a.k.a. Pyrasaur's Quick n' Quirky Walkthru
Controls:
Control Stick: Move Mario around. Like, duh. Mario moves faster as you press the Stick harder.
C-Stick: Move the camera around. Get used to adjusting the camera as you play, it'll help. A lot of people find Sunshine's camera super-annoying, but it very rarely gets stuck and you can see Mario as a silhouette if there's an object in the way.
A button: Jump. Just your basic Mario hop. Also used to swim faster, or swim upwards when underwater. Also used to smack a fence while climbing, or jump up through a gate that you're clinging to the bottom of. If in doubt, press A.
B button: Talk to people, pick things up. Also used to dive when in water. Also used to let go of anything Mario may be hanging from.
Y button: Change FLUDD's nozzle. You can only carry 2, so this isn't confusing or anything.
X button: First-person view. This is handy for spraying hard-to-reach places or looking around, but Mario stays in one
place while in this view and is vulnerable to attack.
R button: Spray water with FLUDD. Holding the button lightly lets Mario spray and run, pressing the button down until it clicks causes him to stop and spray. Also, press R when standing in water to refill FLUDD's tank.
L button: Return the camera to its basic position, behind Mario.
Z button: Guide Book. This shows your stats, like how many courses you've unlocked and how many Shines you have.
A+A+A: Triple Jump. If the timing is right, the second jump will be higher than usual and the third jump will be a high-flying somersault. Can be used to reach things, but takes a lot of running space.
Control Stick+A: Sideways Jump: Go one way, then flick the Control Stick the opposite way. Mario will turn and sort of slide. While he's sliding, press A to spring sideways. This jump gets good height and can be performed in tight spaces, so it's probably the most useful jump in the game.
Control Stick+B: Slide. Press B while running, and Mario will dive and slide on his belly. Spray a little water on the ground with FLUDD first to slide really far and fast.
Slide+B: Belly Hop. Keep pressing B during a slide to make Mario bounce along on his stomach. Way to work those abdominals! This move is faster than running, which is scary, quite frankly.
A+L: Ground Pound. Press L while in the air to pound downwards with Mario's sizable kiester. This move can break crates, injure enemies, enter sewers and, if done from a height, break rock. Now THAT's impressive. It can also be used to prevent damage when falling from a great height.
R+A: Backflip. Just what it sounds like. This move can spread a little water around, but it's not particularily useful.
A+B: Body Slam. Basically an aerial slide. The instruction manual mentions this move but I wouldn't bother, since it's easier just to spray things with FLUDD.
Control Stick+R: Spin Spray. Turn the Control Stick in a quick circle and press R to turn Mario into a pirouetting whirlwind of flying water. Good for spraying large areas.
Control Stick+A: Spin Jump. Spin the stick just like in the Spin Spray and press A. This jump gets pretty good height and can be used to cross gaps without FLUDD, however it's hard to control. Hold R during a Spin Jump to spray water and cover lots of ground.
Control Stick+A: Wall Jump. Jump towards a wall at a 90 degree angle to it, press A and the Control Stick in the opposite direction. Mario will spring off the wall. This can be used repeatedly if two walls face each other, and some places require its use.
L+Control Stick: Sidestep. Holding L causes Mario to sidle back and forth with the Control Stick's left and right motion. The Control Stick's up and down motion will adjust FLUDD's nozzle angle. This button combo make it easier to spray floating baddies and still dodge attacks.
Game Action:
As the game begins, we find Mario, Peach and Peach's "long-time" butler Toadsworth whom no one's ever seen before, they're on a Peach-pink plane and headed to Isle Delfino for a lovely tropical vacation. A video screen appears and they watch Delfino's little tourism promo video. Mario's enchanted with the seafood to the point of sexual desire, and Toadsworth must have problems with his metabolism because all he wants to do is lie around on multiple sunny beaches. Peachie, however, notices a mysterious dark Mario-esque figure running around in the background of the video. So she stares vacantly. The plane lands on Isle Delfino, only to be held up by some nasty sludge on the runway. And Peach spots the giant-paintbrush-wielding Mario clone again, so she tries to hypnotise him with her vacant stare. Not surprisingly, it doesn't work, and Shadow Mario gets away before anyone else can see him. Oh well, time for an introduction to FLUDD!
Finally, you get to play a bit! Walk past all that yucky paint-like goop (don't touch it, you can never tell where it's been), and you'll see FLUDD the water pack sitting beside a Pianta guy. Piantas are a new breed of Marioverse people, they're the weird fat creatures you saw in the Isle Delfino promo video and they're the main people you'll encounter on the island. ANYWAYS, walk over to FLUDD. He'll come online and introduce his cute self as the Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device (hence FLUDD for short), scan Mario in a dodgey fashion, and say that he hopes to be of assistance. Isn't that nice. He's the latest gadget produced by Gadd Industries, which might sound familiar if you've ever heard of an obscure little Gamecube adventure known as Luigi's Mansion. And then FLUDD provides a walkthru of his own water-spraying controls, which he'll repeat as many times as it takes for you to say that you understand. Besides these wonderfully wet and wild abilities (twist it! Oh, I feel dirty...), FLUDD will often give advice in a text box on the side of the screen and accompany it with a yelp of "Mario!". If you plan on paying attention to your little mecha-buddy, I hope you can read fast and out of the corner of your eye while controlling Mario.
Now then, back to the action. There's a couple of those weird M symbols on nearby walls, so clean these off to practice with FLUDD. Then spray some people if that amuses you, and I can't imagine why it wouldn't. Whenever you're done messing around, go clean up the mess; spray lots of water on the center glob of the nasty runway sludge. A sludge piranha plant will emerge. Yee, drugs are bad....You'll meet lots of these piranha plants throughout the game, but this one is total beginner fodder. Just go into the first person view and spray water into its mouth. You have to wait until it opens its mouth, but landing a hit will cause the plant to flash and yowl in pain. Three hits will kill the freaky weed, all of its accompanying sludge will disappear, the runway will return to normal, and a little gold star spirit thingie will present itself with lots of purdy gold sparkles. This is a Shine Sprite. As if I need to tell you to run over there and grab it. Mario will do a little pose sequence with a musical jingle a la M64, and "Shine!" appears on the screen. You lucky folks playing an import will see the entirely more amusing "Shine Get!". All your base are belong to us, hehe! The game asks you if you want to save whenever you get a Shine, so go ahead and do that.
Next we see some police-looking Piantas marching over to the plane, and judging by the music, they're not too happy. They haul Mario off to court, despite the fact that he just cleaned off their runway, the ungrateful bastards....According to the judge, Isle Delfino has been polluted by a mysterious person who looks exactly like Mario. This pollution has caused the Shine Sprites to flee, and since they're the island's source of power, the sun-soaked tropical island has been looking awfully dark as of late. Despite Peachie's objection (and previous almighty vacant staring), the judge sentences Mario to...clean up the island. And not leave until he's done. Well, what were you expecting? Mario Does Jail Time would be the suckiest game ever, even if he had some soap to drop! Mario does spend the night in a dreary little cell though, with only FLUDD for company. FLUDD more or less repeats what the judge said, and adds that it's really unfair that Mario is being punished while the real offender runs free. He may be the Marioverse's answer to Ocarina Of Time's Navi, but gosh darn it, FLUDD's cute enough to pull it off. Our little mecha-buddy basically pledges to help Mario, and then offers to repeat his entire explanation, just in case you had wandered off to get a snack while all this important plot development was going on.
