Wow, Super Mario Sunshine is bad.

[Zing]

Super Mario 64: One of the best games ever made.

Super Mario Galaxy: Possibly the best Mario game ever made.

WTF happened with Super Mario Sunshine?

I have given it my best and I just can't take it anymore. It is boring as hell. The controls are overly sensitive. The level designs are horrible. The blue coin collection is arbitrary and annoying. The original Super Mario Bros has a more immersive story. The game just doesn't feel worth playing.

I would sit down and collect all 120 stars in Mario 64 right now. I am 80 stars into the Luigi mode of Super Mario Galaxy and its still fun. I got 10 shines into Mario Sunshine and I just cannot force myself to go on.

Am I missing something about this game or is it a game destined to sit on my shelf unplayed?

[Blanka789]

I found it to be fun, just more about exploration than Mario games traditionally are. A lot of people hate this game, but I think it's ok.

[noname11]

i found it to be hit and miss, some great levels, a lot of boring ones

[Superman]

Super Mario Sunshine didn't seem that exciting to me either. However, I should note that I haven't played it that much. The most I have played is a few minutes when it was at the store kiosks. I spent most of the time trying to figure out why you were shooting people (or animals) with water. It was humorous, but it wasn't a Mario game to me.

I have a copy now, but I have had it for a little over a year and I just haven't found the motivation to try it again.

[kupomogli]

I've only played Mario 64 to finish and never any of the other 3d ones. Never understood why people think it to be one of the best games ever made, much less one of the best Mario games ever made.

The only good thing about Mario 64 is that it has aged very well. Overall though. It's got a terrible camera which helps give the sense of difficulty to the games relatively poor level design. The castle itself is designed really well and there are a few stages that are designed well, but half the stages are overall boring and everything is extremely small that you're doing nothing more collecting all the starts which is the only reason it has any sortof replay value.

I've heard good things about Super Mario Galaxy, but with everything wrong about Mario 64 and how much it's praised, then I don't think I'd ever try that one.

I'll atleast agree with everyone's praise on Zelda Ocarina of Time. While not the greatest game ever made, it's definitely one of the best Zelda titles. More praise needs to go towards Zelda Wind Waker aside from the crappy sailing.

[c0ldb33r]

Both my wife and I really enjoyed Super Mario Sunshine. There were a few levels that were kind of crummy (chasing Dark Mario around the city drove me bonkers) but I thought most levels were really fun. Plus, I loved the graphic, music and being able to use the water pack.

I should note that I'm not the 100% completionist type in 3D mario games. I'm sure that there are levels that I never bothered with that could drive a man to drink. I played enough to beat the game, went back and played a bunch more levels just for fun and just stopped there.

[RPG_Fanatic]

I have given it my best and I just can't take it anymore. It is boring as hell. The controls are overly sensitive. The level designs are horrible. The blue coin collection is arbitrary and annoying. The original Super Mario Bros has a more immersive story. The game just doesn't feel worth playing.

Sunshine is the worst Mario game so far.

[Tupin]

I personally really liked Sunshine, it was a departure from the series, but it was good.

In ten years, it will be looked upon as the Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) of the 128-bit generation. I guess you could say it's a "love it" or "hate it" game.

[maxlords]

I rather liked Sunshine myself. Thought it was kind of fun and different. However....I absolutely HATED Mario 64 with a burning passion. I cannot stand that game at ALL. Just seeing it makes me angry. I've never understood why people rave about it all the time. IMO that and SMB 2 are the worst Mario games. My favorites are 1, 3, 4, and Galaxy.

[Nebagram]

I loved Sunshine, the water pack was a fun gimmick once you got the hang of it. I can't understand people saying 'it's not Mario'- so what if it's different? It's still a seriously fun game.

[carlcarlson]

I really liked it. I thought it was just a light-hearted, fun game. I'll admit I didn't complete all of the blue coin levels though. Once I beat Bowser I pretty much shelved it.

