Super Mario Sunshine

Anyone who knows anything about video games knows that Mario is perhaps the industry’s most recognizable figure. Yeah, Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft is sexier and Sonic the hedgehog may be a bit hipper, but the fact remains that Mario, for all intents and purposes, is single-handedly responsible for keeping the home video game market alive. Not bad for an overweight Italian plumber (no offence to any overweight Italian plumbers who may be reading this, of course).

The Super Mario legacy has been strong for nearly 20 years, though his last adventure was over six years ago. Super Mario 64, which launched with the Nintendo64, handled the plumber’s transition to 3D perfectly, and the end result was one of the best games ever created. Shigeru Miyamoto has shown his genius repeatedly over the years—with such names as Link, Donkey Kong and Samus Aran to his credit—but Mario has always been the game that fans point to first.

Which is why it was so surprising to see the GameCube hit the market in November 2001 without a Mario game. Instead, the Big N gave the nod to Mario’s lesser-known brother Luigi, in the form of the addictive yet all too short Luigi’s Mansion. But in August of 2002, Nintendo finally ended the six-year drought, releasing Super Mario Sunshine. The 3D adventure title had come in under a lot of hype, not just because it was Mario, but because it promised a unique gaming experience.

But does Sunshine deliver? Is this title a worthy successor to Mario 64? Well, that’s really hard to say, because in a lot of ways, this game is a masterpiece, while it drops the ball in a few other key areas.

The basic premise of the game goes something like this: Mario and Peach (whom I’ll always know as Princess Toadstool) are on their way to Isle Delfino for a little vacation. When they arrive, they find out that someone has polluted the island with graffiti and taken all the Shine Sprites, which give the island its energy.

However, the biggest issue is the fact that Mario is accused of polluting the island and stealing the sprites. Obviously that can’t be the case, because Mario just landed on the island at the start of the game. Still, the natives are restless, and in return for his freedom, Mario must clean up the mess left behind by what seems to be an evil doppelgänger and bring the being to justice.

The plot is admittedly shallow and childish, but I’ll give Nintendo credit for integrating the story into the gameplay, which is the game’s real focus (ladies and gentlemen, you have just stumbled upon the theme of this review. Expect to see this phrase and its many variations scattered throughout the remainder of this piece).

Unfortunately for Nintendo, this emphasis comes in an industry that is increasingly shifting to a focus on cinematic's and presentation. With games like Metal Gear Solid 2, Final Fantasy X and Grand Theft Auto dominating sales charts, games are really shifting to a more aesthetically pleasing paradigm. Herein lies one of Sunshine’s biggest flaws, where the presentation is sorely lacking.

I’ve never been one to fall into the idea that Nintendo games are “kiddie,” but Sunshine really feels like it was made solely with younger gamers in mind. I’m not holding it against the game too much—who cares how kiddie a game is as long as it’s fun?—but it’s possible that some older gamers will feel alienated by the game’s youthful, enthusiastic feel.

FMV sequences are choppy and seem thrown together, and the fact that plot quickly becomes an afterthought really hurts the possibility of presenting this game as anything more than just a good ol’ romp through Isle Delfino.

Which isn’t to say Sunshine’s an ugly game. In fact, it’s one of the GameCube’s prettiest efforts, with its massive, colourful world and wonderful animations. Mario 64’s most impressive asset was its expansive, seemingly limitless world, which the player could explore for hours on end. Sunshine duplicates this feat, which is refreshing when compared to some of the more restricting adventure games on the market.

Mario and his contemporaries on Isle Delfino are rendered nicely, and the colour in this game is spectacular. In fact, with all the graffiti that Mario has to clean up, colour becomes one of the game’s more important aspects from an aesthetic standpoint, and the game delivers in this regard.

Even more important to the game is water, which Mario uses to clean off the paint that litters the island. Water effects are often some of the toughest to pull off in a videogame, but Sunshine manages to do it in a convincing yet aesthetically pleasing manner.

Still, there are some visual problems; Sunshine falls victim to a few out-of-place polygons and some rather horrid-looking textures. On top of that, the game really seems to have a problem with objects in the environment becoming more pixelated the closer you get to them. I’ll readily admit that the GameCube isn’t the world’s most powerful console, but it’s capable of better than some of the visual touches this game sports. Looking at games like Star Wars: Rogue Leader and Metroid Prime proves just what the Cube can do, and it’s a shame that Sunshine can’t quite take full advantage of that power.