The next day, Mario gets kicked out with a stern order to clean up the whole island and not slack off. It's funny, all the policemen do is tell you to stop slacking off, if you happen to talk to them. And now, a cutscene will appear that pans over the city and-Err? What's that yucky sludge pool there? Better go check it out! On your way to the sludge pool, you'll find Peach and Toadsworth. They're just standing around idly, and talking to Peach will get you a mild lecture about how this is a really crappy vacation so far. She doesn't even care that Mario just spent the night in jail! Give the whiny cow a dose of liquid shut-up, courtesy of FLUDD, and then continue on your merry little way. You may have noticed a scrolling marquee of info at the bottom of the screen, that's the Delfino Emergency Broadcast System. I have no idea how Mario's receiving this transmission, and it rarely talks about bona fide emergencies, but FLUDD can't do everything, ya know. The D.E.B.S. is yapping about the disappearance of the Grand Pianta statue, and it's safe to assume that the sludge has something to do with it, so mosey on over to it. This sludge pool is similar to the one you already dealt with, but stupid little multicoloured jellyfish things crawl out of it. These baddies are the most annoying things ever, they appear randomly out of almost any sludge and jump on Mario. A spray of water will kill them, fortunately, and they'll die even if they miss Mario. Keep moving and try not to take too many hits, pay attention for the little gurgle they make just before they pounce. To get rid of the sludge, do the same thing as before; hit the center noxious gob with water until a piranha plant emerges, and then fire water down its throat until the stupid thing dies. All of its sludge will disappear, the Grand Pianta statue will rise up from the ground. And the peasants rejoice!
Scratch that rejoicing, Shadow Mario is sitting on top of the statue. He hops down, dashes over to Peachie, slings her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and runs like hell. So take FLUDD's advice and chase him down, already! If you lose Shadow Mario, look for the M symbols he occasionally paints on the ground with his paintbrush thingie, and listen for the chase music. He's a remarkably polite kidnapper, he'll stop and wait for you if you lose him. So spray this guy with water as you chase him, after a pre-determined amount of hits he'll drop Peach (who disgraced her gender by not even ATTEMPTING to beat Shadow Mario about the head with her parasol). Then he'll run over to the Grand Pianta statue, paint a graffiti portal, and jump in. Yes, you need to follow him. Spray the portal with water until it starts giving off some weird suction-looking light, and then jump at it. Mario and FLUDD will be decomposed into little orbs of colour and sucked inside. ......Um, anyways, on to Bianco Hills, the first level.
Bianco Hills:
Episode 1: Road to the Big Windmill. The cutscene shows you Shadow Mario near a scary boulder-gushing cesspool of sludgey yuck. This goal is conviniently placed all the way across the freaking level. So take a wander over there and hone your skills along the way. You know, swimming, jumping, getting over obstacles, FLUDD control, not getting your ass kicked by common baddies, all that stuff. Shadow Mario has vanished, but you'll notice that the goo boulders follow a set path until you get close, at which time the sludge pool shoots boulders AT Mario. Stay near the water and keep moving to avoid the jellyfish, this sludge pool has yet another piranha plant to beat, in the exact same fashion as the others. Yeah yeah, the game'll get more interesting soon. Beating this sludge-du-jour causes a new pathway to open and a Shine to appear.
Episode 2: Down with Petey Piranha!. The cutscene shows us a giant piranha plant, presumably Petey, dancing on top of a vine-choked windmill. Petey's kyute, he's got petals! ^_^ Needless to say, go over there. It's pretty straightforward, scaling the windmill is just an exercise in using FLUDD's Hover nozzle and dodging scary gunk balls. Once you get to the top of the windmill, Mario's weight seems to be too much for the building to bear. The roof cracks ominously, which thoroughly confuses Petey, and then the plant and the plumber are sent plummeting down to the bottom of the windmill by the shoddily-built roof's collapse. And now you need to fight Petey. What did he ever do to you?! No matter, he'll inhale deeply just before spitting out sludge, take this opportunity to spray lots of water into his mouth. Get enough in, and he'll fall over on his back. Climb up on that water-distended belly of his and ground pound. This cycle must be repeated 3 times to beat poor innocent Petey, who never did a gosh darn thing to you, and get a Shine.
Episode 3: The Hillside Cave Secret. The cutscene shows you a veddy mysterious cave in the hillside. Logic dictates that you need to get over there. So go over to where you fought that sludge piranha in Episode 1, and take a look at the water. There's a remarkably convinient path of platforms and ropes leading to the hillside cave. Navigating ropes is good to know. *nods* Yup yup. These platforms and ropes, with a little help from FLUDD's Hover nozzle, let you get as far as a ledge below the cave. There's another rope you can use to get up there, 'tis another chance to practice your jumping skill. Unfortunately, this Ep isn't as easy as walking into the cave and grabbing a Shine that's waiting for you with open arms...spikes...whatever. Entering the cave triggers a soon-to-be-familiar-and-despised cutscene; Mario is falling through empty space, when that little bastard Shadow Mario zips by and steals FLUDD. Eep! This obviously puts a dent in your arsonal of moves and jumps. Which is bad, because you now have to navigate an obstacle course. It's a bunch of moving and spinning 3-D objects that you have to cross to reach the Shine, and slipping up causes Mario to plummet into one of those Mario-game-esque bottomless pits. All Episodes whose names contain "Secret" make you run an obstacle course, so be prepared to blow lots of lives on these. Just be patient and time your jumps well, and try not to let the repetitive music drive you bonkers. Oh yeah, and pound in the nails with your ground pound, you'll find 1-Ups or at least coins. Getting the Shine finishes the Ep, and you somehow get FLUDD back upon exiting. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I always say.
Episode 4: Red Coins of Windmill Village. If you've played Mario 64, you ought to be familiar with collecting red coins. If not, then now's a great time to learn. There's 8 of these pretty shiny red things in the area with all the houses. Use the ropes to get up on the rooftops and grab all the red coins, make sure you keep the Hover nozzle on FLUDD so that you make all your jumps. The most annoying coin to get is on top of a house with two roof peak thingies, the easiest way to get up there is to wall jump between them. Once you're done, the Shine will appear on top of the highest and most inconvinient platform it can find, go on now, get your plump plumber friend up there. Wasn't that easy?
Episode 5: Petey Piranha Strikes Back. Yay Petey! It seems he's survived his last whupping and is now sleeping peacefully on a hillside. Aww. Unfortunately, he's barfed up nasty sludge all over the place, so Mario has to maul him again. Go over to the windmill houses, hop up on a roof and take a look around. See that hillside ledge with lots of sludge on it? That's where you need to go. There's some new ropes to help you out, so get jumping and hovering already! Once up there, you'll find a flock of scary little puffer fish that'll chase you. Chill out, they're your friends, they'll latch onto FLUDD's nozzle and you can shoot them like water balloons. Shoot one at Petey (not that he ever did anything to YOU), and the funky plant will wake up and...start flying around?! Yep, now you've got to save the town from this rampaging sludge-spitting terror, with the help of your ground-to-air water balloon launcher. FLUDD is quick to point out that squirting Petey while he's flying around does nothing, you need to hit him with a puffer fish to knock him out of the sky. Some puffer fish should have followed you down to the ground, but you can always climb back up and get some more if you need them. Once Petey's on the ground, he'll throw scary whirlwinds at you and occasionally spit up more goo. Pour water down his throat like last time, and ground pound him while he's down. Then he'll hop back up and fly around. Three ground pounds will finish off Petey for good and get you a Shine. Well I hope you're freaking happy, you plant murderer you.
