Super Mario Sunshine

Remember when Mario actually just jumped on guys heads and tried to save Peach? This was before he started kicking soccer balls or beating the heck out of his fellow Nintendo characters. Yes, this was the good old times of the NES and Super NES. By the N64, he was already branching out into many different areas, making the platforming series just 1 of the many Mario series'. But now again, Mario puts on his jumping shoes in another epic adventure.

The story starts with Mario, Toadsworth, and Peach all going on a vacation to the tropical island full of sea, sun, and sand, Isle Delfino. But once they get to the Isle, they see that the island is covered in paint and grafitti, and thus, the sunny, sacred Shine Sprites of the island left to a less polluted place. When Mario arrives, he is taken on trial due to the belief that he has committed all these crimes. He is forced to clean up the entire island as punishment. Luckily he is not alone, with the help of his water spraying device, FLUDD, he is determined to being all the Shine Sprites back to Delfino.

This game essentially brings Mario back to his roots while still adding new elements, such as FLUDD. The controls feel fine, my only complaint is a big one though. The jumping mechanisms in this game annoy me. Usually, in Mario games all you have to do is jump to get over any obstacle, sometimes running before jumping for large gaps, but in this game the only way to do a larger jump is to face the OPPOSITE way you want to jump, then pressing backwards on the control stick and jumping at the same time. You have to press the control stick back perfectly or you screw it all up. Other times to clear even LARGER gaps, you have to do 3 consecutive jumps in a row, while moving forward. This technique sounds simple, but you need perfect rhythm do pull it off, as well as a large space. Luckily, you get more used to this after playing farther through the game.

The graphics in this game are good for the Gamecube. Everything in the game is pretty cartoony, the Delfinians being fat, blue or pink people wearing leaf skirts. The effects for fire and water are pretty cool too, but the textures for buildings and grass are bland. There is an awkward camera system where if you are behind a building or obstacle, you appear in a blue circle so that you can see yourself, this would be fine but it just glitches up all the time. The music is upbeat and fun.

Now lets talk about FLUDD. FLUDD, along with your feet, are your two primary weapons in the game. You can shoot enemies, clean up paint, and work different mechanisms using FLUDD. Its main nozzle is a powerful water blaster, but it also has 3 different secondary nozzles such as the hover nozzle that shoots downwards and lets you levitate for a short time, the rocket nozzle that blasts you skywards, and the turbo nozzle which explodes water out of the back of FLUDD giving you super speed. You can find these nozzles around the level and are usually vital to completing it. FLUDD can only carry a certain amount of water at a time though, and once you run out, you have to go into a nearby water supply, usually the ocean, and refill. You need to learn to be especially conservative with your water, since you never know when you'll need it, because if your out of water halfway through a level, you have to go all the way back until you can refill. FLUDD definitely adds more depth to the game and is certainly a welcome edition, while it be really annoying at times.

The game is very much less linear than the originally Mario Bros. games. You can open up certain locations each with different terrain and people. Within each location there are 7 levels, each level has a different objective ranging from taking out the boss to going through an extremely hard platforming section without FLUDD at your side. The levels themselves are also way less linear than the other games. You can choose your own path to get to your destination. Every time you win a level you get a Shine Sprite, the more Shine Sprites you get, the more locations you unlock and the sunnier Delfino gets. But a lot of times, if your stuck on all the unlocked locations you have, its really hard to get new levels. There's no way to skip levels so if your bad at the available levels you just have to keep practicing until you can finally beat it. There are coins scattered throughout the level, and you can get a 1-up with a hundred, but their main purpose is for healing. The coins are necessary if you want to stay alive because now instead of a "one hit take off one power-up" system. You have a life bar, and when thats empty, you're dead. The main thing I don't like about the levels is the lack of power-ups that the previous games had.

Overall, this game is pretty fun for all the people that liked Mario platformers. It even has a bit of a Zelda feel to it by adding FLUDD. The game is considerably laid back compared to other Mario titles too, so if your looking for something a bit more epic, then keep looking. But otherwise, this game is just good for any gaming collection that you may own, so do yourself a favor and buy it