Sound is a mixed bag, with Nintendo experimenting a little bit with music selection. There are the series classics (such as the underground theme when Mario’s chugging along the sewers), but there are some new tunes as well. While they’re nice as far as novelty’s concerned, they do get old after awhile. What’s more, the voice acting (what little there is of it) is horrible, which sort of makes me wish Nintendo had just left that feature out.

But as I said before (and I’ll likely say again and again), this title’s emphasis is on gameplay. This is where the review gets tricky, because Sunshine is loads of fun and it controls like a dream. But in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t feel like Mario. As a result, the game loses a great deal of its charm and replay value.

Okay, first the good news (read: what makes Sunshine so fun). The developers have gone to great lengths to make sure that Sunshine is a wonderful gameplay experience, and they’ve done just that, even if they sacrificed presentation to do it.

I’ve made it clear more than a few times that the GameCube’s controller design is unorthodox (and even a bit uncomfortable at times), but the layout actually works in this game’s favour. Controls are as tight and responsive as you could hope for them to be, and this is one of the most intuitive layouts I’ve seen on the console.

Sunshine also emphasizes freedom. Sure, there’s a mission structure and following said structure will eventually lead you to finishing the game, but much like GTA III, you’re free to go wherever you’d like. The world is so expansive and limitless that you’ll never feel restricted or confined. Mario 64 found much of its charm in the ability to just wander aimlessly for hours, and Sunshine continues that trend.

Interestingly enough, a large deal of fun comes from the introduction of FLUDD, the jetpack/watergun that lets Mario clean up the island. Mario games in the past simply let you run around, disposing of enemies and the like by yourself, while offering you power-ups such as mushrooms and fire flowers, but this game actually gives you a device to do your bidding. This adds a bit of depth to the overall game, and while it takes a while to get used to, you’ll have no problem with it after about 20 minutes.

Sunshine is also a rather long game, one that you most likely won’t complete in under 10 hours. A lot of games —most notably Zone of the Enders and Luigi’s Mansion—have been too short in the minds of some gamers, but this is one game where that complaint holds no validity. It’s not too long, but it will keep your interest for a good long while.

The game has a very surreal feel to it, almost as if it’s a cross between Mario 64 and Jet Grind Radio. An odd pairing, I know, but it works here for some reason. There are some classic Mario touches here, like using the concept of piranha plants, just covering them in graffiti, but there’s so much different in Sunshine.

Which is one of the game’s biggest weaknesses, as far as I’m concerned. While I love how fresh the game feels (a lot of other adventure games on the market today feel a bit stale), this game doesn’t quite have that Mario feel. I know this is a Mario game—that’s Mario on the screen and the box itself says Super Mario Sunshine, but in a lot of ways, this game doesn’t feel the slightest bit like Mario.

Bringing freshness and a sense of newness to the table is always a good thing—especially with the game industry lacking in innovation these days—but in a way I feel alienated by Sunshine’s radically different mechanics and style. Props to Miyamoto and co. for giving gamers a unique experience, but it’s a Mario game that really doesn’t feel like Mario game.

Over the years, 3D action/adventure games have struggled with frustrating camera mechanics. Even the best—the original Tomb Raider and Mario 64 among them—were not immune from them, and we’ve almost come to accept the fact that any game of this type will have a somewhat suspect camera system. However, Sunshine’s camera is one of the weakest I’ve seen in a long time, even worse than the one seen in Mario 64. Controlling it with the C stick is cumbersome at best, and if you get caught behind a wall for whatever reason, forget about cycling the camera to find the best view possible.

Also, while the game brings with it a sense of freedom and freshness, there’s also a sense of sameness throughout. Environments, while beautiful, aren’t nearly varied enough and mission objectives seem to run together toward the end of the game. Cleaning up graffiti takes precedence over defeating enemies, which is a good thing, since enemy fighting can become tedious after a while. This isn’t a huge problem, but a little more variety would’ve made what it already a solid effort even better.

All told, Super Mario Sunshine is a wonderful game, but considering the pedigree from which it comes, a wonderful game is disappointing. I had a ball with this game—it’s one of the GameCube’s best entries—but it’s nowhere near the classic Mario 64 was. Miyamoto hasn’t lost his touch yet; he’s far from it.

There’s no denying just how fun this game is, but perhaps the developers focused too much on making the game fun and not enough in making it functional and presentable. You won’t find a lot of polish or technical glory here, which hurts the game in the long run, but you will find a fun, addictive addition to your Cube collection.