Episode 6: The Secret of the Dirty Lake. Yep, it's another pain-in-the-ass obstacle course. But first you need to get to it. The lake is now covered with toxic goo and you need to use the lily pads to get around, but be careful because they'll turn black and disintigrate after a while. In case you hadn't tried these before, you use FLUDD to propel the pad, I'd suggest moving the camera way back so you can see where you're going. Swap lily pads often, and be ready to switch nozzles and hover if your pad doesn't look like it'll make it. There's a cave with some floating logs in front of it, just follow the trail of lily pads to get there. You can stand safely in the mouth of the cave, and you'll find FLUDD's Turbo nozzle. This little gem isn't terribly useful, except for getting around quickly. It's now been unlocked for Bianco Hills and only Bianco Hills. Anyways, go into the cave and beat the FLUDD-free obstacle course. Remember to use your wall jump, and don't trust the big cubes and panels as far as you can throw them, which isn't at all.
Episode 7: Shadow Mario on the Loose. Shadow Mario has showed up in Bianco Hills to diss Mario's authoritah. So chase him down and spray him. He's not hard to keep up with at all and obviously not very talented at making getaways. After a predetermined amount of hits, Shadow will be defeated just like when you saved Peach from him. Go over to him while he's having a temper tantrum on the ground, he'll threaten to return and cough up a Shine. Easy, huh? You only need to beat Shadow Mario in each level to clear the game, so you can beat Episode 8 if you want but it's not necessary. Congrats on clearing Bianco Hills, on to more difficult pursuits!
After you clear the first 2 episodes of Bianco Hills, a nasty pool of sludge will appear on a pier in Delfino Plaza. Yes, there's a piranha plant inside. Yes, you need to beat it. And yes, those jellyfish things will be attacking you the whole time. Successfully mauling the yucky plant will cause the sludge to disappear and the boathouse to rise up out of ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE. You know those blue coins you've been picking up? You can enter the boathouse and trade 10 blue coins to some weird bears in exchange for a Shine. The coins aren't good for anything else, so trade them for Shines whenever you get enough. Also, there's another graffiti portal on the side of the boathouse. So spray it and hop on in, away we go to Ricco Harbor! I'll be calling it Ricco Harbour, since I'm Canadian and vowels rock, dammit!
Ricco Harbour:
Episode 1: Gooper Blooper Breaks Out. The cutscene shows you a pile of great big crates with a scary squid arm hanging out, presumably Gooper Blooper. So let's go over there and see if we can't get Mario tentacle-raped, shall we? Ricco Harbour currently has icky toxic goo on the surface of much of the water, you'll need to get around by climbing fences and such. Once you get there, stand near the tentacle, press and hold B to grab it, and tilt back on the Control Stick to pull on it. After you rip off the tentacle, Gooper Blooper will burst out of the boxes, madder than PT at a Yoshi-lovers' convention, and spit some ink around. This ink is polluting Ricco Harbour, so you've got a good reason to maul Gooper, unlike poor Petey Piranha who never did anything to anyone. Gooper has 4 great big tentacles and will try roughing Mario up with them. Squirt a little water on his face and run out of range, he'll get mad and smack the ground in front of him. While his tentacles are on the ground and not trying to kill you, grab one and yank it off, repeat until Gooper has no more tentacles. He's harmless now, so go over to him and grab his mouth. Pull. You WILL feel like a horrible person during this, cuz Gooper's whimpering pitifully while the whole time. Pulling his face until it snaps causes Gooper to fall over and...jump right back up and whip some more tentacles out of his ass (not literally...). Don't worry, he's no more difficult than the first time. Rip off the tentacles and yank his mouth again to finish off Gooper and claim your well-earned Shine.
Episode 2: Blooper Surfing Safari. Nearby where Mario starts the level, you'll notice some floating logs that make a bridge out to a dock. On this dock is a Pianta guy who calls himself the Big Daddy of Blooper-surfing, he'll let you ride on his funky colourful Bloopers. Kewl! So pick a colour and jump on, your Blooper will take off across the water like a Jet-Ski on crack. Follow the painfully obvious trail of coins into a sewer pipe, and you'll find yourself in a nifty sewer course with another (entirely shadier) Pianta guy. You've got to jump on a Blooper and complete the water course in under 45 seconds to get a Shine. The Blooper can slide over land, so you can cut corners if you like, just don't run headfirst into anything, and hold up on the Control Stick to go faster. It's not that hard, you'll get the hang of it quickly enough. But the Bloopers die when you're done with them....Kinda sad, isn't it? And I didn't bag one lion or tiger, what kind of cheap safari was this?!
Episode 3: The Caged Shine Sprite. I don't know how you're actually supposed to clear this ep, but here's how I did it. See that big yellow cage in the center of all those girders and stuff? The Shine Sprite's in there, and you can only enter from the top or bottom. Go over to the fountain near where you fought Glooper Blooper and and climb up onto those blue girders (using the sideways jump and FLUDD's Hover nozzle). Follow the arrows and you'll find a crate. Use the crate as a stepping stone to get onto the moving pole, just jump at it and Mario will grab on. The pole takes you to a vertical fence, climb this and make your way over to a horizontal fence platform with a blue arrow sign on it. Cross the gaps in the girders and spray the Bloopers to get them out of your way, and you'll come to the Rocket nozzle box. You've unlocked it for all of Ricco Harbour, so be proud. Now jump down into the water, you'll notice that there's sludge on the surface of the water right under the Shine's cage. Swim to the edge of the sludge, as close as you can get to the platform. Hold R to charge the Rocket nozzle and jump out of the water just before it's done charging. Mario will be blasted into the air, and if you manoeuver him right he'll grab the edge of the platform on his way down. Spray the Pianta dude on the platform just beause he's stupid. Now all you have to do is rocket up to the bottom of the cage, press A to enter through the door thingie, and grab the Shine. Good job!
Episode 4: The Secret of Ricco Tower. We all know what's coming. That silo-looking tower now has a hole in the top, and you need to get in there. No need to go get the Rocket nozzle, you can do this one with a bit of sideways jumping and the Hover nozzle. Climb up onto the blue girders near the fountain and go over to the crate. From here you're within hovering range of the tower and its surrounding scaffolding, hover over to the platform with the blue coin. Now there's a ghost here, so you'll need to be quick, sideways jump for some height and hover to the tower's entrance. And now we have the usual obstacle course. Run diagonally around the spinning pillars, don't worry, they're quite predictable. So are the gears, no worries. Oh yeah, try not to fall off the final platform before you get the Shine, not just here but in any of the obstacle courses. I did that once and I sure felt like a fool.
Episode 5: Gooper Blooper Returns. Way to rip off Petey Piranha, who didn't deserve to die, by the way! Gooper's sitting on a big helicopter landing pad of some sort, hop into the water and swim under it. There's some floating logs, which give you a leg up to a platform with a Rocket nozzle. Rocket up there and proceed to do battle with Gooper, he's exactly the same as last time except that now you've got less room to move, and you need to jump on a tentacle and flatten it before you can yank it off. Finish off your sushi and grab your Shine.
