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Super Mario Sunshine
Genre - Platform / Adventure
The Story
Mario and Princess Peach visit the Island of Delfino for a vacation. They're vacation is cut short by an impostor of Mario that has been vandalizing the island with paint and pollution. After being arrested wrongfully for the crime, Mario must clean the island as punishment. Mario must set out on a dangerous journey to find this impostor, stop his evil plan, and clear his name of the crime.
Audio
Super Mario Sunshine is one of the first games to use Dolby Pro Logic II. Pro Logic II recreates Surround Sound from a stereo source. While it is not as good as Dolby Digital, it is very convincing that it is, or at least close, to Dolby Digital. Sunshine recreates sounds well enough. Detailed sounds like different foot steps against different kinds of surfaces, water splashes, and wind currents. The music has some catchy tunes, but most are rather forgettable and annoying.
Gameplay
The main point about Sunshine is for Mario to clean up the pollution and stop Mario's impostor's evil plan. To do this, Mario receives a water pump. You can collect nozzles to do different things, like to spray water downward and act like a jet pack, or a turbo to speed Mario across water quicker. The levels are designed just like Mario 64. A main "overland" plane, the Island of Delfino, and "Gates" are scattered around the city. Like Warp Points in past Mario games, each "Gate" leads to different sublevel. In the sublevel, you must complete a task and when you successfully completed it, you receive a Shine. Shines are needed to restore sunshine to the Island of Delfino that has been covered with pollution. Each sublevel will have up to 8 tasks to complete. Hidden through out the world, are special worlds that Mario will discover. Classic gameplay like jumping and puzzle solving will bring you back to the good old days. While not revolutionary or evolutionary, playing Sunshine is quite fun. But, more times than fun, you'll find yourself dreading to keep playing the more challenging levels and feeling a bit bored.
Graphics
Sunshine is definitely a showcase title for the Gamecube. But, it also shows the limitations of the console. It definitely has that "Mario style" of cartoon like shapes and vibrant colors. When Mario recovers a Shine, Mario does his little dance and the camera pans out to the level, which can be huge, and it gives you a sense of being in a gigantic world and all you can do is say "wow". Lighting and particle effects like the sun and water are definitely a sight to be seen. Sunshine also has heat waves in the distance to show a sense of temperature. But, this is where Gamecube's limitations come in. It seems like the heat waves just mask the aliasing or "jaggies" in the background. While there is not a hint of aliasing when up close to objects, but when they get far away, you can notice them. Also, textures can be blurry sometimes, especially up close. This is probably due to Gamecube's Mini-Disc-like media format, it just doesn't have enough space to hold detailed textures and not a fault with the console. Draw distance is great and pretty much (besides for the fact of "invisible walls"), if you can see it, you can go to it. Load times are non existence. Levels load like they were on a cartage. Depending on the level, the frame rates can go from 30 to about 50, but never as something as smooth as 60 fps.
Control
Sunshine has a very nice control setup and uses the Gamecube controller to it's best ability. What ruins the controls is not the controls themselves, but the horrible 360 degrees camera. Learning how to control the camera is a whole new learning curve in itself. The camera does not lock on to Mario, but it let's Mario walk around and the camera stays stationary. While you can move it around Mario, doing so, especially critical moments in the game, will frustrate most players.
Summary
Super Mario Sunshine is a great game, no doubt in that. But, it doesn't live up to other Mario games that have come before it, even though Sunshine seems like a port of Mario 64. Any one of any age can pick this game up and enjoy it as if it was like the Mario games of old. Definitely a showcase title, but because of a few quirks, it denies itself from the great Mario games. Maybe a prelude to a Mario 128?
Rating
Story - 7/10 - Same old Mario storyline with a few surprising twists.
Audio - 8/10 - Dolby Pro Logic II makes up for the lackluster music.
Gameplay - 8/10 - Fun and challenging but, it may seem like a chore after a while
Graphics - 9/10 - Gamecube technology demo with a Mario flare.
Control - 7/10 - What is the point of good controls if you can't see? The camera ruins it all.
78%
