This is the game you're practically all familiar with by now. It's the big 3D GameCube adventure Mario game. It's so famous already, it's very popular, and it's even been called "the best game EVER!!!" Now if any of you know me, you know that when it comes to video games, nothing, and I mean nothing, annoys me as much as someone calling a new game "the best ever." But, of course, even if it's not the best ever, it could still be good, or perhaps even excellent. And besides, it's a Mario game. Of all games with "Mario" in their titles, only Mario Paint and Mario Tennis for GBC have ever received lower than a 2-star score in my Reviews. This stacks up very favorably for Super Mario Sunshine.
But... times have changed. Luigi's Mansion, for those of you who had it, was a lot of fun for a while. I reviewed it before hitting the final boss, and I gave it 3 1/2 stars, thinking it was great. Then, we all found out that the game was extremely short, and all of our opinions of it went down (I would now give it only 1 star). At that point, I saw something bad in the Mario series. Something very scary. My fear: Mario games would turn into eye candy, and all the fun would go away.
When Super Mario Sunshine was revealed,
I thought it may be the next Luigi's Mansion, because all I saw was Mario
with a hose and something on his back, which looked just like Luigi's vacuum.
I panicked and
started wondering if the game was even
worth buying. Fortunately for Nintendo, some of you tourists talked
me out of skipping Super Mario Sunshine.
No, those of you who did this weren't stupid. You just reasoned
with me and told me how good this game
could be. (Some of you even said Mario might have his old moves of Super
Mario 64, but even if he didn't, it would still be fun.) I finally agreed
and bought the game along
with a strategy guide and more, receiving
it in early October. (Let me add that I place no blame on any of
you for any experience I had with this
game.)
My first impression of this game was
that it would be impossible, because I struggled getting used to the
controls. Then, everything clicked,
and I started really enjoying this game. I started fooling around, getting
Shine Sprites, and having a good time. I figured I would beat it by December,
and everyone would get to find out my opinion of this game around Christmas.
Then, it happened. October 18, 2002. The day that will live in videogame infamy.
This Review, like all others I've written, is on a 0-4 star scale, with 0 being very poor and 4 being excellent. Of course, I'm not about to tell you what that day (10/18/2002) means until later in this Review. Right now, I'm going to switch up the order of my Review for this special case and talk about the story first. Also keep in mind that there will be no gameplay section but multiple sections that deal with the gameplay, including the difficulty section.
Story: *
I've heard about how this story is so
brand new, different from all other Mario games, how we've never
heard anything like this before.
Wake up.
Have any of you who said this played
Super Mario Advance 2 or Super Mario World? And if you have, don't
you remember that story? Mario and
Peach go on vacation. Peach gets captured. Bowser is at the bottom of the
troubles at this remote location. Mario makes it through seven worlds,
then goes to face Bowser, who has a kid nearby him. That's the story of
both Super Mario World and Super Mario Sunshine. I'm shocked no
one noticed the parallels. Sure, there
are differences in when Peach gets captured, who the enemies are, and how
Mario makes it through. But I'm not talking about specifics; I'm talking
about the general story. The
general story is boring and "borrowed"
off Super Mario World. It's unimaginative.
Guess what else: the whole "Mario getting
captured" thing doesn't make sense. Surely it makes sense, you
may think. After all, there are tons
of these Piantas. However, Mario is Mario. He can defeat tons of Troopas
and Goombas at a time. Surely Mario
could escape or beat up on these Piantas. Argue what you want, but I
really don't think Mario is that powerless
that he can't defeat these Piantas, yet then he can go off and face gigantic
Bloopers and a humongous King Boo. That doesn't make too much sense to
me. I won't let this
affect the rating of the Story category,
which is set at 1 star whether this makes sense or not.
Graphics: **1/2
Again, I've heard about how these are maybe the best graphics ever, how they're perfect, and how awesome this game looks.
Brrring!
Don't hit the snooze button, because
this alarm clock is telling you that the graphics in this game don't
compare to lots of other PS2, Xbox,
and Cube games. Put Star Fox Adventures next to this game and you'll
think this game is made for the N64.
