Genre: Platform, Action-Adventure
Year: 2002
Developed by: Nintendo EAD
Published by: Nintendo
Platforms: Gamecube
#179
Feeling Like: Shade
I’m not surprised it took 321 entries to finally hit the first three dimensional Mario game. My very first game was Super Mario Bros. for the NES, my digital bible. I don’t remember first picking up a controller, or learning what Nintendo was, but I sure as hell remember going over to Ryan’s house in Halifax and being entranced from the get-go.
Very few IPs, regardless of the creative medium, have such a consistently high bar of quality as Super Mario. Even today, when the gaming landscape has changed drastically since 1985, players from all over the world and of all ages know Mario. And if they don’t play Mario games, they know they should.
We’ll get to the pinnacle of the series in entries like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy eventually, but we’ll start with the “worst” of the 3d Marios, Super Mario Sunshine.
It’s certainly one of the stranger premises for a Mario game and this is a series bombarded with odd power ups and seemingly drug-induced inspirations, so that’s saying something. Mario goes on vacation to Delfino Island and has to help out the plump denizens by using a water jet vacuum thing on his back to wash away all the slime that’s messing everything up. What may normally be a side mission in a previous Mario game is the entire premise here. If you don’t like the concept of water to attack enemies, traverse landscapes and clean up graffiti, you’re not going to like Super Mario Sunshine.
I was…happy with it. I think. I have an overly generous fondness for Gamecube games since I played a majority of them at university and I don’t think I had a single bad day in my five years there. I always had a buddy to help me with puzzles, or bounce ideas off of, or to hand my controller to while I went to class.
It certainly controls like a Mario game and has cleverly designed areas. There are very few games that can rumble with Nintendo in this arena, though games like Rayman Legends have come dangerously close. Secrets are everywhere, and there’s very little fat. There aren’t wide open areas of nothing. Odds are every crevice, nook, roof, hill, pond, pool and courtyard has something to collect, or a challenge to overcome or a rollercoaster to ride. And since you’re on a tropical island, each surface is bright, or colorful, or brimming with life.
How many Mario games start with him getting arrested, and then forced to do community service? Strapped with FLUDD, the sentient water fountain, you’re tasked with getting rid of all the gunk that Shadow Mario/Bowser Jr. is responsible for. Making a beautiful place even more beautiful is a worthy goal, but I felt it often stopped my momentum. Run! Jump! Cool backflip! What’s over there? Whoop, hang on. Slime. Gotta water it off. Splash, splash, splash, coin! Ok, what was over there?
It’s a gameplay loop you won’t find in other Mario games, but it mostly works here. Since you’re always around water, FLUDD is easy to refill. The new powers and abilities, along with the new Gamecube hardware, make exploring around water NOT a pain in the ass, going against tradition once again. You’re not just swimming, you’re making use of various boats, power ups, rapids and waterfalls to go from point A, to point B. And, on weekends, point C.
I remember being thrilled at the draw distance, ie how far you could see or fall without mysterious “fog” blocking your view. With Super Mario Sunshine, that seemed to be a thing of the past. You wouldn’t want to cover up gorgeous sunsets, hazing the beautifully rendered tides as you scamper across the sand in search for another blue coin, would you?
Having a means to constantly hover means level layouts are quite different from Super Mario 64, but I appreciated that. You could tell Nintendo wanted to do something different, but they didn’t just slap a paradise-coat of paint on a new world and call it a new Mario game. The mechanics have to follow the design philosophy and FLUDD truly makes Super Mario Sunshine its own game. For better or for worse.
You still get a taste of classic 3D Mario in some secret areas where FLUDD is taken away from you and holy cow is that a jolt. I couldn’t help but mash the R button in a panic when I was about to go off the edge, only to be painfully reminded there is no FLUDD in these areas and die. Over and over again.
I always equated this game with Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Not quite the mega-hit that other Mario and Zeldas were, but still bold choices and certainly garnered a fanbase over time, if not without some ire at launch. Yes, this was very different from Super Mario 64. No, there’s no Mushroom Kingdom and you’re getting Shines instead of Stars and you have a fire hose as your main weapon and there’s no long jump and what the hell is all this?!? But every boss defeated, every tight-rope bounced on, every area I made sparking clean, every catchy song that burrowed its way into my brain forced a smile. It may be the black sheep of the Marios, but there’s a reason for the bemused nostalgia and a reason it’s #179.
The 500 