Episode 6: Red Coins on the Water. Just another exercise in Blooper surfing. Starting from when you pound the red switch, you've got 2 minutes to grab all 8 red coins with the help of a Blooper. They're easy to spot, just follow the coin trails if you get lost. When the Shine appears, your timer stops and you just have to jump the Blooper onto the starting dock. Don't crash into anything. And yeah.
Episode 7: Shadow Mario Revisited. Yep, you have to chase down and drench this annoying buggar again. He's hard to chase once he leads you up onto the blue girders, so just wait for him to stop and snipe him from a distance in the first-person view. Shine Get, Ricco Harbour clear!
After you clear the first 2 episodes of Ricco Harbour, another pool of sludge will appear in Delfino Plaza. This time one of Peachie's Toad flunkies is drowning in it, hee hee. Defeat the sludge piranha as per usual, and a lighthouse will rise up from the ground. This lighthouse has another graffiti portal, which leads you to Gelato Beach. The Toad is also happy to be alive, not that anyone cares.
Gelato Beach:
Episode 1: Dune Bud Sand Castle Secret. This lovely beach is infested with giant homocidal rubber ducks. Crack does indeed kill. They're called Cataquacks and they throw Mario up into the air if he gets too close, the blue ones don't hurt you but the red ones will take off one piece of the life meter per toss. Also on this lovely beach are a bunch of little plants. They're called Dune Buds, and they grow big and change the sand around them if you water them enough. Usually they push up a big blob of sand, powerfully enough to throw things. So wander off down the beach (spray the Cataquacks to temporarily get them to quit attacking you) and find a teardrop-shaped peninsula. Water the Dune Bud in front of the peninsula and...a giant sand castle appears. Not that the title of this Ep tipped us off or anything. So follow the big red flashing arrow's advice and run into the castle before it disappears. Once inside the sand castle, Shadow Mario steals FLUDD and leaves you to make your way through another stupid obstacle course. All together now, argh! Cross the trippy floating things and Shine Get, nothing new there. Just be careful on the sand blocks, they disintigrate a moment after you touch 'em.
Episode 2: Mirror Madness! Tilt, Slam, Bam!. As soon as you start the level, some Pianta guy informs Mario that the rare and legendary Sand Bird egg is kept warm by sunlight reflected by those big mirrors, but that Cataquacks are messing with the mirrors and that the egg is in danger of cooling off. Well, OK, so he doesn't SAY all of that, but you get the idea, along with the idea that the Wiggler is bad news. And because Mario's such a nice guy, we get to go save the Sand Bird egg now. I got up to the mirrors by doing a sideways jump, then wall jumping against the Sand Bird egg pillar, hovering with FLUDD to get onto the edge of the pillar and then hovering over to the mirrors, but you can do it any way you like. These Cataquacks have weird sucker feet and spraying them just makes them slide a little. Stay away from them, lest you get mauled, and spray one or more of them to the edge of the mirror. While the Cataquack(s) wobble on one foot, run to the opposite edge of the mirror and ground pound. If you've done this right, any off-balance Cataquacks will go flying off the mirror. If you don't do this right, FLUDD will probably whine at you. Clear all 3 mirrors of their crack-birds and the mirrors will return to their original position. And the big Wiggler that was sleeping on top of the pillar will be flung off, not that anybody seems to notice. Just for being so considerate of endangered species, you get a Shine, you wonderful tree-hugger you!
Episode 3: Wiggler Ahoy! Full Steam Ahead!. Remember that Wiggler you kinda threw from a great height? Um, hehe, he's kinda on a super-pissed-off rampage now....Spraying him with FLUDD doesn't work (as FLUDD will eventually point out), so you'll need something that packs a bit more punch, like a plant. Find a Dune Bud that Wiggler passes close by on his set path of destruction, water it and time it so that the big gob of sand pops up as Wiggler's passing over it. If you do this right, Wiggler will be thrown onto his back. Now climb up onto his belly and ground pound where the remarkably convinient flashing red arrow tells you to. Hurry up, Wiggler's determined and has anger-management problems and he'll only stay down for a few seconds. Successfully slam the big bug 3 times to wipe him out, and claim your Shine.
Episode 4: The Sand Bird is Born. Hey, check it out, the Sand Bird egg you worked so hard to save just hatched! It's party time! So while I do that, how about you go check out that pillar, hmm? There's a great big hole in the roof where the Sand Bird broke out, so make your way up to the pillar and find a Dune Bud that creates stairs, it's in a space in the cliff. Water that and follow the path to a neat little lookout area. Slide down the slope and aim it so that Mario goes flying into that hole in the Sand Bird egg pillar (have FLUDD's Hover nozzle ready in case you almost miss). Once inside, you'll be warped to...The Sand Bird? Plot holes aside, the nifty bird is flying around above a bottomless...um...area of sky with Mario and some coins on its back. FLUDD says the Sand Bird is circling a tower, and lookie that, there's a tower over there! The bird's made of blocks of sand, which seems odd but it'll help you later. Quickly run around the Sand Bird and pick up the red coins, there's 7. Now stand on the bird's neck and get ready, it rotates as it flies and you need to walk around the square neck to avoid being thrown off. You can jump around the block if you're feeling talented, but it's riskier. After a while you'll see the tower get close, run to the edge of the Sand Bird's wing, jump and hover over there to claim your 8th red coin and subsequent Shine.
Episode 5: Il Piantissimo's Sand Sprint. Meet Il Piantissimo. He's some freak who thinks he's a Pianta. And starting now, he challenges Mario to races and gloats like a jerk if he wins. I hate this guy, and you will too. So he shows you a flagpole up on the cliffside, says that his best time for reaching it is 35 seconds, and ropes Mario into a race. Watch where he's going and try to cut him off, sideways jumps will get you up to the Sand Bird egg pillar nice and fast. Piantissimo's exactly as fast as Mario and he's headed towards that space in the cliff near the pillar. The staircase-creating Dune Bud has vanished, so follow Piantissimo's lead and wall-jump your way up. This is the key point in the race; if Piantissimo gets a lead here you're doomed to failure. And you lose a life if you lose the race, what kind of ripoff is this?! But winning gets you a Shine, obviously, as well as a chance to yell, "Haha, you SUCK Piantissimo! LIKE A HOOVER! Hahahahaha!" and so on.
Episode 6: Red Coins in the Coral Reef. This is the easiest Shine ever, if you need a walkthru for this level then I seriously worry for you. Just swim around and find the 8 red coins. Skilled use of the camera makes this even easier. OK, OK, so some of the coins run away from you and do peeky crap like hide in solid walls, but you still don't need a walkthru! Yeesh.
Episode 7: It's Shadow Mario! After Him!. Nice original name for a nice original Ep. Chase down Shadow Mario, spray him, listen to him whine, take his Shine, you know the drill. Although he is starting to get faster....Not fast enough to keep you from clearing Gelato Beach, though.
After you collect 10 Shines total, Peach goes missing and a cutscene shows you a boat that looks like a druggie artist's interpretation of Bowser. And the D.E.B.S. tells you that the Princess has been kidnapped, I mean, not that we're surprised or anything. You can see the Bowser boat from the boathouse, so get over there for another all-revealing cutscene. Shadow Mario has swiped Peachie, he taunts Mario with a disturbingly long tongue and speeds off to a distant island. According to FLUDD, that's Pinna Island. And there's an ever-so-convinient cannon to send you there, so what are you just standing around for?! Hop in!
