Super Mario Sunshine (Spoilers)

Super Mario Sunshine is an action-adventure, platformer for the Nintendo GameCube that originally came out in 2002, featuring none other than the infamous Italian plumber himself, Mario. Mario, Princess Peach, Toadsworth, and some Toads from her kingdom are visiting Isle Delfino for a much needed vacation. What, Luigi wasn't invited? He saves your ass in the last game and that doesn't earn him a vacation!?

Unfortunately, when they arrive the entire island is covered in graffiti (I personally blame the rap music) that is caused by an impostor Mario. Mario is tasked with the responsibility of cleaning up the entire island even though they just got there and Mario has a plane full of witnesses to account for his whereabouts at the time of the incident. The Isle Delfino court system is bullshit!

  I believe I can fly!

Mario is equipped with a robotic backpack called FLUDD that he uses to clean off the graffiti. You start off with two default nozzles, Spray and Hover. More are unlocked later in the game.

I should note that you don't have to clean everything, you just have to find the source of the graffiti and after beating the boss that pops up the rest will clean itself, but if you're anything like me then chances are you can't stand to leave a single spot untouched. Did Dan Tanner design this game?

In addition to cleaning up the island, you also need to collect all the Shine Sprites in order to bring light back to the island and prove Mario's innocence. The game's structure is a lot like Super Mario 64 in that way. Just replace stars with Shine Sprites. You can even exchange ten blue coins for another Shine Sprite. Wait, they have them right there at the shop and they're hoarding them for personal gain? What an asshole!

  What the hell?

After you spray enough water on the source of graffiti a miniboss appears in the form of the classic Mario plant for you to fight. In order to beat them you have to spray water in its mouth until it dies. Later down the line they shake things up a bit and you have tougher bosses to face like the flying plant in Bianco Hills, the squid in Ricco Harbor, and the paper thin monster from Sirena Beach.

If at any time the music sounds like something you'd hear in Ocarina of Time, that's because it is. Super Mario Sunshine composer was Koji Kondo who's credited in doing the music for both the Mario and Zelda franchises. I thought I heard some familiar tunse being used, especially during the boss fights.

  Everybody rides the Yoshi!

Later in the game you uncover a Yoshi's egg and get to ride the Yoshi that help you remove obstacles like the pineapple blocking the warp pipe on the roof. Nice throwback to Super Mario World. You can jump and hover in the air for a little while due to the movements of their feet, and it's a lot easier getting on rooftops.

Yoshi can change its color depending on what kind of fruit it eats, and can also devours enemies. The juice meter at the bottom right of the screen lets you know how much juice he has. This is important when you have him spit it at enemies. When the juice runs dry, the Yoshi is gone.

  I'm getting too old for this shit.

The hardest parts in the game are the Vintage Mario stages. I'd rather stick a pin up my pee hole. Expect a lot of jumping and running. Some levels you need to jump from a platform before it disappears, and other times you need to outrun blocks made out of sand.

It wouldn't be so bad if the camera wasn't so horrible. Whenever you're lining your jump the camera wants to play around, and at times you can't rotate all the way so you need a moment to zoom in or get away from whatever blocking you. This completely destroys any attempt to recapture that old school Mario feel since we didn't have to combat the camera all the time!

Worst part? These are mandatory. Yeah, whereas in Super Mario 64 you can skip a lot of the episode and still complete the game, you need to get through all of these to unlock the final level. Get ready for heartache. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised, these are the same people who made The Lost Levels. Nintendo gives no fucks. Nintendo feasts off the tears of small children.

  Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, I guess.

Super Mario Sunshine has a beautiful mystery at the beginning of the game. Who is Faux Mario? Yeah, that's what I'm calling him. Faux Mario. You see his shadow during the opening scene and then finally the big reveal here. This grabs your attention because normally, Mario only has one enemy. Bowser. There's no mystery at all. Here, there's a mystery.

Another thing that stuck out to me about this game was Princess Peach. A lot of focus is put on her in the earlier parts where she notices the shadow of Mario and is one of the few characters with dialog in the game. She's with you at the beginning and you can actually talk to her as she helps provides hints on what to check out next. Normally by this time she'd be out of the story because she's always kidnapped. Beforehand we only had Mario 2 and Super Mario RPG where she was useful. So, given the mystery of Faux Mario they wouldn't possibly go back to Bowser, right? Right?

It's me, Mario! It's me, Mario! It was me all along, Mario!

Bowser Jr. That's the big reveal. Bowser fucking Jr! Why even have the mystery and the intrigue if you were just going to go back to Bowser again? You even face the actual Bowser at the end of the game, so you may as well just cut out the middle man. To make matters worse they go back to kidnapping Peach again. Only thing that's different is that Bowser himself isn't doing the kidnapping.

Why is Bowser Jr. kidnapping Peach? Because he was told that Peach is his mother, and Mario was a bad man who stole her away, so he framed Mario to get him sent to prison. Give the kid some credit, that was a sound plan. I think he needs to learn a thing or two about crossbreeding, though. I would have preferred they turned Professor E. Gadd into a villain for the reveal. That would've been shocking at least, and he has the connection to the FLUDD since he designed it, but no. Just Bowser. Not sure what I was expecting.

  I fucked this up big time.

In conclusion, Mario is Mario and will always be Mario. If you enjoy Mario games by Nintendo then chances are you'll enjoy Super Mario Sunshine. If the aspect of cleaning stuff doesn't appeal to you, then you might not, but even then they manage to make that part of the game fun as well. Doesn't come as a surprise to me since I was able to enjoy Golf and Tennis through the Mario name. Might not be what we wanted going into the GameCube back in 2002, but it's still a great Mario game.

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