True, it does look very nice, and I'll admit the graphics are pretty good.
But, I'm being fair here, because so many of you give every Cube game a
perfect score for graphics just
because they're better than the N64's.
I'm comparing this game's graphics to other Cube games, and it is
good in this category, but not great.
Why not? Let's take a closer look. The water is my biggest complaint; it doesn't look real. Is it supposed to look all cartoony? If yes, then lots of people are wrong in saying that this game looks real. If no, then the graphics are poor. Remember Wave Race: Blue Storm? This is a forgotten game from the first week of the Cube's release. While I don't own it, I remember playing it in stores and seeing how real the water looked. This game's water looks bad. No, not as bad as the water in the upcoming Zelda game for the Cube. But it certainly doesn't impress me at all. Water isn't always blue, especially not water that Mario's blasting. It should look a little more dull in color, and it should reflect more. Water evaporates within seconds; even if the temperature is in the upper 100's, it won't evaporate THAT fast. I don't like the ripples in the water either, though they aren't that important.
What else is wrong? Tall objects in this game can be very, very blurry if you're looking at them from far away. The "wanted" posters on the walls look terrible. The mud... well, I'll just say that it won't help this game win any awards in the graphics category (unless we're talking about the fixed Nintendo Power awards).
But, wait a minute... the score of this
category is 2 1/2 stars. That means something is right about the graphics,
doesn't it? Yes, it does. Mario looks pretty good, though not as good as
in Super Smash Bros.
Melee. The characters look good, and
most things in this game lack the edgy look from the N64 (even the
coins look round). Yes, the graphics
are above-average. They really aren't all that bad. However, from all the
perfect scores I saw, I expected a lot more.
Sound: *
The music in this game isn't very good. It's boring, at best. This is a shame, too, because this is the first game starring Mario for the GameCube, which has unquestionably the best sound system of any game system yet. Not only that, but Mario games historically had the best music ever. Remember the addictive Mario theme song? They changed it to have morons humming to it. It's one of the worst songs in the history of videogames. It might be the worst rendition of any song ever, and I'm including the awful performances by absolute losers on American Idol.
Why else do I expect so much from this game's music? Remember Dr. Mario's music, SMB3's ending music, SMW's castle music, all of Yoshi's Island's themes, and the Mario Tennis "game point" music? If this is such a ground-breaking Mario game, why isn't the music the kind that sticks in your head, or the kind that you hum along to, like those examples I have listed above? Although there are lots of games with boring music, this is one which comes from a line of games with a reputation for great music, and also had so much potential, so I have to make a big fuss about it.
Of course, this category did get one star, so it wasn't all bad... and that's the sound effects. Almost every sound effect in this game sounded real, and the voices of all characters sounded good. However, the water sound effects didn't sound too good. The splashes were all right, but the squirting just didn't sound real. The sound effects overall are all right, though not great. Add them to the music and you get an overall poor music category.
Controls: ***
I know I'm going out of my usual order, but I don't think you really care. It's important that I do this, so you'll understand my opinions later. I have to say this: the controls in this game are good. They're adequate. I know what button does what, and it's not hard to hit buttons in high-pressure situations. I'm impressed by this, in fact, because there are so many things to remember, but I can remember almost all of the controls in any situation.
The thing I don't like is the combos. I don't like the side somersault, and I especially hate the spin jump. It's sometimes impossible to tell if you've spun the Control Stick around enough for a spin jump to be executed, and that hurts in places like Bianco Hills, Episode 6 (more to be explained on this later). Spin jumps ought to be a combo of buttons, not a thing where you have to spin the Control Stick and both risk Mario running too far when spinning and also the Control Stick being not spun enough for the spin jump to work. There's also sometimes some trouble with either the running and squirting (R halfway down) and squirting standing still (R the whole way down). If you accidentally hit the Control Stick to soon, you'll get this messed up. Overall, though, I like the controls, and I would only change the side somersault's and the spin jump's controls.
