NESpresso: Game Reviews \ GCN \ Super Mario Sunshine

Game Stats
System: Gamecube
Genre: Platform
Players: 1
Memory used: 12 Blocks
Playtime: 00:10 / 20:00
ESRB Rating: Everybody (6+)

"Clean is better than dirty & dirty's meaner than clean." This is pretty much the best summarization of this game. Mario is back as another vacation is ruined as he tries to find out what's going on in a new location, cleaning up a message that was left by somebody posing as Mario.

Mario, Princess Peach, Toadsworth & his fellow stewards were planning on taking a nice vacation on the beautiful island of Isle Del Fino. However, upon nearing the airstrip, their problems has just begun. With various grafitti in a strange paint-like substance, Isle Del Fino's charm has been taken. Unfortunately, the residents of the island strongly believe that Mario was the cuplrit of dirtying the island & causing the Shine Sprites to leave the Shine Gate. As the sentence of the crime he didn't commit, Mario now has the clean the entire island with the help of FLUDD while he tries to prove his innocence.

The graphics are partially cel shaded, but mostly rendered. It gives that realistic, yet a slight cartoon appearance which works well for the game. The most spectacular part of the graphics is the appearance of the liquids used in the game (like the paints & water), which is key to the game. There are some areas in the game where the old 8-bit graphics are used in the background for a retro effect, but these are limited in the game.

The sounds in the game have a tropical, island feel to them & most of the music is appropiate for the areas they're played in. The "hurry up" music that's played whenever there's a timed event you must perform seems to add tension to an already stressful event. You will occasionally hear a remix of the classic Super Mario Bros. tune througout the game. However, you're probably won't miss anything is you choose to play your own music.

The controls of the game are simple, yet provides enough challenge. It will probably take you about 5 to 10 minutes to learn the controls, but thankfully you have the airport to work them out. All other additions to the controls are shown on the screen when they become available so you an use them as well.

The gameplay is more geared towards the usage of FLUDD than then Mario's moves, but there's some areas where you won't have FLUDD to assist you. A downside to this is that you'll need to be able to get access to a water source, even if it's from a hose, to keep FLUDD's tank reasonably full. If the tank's empty, you can use FLUDD & the way to get around a level is a lot harder. One thing that seems to be an annoying part of the game is that each level has it's own set of "episodes" & each episode has a specific task you have to do. Unlike Super Mario 64, if you fail to complete that individual task, you cannot perform an alternate task. What's even MORE annoying is that you lose a life because you fail. If you lose a race, you lose a life... If you fail to complete a task in the time limit, you lose a life... these are in addition to the standard ways of losing a life.

Like previous Mario games, there's more than one the minimum you can do to complete the game. You only need like 50 Shine Sprites (Completing the 7 episodes in each area + the one from the airstrip) to reach the final area & the final boss. However, there's a total of 120 Shine Sprites in the game. After seeing the standard ending (which you'll be forced to see once you complete the 7th episode in each area), you can continue & pick up all the other Shine Sprites hidden all other the island. This includes the 24 Sprites that can only be obtained through the Blue Coin trades (10 Blues = 1 Sprite).

Once you collect all 120 Shine Sprites (believe me, it'll take you a long time to find them all), you'll be able to see the secret ending. However, since this task is hard to complete, you'll need a guide to assist you. Besides this, Super Mario Sunshine is a great game to play