Super Mario Sunshine is one of the most polarizing titles in the beloved Nintendo catalog, but
in this video game court, it's Innocent Until Proven Guilty!
"Court is now in session..."
Hey, that's my line!
Thanks for messing up my intro, you stupid...judge, you!
Anyway, happy holidays, everyone!
I hope you're all having a joyous celebration & I appreciate that you've chosen to spend
some of it with me, so let's keep the mood light & festive with an oddball request that
breaks from the normal code of conduct.
Long time viewers are used to me bringing Mighty No. 9 & other comparably notorious
offenders to trial, but this episode offers a stark contrast by not only being a first
party Nintendo title, but one that was widely praised upon its release.
I was understandably hesitant about giving this unusual suspect the IUPG treatment, but
I later learned that a portion of the fandom now consider it to be the black sheep of the
franchise, so I knew that I had to get down to business & determine once & for all if
Super Mario Sunshine deserves its negative reputation.
Released on August 25th, 2002, Super Mario Sunshine ushered the big N's mustached mascot
into the sixth console generation with a fresh take on a familiar formula.
The story sends the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom on a long overdue vacation to the
beautiful Isle Delfino, but their rest & relaxation is immediately cut short as they discover
that their peaceful destination has been polluted with a toxic goopy substance.
The perpetrator of the crime bears a striking resemblance to the plumber, which results
in him being tossed in the slammer & sentenced with the task of cleaning up the island.
In order to fulfill this duty, Mario is assigned a Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device, or
F.L.U.D.D. for short.
The F.L.U.D.D. projects a steady stream of water that dispels even the toughest of messes, but it also boosts
our hero's already advanced platforming skills by allowing him to float in the air,
blast off to previously unreachable heights & break through barriers via the Hover, Rocket
& Turbo attachments, respectively.
The F.L.U.D.D. controls are tight and touch sensitive, meaning that Mario will either spray while free roaming
around each area or stand his ground & aim for specific targets depending on how much
pressure is applied to the R button.
The F.L.U.D.D. is essentially Sunshine's answer to Luigi's Mansion's vacuum & its
sentient consciousness chimes in with helpful hints for traversing the seven hub worlds
in the pursuit of clearing the protagonist's name & rejuvenating the Shine Gate.
The Shine Gate is Isle Delfino's central tourist attraction & the main source of its
radiant energy, but the recent vandalism outbreak has dulled its legendary luster.
To reverse this reckless defacement, Mario has to collect Shine Sprites, of which there
are 120 in total, but only around 60 are required in order to unlock the final chapter.
The Shine sprites can be obtained in a number of different ways.
Some of them are located in hidden nooks, while others can be purchased for ten blue
coins each in the shop adjacent the Ricco Harbor entrance, but the majority are gathered
by following the path of the plot.
The first Shine sprite is rewarded after defeating the monster blocking the plane & the next
batch are picked up in the first hub world, but Shadow Mario, a.k.a. the true disaster
artist mucking up the island, steps in to grind our hero's efforts to a screeching
halt by nabbing Princess Peach.
What follows is the first of many chase sequences where Mario's artistically inclined archenemy
has to be repeatedly sprayed down until he gives in to the combined force of the plumber
& his F.L.U.D.D. unit.
These segments can be quite tricky, especially when the multi-tiered terrain provides the
mysterious figure with plenty of hiding spots, but the audio department clues players in
on whether or not they're on the right track.
An updated, uptempo rendition of the classic underground theme will play when Shadow Mario
is in the vicinity and the volume will gradually increase as his presence draws nearer, so
be sure to pay careful attention to the music if the fiend eludes you.
Shadow Mario is a persistent thorn in our side throughout the course of Sunshine, and
his enchanted paintbrush conjures up a bevy of bosses to battle, including Gooper Blooper,
Petey Piranha, & a rampaging Wiggler.
The bosses deviate slightly from their 3D predecessors, with attack patterns that require
a mix of F.L.U.D.D. blasts & ground pounds to combat, but the majority are still beaten after receiving three hits.
Interspersed between the bosses are a series of challenges & sticky situations that put
the plumber through his paces.
There are the red coin missions reminiscent of Mario 64, as well as the Il Piantissimo
timed flagpole races, but the bulk of the adventure has the iconic Nintendo mascot performing
community service for the crimes he didn't commit.
He restores & exorcises a hotel, ensures that the majestic Sand Bird is born, and gives
a bath to some hotheaded Chain Chomps, to name but a few of the seemingly never ending
amount of chores that Mario has to complete during his stint on Isle Delfino.
Needless to say, the F.L.U.D.D. adds a whole new dimension to the tried & true platforming formula
and it's the primary element that sets Sunshine apart from the rest of the entries in the franchise…which
is why it's shocking when Shadow Mario leaps out of nowhere & steals it from our hero's
body, leaving us with nothing but our wits & quick reflexes to make it through the so
called secret stages a.k.a. the bane of my recording sessions.
The secret levels start off innocently enough in the regular Delfino territory, but lurking
somewhere a midst the familiar scenery is a hidden cave or passageway, & entering it
causes all hell to break loose.
What would normally be a breeze with the F.L.U.D.D. is now an arduous gauntlet, requiring the
player to bring their A-game or get lost in the abyss.
I applaud Nintendo for coming up with such a clever diversion & I appreciated the difficulty
spike to an extent, but I believe it could have been implemented better.
Sunshine is based around the F.L.U.D.D.
mechanic and utilizing it becomes second nature to us as we delve deeper into the shores of
Delfino, so it's extremely jarring when the developers suddenly yank it from our inventory
& force us to proceed through a string of stages that tip into the Dark Souls portion
of the brutality meter.