Camera: no stars
Going out of order once more, I must talk about the camera before I go on to difficulty, so you can understand part of the difficulty's rating. The camera is the worst ever. I've played Super Mario 64 for about an hour, struggled with its camera, but I still can't say I've ever had camera problems like I've had with this one. Sometimes you see just a shadow (no, not Shadow Mario) with ?'s for objects. You have a horrible time trying to control Mario then. Other times, you'll be very close up to Mario, but you can't see what's right in front of him. Or, you'll be looking at Mario from far away, and you have trouble controlling him in a place where precision is necessary. True, you can use the C-Stick for controlling the camera, and I am totally putting this into my rating. Unfortunately, if I need to hit the A Button with my thumb, I can't be expected to have to change the camera so I can see the position perfectly while also having to jump. Sometimes this means I have to rely on total luck on a jump, because I don't know where exactly I'm going. Despite all these problems, I have not even spoken of the worst of them. That will be spoken of in the next section, which will combine complaints about the controls, the camera, the levels, the music, and the difficulty all at once.
Difficulty: ****
There is a fine line between making a game hard and impossible. Super Smash Bros. Melee was the best game on the difficulty scale ever, because the game was made so you slowly build your skills and have to use strategy in order to beat hard stages. Sports games are great with this, because you choose your difficulty and can work your way up to the hardest skill level. 2D platformers are fine because you can use different items or a different strategy to complete a hard jump or beat a hard boss. RPGs are nice because they involve thinking, and you'll have to use your brain in order to win.
But not in Super Mario Sunshine.
No, Super Mario Sunshine is made to
cater to people who wake up in the morning, run to play the game, eat
lunch, go back to playing the game,
eat dinner, then play the game until they fall asleep. Super Mario
Sunshine is made for robotic people
who are unaffected by losing and do not even feel anger or despair after
losing many times in a row. Super Mario Sunshine is made for people with
extremely good luck, people who will complete that hard jump instead of
slipping on the Control Stick, people who get the spin jump to
work. Super Mario Sunshine is made
for people who know what to do before even losing the level once.
I am not one of those people.
No, I struggle through games because I have this wild, crazy idea that games are made for the player to have fun, not get totally frustrated and never want to play it again. I don't play them from morning till night. I like a game where I can pick it up, play for maybe only half an hour, then take a break for a while. I get frustrated when I lose. I have bad luck compared to most people. I also don't know what to do until I've lost many times, through trial and error. I know games are supposed to be challenging, and they are supposed to make you think. In the case of Super Mario Sunshine, however, the challenge is not smashing the disc, and all I think about when it comes to SMS is how mad I am at this game.
Why? Why is this game so hard? The levels
are massive, but the room for error is very little. If you slip at
one little part, you lose everything
you've worked for. You'll go all the way through the level, make one
mistake, and have to start over. You'll
get all the way until a certain point, then get stuck and won't have any
idea what to do. You'll be expected to jump to platforms within seconds,
while having to make a jump that requires great precision or a whole bunch
of luck. Basically, either you keep doing everything perfectly or you don't
beat the level. You have to understand, I don't like trying something 50
times, learning from my mistakes, but still not making any headway. It's
not fun to try to beat a level for an hour and a half, still not beat it,
then ask for advice from many of you tourists out there and then get scoffed
at because "this game is so easy!" It's not any fun to have a strategy
guide (with screenshots, no less!) telling me exactly what to do, but even
when I follow exactly what it tells me, it won't help me because trying
to do the things I have to do
are either too hard or just flat-out
impossible because I'm supposed to jump to somewhere I can't even see or
can't get to even if I can see it.
And this game is "so easy".
What else is hard about the gameplay?
The camera is horrible, forcing you to keep it under control at all
times as well as Mario. Making spin
jumps and side somersaults is difficult because Mario moves as you are
"charging up" the jumps (hitting the buttons for the combo). The whole
running/standing still problem I
mentioned in the Controls section is
a pain in certain circumstances. But what's the main problem? It's still
the fact that one mistake makes you
start all over. And if you can't get past that one mistake... well, then
you're stuck.
