Super Mario Sunshine
[Gamecube]

This game is a tough one to tackle. I just finished it last night so it's very fresh on my mind. Actually I've been trying to beat this game for some time now, about 2 months. For me that's a lot of time spent on a single game. Second, I didn't actually "beat" the game, but I did finish the story line. Beating this game takes a lot more patience than my mind will allow me to give. So let's get to the explaining already.

Positives: Not often does a game come along that captivates me as Mario Sunshine did. I loved it. I hated it. Here’s the love. At it's heart, Mario is completely solid and addictive as hell. I played the be-jesus out of it when I first got it. I played the be-jesus out of it in the last week. Actually, I just played the be-jesus out of it period. The control scheme couldn't be better. It's terribly odd at first, but once you get a grasp on which button does what and learn to manipulate the camera system with the C-stick, you'll be jettin' the water pack and dive-dive-squirt-waterslide-triple jump-swingin from rope to rope with no problem. The levels are pretty innovatively designed and the graphics are really neat to look at. A lot of the old characters are back and it's good to see em in such a lush environment. Playing with the 4 water pack nozzles is a "blast." Tight rope walking is slick and so are almost all the other elements of the game, including the boss battles, which are very original in creation. The actual levels are divided in to 8 different locations, each with their own 8 levels, and are accessed from the main home level that you start out in. This can be thought of as your "home," which is where you are started out when you load a game, die and such. All in all there is a lot of replay in this game. Not to mention, if one were to actually driven to accomplish collecting all 120 Shines and 240 Blue Coins. To put this in to perspective, I finished the game in about 25 hours and collected 63 Shines and 84 Blue Coins. Intimidating? Yes.

Negatives: Mario's new pals on this island are flat out stupid and I hate them and I think they should all have died. The camera requires way to much of the user. This camera system works well most of the time, but in a game that requires quick action and a lot of patience, there is no excuse for this bad of a camera. A lot of the time the camera goes in to a focus and the user can't even manually change it. You just have to walk slowly until it becomes in your control again, and pray that you don't die and have to start the level over or worse, start from the last save because you were on your last life. The save system could use some work. If I save on a certain level, I want to start THERE, not back at the very beginning of the game where I have to work my way back to the right location again and then choose my level AGAIN. The boss battles are creative, but way too easy. After such a hard road to get to a pain in the ass boss, he better be challenging. Last boss shouldn't be the second easiest boss in the game either. Ugh. In the end, this game is not for those people who are known to get angry and frustrated and punch things. This game is not for people with a low level of comprehension. This game is actually very hard. Hard to a point of not wanting it at some points. That's that.

Mario Sunshine is worth a purchase at 29.99. It's a fun game and you'll love it at it's start, hate it a lot through the middle, and love it again when you're done and realize what an experience it was.

Experience 8.5 (I just a great, great time with this game and I think most others would too)
Graphics 9 (pretty to look at, un-matched water effects, good background draw)
Sound 5 (annoying, but Mario makes his loveable noises and Yoshi's adorable)
Control 7 (solid, but camera can make them frustrating, random, and unresponsive quite often)

Overall 8

---Frayed