[scooterb23]

I liked Sunshine way more than I liked Mario 64.

[fahlim003]

I rather liked Sunshine myself. Thought it was kind of fun and different. However....I absolutely HATED Mario 64 with a burning passion. I cannot stand that game at ALL. Just seeing it makes me angry. I've never understood why people rave about it all the time. IMO that and SMB 2 are the worst Mario games. My favorites are 1, 3, 4, and Galaxy.

We Canadians think alike. I too enjoy Sunshine since it for the most part didn't leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. I found the atmosphere to be very cohesive and the FLUDD element was actually fairly easy to work with. Mind you, I've never owned a GameCube and surely spent less than 10 hours in game but I've watched around 40 hours of my friend go at it and I can honestly say not much wasn't interesting. I'll say some of the later shines per area weren't terribly executed but on the whole I look back at Sunshine and feel good.

Mario 64 on the other hand I have no compassion for, possibly due to the fact I have a strong dislike for the 64 in general. I will say it's a game that fared extremely well and broke ground in it's day but I think I'm at the point where I'm in no position to try it out again for a long time to come. Compared to Sunshine, 64 was very sparse and it seems some of the early levels have similar elements that are found in Sunshines bonus stages, which are actually quite fun. As for Galaxy, no Revolution so whatever goes. Apparently it's good but what do I care.

[aclbandit]

I enjoyed it. I mean, there's certainly no comparison for Mario 64, and Galaxy is better than Sunshine, but it was still a solid game.

[Kyle15]

I don't mind Sunshine or 64 at all, they are both pretty good. As for Galaxy? I found it a complete rehash bore-fest 20 minutes in.
If I could pick a favorite, it would be Sunshine. Its a great example of a Mario adventure game done right. 64 and Galaxy were too much of the same thing, so that's probably why I didn't like them as much.

Anybody else a fan of the Mario RPGs? I find them a lot better than Mario's recent fare.

[heybtbm]

I thought Super Mario Sunshine was great. No idea why people continue to bitch about this game. It's fantastic. Sure, it's not quite as good as SM64 or Galaxy...but it's still an A-list first party classic. How many of those came out during the Gamecube generation? (crickets chirping).

[Melf]

Sunshine was the first Mario game I never felt compelled to complete.

[Aussie2B]

I don't think it's as instantly appealing as most Mario games, but it's worth a time investment. When the game first came out, my boyfriend picked it up, and I casually played for about 30-some Shines before I grew tired of it and quit. It didn't leave that huge of an impression on me, but a summer or two ago I decided to sit down and seriously play through it. I collected all 120 Shines, and in the end, it became a very memorable experience. I really adore the atmosphere of the game. From the bright sun, glistening water, sandy beaches, and the joyful music, few games capture that lovely summertime feeling better.

[Zing]

Compared to Sunshine, 64 was very sparse

Interesting that you say this, since something that bothers me about Sunshine is how cramped and cluttered the levels feel. Combine this with an even worse camera than Mario 64 (which I honestly didn't find that bad) and touchy controls, and it makes me want to just turn the game off.

It just feels like there is no direction, which is weird considering there is intended to be more "story" than Mario 64 and it also has the scrolling text along the bottom. It just seemed so obvious in Mario 64 what to do. You gather stars to open the next door. In Sunshine you are gathering blue coins for whatever reason and there doesn't seem to be any explicit drive to gather shines, other than to eventually complete the game, of course.

I am currently playing through Wind Waker, which is very enjoyable. After I complete that, maybe I will try to give Sunshine a quick playthrough. I can't imagine tolerating it enough to gather all the shines, though.

[c0ldb33r]

Anybody else a fan of the Mario RPGs? I find them a lot better than Mario's recent fare.

I own Mario RPG but have never played it. My wife has a save file at the last boss, so that's kind of neat. I love the Paper Mario series, except for the Wii version, which I detest. But the other two are excellent.