Pinna Park:
Episode 1: Mecha-Bowser Appears!. There's nothing of interest on the beach right now, so just enter the park. Chase Shadow Mario and dodge those Electro-Koopas, Shadow will eventually stop at a big kiddie pool. This triggers a cutscene; he hovers menacingly over the water and has a staredown with Mario, then parts the water and produces a huge Bowser robot. Yes, it's as kewl as it sounds. So this funky thing is spewing fire everywhere, and the park director mentions that they're in a video game. You know, that old chestnut. Mario gets to use the roller coaster and some water-guided missiles to take down Mecha-Bowser, you need to land 4 solid hits with missiles anywhere on its body. It's firing Bullet Bills the whole time too, so pay attention to FLUDD's warnings and use missiles to defend yourself. Cutscene explanation time! Mecha-Bowser's toast, so Shadow Mario opens the hatch to reveal himself. He pulls down his weird shape-shifting magic bandana to reveal... Baby Bowser! Well, Bowser Junior actually, Bowser's son. Don't even bother asking where the Koopalings went because nobody knows. So Junior warns Mario away from "Mama Peach", apparently Bowser's told him that Peach is his mom and that Mario's a big bully. He's got a magic paintbrush with which to make graffiti, and to FLUDD's chagrin, he's gotten it from E. Gadd. So Peachie gapes vacantly at the fact that she seems to have borne Bowser's child without her knowing, freaking stupid Peachie, and Junior says that he tried to frame Mario and get him put into jail. It didn't work though, so Junior turns Mecha-Bowser's head into a propellor-powered hot-air balloon and whisks Peach off to Corona Mountain. You can't follow them for a long time yet, so don't worry your pretty little head. For now, you get a Shine for no apparent reason. Um...yay!
Episode 2: The Beach Cannon's Secret. The park's closed, since your beef is with the cannon attacking you from the beach. Dodge the Bullet Bills and-Golly, aren't those sunflowers cute? But I digress. When you get close to the cannon, its Monty Mole inhabitant will switch to Bob-ombs. Spray them with water, pick them up and throw them at Monty. The usual 3 hits fry the rodent, and you can enter the cannon for another fun fun silly willy obstacle course. Joy. Is it just me, or is the scenery in this one oddly Yoshi's-Island-ish? No matter. The yellow disappearing blocks are super-predictable, the trampolines are easy enough, it's the red disappearing blocks that are tough. They vanish really fast, you'll need to use Mario's belly hop to move quick enough. Press A during the hopping to have Mario jump to his feet, because you can't corner or jump while belly hopping. Shine Get!
Episode 3: Red Coins of the Pirate Ships. Go into the park and check out that pirate ship ride. Doesn't look safe at all, does it? Damn straight, that's because you're going to ride it! These ships let you gather 8 red coins, some of which are on platforms and fences high above. If you're not that talented, go up to the Ferris wheel boarding area, from there you can sideways jump and hover over to the platforms above the pirate ships. There's some Electro-Koopas in your way on the fences, kill them by pressing B when on the opposite side of the fence, or ground pounding. The Shine appears at that really high platform with a fence bridge leading up to it.
Episode 4: The Wilted Sunflowers. Poor sunflowers! They've done even less wrong than Petey and they're almost as cute! They've got nasty Koopas disguised as Yoshi eggs eating their roots. To kill these pests, spray them with water until they pop out of the ground. They'll try to smush Mario with their shells, get out of the way and they'll get stuck belly-up in the sand. You know what to do when something's belly-up and helpless: ground pound without mercy! Defeat all 5 Koopas and you get a Shine, plus the satisfaction of defending innocent plants instead of killing them for a change.
Episode 5: The Runaway Ferris Wheel. As the Ep's name would suggest, the Ferris wheel has gone haywire and is spinning really fast. No, you can't ride it, I tried. You do get stuck with the lame task of fixing it though, since the problem is an Electro-Koopa infestation. Walk around to the back of the Ferris wheel, you'll find a network of gates and fences, and some of the gates will temporarily change position if you squirt them with FLUDD. Don't ask me why, the whole place is soaking wet...FLUDD will spray straight ahead if you press R while hanging onto a fence, which is very convinient. So make your way to the top of the Ferris wheel, bumping off Electro-Koopas as you go, and making sure not to touch the nasty creatures. There's a great big Electro-Koopa at the top, sleeping peacefully and meaning no harm to anyone, so of course you have to attack it. Punch the gate underneath him to throw him off his high perch (what, didn't Mario learn anything from Wiggler?), he'll fall into the ocean, drown, and thusly surrender a Shine. Why, pray tell, do Shine Sprites always make life difficult by going to the highest platform they can find...? Now that the Ferris wheel has slowed down, jump on top of one of the gondolas and ride it up to the Shine.
Episode 6: The Yoshi-Go-Round's Secret. Notice the Yoshi-Go-Round. Notice the fact that an orange Yoshi is missing from it. Notice also the fact that everyone's messing themselves over the discovery of a Yoshi egg. So go over to that big thing near the pirate ships that looks like a gigantic Pianta-shaped turnip. Behind it is, lo and behold, a Yoshi egg. Bring him the fruit that he wants, then have him eat the melon thing hanging from the Pianta turnip's nose (if he isn't already orange). Bring Yoshi over to the Yoshi-Go-Round, stand him in the designated space, and watch Mario get warped to an obstacle course for no real reason at all. The spinning blocks are nothing you can't easily deal with, but be careful on the Yoshi-print blocks. Some of them won't let you stay on while they pass through their respectively coloured slots, and I'd definately recommend moving your camera directly above Mario's head for better perspective on your jumps. The orange blocks don't spin as they move, so don't worry about it, just be careful with your wall jumping and timing and it'll be Shine Get before you know it.
Episode 7: Shadow Mario in the Park. I think some name-maker-uppers need to get fired. Anyways, chase Shadow, hit him with some liquid whoopass, get Shine, be happy, and consider Pinna Park cleared.
After you collect 20 Shines total, a purdy beam of light appears in the center of Delfino Plaza. Go stand in the light, now (fans of Mario 64 will smile and nod knowingly at this trick) go into the first-person view and look at the sun. For reasons unknown, Mario will be warped. Welcome to Noki Bay!
Noki Bay:
Episode 1: Uncork the Waterfall. Did I mention that Nokis are the little snail-looking people? Oh, well they are. They have a very pretty home, even the polluted water is pretty. You'll have to rely on little pools of water and the edges of the bay to refill FLUDD. Anyways, you need to scale the cliffs, says the crazy old grandpa Noki. Clean off graffiti wherever you see it, sometimes cleaning off a wall causes a new ledge to appear. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together can figure out the pulley elevators. And if there doesn't seem to be any way up, wall jump. Try not to hover unless necessary, you'll need to use your water wisely. Near the top, the crazy Noki's grandson gives you a springboard that shrinks when you water it, of all the crazy things, you'll need this to get up to the final ledge. The waterfall-blocking culprit is a Monty Mole, just throw his Bob-ombs back at him like you did the Pinna Park one. The waterfall will be uncorked, and since you're on a high ledge already, the Shine has nowhere to go but into Mario's lap.
