Games Beaten:
1. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (GCN)
2. Star Fox Assault (GCN)
3. Luigi's Mansion (GCN)
4. Wario World (GCN)
5. Custom Robo (GCN)
6. Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)Sunshine had always been an enigma to me. When it first came out, I was an edgy preteen who refused to play it because it involved cleaning the environment. What a rotten kid I was!
Over the years, I'd hear a whole range of opinions. Some people loved it, others found it to be a disappointment. I went into the game almost completely blind. The only things I knew about it were the infamous pachinko mini game and that going for every blue coin supposedly wasn't worth the effort.
My early impressions of the game were good. The tropical resort setting feels fresh. I typically played the game before going to sleep, and I'd wake up in a good mood every morning, I think because of the vacation vibes. While I really miss the long jump (And feel there was no good reason to take it away), I have to say that this may just be the best Mario has ever controlled. His movement is so fluid, and once you get it down, he's just plain fun to control. There's one caveat to this, though: Wall kicking is janky as all hell. Truthfully, the wall kick wasn't very good in Super Mario 64, either, though it was fixed in later ports. In Sunshine, the game seems to have difficulty detecting that you want to do it. Several situations had me jumping face-first against a wall and nothing happened. I also had a few moments where Mario wall-jumped upward and diagonally and it got me killed. The latter could have been due to the wrong control input by me, maybe? I'm not sure.
Fludd is a nice addition to the game. There is a satisfying nature to cleaning up sludge as you run around and a second jump never hurts in a 3D platformer. The clicking R button for the Gamecube works so well with this mechanic. If the R button clicks, Mario stops and goes into a third person aiming mode. If you hold down R without it clicking, Mario continues to run while spraying water. Though underutilized, the other nozzles for Fludd are the most fun to use. One blasts you off higher than the buildings around you, while the other allows you to run at a high enough speed to break through certain doors and even run on water! I was pretty shocked to find out that Yoshi was in this game and usable, even. No one had ever mentioned it to me before, and I think that I understand why. Like those other Fludd nozzles, Yoshi is somewhat underutilized in this game. His only function, basically, is to shoot... uh... a weird liquid from his mouth to destroy a gelatin-like substance that blocks your path at certain points of the game. Another shine just requires you to have Yoshi in order to access the platforming challenge for some reason. You lose Yoshi for the platforming challenge, too. lol
The biggest criticism I have for Sunshine is that it feels unpolished and rushed. I didn't encounter many bugs, but there are certain quality-of-life things that I was pretty shocked Nintendo skimped out on. In one world, there is a shine you collect for getting eight red coins while surfing on a speedy squid. The final red coin is located between two boats, and perpendicular to them are two support beams. After getting that last red coin, the game doesn't give you the shine. It instead pauses to show you that it's on the dock where you first began. You are then brought back to Mario, who is now just a couple of feet from crashing into one of the support beams and dying.
I was in fact hit many times when the game "paused" to show me that a shine had appeared in a certain spot. Going back to Yoshi, he tends to be a buggy experience if you take a hit while riding him. More than once, I'd be hit, fall off of Yoshi, and then have Yoshi standing on top of the thing that made me fall off. Getting back on results in the same thing happening. It's pretty much a soft lock where you have to start the level over. In one world, I had an NPC telling me to "spike the chain-chomp" after cooling it off with Fludd. I tried ground pounding those cursed beasts for close to a half-hour... only to give in and look up the solution online. The solution was to instead fling them into a hot spring. Whoever put that NPC dialogue into the game has my undying contempt! What am I playing, here? Simon's Quest?
More evidence of Sunshine's rushed nature comes in how the game progresses. The game greets you with voice-acted cut scenes, but as soon as Peach is kidnapped, you're left with radio silence for a very, very long time. Delfino Plaza, while a fun locale, is not clear at all on where you stand in terms of your progress. Peach's castle had the different floors and stars required to open certain doors, and the comet observatory had different sections being lit up when they were unlocked. Sunshine sort of arbitrarily gives you things like power ups and new levels without any indication of why. There's no rhyme or reason to the location of the worlds, or theming for why they're separate worlds to begin with. Again, to bring up other games in the series... for 64, you're jumping into paintings that Bowser cursed. In Galaxy, you're traveling to planets that Bowser has conquered. In Sunshine, you are jumping into pieces of graffiti, and sometimes pipes... and while these worlds are plagued with pollution and Bowser Jr. is the cause, they seem to all be attached to Isle Delfino? So, why are you traveling into magic graffiti if the levels are on the island you're staying at, anyway? It's just a little odd. From around shine 30 to 60, I had virtually no progress with the story, so I gave in once again and looked up what was going on. I then found out that you need to get seven shines in each world before getting to the final part of the story. To me, this makes the game feel unnecessarily linear.
The final level is a quick trip through Mt. Corona (
) and then the final showdown with Bowser and Bowser Jr. I couldn't believe how fast it all ended. However, by this point in the game, I was feeling a bit worn out and was ready for it to be over anyway. I should mention that this final fight is also the only time in the game that you see Bowser, and only the second time you see Bowser Jr. The story is that Bowser told his son that Peach was his mother, and that lie was why he kidnapped her. It's a shame we don't get to see a little more story. The cut scenes are a bit amateurish thanks to the voice acting, but I found it endearing and wanted more. I wish Nintendo hadn't given up on voice acting for Mario so soon.
It might seem like I'm harping on the game, but I still did enjoy it overall. One other point I have to hammer home is that this is without a doubt the most challenging 3D Mario game. Admittedly, it is sometimes challenging for all the wrong reasons. But some highlights of the game come with the more difficult shines. Usually this involves the platforming challenge levels, where you lose Fludd and have to rely solely on how well you judge distance and jump. It's not surprising that these challenges have returned in one way or another in almost every 3D Mario game since. I ended up getting more game overs in Sunshine than any other Mario game. Despite some frustrations, I felt that it was my fault most of the time. Let me just say, though, that the leaf mini game is the worst shine in the game, not pachinko. At least the pachinko shine is easy to get to. If you lose all of your lives in the leaf mini game (Which is easy to do, thanks to some finicky controls), you have to spend upwards of five or so minutes to get back to it. It's infuriating... but thankfully optional.
Super Mario Sunshine is like if early 2000s Sega took over development for a Mario game. It's rushed, lacking in polish, difficult, and sometimes confusing. However, it is also highly creative, has top-notch controls, is beautiful to look at, and when it all comes together, it feels so damn good to play! I can't recommend going for a full completion of this game unless you love everything about it. But absolutely, it is worth trying. I love how different it feels from all other Mario games. It perfectly exemplifies the Gamecube.
Welp, with the year coming to and end, I guess that ends my Gamecube kick. I certainly went slower than I'd like to have, but it was a good time! To those reading, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and I look forward to reading what you all have beaten in 2023!
