Mario
Predecessor: Luigi's Mansion (by release date)
Super Mario 64
Successor: Super Mario Galaxy

Super Mario Sunshine is a 2002 platform game set in the Mario series released on July 19, 2002. Developed and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second 3D game in the Super Mario franchise, following Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64 in 1996. It was re-released on Super Mario 3D All-Stars, alongside Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Switch on September 18, 2020.

Plot

Mario, Peach, and several Toads go on a vacation to Isle Delfino, a tropical resort island shaped like a dolphin. Upon arriving, however, they find the whole island has been vandalized with a strange paint-like goop which caused the island's source of power, the Shine Sprites, to get scattered all over the place.

Mario obtains a powerful water spraying device named F.L.U.D.D. which he can use to clean the goop, however the resident Piantas blame Mario for the mess and force him to clean all the goop. Mario soon realizes that there's a "Shadow Mario" who is responsible for the goop and incriminating him. Mario embarks on a quest to recover the Shine Sprites, clean Isle Delfino, and capture his impersonator in order to clear his reputation.

Why It Feels Like Sunshine

  1. It is the most story-driven 3D Mario game, with a fully developed plot beyond "Save Peach" (That being said, this still is the main goal of this game), and the player not only player learns that being Mario impostor is Bowser Jr's part of scenario to stop him, but some locations have some mini-plots (as cleaning the sea in Noki Bay or seeing the Sand Bird hatched in Gelato Beach), and there all very well-thought-out.
  2. Although it is also the only 3D Mario game with full voice acting, the voice acting is great and funny in some times.
  3. Bowser Jr. makes his debut in the series, and he affords a lot of funny moments in the game, the greatest example is a cringeworthy cutscene after player defeats Mecha-Bowser in the first Pinna Park mission where Bowser. Jr reveals his face and says that Peach is his mother and he tried to "rescue" the Princess by sending Mario to prison because Bowser told him that "Mario is a bad man who wants to kidnap Peach". However, in the end of the game, Bowser' Jr. acknowledges to his father that Peach isn't his mama and he wants to refight Mario when he grows up, which makes Bowser proud of his son.
  4. Much like Super Mario 64, levels are big open areas with multiple objectives that take Mario to different sections of the worlds.
    • Unlike 64, however, missions have different obstacles (while 64 had some exceptions such as Ukiki in Tall, Tall Mountain or Unagi in Jolly Roger Bay, the opposite happens only in three levels from Sunshine: Bianco Hills (first mission is skippable), Gelato Beach (you can obtain the 8th shine and skip everything, which is useful in speedruns) and Pinna Park (the 5th mission can be skipped, despite it is really hard)).
  5. The controls and camera are significantly improved from Super Mario 64, while also adding some new moves for Mario as spin move.
  6. The new main mechanic, F.L.U.D.D., greatly expands Mario's mobility and is used very efficiently with the level design. It has four nozzles: Turbo Nozzle (can make Mario move a lot faster), Rocket Nozzle (which launches Mario high) and Hover Nozzle (the one that can help correct jumps as Spin Jump in Galaxy).
  7. Some missions involve doing challenging platforming courses without using F.L.U.D.D., which makes great use of Mario's acrobatic mobility and ensures the player won't become over-reliant on F.L.U.D.D.,
  8. Since the game takes place on a distant island far away from the Mushroom Kingdom, most of the enemies and bosses fought throughout the game are mostly not encountered in any other Mario game and have their own distinctive characteristics to fit in with the setting of Isle Delfino. The enemies that do return from previous games such as Bullet Bills, Bob-ombs, Boos and Bloopers all sport designs that differ someway or another from their Mushroom Kingdom counterparts seen in other games, with the reason being that most of the enemies were said to have been created by Bowser Jr using the magic paint brush he used to vandalize Isle Delfino with.
  9. Great OST, on the top being the music that play in hub and being rearranged four times total.
  10. Even though the frame rate never goes above 30 FPS, the graphics are outstanding for the time and makes it look like it was released on the Nintendo Wii, but it's also aged so well that it's still great today, especially in Super Mario 3D All-Stars, with the main highlight being the water graphics and distance ripple.
  11. Yoshi returns having more detailed model in comparison to Super Mario 64 (such as joints on his arm and more polished body) and plays a big role by being able to eat fruits, do flutter-jump, and change his color depending on the fruit he eats (papaya or a pineapple will give him orange color, eating banana/coconut color Yoshi to pink, and when the player feeds him a pepper or a durian, the dinosaur will have a purple skin; the direction where the platforms being created my spewing juice is also depends on the color by staying in plays, moving backwards/forwards and ascending by having orange, purple and pink appearance respectively). However, he will dissolve into nothing if player won't feed him in five minutes and Yoshi is vulnerable to water.

