Mario Sunshine first thoughts

[kainemaxwell]

First thoughts on the Japanese release of Mario Sunshine can be found here:
http://www.gamers.com/feature/mariosunshine/index.jsp

[mauigamer]

I have been researching this game since the day I bought my gamecube. The game looks fantastic. The still shots don't do it justice. One of the few games that I will pay full price for. Mario on a tropical island what more could anybody want?

[BHvrd]

You know, I didn't think it was gonna be anything more than "another" Mario game, but after reading the preview in Game Informer last month I was surprised to hear that Nintendo had the balls to change the gameplay up, and I think the story line is very funny, and fresh.

Purists might be upset, but I feel that if a game is going to evolve, and succeed it must take on new aspects, and it seems as though Mario Sunshine has.

I always dig innovation, now let me go read that review, and see what others say.

[JJNova]

Decided to bring this topic back, now a couple of years later, to see how people feel about the game besides a first look.

I personally enjoy the game immensely, but not one I would play through more than once (But i am that way with most games). It's definitely a polished, well thought out game. THe puzzles tend to be more difficult then I have experienced in a Mario, the colors are just as vibrant as any previous release, and the controls are dead on accurate.

Although those damn "Stolen Waterpack" puzzles have pissed me off numerous nights.....

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I really injoyed the game and played the living hell out of it (got everything). Maybe it wasn't the "new" mario game that people were hoping for but it was by no means a bad game.

[bluberry]

I thought it was pretty abysmal. I found the levels to be more annoying than fun to negotiate, and I though the challenges were lame. Lame bosses, too.

That said, I enjoyed the jumping puzzles immensely, all two of them that were outside the special place. My favorite was in the second area, jumping around all those platforms high in the air. You could do it so many ways, that area was actually fun.

[tholly]

I really injoyed the game and played the living hell out of it (got everything). Maybe it wasn't the "new" mario game that people were hoping for but it was by no means a bad game.


yea....it definitely wasnt the new mario game i was hoping for....it just didnt do anything for me

[Half Japanese]

To toss my two cents into the moldpile, I concur that it was pretty shitty. The game did absolutely nothing for me and the water-backpack-doohickey was just a terrible idea. If you want stilts, do stilts, if you want a super soaker, do a supersoaker, but if you want a gimmicky game, keep away from Mario. Way more annoying than fun and with some absolutely horrible camera angles.

[Nez]

God the camera pissed me off in that game. :angry: But my favorite parts were where you acctually didn't have your fludd device. Just felt more natural that way. And I really enjoyed that challange of those parts.

[midgey]

i guess i'm one of the few that thought it was a superb game. Maybe its just because I played it quite a bit during my first week of college and I'm nostalgic. In order to get the most out of the game, you need to play it in a small room with a Tropical Breeze glade plug-in. Now thats a good idea...games that actually incorporate the sense of smell. They need a rotting zombie flesh glade plug-in so I can enjoy MS3 to the full extent.

[Querjek]

I think that mkost of you just never had a chance to experience this game as I did: The second-best GCN game (Next to ANimal Crossing, of course). I normally don't get too excited over a game's release, but I was CRAZY over this game. I remember that the day it came out, school started and I Was like "Oh f*ck, I won't be able to play this game that much," but, somehow, I did.

[Mr. Smashy]

I really enjoyed Super Mario Sunshine. I played that game exclusively for about 2 weeks whenever I had some spare time. There isn't a single thing about that game that I found to be even mildly unpleasant or poorly designed. I had plenty of fun playing it.

