Super Mario Sunshine is the next Mario game, and while it's flaws are minimal, there is little to make it stand out
Mario Sunshine adds FLUDD, a water device to the gameplay, and it makes the game more unique, but feels a lot like something we've seen before. Shooting water isn't anything big, using it to float for a bit is like yoshis long jump, and the other 2 FLUDD forms are just a sprint button, and a super jump button, nothing new really.
Of course one thing FLUDD changes, is what you'll be doing, cleaning. You'll clean a lot of places frequently and it changes the game up a bit, especially when you discover other ways to clean up faster. It's not really a big change, but it's still a change, and it will rarely feel tedious.
You'll collect Shine Sprites in many big worlds to use to get to new worlds and eventually face the final boss. However, unlike Mario 64, the worlds aren't that different. They all have a beach and resort feeling to them with some others that make some of the missions feel similar and repetitive.
Other then this though, Mario Sunshine is an all around great platformer, the level design on non FLUDD parts is very well done and some of the other missions are just fun to replay over and over, it works good.
Still, this is 2002, you can't just make a good game and give it a 9, a game has to do something new to get a 9, and Mario Sunshine fails here.
Overall, Mario Sunshine is a good solid platformer that platformer fans will love. However, it's no where near as good as the legendary Super Mario 64. Also the blue coins are too hard to find. >_>
Overall Score: 8.25 - Can feel repetitive (0.25) = 8.00