Bad Qualities

  1. Getting 120 shines in the game is really hard (especially if compared to previous Mario games as World or last 3D title) by getting 96 shines in every mission and additional 24 for 240 blue coins (10 blues for a shine can get in Racoon's house after defeating the Proto Piranha; there are 30 blues per seven stages, 19 from the hub, 10 from Corona Mountain and the last from Delfino Airport after you complete the game). There are some hard levels and aspects mentioned below:
    • Addressing the mentioned earlier, collecting 240 coins can be long, and annoying; you should visit every level to obtain them, but the worst part is when there are 1-2 missing coins and you are finding the overlooked one; there is also an infamous one in Delfino Plaza obtained from a Pianta, whom you should bring 3 durians by punching them over water and getting a risk of accidentally destroying a durian.
    • Much like Super Mario 64, you need to collect 100 coins in every level, but since all the stages are different unlike the 1996 game (except for the minimal changes that aren't matter such as Ukiki on top of mountain in the stage Tall, Tall Mountain, who appears only on the 2nd star hence its name), you should find the best way to earn 100 coins, and even the most optimal ways save you, but not too much (most notably Gelato Beach, which is possible only in one episode).
    • There are a handful of some bad/unfairly hard/gimmicky stages, there are many of them:
      • Almost all of the Shadow Mario levels in the "secret" places without F.L.U.D.D. (especially The Secret of the Dirty Lake, The Secret of Ricco Tower, The Yoshi-Go-Round Secret, The Hotel's Secret Lobby, The Shell's Secret, and Secret of the Village Underside).
      • The infamous The Caged Shine Sprite, where you have to go get a Shine Sprite. This wouldn't be so hard... if there weren't winds trying to knock Mario down and make him fall in the water. It is possible to make this level easier by using the Rocket Nozzle.
      • The infamous The Sand Bird is Born, which involves Mario having to collect eight Red Coins on the Sand Bird. This level may be really hard, especially whenever the Sand Bird is going up and Mario and F.L.U.D.D is falling off the Sand Bird (or Mario has to use his water) to get back on it, and it can be way too hard.
      • The Pachinko Machine is one of the worst ideas for a level in the series, being almost as bad as Tubular from Super Mario World. As mentioned above, it is poorly designed, and the physics are awful. You need to perfectly time your brakes on F.L.U.D.D to grab many of the eight coins and even the Shine Sprite.
      • Corona Mountain is easily the worst level in the game as it has an outrageous amount of instant kill traps, and the final boss is disappointing, despite having a good idea of fighting Bowser and his son while they are in the bath.
      • Lily Pad Ride (a secret stage in Delfino Plaza) requires you not only to obtain Yoshi and sail three ships to spray juice on orange sludge. Speaking about the stage itself, you should read a lily without falling into the water and shooting water to obtain every red coin (also, there is one coin that can be obtained by hovering over water and getting to the last platform), and the last platform has pipe that moves player back to Delfino Plaza.
    • All you get for getting every Shine Sprite is a postcard and a new costume, and the screen darkens, which is really disappointing, given how frustrating it can be to complete the game.
  2. Despite being a Mario game, Luigi is nowhere to be seen, nor is he mentioned, like in the previous 3D game, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, and the first Super Mario Land game.
  3. The game is very glitchy. In fact, there's a showcase that's almost an hour long to show you how glitchy the game is.
  4. The Piantas are unlikable at the beginning, because they all accused Mario of contaminating Delfino Plaza, even though all of the graffiti came before he even arrived at the island, and Mario doesn't entirely appear blue unlike the real criminal. In addition, they are never shown apologizing.
  5. Despite the game having voice acting, Mario does not say a single word in the cutscenes, which is dissapointing, and also lazy, they didn't let Charles Martinet having Mario talking in full sentences like all the other characters, and no, it wouldn't be the same situation as Bowser's voice sounding a bit off. Also, he couldn't speak for himself during the court session in the prologue, which can be considered a kangaroo court and makes the thing even more unfair for Mario. Why he can't speak while every other character speaks in the cutscenes?
    • Also, a thing to note, Mario says almost no word in this game aside from grunts, yells and screams, which is weird since Mario said lines like "So-long, King-a Bowser!", his pasta dreams, and "Thank you so much for playing my game!" in Super Mario 64, he also says more lines in Mario games onwards, which makes this situation even more disgusting of Nintendo's part.
  6. You can't pause the game while Mario is in mid-air and can only do so whenever he's on the ground.
  7. You can lose a life instantly if you lose a race with Il Piantissimo or if you fail to pop all twenty balloons on the Roller Coaster Balloons.

Reception

Super Mario Sunshine received widespread critical acclaim and is the 3rd best-selling game for the Nintendo GameCube, selling about 5.9 million copies as of December 31, 2009. In Brazil, the game has a mixed reception, with some people saying it's bad and some saying it's good.

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