[Ze_ro]

I actually quite enjoyed this game, and played it through twice already... however, the game IS lacking and could have been better. Here's some of the reasons I think a lot of people dislike it:
The water pack is gimmicky. Personally, I feel that the water pack should have been a powerup rather than a "have it all the time" thing... or perhaps multiple powerups that take it's place. I just don't equate "squirting water" with Mario, so it doesn't feel right.
You're not in the Mushroom Kingdom, and the enemies are all different. Where are the Goombas? Where are the Koopa Troopas? Instead we get these rather lame Isle Delfino characters instead. At least they kept Boo and the Piranha Plants.
Your task, through most of the game anyways, is to clean up the island... frankly, that seems more like work than simply collecting stars in Mario 64 was. I don't think it actually works out this way, since you actually do face real objectives rather than scrubbing the island, but it's first impressions, y'know?
All that sort of adds up and makes it feel like it's not REALLY a Mario game, but that we're just being told that it is. I also didn't like how the game wasn't anywhere near as non-linear as Mario 64 was. Remember in Mario 64 how you could get Stars before the game told you about them? Ever noticed that Super Mario Sunshine specifically prevents you from doing that?

I think in the end, I can say that it's a fun game on it's own... but when you put it with all the other Mario games, it looks rather poor in comparison. I really hope the Gamecube lasts long enough for Nintendo to release a REAL Mario game.

--Zero

[ubersaurus]

I rather enjoyed the game. It definitely wasn't as replayable as Mario 64...but it was by no means bad, and I had fun with it when I went through it.

[musical]

Hated it.

I grew tired of constantly "washing" everything. It was too repetitive (and slooow). I kept thinking to myself that instead of washing imaginary places, maybe I should go wash my car!

I DID like the old-school platforming levels. That was what the game should have been... no stupid water jet. Scratch Mario Sunshine and go replay Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie. Better yet: Spned the $20 on Ratchet & Clank or Sly Cooper!

[Crush Crawfish]

I loved every minute of it. I just hope Nintendo can get another Mario game out in less than 6 years.

[RoboticParanoia]

I liked it. It was new, different, and fun. People are just wayt too tenacious towards the norm.

[grayrobertos]

The things I loved about mario 64 where marios acrobatics. In mario sunshine some of the flips are taken out, which was really my main problem with it, but I never experianced the bad camera angels everone goes on about.

The fact that it wasnt in the mushroom kingdom and everything was different with new enemys and people around sort of made it feal like spyro or something like that.

My thoughts are that nintendo really did want to take a holiday from mario 64 and make a game that was different thats been there whole moto this generation. If they kept banging out mario 64 with different levels everyone would be on there back, I just think it was a nice little game to bridge the gap before the next revolutionary mario game.

anyone agree?

[Mitch_Naz]

I enjoyed the game alot, I can remember seing all the videos of game and those big walking things (that didnt appear in the final game) - Its clear that sunshine doesnt quite measure up to mario 64, but its a good game worth picking up -- especially with is new lower price tag (player's choice)

[Graham Mitchell]

I liked it. It was new, different, and fun. People are just wayt too tenacious towards the norm.

Agreed. However, I will say that while I was fully enjoying that game, I did come home one night after a 12-hour shift to find my unemployed bastard of a roommate beating that game in front of me while I ate my dinner. I payed $60 for the fucking thing (not to mention it was my GC) and he's the one who gets to play it? Well, for some reason that pissed me off so much, and spoiled the game to the extent where I didn't want to play it anymore. Normall seeing the ending to a game is irrelevant to me, and if it's fun, I'll still play it all the way through. But SMS somehow didn't seem worth it after that point. Don't know why, but I feel it's sort of a sentiment shared by people in this thread.

[EnemyZero]

Yeah I can agree it wasn't the mario game I've been waiting for but, it is still a great game , I thuroughly enjoyed it, but it's definitely not gonna hold me over untill we see a true sequal to mario 64

[YoshiM]

Wow, thread ressurrected two years later.

Anyhoo, my thoughts on the game remain the same: don't like it. When you go with a legacy franchise like Mario you can't change things up too much. It's a formula that is practically eternal and works-sales of the Super Mario Advance series games is proof enough. Nintendo was able to translate that 2D goodness into a 3D world that is still heralded as one of the greatest games ever. So when Sunshine washed up on the shores, all I could wonder is "WTF happened?"