This was exacerbated even more by one of Sunshine's biggest flaws...the camera controls.
The camera is manually controlled by the C stick and placing it in the proper position
should be simple & intuitive in theory, but the reality is sadly the opposite.
The camera easily gets caught in awkward angles & I lost count of the number of times I died due to this.
While far from the worst camera controls in a 3D platformer, Sunshine's are disappointingly
mediocre for a first party Nintendo title & it really put a damper on the overall experience.
In spite of the overwhelming odds, I managed to progress past the aggravating hurdles & continue
onward with the story and I discovered a few unexpected twists & turns in the process.
After his original failed attempt, Shadow Mario actually succeeds in capturing the princess
& the vile vandal unleashes a hulking Mecha Bowser when the fearless protagonist trails
him to the local amusement park.
Upon its defeat, the true identity of the culprit is finally revealed & it's none other than….
Bowser Jr.
The young son of the Koopa king is under the impression that Peach is his mother & he was
freeing her from the imprisonment of the man whom his father labeled as bad, so he decided
to impersonate him, with the help of his magical paintbrush, in order to get him permanently
locked behind bars.
The cutscenes that deliver this exposition are entertaining to watch & the voice cast
did a great job of setting the appropriate vibe, with Charles Martinet reprising the
role of providing the various noises uttered by the titular character during the course of gameplay.
The remainder of Sunshine's presentation is equally impressive, with rich detailed
environments, a vibrant color palette & a fantastic soundtrack from long time composer
Koji Kondo, so it's a shame that there are so many problems that bog down what should
have been another Nintendo masterpiece.
Iwata-san, Miyamoto & the rest of the team came up with a lot of really inventive concepts,
but as with the aforementioned secret levels, they were implemented in such a flawed manner.
There are a number of puzzles that are meant to be creative, but they just end up coming
off as annoying, and there's even a whole hub world that can't be accessed unless
you know to switch to the first person view & look up.
The timed blooper surfing chase for the red coins suffers from handling issues that make
it about as fun as trying to tame a wild bull & the hotel pool section was so convoluted
that I had to defer to a guide to figure out where to go.
The conclusion at Corona Mountain itself is the perfect encapsulation of everything wrong
with Sunshine as this literal trial by fire has the beloved mascot surrounded by a sea
of hot lava, & one mistake can result in an instant fiery death.
The F.L.U.D.D. gets a workout like it never has before & the player has to use nearly every nozzle at their
disposal to survive this blistering inferno, with the boat ride being one of the most awkwardly
aggravating things I've ever encountered in a video game.
The subsequent fight with Bowser, while admittedly pretty cool from a design perspective, was
underwhelming after the stressful travail that led up to it & the ending, minus the
really cute & funny exchange between the Bowsers, was largely lackluster.
After having such a terrible time with No Man's Sky, I figured that Super Mario Sunshine
would be a refreshing treat and a great way to close out 2017, but that really wasn't the case at all.
Sunshine, in many ways, turned out to be as tedious as No Man's Sky, but in a different manner.
While Sunshine has structure & a definitive end point, the individual objectives aren't
always stated as clearly as they should be & I had to frequently consult a guide after
wandering around for minutes on end, wondering where the hell to go & what the hell to do.
The design choices are often ingenious & I admire the Sunshine crew for their creativity,
but those moments of inspiration are outweighed by their ideas that got out of hand, & it's
no wonder that the titles that followed would opt for a more straightforward & refined style
that I find to be more pleasing.
Super Mario Sunshine is not a complete failure by anyone's definition of the word & there
are a lot of things that I like about it, but it has serious issues that erode the fun
factor for me & I strongly disagree with the unanimously positive critical consensus, which
is why I rule that the verdict is...
Guilty!
Shadow Cygnus: Excellent!
You've done well, my son.
Let the hate flow through you & use it to crush that cursed plumber!
Judge Cygnus: What?
Who are you and what are you talking about?
I don't hate this game.
Shadow Cygnus: Oh, really?
You sure sounded pretty negative for someone who doesn't hate it.
Judge Cygnus: My personal take on Sunshine was largely negative, but I don't hate it.
The plot was engaging, the setting was interesting & the F.L.U.D.D.
mechanic was awesome, though I wish it had been included in a better game.
Shadow Cygnus: A better game, huh?
Does that mean you think this is worse than Sonic '06?
You gave that & Rise of Lyric innocent verdicts and those are both unarguably worse than Sunshine.
Judge Cygnus: That's a tough question to answer.
'06 & Rise of Lyric are technically worse games, in that they have WAY more bugs & glitches
than Sunshine, so I'll easily concede that.
As far as the gameplay itself goes, I do indeed prefer those Sonic titles.
Rise of Lyric is a short, novelty cartoon tie-in that's over long before it wears
out its welcome and '06 offers much more variety than Sunshine with its three playable
characters & a superior story, not to mention some seriously rockin' tunes.
Shadow Cygnus: I see.
So in other words...
you're a crazy Sonic fanboy!
Judge Cygnus: No, I'm not!
I love Mario & Sonic.
In fact, I got a Switch recently & I'm having a blast playing through Odyssey & Rabbids:
Kingdom Battle, so you couldn't be more wrong.
Shadow Cygnus: Uh huh...well, if that truly is the case, then why are you wearing that hat?
Judge Cygnus: My hat?
It's Christmas, silly, so I'm of course wearing a Santa ha...
What the?
Great googly moogly, I really am a Sonic fanboy!
Oh, my God!!!!!! (in best Troll 2 impression)
(Maniacal laughter)
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