Super Mario Sunshine is the game that GameCube owners have been waiting for since the system's release release in November of last year. It took 10 months, but it is finally here, and Nintendo fans have plenty of fun gameplay to look forward to.
Mario has gone out for a well deserved vacation to a tropical island with Peach and Toad. But when he arrives, the town is covered in a brown sludge, and the shine sprites who guard over the city have been driven away by the slime. Mario is framed for the crime, and is forced to clean up the town, collect the shine sprites, and find the one who has framed him. This story is complemented with cheesy FMV videos in which Peach, Toad, and Mario's backpack all talk to eachother. The voiceovers for the characters are very bad, and you can hardly understand what they are saying or talking aboutif you leave the subtitles off. The story isn't a selling point for Super Mario Sunshine, but the gameplay definitely is.
The best way to describe SMS would be one part Mario 64, one part Pilotwings, and a dash of new moves and abilities. The most drastic change would be the water pack strapped to Mario's back, from which he uses many different attachments in his adventure. You start out with the spray nozzle, which you use to attack enemies and wipe off the sludge on the walls. There is also the hover nozzle, which lets you move in the air longer, and the rocket and jet nozzles, which make you fly higher and slide faster, respectively. Mario has a few new moves of his own, with a wall jump and spinning moves, making the controls feel complete, responsive, and tight.
With these new abilities, our favorite plumber must traverse through the many unique stages, similar to Mario 64. These huge 3D areas are filled with all kinds of challenges and bosses to fight. The wide variety in the levels is refreshing; there is something in there for everyone. My favorite objective would be collecting the 8 red coins spread out through the level, and using all of Mario's skills to get them all.
There are some warp pipes that you go through where the pack is taken away, and must beat the level through old school Mario jumping. These sections even have the classic music in the background, and they can become extremely hard. Prepare to spend a lot of time falling to your death on these stages. If you work at them long enough, you can get past them and feel the satisfaction of beating a tough level.
All of the levels use the tropical theme, so you won't be finding the typical snow and lava stages from the older Mario games, which I find new and refreshing. The graphics are always bright and cheery, and aside from a few grainy textures, it looks great. The framerate is almost always at a constant speed, and you can see very far into the distance. Not the greatest graphics for the GameCube, but it definitely gets the job done.
This game isn't without its low points, though. The camera has hardly changed in 6 years since Mario 64, and this works well in some areas but terrible in others. There are points later on where the camera gets stuck at the weirdest angles, and you have to constantly be changing it to keep a good view of the action. I found myself relying simply on memory as to where the platforms were instead of fighting with the camera in some of the stages. It does offer a wide range of freedom in moving it, which is very useful in other areas.
Even with the bad camera, I would definitely reccommend this game to GameCube owners of all ages. Even older gamers will find a lot of fun and challenge in this new Mario game. Pick it up today, and have fun with a lot of sleepless nights filled with sunshine.
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