What's more is that Super Mario Sunshine
doesn't let you jump out of order in episodes, or let you only have to
beat 7 out of 10 episodes, whichever ones you please. You have to beat
the exact 7 in the exact same
order they come in. If I don't like
Bianco Hills, Episode 6, while I may like Bianco Hills, Episode 9, I should
have the option of choosing that one to beat instead. Nope, there's no
option like that. Beat these 7 episodes, in the exact same order they come
in, or you can't beat this game. This is not fair to the one who paid money
for this game, because he or she has to follow the game's orders, not his
or her own.
You may be saying, "How ridiculous!
You always have to beat games the way they're made! Even in sports you
have to play the schedule you're given!" But my argument is a different
one. In Super Mario World, you
could choose to go through Star Road
or across the Butter Bridge. You can also choose to go through every world
and across the Cheese Bridge. In Super Mario Bros., there are warps. In
Super Mario Bros. 3, you can choose to play 4-5 or 4-6. Even in sports
games, losing one game may not kill your season; you can
still win it all if you can win the
other games. Unfortunately, Super Mario Sunshine feels you must go
undefeated in order to win the Super
Bowl (figuratively speaking). Sure, I may not be getting the "full enjoyment"
out of the game by skipping some levels but beating others. However, I
am enjoying myself because I'm still beating the same number of levels,
just not the same ones you may be beating. Besides, I'll never get "full
enjoyment" out of a game that I'm stuck in.
Now I have finally come to the event
that will explain most of my frustrations at this game. It occurred on
that day I mentioned before, October
18, 2002, at Bianco Hills, Episode 6, The Secret of the Dirty Lake. At
this point I was moving through the game pretty well. I had some Shines
in some other places and felt that the game was not only beatable, but
possibly going to be great. Bad news: the awful Mario theme song humming
version was playing. Even worse, I had a hard time just getting through
the first bunch of platforms. These are flipping platforms, and you must
use precise timing to jump from one to another. Maybe that may not sound
too hard, but keep in mind that while Mario would turn, the camera wouldn't.
Result? My sense of directions keeps getting messed up. Not to worry; I
was able to get the camera behind Mario by hitting L (every time I moved),
and then kept getting 1-Ups. At this point, another difficult jump had
to be made, requiring either a side somersault or a spin jump. I would
have a hard time doing this, because as I would "wind up" for the jump,
I'd usually run right off the platform I was on.
After about 20 tries, I finally made it to the spinning cube, which carried me across to the other side. Then, more fun came with the next spinning cube, which required exact timing with moving Mario to stay on the cube. Needless to say, I was unable to do so around 10 to 15 more times.
Then came the worst part: more of the flipping plaforms, only with bigger gaps in between, more strategy in jumping involved, and the worst part: a camera acting stupider than usual. I would have to hit L constantly to get the camera behind Mario, or I could not see where I was going. Hitting L makes you lose a split-second, throwing off my timing. After losing a whole bunch of times more, I got to the final flipping platform.
With the Shine Sprite just out of reach, I could not come through with a jump to get me across. After all, I would need to get the camera situated perfectly to angle my jump up correctly. Even worse, I needed to execute a spin jump to make it across. That takes up too much time, as does a side somersault, which I tried as well. Sometimes Mario would run too far as well. I ended up losing a lot of times, not only on this part but then on the beginning part, because I was getting frustrated and tired.
Finally, 90 minutes after I started, I finally made it across to the Shine Sprite. Was I thrilled? Was I happy? Was I estatic? Hardly. While I did play it a little bit longer afterward, I wasn't too happy when playing it. After that horrendous night, I did not play Super Mario Sunshine for the next two months, having all kinds of strange daydreams and nightmares about the game and this level itself. It wasn't like I was merely upset at the game; I was flat-out scared. I didn't want to ever again have an awful time with a videogame like I did then. This night was the worst gaming experience I have ever had in my life. It was also the night in which my opinions of Mario games changed. Mario games have now gone from fun gameplay to a showoff of how much the game designers can do with graphics and a 128-bit system.
