Story: 7
Ehhhhhh… It’s ok, but I hate Bowser Jr. too much to think highly of ANYTHING he is the star of. Ok, maybe not everything… Even so, when Peach, Mario, and Toadsworth decide to go on vacation on a dolphin-shaped island called Delfino Island, Mario gets blamed for the recent graffiti and the Shine disappearances, and is sentenced to clean up the island. What bugs me though, is that when you get ALL THE SHINE SPRITES BACK, there is no rewards… NONE… ZIP… ZERO… AHHHH!!! Ok, you get a picture of everybody together.
Gameplay: 8
The gameplay is not much better than the 64 version. Mario gets FLUDD, and he can hover around, rocket into the air, and blast himself forward using a water jet. This game has a gameplay concept that the other 2 also have, and that is that if you are stuck somewhere, you can just go to another world and try one of those. The downside is that too much of the game is spent dying in those bonus worlds and trying until you get the Shine. There is also the blue coin challenge, but I’ll say more about that later in Difficulty.
Graphics: 8
Sure there have been other GameCube games that have better graphics than this one, but this IS one of the first GameCube games made I think, and there are some good pictures in here. In the cutscenes it is easier to tell that you are looking at a higher resolution picture, though.
Sound: 7
There are no sounds that are really that good. In Super Mario 64 there was the Metal Mario theme which was pretty cool, and the Hazy Maze Cave WAS actually heard again, such as in the sewers and the occasional secret passage. But I’ve enjoyed the 64 songs better than I did the songs in this game, which is a little disappointing.
Difficulty: 6
There are 3 things that I judged the difficulty on: bosses, getting to the final boss, and getting all 120 Shines, AND NONE OF THEM WERE GOOD! First, the bosses; they were actually the best part of this section, and that kept it above a 5. The bosses have a good difficulty (especially the Manta Ray), and they are fun to challenge. Bowser is ok in difficulty, but if you can simply find the pattern to beat him, he is a total simpleton. Second, getting to Bowser; TOO EASY! As soon as you finish the 7th Shine in each world, you are almost guaranteed to start the flood and chase Shadow Mario into Corona Mountain. If by chance you don’t get into the mountain by this time, you just have to get a few more of the shines in Delfino Plaza, and once you get to 50 Shines (I think) you get to battle the final boss. This is just annoying. ONLY 50 OUT OF 120?! There is almost no extra effort in getting there other than those occasional hard Shines. Nintendo REALLY had to make more Shines needed to the end. Lastly, the 120 Shine challenge… is nearly impossible. The blue coin challenge is just freakish. There are 240 blue coins in the game, and that counts for 24 SHINES!!! That is a full 20% of all the Shines in the game. A lot of the blue coins are virtually impossible to find, and there are 30 blue coins in each regular world. While I HAVE got all the Shines in the game, it was with the use of a guide. ANYONE who is actually able to complete this challenge all by themself is worthy of being called a Mario gamer god.
Moves/Controls: 7
This part really depends on what nozzle you have on FLUDD. In fact, it depends too much on what nozzle you have on. With the Hover Nozzle you can afford over-jumping, but you just fall to your doom with any other nozzle. The Hover Nozzle is actually the best as far as controls go. The Rocket Nozzle is basically the Hover Nnozzle times 10. The only problem is that you have to spend time charging it up, and the charge time is usually enough time to get out of recovery range. You would only want this nozzle if you need it. The Turbo Nozzle is fun to goof off with and is fun to use on any maps specifically designed for it, but is hard to use in any enclosed map because you would constantly crash into walls. You also turn really slow with the Turbo Nozzle. The times in the game when your controls at worst are when you have FLUDD taken away from you by Shadow Mario. It is very easy to overshoot a jump and hard to aim any big jumps. You are very limited in your range, too.
Worlds: 6
Anyone who has Super Mario 64 will know how disappointing this is. There are less than half of the worlds here than there were in Super Mario 64. There are 7 true worlds, Delfino Airstrip, and the plaza with its secret areas. The 7 worlds are Bianco Hills, Ricco Harbor, Gelato Beach, Pinna Park, Sirena Beach, Noki Bay, and Pianta Village. Bianco Hills is the first place and has a small town, a river, and a windmill. You battle Petey Piranha twice here. Next is Ricco Harbor, which has Gooper Blooper twice and has lots of scaffolding. Gelato Beach is based on the Sand Bird legend and making sure the Sand Bird is hatched safely. After the level in which you are actually ON the Sand Bird getting 8 red coins, the rest of the Shines are random. Pinna Park is an amusement park with these electric turtle-like things, deadly rides, and talking sunflowers. This is also the place where Bowser Jr. reveals himself. Sirena Beach is a beach with a hotel filled with ghosts and a casino. Noki Bay is a place filled with hidden paths, mud-boats, and a huge underwater city. Pianta Village is a village on top of a freakishly large tree growing above an infinite void with smaller (but still huge) trees growing in the village. Lastly, Corona Mountain is a lava-filled volcano that has a path leading to the final boss. There is also Delfino Plaza, which has 16 of its own Shines and 24 Shines for blue coin trading.
Other: no rating
I try to list the things here that just annoy me simply because they make no sense. First, Mario is practically wasting his time throughout the whole adventure. The objective in the game is to get the Shine Sprites, right? About half or more of the Shines that are found in the game are given to you by a Pianta! 24 of the Shines are held by those bears in the boathouse who are asking for blue coins in return for Shines that they probably stole in the first place! The 2nd game objective is to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser Jr. disguised as Shadow Mario. Bowser Jr. only ended up having about 10 of the island’s Shines. In Pinna Park, the rides are lethal, and there are talking sunflowers. There are caves that lead to places with floating blocks with an infinite void beneath, there is a village entirely built upon a freakishly huge tree with an infinite void beneath it, and there is electric goop and lava goop that hurts only Mario but has no effect on others other than sinking them. There are just a lot of things that make absolutely no sense.
Recommendation: 7
Not a bad game compared to some others, so it is a good game to get. The only problem with getting it is that it is a little expensive sometimes and any driven gamer would need to use a guide or be a really patient searching expert to even hope to get all 120Sshines. This game can be considered a collectible Mario game and is fun to play at the beginning, so get it if you have the money to spare and the Mario fan in you.
Overall: 8
The game definitely has its flaws if you look for them, and almost makes less sense than some of the really old Mario games, but when you are playing through it for the first time, it can be very fun to play. If you do decide to get this game, just forget about everything in this Review until you get annoyed with the blue coins, WHICH YOU WILL! If you already have the game… then find a way to destroy the bears who stole the Shines and then blame it on you. Overall, this is not a bad game to play, but has annoying parts in it that just may ruin the whole game for some players.
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