To me, Sunshine is one gigantic mini game with that stupid water pack. It was almost a rip off of Banjo Kazooie, sans the level diversity. If Nintendo left the water pack as a true "side quest" or maybe had water hoses laying about (think of the dynamic of having to snake a hose from the spout to the dirty area without getting it snagged on anything) for cleaning that might have helped. If the island was just one stop in a vast world that might have helped. As it is, it's just sad in my eyes.

[Nature Boy]

On the whole I liked it, but the camera drove me nuts. If it wasn't for the camera I'd consider it a classic.

I really liked the addition of the water pack thingy. It made platform jumping much less frustrating (which was part of the reason it was included from what I remember).

I'm also a big supporter of Nintendo trying different things with Mario (and other franchises). I'm always amazed that people whine about too many sequels to games, and then when sequels are released they complain that they're too different...

[Graham Mitchell]

On the whole I liked it, but the camera drove me nuts. If it wasn't for the camera I'd consider it a classic.

I really liked the addition of the water pack thingy. It made platform jumping much less frustrating (which was part of the reason it was included from what I remember).

I'm also a big supporter of Nintendo trying different things with Mario (and other franchises). I'm always amazed that people whine about too many sequels to games, and then when sequels are released they complain that they're too different...

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you.

[mauigamer]

Granted the camera control could have been better but I have played dozens of games where the camera was worse. When I played the game I really wasnt anazlying it while playing I was just having fun.

[calthaer]

I liked the game. While I think it's true that the scrubbing bubbles action got a little old, I'm not sure I agree about the "old school platformer" levels. I thought those were pretty difficult and unforgiving (especially that one where you have to ride on the back of the sand-block bird and collect all 8 red coins). It's not like if you fell you had to climb back up - you just plain died, most of the time. The water pack at least gave you a little bit of leeway with its hover ability - you could jump and not make it perfect but still succeed.

Sure, 1-ups are easy to come by, but what gets even more boring than cleaning all the time is having to try the same level 10-15 times before you can complete it. I haven't finished the whole game yet - I peck away at it every now and then. Those dumb levels kind of turned me off.

[Nature Boy]

Granted the camera control could have been better but I have played dozens of games where the camera was worse.

Just because there are other games that have worse camera controls doesn't help when I'm playing. Be careful of slipping into fanboydom!

[HC Andersson]

I really loved to play SMS as it was so much fun crammed into the game. I think it was 10 times greater than Mario 64.

Hey, Mario got atleast a water-gun in Mario Sunshine, it must be a good sign. Boys likes to play with cool gadgets and SMS had them. Where do you think games like Tomb Raider, Doom and Metal Gear Solid would be without all the fancy gears & guns? 8-)

[SMB]

My first thought is why the hell is Mario spraying water on weird looking people that have crap on them O_O

[Jasoco]

I only got this recently. I beat it already. I have to say it's a really confusing mix between really easy "Episodes" and really HARD "Episodes". And in order to get to some of the easy ones, you have HAVE to beat some hard ones. I only have 96 Shines. I'm working on all the blue coins, but a lot of those "Red Coins in the Secret Level" ones will probably NEVER be gotten by me. Those are way too hard, too little time, and really poorly designed. They must be designed for a Japanese person, because I can't beat it. Look at the japanese SMB2. That was so relatively impossible for the US. That's what I see when I look at half of SMS.

But all in all, I was happy I got it. Not that I had to pay $30. I'd rather have paid $20. Fortunately I got a Players Guide because there are a lot of Shines I would have never EVER thought to look for! WTF? There's NO mention of their whereabouts in the game, you NEED a guide or FAQ Walkthrough to find them! "Spray water at the sun" at the top of the tree in that village on episode 8 and you'll see what I mean. And pound the top of the Light House? From waaaaay up high. I wouldn't have thought to do this stuff! Spray the ground to find the shine drawing. These are all over the place, but nary a clue to where they are. You just have to "guess".

I have a feling I won't be able to get all 120 this time like I did with SM64.