What does this experience have to do
with difficulty? Everything. This game is made to be next-to-impossible,
for people who play videogames but do nothing else in life, for people
who don't get
frustrated by difficult times. I am
not perfect; I have emotions. If I can't beat a game while trying as hard
as I possibly can, or even beat a given level, and it takes me 90 minutes
to beat one little level, it's way too hard. This time was not the only
time I've had trouble with this game to this drastic extent; in fact, Ricco
Harbor, Episode 3 (The Caged Shine Sprite) was possibly an even worse experience
for me, because I never got the Shine Sprite there. I've had trouble all
over this game, with no end in sight to the difficulty. It's the hardest
game I've ever played, harder than any other I've given four stars for
difficulty. This game ought to get ten stars for difficulty. If I were
to explain all the ways I've been frustrated to the point of quitting the
game, this Review would double in length.
This may seem outrageously long for just the difficulty section, but the difficulty is the main problem with this game, as some of the other sections are coupled with this section (controls, camera, levels, lack of FLUDD). This is the heart and soul of the problem with Super Mario Sunshine. If you wonder why I don't like this game, this section is your answer.
Characters: no stars
I was upset about the characters long before this game was released, seeing the preview of messed-up looking creatures (the Piantas). I know there are Bob-ombs, Bloopers, and Bowser. I know there are Piranhas, King Boo, and Cheep Cheeps. However, that's not the problem with the characters.
We'll begin with Mario. Mario seems
like a mime. He makes sounds, but he doesn't talk. He's the hero of
this game, but he has no personality
of his own. He doesn't speak in defense at the trial, he doesn't talk
back to FLUDD, he doesn't talk period.
Come on, Nintendo, I'm sure your 128-bit system can handle Mario talking
more often, at least to others. If this is supposed to be some groundbreaking
game experience, why can't the main character be the way he is? I didn't
like this in Paper Mario, I didn't like it in SMRPG, and I don't like it
here. It's ridiculous for Mario to be this way, unless that is his personality.
And if it is, that's really stupid.
Now we come to a character I've long
disliked: Peach. Peach is her same helpless self, with the same stupid
voice and personality I don't like.
She tries changing things up with her hair, but it's better the way it
was in the first place. Now she looks as dumb as she acts!
Finally, we come to the characters of
the place known as Isle Delfino (Dolphin Island, for those of you not
familiar with Italian). These Piantas
are walking, blubber-filled imbeciles. They talk like the morons they are.
Why in the universe Mario gets jailed by these losers is beyond me. They're
more helpless than Peach, and they're only slightly less ugly than Peach.
I hate the thought that Mario is helping these losers. Possibly the most
fun thing in this game was hopping on their heads and squirting them.
Items: ***1/2
Just as you may think that I'm completely against this game, what may surprise you a lot is that I like the way FLUDD works. I like the nozzles, I like the things they do, and I enjoy playing around with it. In fact, most of the problems in this game come from two things: so-called "secret levels", which force you to be without FLUDD the first time around, and places where FLUDD can't help you enough and/or it's easy to run out of water (the aforementioned Ricco Harbor, Episode 3 comes to mind). So, contrary to what I said before getting this game, I like FLUDD. It's when FLUDD is not able to be used and/or relatively useless when all the troubles begin.
Now, how come this doesn't get a full four stars? I consider Yoshi an item. I like Yoshi. I like his jumping skills, his squirting of juice, his slurping ability. I don't like the fact that he constantly needs more juice, and that he disappears once you hit water. I'm sorry, but not only did Yoshi survive underwater in SMW, he thrived underwater. He was necessary for completion of Soda Lake. This game's primary focus is on water, for crying out loud! Why can't Yoshi touch water?
However, even with this little weakness, it is not enough for me to downgrade this category by any more than half a star. With the excellent usage of FLUDD, this game deserves a good rating here, especially because I expected this to be a low score.
