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| Super Mario Sunshine Reviewed by Pirate Yoshi Overview: Super Mario, arguabley the most famous video game mascot ever to stroll the video game screen, started his career as a side-scrolling platform hero. With the coming of the Nintendo 64, Mario found a new dimension and was given the opportunity to not just explore left, right, up, and down, but also all around himself in his first 3D platformer, Super Mario 64. With the coming of GameCube, Mario once again picked up the trail where he left in a 3D world, but with a new element to his gameplay--the ability to hover, aim, and shoot, which all came as new concepts for a Super Mario game. Graphics: 9.6/10 Super Mario Sunshine's graphics are sweet, sun-kissed desserts to the eye, a true treat to take in, even if you don't like Mario or his games. The characters are fluidly animated, detailed, and colored vibrantly. The lucious backgrounds that play as the stages for Mario's adventure are incredible, beautiful landscapes; most are tropical, but some have surprising differences to the sunny beach theme: an amusement park, a twisting underground pipe system, a mysterious void, a lava-filled cavern, and an odd hotel. There is very little to say that is negative concerning Super Mario Sunshine's graphics. Sound: 9.4/10 As you should know by now, I consider sound very vital to a game's success--if the sound is great, the game is great. In an odd-sort of way, I find Mario Sunshine to be both incredible and "blah" in sound, mainly divided by music and FX. Super Mario Sunshine's musical score is excellent, with very fitting music for every instance, level, and event. It boasts bouncy, tropical tunes, wild and chaotic boss themes, tense, heart-pounding pieces, and even some songs that might make you feel a bit nostalgic. Hands raised to Koji Kondo and his sound staff who put together a great musical score! HOWEVER....I feel something of a frown is in order for the rest of the game's sound. While Charles Martinet never lets us down as Mario, I wish Nintendo would start throwing a bit more lines in for our dear plumber to pronounce--after all, he seems to be able to say complete game titles, why not a few new phrases? The jumping and running sounds are as good as they should be, but the spraying sound becomes a bit annoying after a while and some new sound effects, perhaps, should be in order? Whatever the reason, I feel the music over-shadowed the sound effects, which were okay in their own respect. Controls: 8.6/10 While I didn't have any major beefs with Super Mario Sunshine's control scheme, some of the moves are a bit awkward to pull off, and you can't reaaaally ever guarentee you know how Mario will respond to your button presses. This sometimes becomes fatal, and just turning Mario around can be a fidgety process. All summed up, Super Mario Sunshine has above-average control, but still has room for improvement. Challenge: 9.8/10 The real challenge here isn't beating the game really, but actually collecting every Shine in the game (there's 120!). That's a lot of Shine-collecting, coin-grabbing, and enemy-bashing, more than enough to give you some grief! Most of the bosses are relatively easy, but a few "missions" are darn near impossible to complete for a Shine, and THOSE are what give this game this kind of score in Challenge. The level designers in particular deserve something of a hand for some very creative ways to make what should be an easy task relatively difficult--the placement of foes, obstacles, and collectables adds a lot of challenge to the game, and it's apparent these placements are very strategic and probably took a fair amount of time deciding on and revising. Hats off to some real challenge here! Replay: 6.7/10 Will anyone want to replay Super Mario Sunshine. Good question, and my answer is this: probably twice. But don't think you'll complete the entire game three, or even two, times. You'll probably play until you beat the end boss (his name is not used, to avoid ruining plot line), then start a new file when you've decided you've gotten all Shines you really want to work for. Your next file will die almost immediately, and you'll go back to your first eventually to try and find the final Shines you never found. If and when you become bored much later on, you might start a third and complete most of a second file, but that's about it. Unfortunately, this game is very much the same each time you play it, and there's not much that makes you want to replay it--no new prizes for completion, and the fun factor is low enough on your first try to basically stump forth-coming attempts. Gameplay: 7.8/10 What can I say about the gameplay? Hmmm...."nice" does well, I think. Super Mario Sunshine is a "nice" game; it's not great, only "nice". It plays "nicely"; it provides a "nice" level of fun. But is it a blast? Is it fantastic? Is it abominable? No, not at all. I found that SMS keeps you entertained while it has you, addicts you into playing faithfully, then dumps you at the end of the ride like a sack of maneure and asks that you "please insert ticket for reride". It's fun until that ending--then, it's a burden. Sadly, I believe Mario has only been going downhill in this catagory; the level of gameplay has slowly diminished over the years, and Mario's starting to barely pull even anymore. I expect better from Mario, I guess, and to find myself annoyed at the way the game has played is not what I would (or should) expect from such a famous game series. I sincerely hope that Mario finds a new way to take his games from here, perhaps back into side-scrolling platform action, because the biggest drops have both occurred in the jump to 3D platforming--coincidence? I think not.... **Multiplayer**: 0/1 This game does not support any multiplayer. **Story**: .4/1 Okay, so about the storyline--every Mario game has one, believe it or not--and its good/bad points. Upon first playing the game, I was impressed with the storyline....up until a certain point. What began as a fabulous story, especially for a Mario Bros. game, quickly turned and reared its ugly head--yuck, another typical plotline. I was astounded at first. Not only did Super Mario Sunshine boast a new storyline for a Super Mario game, it also happened to be a very involving one! Of course, it was too good to last, and WAAAAAY to early on in the game, like a child being told there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny, the game spanked me awake with the plotline I wished I had just avoided for only a few hours more. If only it had not unmasked the mysterious villain I was so excited by so quickly, it would've been worlds better... Just one more hour and I would've been satisfied....well, somewhat. I'm rather annoyed, I guess--Nintendo had a big, spectacular plot going on this time around, but they regressed way too fast back to what is a very dull theme for a Mario game, and it cast my hopes away into the furnace like soooo much tissue paper (ending there is a quote from Viewtiful Joe ^ ^) Do yourself a favor, and prepare for the shock and downcasting that will come from this storyline. Graphics: 9.6/10 Sound: 9.4/10 Control: 8.6/10 Challenge: 9.8/10 Replay: 6.7/10 Gameplay: 7.8/10 **Multiplayer: 0/1 **Story: .4/1 Total Score: 8.6 Score Explanation: Perhaps this score seems a little low to you--it seems that way to me, but only slightly. I would've guessed something more like a 9.0, but the numbers don't lie, and if you'd buy this game rated at a 9.0, then I suggest you buy this game rated at an 8.6, too, because .4 of a point isn't that much of a difference (as its bonus story score shows...). But I don't feel that this game was great and cheated somehow in this review--it definately has some flaws and weak points, and this being a review, they should be exposed for the world to know of. Had I read this review before SMS's release, it wouldn't have stopped me from buying it...but it might've eased some of the stinging backlash I felt from disappointment... |