I can't believe I defended this game back in 2002. As a platformer maybe I can give it a 3 out of 5 but as a Mario game, it is a 2 out of 5. The controls are not as tight as they should be. Mario is constantly slipping around, hard to make him look straight. It controls worse in the stages without Fludd. Fludd is annoying the entire game, some moves are hidden and not explained in game or manual. Jump sometimes does not work. Visual look is nice and bosses look nice but the controls and repetition of stars, the fact that you can't approach stars in any order really bring this game down, but mainly, the poor controls. No desire to get all the stars.

I remember enjoy this enough back on the gamecube, but it felt really far removed from the Mario I knew and loved at the time. I struggled to get to grips with the main idea, and although overall I thought it was alright, it was probably one of my least favourite Super Mario games at the time.

Now we've had many years and many more Mario's since, and the decent port on the Switch, I definitely appreciate this one a lot more. Its not without its bad parts, but they are far outweighed by the good, that I give it the benefit of the doubt.

Some of the levels are tight and work perfectly with the Fludd backpack, whereas others are maybe not so well done but work despite that. I did get a little impatient with some of the more traditional style levels, as they could be quite tricky. I only really went for the bare minimum of shines with this playthrough, as even though I enjoyed it, I know that some of the latter stages can be quite difficult and I did not want to sour the fun experience I have had revisiting Isle Delfino.

I know my score is pretty much irrelevant, but I did struggle over whether to give this 4 or 5, but thought I'd meet in the middle, given that I had a very good time for the most part.

Mario Sunshine has quite a few problems, most likely too many to count, yet I found it oddly charming. I actually really liked my time with it despite how much of the time I think the game suffers from messy design.

I think the saving grace here is that it's a game I remembered not liking and everyone dogs on that I found myself having more fun than expected with, VS a game heralded as an all-time classic that just isn't clicking for me. I therefore weirdly had more time for Sunshine? And ended up enjoying it a lot despite the flaws? Sometimes these things blindsight you.

My childhood game now on a modern system. This port is enjoyable and despite Nintendo themselves not recommending a traditional GameCube controller. The third-party GameCube controller made for Smash Ultimate worked rather well and made this nostalgic experience even more special. Full completion does feature some of the most annoying Mario levels to date. The infamous pachinko level, the instant kill sewer water level, and the brutal chuckster level all nearly destroyed my sanity. Let alone trying to reach Bowser by rowing a boat inside a volcano...

- Fun game
- Different scenery than most mario games
- Fun unique mechanic with flood
- Some of the levels & usages of flood are very heavy and poor, making some levels a chore to play
- Other than that, very fun

I grew up with Super Mario Sunshine so it’s incredibly nostalgic for me. Even though I know it has flaws I love this game and play it every year.

I have a lot I could say but I’ll keep it brief. I love that every level almost has a little story going on as you progress through it. I love that the levels feel like they’re actual places on the island and that they have a bunch of NPCs to talk. In fact there are some NPCs in this game that if you talk to them in every episode in a level they almost have a character arc it’s super cool and the fact that you can completely miss it if you don’t talk to the characters for fun is a real shame cause there was clearly work put into the dialogue.

Gameplay wise I always have fun playing it. FLUDD is fun to use to navigate levels and fight enemies. I even don’t mind collecting blue coins cause to me it’s just a fun thing to collect to earn more shine sprites even if you don’t need any of them to finish the game.

I know the game can be glitchy at times but I kinda like some of the glitches. I’ve played this game so much that it’s fun to glitch or exploit my way into levels early. For instance this time when I played through the game I tackled all 7 levels episode 1 first before moving on to episode 2 then I’d play all the levels episode 2 before moving onto 3 and I did that all the way till the end.

Now if you’ve played the game you’d know that you need to beat episode 4 of Pinna Park to unlock Sirena Beach. But using some glitches I was able to get into Sirena Beach whenever I wanted! Even getting into Pianta Village early is easy with a well timed triple jump!

I know the game isn’t for everyone but it was my first ever console game, so I have have very strong feelings towards it and it will probably always be my favourite Nintendo game.

mario sunshine ended up being one of my least favorite types of games - one that has a ton of stuff i really enjoyed, yet bogs itself down with so much dumb shit that i end up hating it. i don't mean that in the sense of "oh there's one level that made me so pissed that it poisoned my experience" i mean that it's genuinely frustrating how this game takes such an incredible concept and just drowns it in shit.

first off, i fucking love fludd. it adds so much to the way mario controls that i barely realize he's missing shit like long jumping. hovering, squirting water on the ground and sliding on it, tap spraying the shit out of shadow mario... it's so damn cool, dude. mario sunshine is at its best when you're actually able to do some sick ass platforming and use fludd to its fullest potential.

so why the fuck does the game insist on limiting your use of fludd as much as it possibly can? whether it be through fluddless platforming levels or other stupid ass gimmick shines where you're playing slots instead of actually bing bing wahooing around, sunshine fucking neuters their gimmick by making sure you're hardly ever using it. this is where sunshine just falls flat on its ass - without fludd, you realize that mario controls like utter dogshit. the left stick is so sensitive that barely tapping it will make him sprint right off the edge of a level, sometimes he'll just clip through shit or become way more slippery than he usually is, and with no way to correct your jumps it really brings to light how much the game relies on fludd.

what's worse is that this game gets fucking demolished by the way it's structured - instead of having free reign over which shines you can get to complete the game, it makes you play through every single level up to shadow mario. this means that you're required to hit at least like, 70% of the game's horrible levels. sand bird, goopy inferno, the chuckster level, bum-ass ricco harbor red coins, all of these are required to beat the fucking game. it's not like mario 64 where you have relative free reign over the order in which you do shit. over and over this game just shoots itself in the foot by making you go through some of its worst section and not letting you just fucking. play the levels you want to play.

there are a few other gripes i have too. blue coins are fucking stupid and there's not really any way to easily track which ones you have, so im never gonna feel incentivized to go for 100%. also, since so many levels have multiple stupid gimmick/fluddless shines, a lot of them don't really live up to their potential as Platforming Levels. like, most stages will usually have one section where You Gotta Platform, and the rest is just filler space to find red/blue coins.

and this is all a god damn shame, because there's parts of sunshine that i really like! even though there's not as much platforming as i would have liked, i think every stage still hits it out of the park (except maybe pianta village). they all manage to be fun and unique despite their similar island theming. the soundtrack is top notch, the aesthetic is great, i love all the wacky-ass enemy designs and it makes me sad that we'll probably never see them again. i 100% understand why people love this game, and it makes me sad that i find it so frustrating that i can't love it the same way. i promise i'm not trying to be a contrarian hater in this review, it genuinely pains me that there was so much dumbo shit that held me back from loving this game.