Outdoor Levels: ***
The score here is again good. Let me
first say what is good about the outdoor levels. First of all, there are
quite a few good ones, like many outdoor
ones in Bianco Hills. I enjoyed some of the ones in Pinna Park
as well (very fun ones, in fact). Some
of these early outdoor levels are very fun, and they will give you a
lot of enjoyment.
However, there are some very hard ones
like the one in Ricco Harbor I keep complaining about, Episode 3. I
don't enjoy the first one in Noki Bay,
as well as the one in the casino level. These ones are made to be too
hard, and they take away the fun. Of
course, we can also add in the fact that they can't be played in any
order, which really limits the fun
you can have in them. I won't downgrade the score too much because of
these, due to the fact that I enjoy
the other ones a lot. They aren't perfect overall, but good nonetheless.
Secret Levels: no stars
And then come the so-called "secret levels."
They're not really "secret"; you have
to beat them to beat the game anyway. I can't stand these levels. They
are very hard, in fact possibly the
hardest in this game. They allow very little room for error, and they have
the worst camera problems in this game. They are the epitome of the problems
of this game. I feel that these secret levels ruined Super Mario Sunshine.
I won't back down in saying how much I can't stand them. They're horrible.
They're too hard, and they aren't any fun at all, whatsoever. Congratulations,
Nintendo.
You forgot that before making a game
"creative," you should first make it fun and at least reasonably
possible to beat. These levels are
again what ruins this game, and I don't know why they couldn't have been
made at least a little easier so I wouldn't feel the way I do about this
game.
Replayability: *
This game is big, and unless you play videogames and do nothing else in life but eat, sleep, and go to school, you'll play it for a while. That is, of course, if you don't get frustrated by the extreme difficulty and poor camera, start to hate the game, and then quit like I did.
Fun Factor!: no stars
I'm sure we all saw this one coming. Considering how much I now hate this game, I don't find anything fun in it, even when I win at it. If you have any kind of emotions at all, you'll find this game extremely frustrating at times, or in my case, at all times.
OVERALL: no stars
This is an ending not even I would have
predicted. As much as I disliked Pokémon Gold, not even that game
could rate as low as Super Mario Sunshine
does in my mind. That's right. I hate Super Mario Sunshine more
than any other game I've ever played.
This may be shocking to hear if you know how big of a Mario fan I've always
been. This may be even more shocking considering only two other Mario games
ever got one star or less by my rating scale, and they had very little
to do with Mario anyway (Mario Paint and Mario Tennis for GBC). This game's
extreme difficulty coupled with a horrible camera, frustrating levels,
trouble with controls, poor music, and maddening gameplay (in certain places,
that is) have completely turned my head around. I thought that even if
this game wasn't great, the Mario title would save it. I was horribly wrong.
This is very difficult for me to do. For one thing, I know many of you out there are going to not only disagree with me, but probably flame me as well. But more than that, I have been a Mario fan for a very, very long time. I still am a Mario fan. But for me to sit here and tell you how much I hate a Mario game, it just doesn't feel right. I wish so bad this was a Sonic game, or a Crash game, or someone else's. Not a Mario game!
But nevertheless, I have to be completely
truthful to you. I can't give this game three out of four stars even
though I hated it. I know I gave SMRPG
a good rating while not liking it as much as I though I would, but it did
deserve those stars. This game doesn't deserve any. It did everything wrong
I thought Mario games were great at. Mario games always have had great
music, perfect difficulty, easy controls, not that many camera problems
(except in SM64), awesome levels, and great gameplay. This game has hardly
any of those. Not only does it make me mad and frustrated, it disgusts
me. I couldn't imagine a Mario game being lower than pathetic games like
Star Wars: Starfighter, Baseball for the NES, Pokémon Pinball, even
Pokémon Gold, which used to be the ultimate evil game in my eyes.
Now even it looks attractive to me.
So, what else can I say? Can I say, "I hate this game but it's actually good"? No, I cannot. If I were to do that, then you might as well not listen to my Reviews, because I would then not be telling you the truth. This is maybe the most painful thing to say when it comes to video games, but Super Mario Sunshine is the worst video game I've ever played. Say it isn't so, Nintendo!
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