Episode 2: The Boss of Tricky Ruins. I'll try to resist making a Starfox Adventures joke. Now the crazy old grandpa Noki (if you bother to talk to him) will point out Noki Bay's ancient ruins, hidden in the walls. Spraying water on those little terra cotta tiles in the wall makes stuff happen. And Grandpa says that one of the paths will lead to a Shine Sprite. Spray the tile above his head and a little maze-ish path will open up to test your wall-jumping skill. It'll be filled in again after a minute or so, but there's a nook at the top-right corner you should be able to get to. Wall-jump out of it, stomp on the Bloopers in your way and tackle the next wall path, this one leads you up to...Gooper Blooper?! How the hell is HE still alive?! No matter, defeat him the same way you always have. The tile floor under him will break, jump down there and grab your Shine, maybe do a little tomb-raiding while you're at it. I'll try to resist making a Lara Croft joke.
Episode 3: Red Coins in a Bottle. Grandpa Noki has hit upon the perfect way to clean up Noki Bay's polluted waters: sticking a fishbowl on Mario's head and making him go to the ocean floor. But don't worry, Grandpa's not crazy or senile, he's going to let Mario practice his skills in a little glass bottle first. "Whaaat?", I hear you cry? Just...don't ask. Now, when underwater like this, you need to use FLUDD to propel you around, and grab coins when your air meter gets low. Just get used to this method of play and get the 8 red coins, then grab the Shine from the bottom of the bottle so you can get the heck out of there...Scary claustrophobic freaking bottle of DEATH....
Episode 4: Eely-Mouth's Dentist. If you find the threat of drowning in a video game scary, as I do, then this Ep will be scary indeed. Grandpa's grandson oufits you with the fishbowl and instructs you to go see Grandpa. He's way up on the cliffside, just to make things difficult. So go up to where you fought Monty Mole, and Grandpa will tell you that the bay's pollution is being caused by a huge eel with terrible oral hygiene. Um, ew?! So take Grandpa's advice and jump into the waterfall, you'll be warped to Eely-Mouth's undersea home. He's not such a bad guy actually, he stays obediently at the ocean bottom, and he can only hurt you by accidently swallowing Mario or poisoning him with his clouds of nasty plaque. He's even kinda cute in a hideous sort of way. You need to use FLUDD's water jets to clean off Eely's teeth, keep an eye on your air meter and gather coins when necessary. When you've cleaned off all of his teeth, Eely spits out a few rotten teeth and a Shine, leaves a heart-shaped ring of coins, and retreats. Awww. And FLUDD reminds him to take proper care of his teeth. Awww. Well, my heart's quite thoroughly warmed, let's get out of this scary cavern of freaking inevitable drowning DEATH....
Episode 5: Il Piantissimo's Surf Swim. Have I mentioned lately that I hate Il Piantissimo? This time you have to clamber up the cliffside to talk to the little bastard, and he'll challenge you to a swimming race, ending at yonder flagpole. At least the bay is clean...And the joke's on Piantissimo, he swims the course like a sucker while you hover above him with FLUDD, pointing and laughing and beating his best time by a good 15 seconds. Muwaha! Revenge is sweet, and the Shine you get ain't half bad either!
Episode 6: The Shell's Secret. There's a great big pretty shiny shell way up high, yes, you need to get there. Well then, hop to it, I'm sure you can figure out a way up there, there's plenty of ledges and ropes and hoverable distances. What am I, your mother? Getting to the top of that green spiral thingie will sure make your life easier, though...Once inside, FLUDD is swiped and Mario's placed in a glass-sided box. A vexing start to a vexing obstacle course. When you get to the pink-topped bars that slide in and out and in and out (pervert), wall jump off the block they come out of and time it so that you land on the end of the sliding block. I really hope you're good at wall jumping...If you aren't you're going to be soooo pissed off by the time you finish this course. Sideways jumping too. And camera angles. Actually, if you're not good at the game in general by now, this obstacle course will be the most pissing-off thing ever. But that Shiney goodness makes it all worth it.
Episode 7: Hold It, Shadow Mario!. Hold what? *gets confused* So yeah, chase him down and soak him and find out what he's...holding....um...Prolly a Shine. Yeah actually, it's a Shine. Yeah....Noki Bay's clear. And yeah.
After beating the 4th Episode of Pinna Park, Shadow Mario will appear in Delfino Plaza with a Yoshi egg. Yes, Yoshi's safety is riding on this chase, so hurry up and douse Shadow. After a dodgey comment about wanting to ride Yoshi, Shadow disappears and leaves you to your dino-hatching. Bring Yoshi the fruit he's thinking about and he'll hatch. You can only use this Yoshi in Delfino Plaza, and you can always get a new egg on top of the building near the boathouse. Yoshi spits fruit juice, which dissolves that icky yellow sludge, and he can eat stuff with his trademark long tongue. So take him up to the rooftops and find a pipe with a huge pineapple stuck in it. Have Yoshi eat the pineapple, and jump in. Here we are, Sirena Beach!
Sirena Beach:
Episode 1: The Manta Storm. Sirena Beach is a lovely place, but right now it's covered in electric goo. This goo has made the hotel disapear. Let's not ask questions we don't want to know the answers to. Go talk to the hotel manager, he's the one getting yelled at. He'll trust Mario for no reason and explain that a manta ray ghost-thing attacked earlier. And talking to this dude triggers the manta ray's return, it's a weird shadow thing that covers lots of ground and leaves a trail of electric ooze in its path. Be afraid. So all the people vanish and Mario is left to fight this thing. Spraying it with water causes it to divide into smaller mantas, so stay out of their way and keep spraying. Hiding under a canopy is a great idea actually, after all, discretion is the better part of valour and it's scary out there; the mantas can't pass under a roof. Once they get really small, a spray of water will just kill them, and after a while they'll all turn bright pink and be more aggressive. Which is easier than chasing them down, but hey, whatever floats their boat. And when all is said and done, the hotel reappears and you get a well-earned Shine.
Episode 2: The Hotel Lobby's Secret. Well, Hotel Delfino has returned from wherever it was. Is it just me, or do those torches on the walls make it look like some kinda medival torture chamber? Yeah, it's probably just me. Go talk to the hotel manager, he's on the front steps of the hotel. He mooches another favour off Mario, because now the hotel is infested with ghosts. So you walk into the hotel lobby and a whole bunch of Boos are having a luau or something. You can kill the white Boos by jumping on them, if that makes you feel better. Spray the pink Boos with water to make them turn into platforms, and make your way to the next floor of the hotel. Or, if you're feeeling talented, you can just bounce off their heads until Mario can grab the railing of the next floor. The second floor will teach you an important lesson: Coins that don't spin are actually Boos in disguise. And you may also notice that Boos drop water bottles when you kill them, which is very handy if you don't feel like trekking back down to the lobby for water. Spray the pink Boos and hop up to the third floor, you'll find a great big Boo statue with a portal-looking mouth. Hover in, because it sucks if you jump and miss and fall back down to the lobby, trust me. Cue an obstacle course. This one has flying bugs, you'll need to time your jumps so that you bounce off them. Some of the jumps can be made on your own, but it's certainly riskier. There's a nice little interlude of brick-breaking wall-jumping fun, and then more sand blocks to cross. Betcha thought you wouldn't see those again, huh? Ground pound the watermelon blocks, ride the gear, scale more sand blocks, Shine Get. Tougher than it sounds, I'll tell you that...You should have heard my howls of "NOOOOO!" as I fell off the last sand block time and time again. Boy, it wasn't pretty. Not at all.
