Super Mario Sunshine
					Graphics: 8 Sound: 8 Gameplay: 10 Value: 10 Reviewer's Tilt: 10 Overall: 9.5
	The best Mario game to date. Reviewed by Chris
	Take everything you know about old school Mario, and throw it away. This is not Mario as you know him. As of now, old school Mario is dead. Mario 64 on the N64 was revolutionary, for sure. It was the first concept at a 3D Mario game, and it worked exceptionally well. Many people went as far to say that it was the best 3D platformer game ever created. Well, we have come a long way since that game, of course this is because that game was released way back in 1996. Of course we have come a long way, it almost goes without saying. Well, Mario has been reinvented. And unfortunately, I do not think that I will ever be able to look at an older Mario game again. And I will not play another Mario game if he is not wearing his water nozzle called FLUDD either! Nintendo has reinvented the genre, and no other platformer game is going to be nearly as creative or as fun as SMS. SMS has a  very strange plot...probably something you were not expecting. Mario is actually tired of fighting enemies and raiding castles, so he takes him and the princess to a tropical island for a well-needed vacation. Well, it seems like a nice place to be, until Shines disappear from the island, causing a mysterious graffiti to cover the island, and making the island darker than usual. The locals think that Mario is the cause of it, and it's up to Mario to put an end to the person behind this! I blame the overly fun gameplay  entirely on FLUDD. That damn nozzle practically gives SMS the fun factor that it has, and I clearly think that it is the real star of the game. Mario can use different types of nozzles to either spray things, hover, sky rocket or accelerate. It is very useful for cleaning up gunk, taking out enemies, or saving yourself from a fall. You rely on the FLUDD, the FLUDD is your god. It's a shame that you lose it in most of the retro platform jumping areas in the game, which were designed to give you a reminder of what Mario used to be like. TIP: Using the C-stick, push the camera to an overhead view to get the best view for jumping platforms. I don't even want to think of Mario's boss fights...they are so great that it is beyond comprehension. Mario games have always been known for great bosses, even back when it was a 2D game. I won't mention too much, because I don't want to ruin it for you. But sometimes you will have to pull the legs off a jelly fish-octopus looking thing. Or you may have to spray water into a plant's mouth. And you will also have to ride a roller coaster just to defeat one boss.  The variety of boss fights, just like any battles in the game, is definately there. Solid stuff all around. You start off in one world, and work your way through portals to reach other worlds. Just like Spyro the Dragon, you don't have to beat one level at a time to progress, you have a few different worlds to choose from. If you get stuck, go to a different one. There are 8 episodes to each world, and you receive a Shine at the end of each episode. There are 120 Shines in the game, and by the time that this masterpiece is completed, you will have 120 Shines. You may have to buy a few Shines, which are available for purchase at the price of 10 blue coins apiece. The variety is definately not limited to SMS's outstanding boss fights, but is even more concentrated in the gameplay, with the shear amount of things to do in this title. You can gather different varieties of fruit for people on this island, you can spray coconuts from palm trees, you can dangle on giant rubber bands, you can swim, ride Yoshi, feed Yoshi, and about a billion other things. And it's a very long and hard game, that's why this gets a 10 for Value. This is clearly the best Nintendo Gamecube as of now, and spending fifty dollars on a fun, lengthy game is fifty dollars well spent. Super Mario Sunshine doesn't live up to the hype in terms of graphics. The game itself runs at 30 frames per second, which is the norm for most games nowadays. The water reflections and physics are truly first-rate. The character animations are very fluid, and the level design is definately worth applauding. It's just too bad that the textures aren't that great, and pretty blurry. Not as bad as Medal of Honor Frontline, but definately not the best that the Gamecube is capable of. But the game has virtually no draw in distances, so you can see the entire island and all of the life on it. Plus the mirage-like feel to the sand when you look toward the horizon is there. Bonus! A couple of complaints. Sometimes the music is very repetitive. Do not stay at Delfino Plaza, this game's opening world, for too long. The music will drive you insane. Luckily, there is some pretty good music here and there, but sometimes it is not that good on the ears. Also, there is some minor slowdown. But my biggest problem of all is: The godawful camera! You have to constantly fix the camera with the snap of the Left trigger just to see. When the camera is behind a structure, it will display everything as a shadow, including Mario and whatever he picks up. The camera can be especially bad in some of the indoor parts of the game. Don't worry, there aren't that many, and for that reason. Super Mario Sunshine is a very absorbing game. It has some excellent levels, some very challenging parts, and some revolutionary gameplay. The boss fights are even better than expected, raising the bar for platformers to come. The FLUDD unit is one of the coolest things in a game yet. Anything less from future Gamecube titles will be a big disappointment. The bar has definately been raised. --Chris Currey