Cleaning an island full of goop doesn't sound so fun... but
Our favorite plumber is taking a well deserved vacation, along with him is Princess Peach, and her steward, Toadsworth. Right upon arrival there is already trouble for them. Mario teams up with FLUUD, some sort of high-tech water shooting device who has a mind of its own... cool. Turns out the entire island as been covered with goop and everyone blames you for it. While cleaning up the mess the real perpetrator shows up and *gasps* kidnaps Princess Peach! (Well what do you expect from a Mario game?) And thus the tale begins.
Every inch you roam is visually beautiful, and relaxing as the game takes place on the tropical resort that is Isle Delfino. You will complete levels in unique and entertaining places throughout the island. Such as a hotel and even an amusement park! At first the lighting in Isle Delfino is dark and shady, very uncommon for the usual sunny tropical paradise. As you collect more shines you'll notice the island will really brighten up, a very nice touch I thought. For graphics and visual presentation this game was among the best of its time.
Controlling Mario is incredibly fun and easy. As he can make soaring triple-jumps, spin-jumps, wall-jumps, and some crazy side flip (sorry for the lack of a better word). With the addition of FLUUD his ways of getting around just tripled with skill. You can use FLUUD to spray the ground in front of you and dive onto it to make a speedy slide, which is very useful for time based objectives. Also with the FLUUD you can hover for a short time, and sky rocket right into the sky to reach most unreachable heights. You will only need to know how to use a few buttons plus the work of the stick, controls are very easy for this game. Some people have problems with the camera, but for me It was perfect when used manually.
The game introduces some new characters to the Mario franchise. Including Piantas and Nokis, the main population of Isle Delfino. Toadsworth makes his first appearance here as well as Bowser Jr.
A huge downside was the terrible voice acting. Bowser's voice did not fit him at all, not very menacing. Peach seemed spaced-out and way empty-headed. Bowser Jr's just plain hurt my ears. However as far as the game music went, it was good and rather catchy.
This game takes time to beat for there is 120 possible shines to collect. I admit there are levels out there that made me rage. Overall it is a pretty difficult game with no real balance of difficulty making it range from super easy to insane.
However it is simply just a fun game that made me keep picking it up and wanting to play. Don't let those few hard levels stop you from playing this amazing game! Sometime I like to just free roam around the plaza. Traveling the rooftops, sliding down the sprinklers, and my favorite messing with the fruit stands haha! As I said before it is a fun and relaxing game, even though I already beat it twice and got all the shines im about ready to pick it up again. This is one of my favorite games of all time.
Final notes
> fun, relaxing
> rage! bad voice acting
> level design was great!