Episode 3: Mysterious Hotel Delfino. Go talk to the hotel manager and he'll suck up major to Mario. *sigh* OK, what is it THIS time? On the left side of the lobby is a Yoshi egg. He wants a pineapple, but there aren't any in the lobby. So you have to go on a quest for a pineapple now. On the right side of the stairs is the women's washroom, and a Pianta gal who freaks out if you go in and talk to her, hehehe. On the other side of the stairs is the men's washroom, which has apparent plumbing problems. But that's not water, it's actually a portal (for the love of compost, just don't ask...), so jump up there and you'll find yourself floating in somebody's bathtub. The Pianta gal in this room mentions how creepy a nearby painting is, as well as how creepy it is that Mario's in her room. Now THAT's humour! Spray the creepy painting and a Boo will appear on it, now you can jump through. The next room has Nokis running around like beheaded chickens because there's ghosts in their room. Kill those and spray the closet doors so that they produce a Boo picture. Then they open up and let your through. The next room has a Pianta gal freaking out because pink Boos are in her room. "Do something about these ghosts!...And get out of my room, you weirdo!" Eehee, cracks me up every time! So spray the Boos for platforms and hover your way into the next room. Spray the bookcase-looking thing and go through it. The next room has a different-looking tile, Ground Pound that to get into a room with some crates and a narcoleptic Boo blocking a tunnel. He won't wake up for anything, so throw some pineapples at him for fun. Yes, I said pineapples. They're in the crates. When you're done harrassing the spook, grab a pineapple and leave through the door. Hop down to the lobby and hatch Yoshi, he's got the super-handy ability to eat ghosts. Hop on the dinosaur's back and follow your previous path, doubtless scaring the crap out of people who thought MARIO was creepy, until you get to the room where you ground pounded through the loose tile. Directly above that loose tile is a hole in the ceiling, use your spin jump to get up there. Run around inside this attic-type place and eat any Boos in your way, you can go back to that pineapple room when Yoshi starts getting hungry (eat the Boo while you're there). I like the Pianta janitor in the attic, hehe, he's so sly. The Shine for this level is in the pool on the third floor and some jerkoff Pianta is blocking the entrance, so find the loose tile in the attic where you can ground pound through to get into the pool, it's near the janitor. There now, that wasn't so hard! And Yoshi poses with you in the Shine Sprite jingle, kyuteness!
Episode 4: The Secret of Casino Delfino. Will the Secrets never end?! So anyways, this time the hotel manager invites Mario into the casino, so you know it's probably infested with ghosts. "I'll let my boys know you're coming." Twist it! The casino's right beside the men's washroom. Once inside this swanky place, spray the giant slot machines until both show three 7s. This'll open up an infuriating tile-turning puzzle, doing this puzzle with FLUDD is like playing the piano with Cheez Whiz jars stuck on your hands. Once you complete this puzzle, you'll be treated to a warp pipe leading to an obstacle course. Oh goodie, another good reason throw the Gamecube controller through the TV! This obstacle course is full of sliding cubes that threaten to shove you off the platform, just tilt the camera way up for a good angle. If you're feeling talented, you could try wall-jumping onto the top of a cube and getting a free ride. And from there it's just some spinning and moving objects to cross, nothing you can't deal with. Shine Get!
Episode 5: King Boo Down Below. If you didn't think Hotel Delfino was a Luigi's Mansion ripoff before....Spray the hotel manager because he's just being an ass now, and then talk to him to get taken into the hotel. Go into the casino and take a look at the giant roulette wheel. That purple square wasn't there before, was it? And what do we do to suspicious things? Bust 'em open with Mario's buns o' steel, of course! Ground pound the purple square and the wheel will move underground, where everything is trippy and the angle of view is fixed. King Boo pops up in the middle of the wheel and he'll start tossing out Boos if you don't hurry, so ground pound all 3 purple squares on the roulette wheel and then spray King Boo. He'll turn his little slot machine and toss out some random stuff, what you're looking for is fruit. Throw a red pepper into his mouth, and then while he's breathing fire and freaking out, throw another fruit at him. You need to hit him like that 3 times to win, he'll poof into nothing and cough up a Shine as per usual.
Episode 6: Scrubbing Sirena Beach. Mario must be some kind of environmentalist, he's always saving things and cleaning up. It seems that the electric goo is once again all over Sirena Beach. Why? Who cares? You've got 3 minutes to clean it up, with the help of some barrels of water. You don't need to get every last little bit of goo, your timer will stop and a chime will sound when you when you've done a good enough job. Clean off the Nokis if you're really feeling nice, they'll give you blue coins. And then talk to the hotel manager to get your Shine. What, he was holding out?! I say you spray him first! Freaking JERK!
Episode 7: Shadow Mario Checks In. Hey, that sounds almost like a horror movie title! This Ep certainly is a horror, Shadow's getting mighty speedy so it's hard to get a clear shot at him in the tight confines of the hotel. Watch out for Boos, they'll disguise themselves as Shadow Mario just to be annoying. If you lose Shadow, just listen for the chase music. So after being defeated he calls Mario annoying (takes one to know one) and gives up the Shine, and we can carry on with our lives now because Sirena Beach is clear.
After 30 Shines, you'll have to chase down Shadow Mario in Delfino Plaza and get the Rocket nozzle from him. Sometime before that you'll probably chase him for the Turbo nozzle, which is completely useless in terms of beating the game. So now that you've whupped Shadow yet again and swiped his gear, take the Rocket nozzle over to the Shine Gate and blast your way up to the top. You'll find a pipe. Jump inside and say helloooo to Pianta Village!
Pianta Village:
Episode 1: Chain Chomplets Unchained. At the moment, Pianta Village is in the throes of fiery-kyute-beast-induced terror, beause some lady couldn't control her pets. FLUDD makes a snarky comment about the Chomplets being untrained, hee hee, go FLUDD! Go stand by the pool of water in the center of the village and wait for a Chomplet to come by. Spray it with water to make it meek and harmless, then grab its tail, pull, aim for the pool and let go. Watch out for their lava goo trails too, spray them away before trying to grab a Chomplet's tail. When all 3 Chomplets are struggling and whining in the water, FLUDD reminds no one in particular to always be kind to their pets. Awww. ...Wait a sec, that's not very nice...! Ah, screw morals, Shine Get!
Episode 2: Il Piantissimo's Crazy Climb. Have I mentioned lately that I hate Il Piantissimo? Again he shows you a distant flag and takes off running, the freaking jerk....You'll need to belly hop to get ahead of him, it's really hard to get and keep a lead here. But once you do, know that you've bested Il Piantidiot for good and he'll never bother you again. BOOYAH! Never has a Shine been so sweet!
