Super Mario Sunshine isn't the best game in the series but it still offers a fun experience.
Mario and his gang are going on vacation to Isle Delfino to get away from the daily hassles of the Mushroom Kingdom. Soon after arriving on Isle Delfino a series of bad events happen. Princess Peach gets kidnapped (as usual) and Mario is wrongfully accused of causing havoc and tagging up the whole island. Shadow Mario is going around town messing everything up and it seems that Mario has to clean up after him.
In order for Mario to clean up Shadow Mario’s mess he is equipped with FLUDD, which is a water pack that he carries on his back. FLUDD is not only used to spray away graffiti around town, it is also used to help Mario hover and to defeat enemies. It takes some time to get use to the controls because it can get rather confusing. I had a lot of trouble when I tried to run and spray water at the same time. It seemed impossible to control. There also seems to be a lot of issues with the camera. The camera is so bad that it hinders you from making successful jumps, especially when it comes to the obstacle course stages and when Mario is climbing on gates.
The graphics in the game are great. All of the worlds are bright and they each add a different feel to the game. Mario’s animations are very smooth and on point. Even though this game was made four years ago the graphics are still amazing and easy going.
When are we going to hear Mario actually talk in a game? I’m starting to think that day will never come. The sound in the game is classic. It is guaranteed that you will be humming the tunes from beginning to the end. It could have been better if there was more talking in the game. I don’t have a problem with reading text in a game, but a story this simple deserves some decent voice acting.
There is so much to do in this game. All together there are seven different worlds and each world has eight episodes. Some of the missions in each world consist of chasing down Shadow Mario, collecting red coins, and going through obstacle courses. After you compete each episode you are rewarded a shine. There is a total of 120 shines in the whole game, but you can manage to beat the game with half of that. After you complete a world you can go back to collect the secret shines. There are also blue coins throughout each world that you can collect. If you are one of those people that like to complete the game 100% then there is easily about 15 hours of game play. If you just want to play through the story and not care about the extra shines than expect to only be playing for around 8 hours.
Even with the camera issues and the lack of voice acting, Super Mario Sunshine still comes through as a great Gamecube platform game. Although it doesn’t have that extra ‘touch’ that Super Mario 64 had it is still worth the time and the money to play it.