Episode 3: The Goopy Inferno. This time Shadow Mario swipes FLUDD before you even get into the level. Ack! You've got to navigate the lava ooze covering the village and rescue the mayor without your mecha-buddy's help. Run around to the back of the village and find a lone Pianta guy. He says that the nearby hole leads to the mayor, not that the thought ever occured to him to go himself. So ground pound through the gate at the bottom of the hole to find yourself on a network of fencing under the village. Follow the coin-speckled trail and avoid the nasty Electro-Koopas and spider-thingies, and take the Pianta's advice regarding the gates that move when you press B; don't hang on too long. Eventually you'll find a swing to jump down to and some big mushrooms to cross, coins lead the way the whole time. The tree roots below are sloped insta-death, so if you fall down there you're toast. A little bouncy green mushroom will toss you up to the next gate, take a good jump at it because a sissy little nervous jump will just cause you to fall to your death. Following the natural path of fences and stuff will bring you to a gate, which lets you surface in the middle of all the burning yuck. There's a path of safe ground leading you to some platforms. Shadow Mario left FLUDD for you on one of these platforms, isn't that nice of him? The mayor is on top of the big gold mushroom, you can get up there by hovering over to the nearby flaming red mushroom and then hovering back to the gold 'shroom. Clean the lava goo off the mayor and talk to him for your Shine.
Episode 4: Chain Chomp's Bath. The Piantas obviously haven't learned from the Chomplets; some idiot has a pet Chain Chomp, which is flaming hot just like the Chomplets were before you threw them in the pond so FLUDD could get some sick joy. So go over to this Chomp, spray him to calm him down and pull out his nail by pressing B. He'll bounce off in the opposite direction as Mario, so you can basically guide him where you want him to go. You need to get him to a hot tub at the back of the town. Spray him to keep him calm as necessary, and when he passes by the hot tub, grab his nail and drag him over. He'll hop into the tub, chill out, and produce a Shine for no real reason.
Episode 5: Secret of the Village Underside. Remember that yellow goo you saw while you were under the village in Ep 3? That's the goo you need Yoshi to dissolve with his fruit juice. The Yoshi egg is right near the entrance, and the fruit he wants will be on a little tree near the back of the village. Once you're sitting on Yoshi, go back across the bridge and jump down to a mushroom, then proceed to follow the coin trail to the yellow goo. Wow, there sure are a lot of 1-Ups lying around, you'd think someone wanted Mario's booty. ...I think that joke worked better in the SMRPG walkthru. Anyways, dissolve the yellow goo and hop in, this obstacle course is fairly easy since you don't do the jumping yourself. It's full of Piantas called Chucksters, they usually throw you straight ahead in the direction you're facing. Which means that you have to be very careful to be facing the right way before you talk to one. Isn't it nice when someone basically gets the Shine for you?
Episode 6: Piantas In Need. Like that's anything new. There's 10 Piantas drowning in lava yuck, and you've got 3 minutes to clean them all off. They're all near the front of the village except one, and all of them are highly visible; the only lava in the level has Piantas in it, and there's plenty of bystanders gawking. Go talk to the mayor when you're done, and he'll give you a Shine. You know, all these Shines are nice and everything, but why doesn't Mario ever get a feast in his honour or anything like that? You'd think heros grow on trees!
Episode 7: Shadow Mario Runs Wild. Geez, why don't they just name an Ep "The Sky is Blue" or something. This time Shadow leaves a trail of lava ooze, which makes him easier to beat as long as you don't step in it or anything. Show Shadow who's boss, grab the Shine, Bob's your uncle and Pianta Village is clear! On to Corona Mountain!
Once you've got the 50 necessary Shines (as in, all Episode 7s are clear), a cutscene will show you Shadow Mario running into a new entrance behind the Shine Gate. And Delfino Plaza is flooded, hehe, kewl...Get up on the roofs, hover over to the entrance and follow Shadow, I mean, duh. This is Corona Mountain, the final stage of the game.
Corona Mountain:
This stage is pretty short and has no Shines to get, it's just a prelude to the final battle. You'll need to step on platforms where spikes pop out, hover over them so that you can stand on the platform as soon as the spikes drop away, they won't stay down for long. And some platforms are on fire, use FLUDD's hover jets to put them out and don't even think about trying to spray from a distance, they relight themselves quickly. Considering that this is a volcano, there's an awful lot of water; surprisingly common 1-Ups refill your water tank, and there's fountains all over the place. Well, you'd have to be nuts to whine about THAT. You'll also need to navigate a boat through the lava, this is basically like steering the lily pads in Bianco Hills. Don't crash into anything or you'll will sink, so move the boat very slowly. Ridiculous numbers of blue coins are lying around, I'd come back later for those if I were you. You'll get to a platform with a Rocket nozzle, so refill FLUDD at a fountain, grab the Rocket nozzle and start climbing the clouds over your head. An overhead camera view makes this MUCH easier. The top cloud is darker than the others, blasting through here takes you to the final battle, so take a deep breath and rocket into the wild...brownish yonder.
The final battle still gives me shivers despite how often I've played it, you fight Bowser and Junior in a flying hot tub full of green acid-ish water. Like, whoa. And Bowser has a voice actor! *happy dance* I think he sounds like Raidramon from the Digimon anime. I was initially disappointed because he didn't sound like he did in the old cartoons, but I think this voice suits Bowser, it sounds like he has to put forth some effort to speak around all those big pointy teeth. But enough of my yapping, on to the battle! I remember the cutscene word-for-word...No, I'm not pathetic...
Bowser: Bwa ha ha! The water's great, eh Junior?
Junior: Sure is, Papa! Come on in, Mama Peach!
Peach: *sitting on a rubber duckie* 0_0;; Uh....I think not.
*Mario blasts up to land on the side of the tub*
Peach: Mario!
Junior: You again? Don't you EVER give up?
Bowser: Mario! How dare you disturb my family vacation?! *roar*
And then Bowser breathes fire just to look impressive, and the battle begins. You can't spray Peachie, I tried. :D Did I mention that Bowser's about 100 million times Mario's size? Well, he is. Spraying him just makes him recoil a little like, "Kay, that's kind of annoying." So how do you beat this super-kewl colossus? FLUDD will hint at this if you wait a while, but why wait for FLUDD when you've got Pyra for help? Well, the hot tub has 5 arm-like outcroppings, go to the end of one and stand where it looks like a target. Rocket up with the Rocket nozzle and, at the top of your jump, ground pound. Doing it from this height makes it strong enough to smash the outcropping and rock the tub, the outcropping will start to crumble away and you need to jump back to the safe edge of the hot tub. Rub-a-dub-dub, 3 men in a tub...Who's the third? Junior's just a kid, Peachie obviously doesn't count...FLUDD? Sure, why not. But I digress. Try not to get burned by the sloshing bathwater/acid/whatever the hell it is. The whole time Bowser will be breathing fire and Junior will be shooting Bullet Bills, and Bowser will occasionally butt-stomp to rock the tub. Use the Rocket nozzle to dodge Bowser's fire, and jump on the Bullet Bills. Jumping on the blue Bills will give you a 1-Up, if you need a water refill or health refill. FLUDD keeps you updated on how many more outcroppings you have left to break, and breaking all 5 will flip the tub and dump everyone out, accompanied by FLUDD's weak "We...did...it....".
Is something wrong with FLUDD? Will anyone survive the fall? Just what happened to Junior's magic paintbrush? Will that gaggle of multi-coloured Toads ever do anything other than whine and freak out? Does anyone CARE that Petey Piranha didn't deserve to die?! Well, I'm not writing out the ending, I just wrote you a freaking walkthru, go watch the ending yourself! Let me just say, though, that anyone who doesn't get even a little bit choked up at FLUDD's part of the ending will be placed on my Heartless Bastard list. Well, there you have it, Sunshine in a nutshell. Now that you know how to beat the game, why not try for all 120 Shines? I mean, you've got time on your hands to read a walkthru written by a gal with the attention span of a goldfish, why not? Happy gaming!