Mario Sunshine is an interesting game. Its buggy, likely a biproduct of coming out early in the 6th gen's life style and I can only assume a brutal production timeline, it's got some of the most fucked up stars in the whole franchise (i'd argue that lily pad IS the worst star in the franchise), and an odd structure to its stars making atleast 30 of its stars feel redundant; more if you don't reconsider anything that's not attached to its own mission or secret area unnecessary.
And I wouldn't change a fucking thing.
Okay well maybe I'd change Lily Pads.
I love Mario Sunshine, I'd even say it's my favorite 3d mario, with the only aesteric being that I haven't played galaxy 2 in like 10 years so idk how I really feel about it. For all it's jank and weird design choices lie a ton of soul, cool stars, fun movement, an unmatched aesthetic and Levels Were You Can Actually Die.
Sunshine's main gimmick is is FLUDD, a funny little talking water gun on your back who you use to shoot water or flip between a hover mode or eventually a rocket mode or a turbo speed mode. FLUDD rules. Like every game mechanic I like it's multi purpose and you can is used in many creative ways without designing specific interactions, and benefits the level design. it's weird that a lot of the cool fludd stuff (slip and slides/shotguns blasts/ect) are hidden and you just gotta figure it out on your own but it's whatever you've watched a sunshine speedrun before and watched them turn shadow mario to dust. I have no problem with fludd, he's great.
Individual stars are a mixed bag. I'd argue that most of them are good, but the stinkers are crazy. I said it before but lily pad red coins is genuinely awful. I do think a lot of the levels people point to as being annoying is mostly just because people didnt fully understand the mechanics. Things like the Manta Ray/cleaning up Sirena beach are much easier then they seem if you know what a shotgun blast is; and to be honest I never understood how people walled by things like Sandbird/blooper racing.
But the stars that ARE definitely fucked up, things like Pachinko or I'm A Chuckster! idk I just think they're funny. If dying in a single player video game hurts your ego no matter what or something, first go to therapy second it's not really a big deal. Most of the Secret levels have a 1up mushrooms early in the level to keep you going. Is pachinko fucked up? yeah. It is really funny to see mario go to hell on a stub? also yeah. Am I being bias? yeah fuck you.
And like I mentioned before, something I really like about this game is difficulty. If you read my review from a few years ago on Galaxy 1, what brought me down on that game was that despite it's insane polish and strong gameplay gimmick, was how easy the game is. All the polish in the world means nothign to me when most of the game is completely frictionless because there's like 5 stars total where there's even a risk of dying, it becomes a snoozefest. Mario sunshine is much harder then it's companions, and I like that. It's not like it's a complete ball buster but I have pay attention and try to win, and most of the Secret levels are gonna take you multiple tries to get at. 64 is not as bad about thsi but most of 64 is kinda a cakewalk anyways.
Something I like about this game that doesn't come with an * is the aesthetic . God. This game is still wonderful to look at. I've been chasing this game's aesthetic since it came out. One of my incredibly bias gripes about Pokemon Sun Moon (bet you didnt think that game would show up) is that I thought that game aesthetically would be the Sunshine 2 that i craved, and in the end i got Just Regular Pokemon.
The summer theming and the commitment to the aesthetic. It's so so good. No backing down to generic areas, the most generic you get is a volcano area and thats the final level. It's a summer vacation aesthetic; We got the easy beach stage but we also got other sick shit; an amusement park, a dock, a scenic beachside nice hotel with the casino you parents didnt let you come with and it might be haunted too (idk whats up with this I never really associated summer with horror but it's apparently a classic japanese summer thing so w/e), villages that are probably tourist traps, ect. It's wonderful. I want this more and no game as given it to me. It's either every level looks the same or every game has rapidly different designs for the sake of variety. The commitment to an aesthetic idea and variance without giving up on the core idea. it's perfect. I will never get this game's aesthetic again and it hurts.
To get back to being negatives despite that I love this game, the game's star structure is weird. To hit credits you need to beat the 7th level of every stage unlike 64 which was just get X amount of stars to progress to the next part of the castle, leading to only needing 49 stars to beat the game. Along with that a large chunk of the stars in this game are attached to blue coins, which suck but oh now you all agree with me that collectathon shit like banjo sucks? you all love banjo but hate blue coins? whatever man. To put it all together the reward for 120 stars is really ass; 64's isnt much better but there's not that many stars that feel like filler in 64 and obviously later into the franchise you get crazy 120 star rewards like galaxy. I say do all the main stages and grab delfino stars, and see how many blue coin stars you got by the end, you're not missing too much going blue coin hunting. you can also skip lily pad. fuck lily pad.
Sunshine is flawed, but I love the flaws. For everything it lacks it has something nothing else has. I'm also bias. fuck it. I should replay mario galaxy 2.
And I wouldn't change a fucking thing.
Okay well maybe I'd change Lily Pads.
I love Mario Sunshine, I'd even say it's my favorite 3d mario, with the only aesteric being that I haven't played galaxy 2 in like 10 years so idk how I really feel about it. For all it's jank and weird design choices lie a ton of soul, cool stars, fun movement, an unmatched aesthetic and Levels Were You Can Actually Die.
Sunshine's main gimmick is is FLUDD, a funny little talking water gun on your back who you use to shoot water or flip between a hover mode or eventually a rocket mode or a turbo speed mode. FLUDD rules. Like every game mechanic I like it's multi purpose and you can is used in many creative ways without designing specific interactions, and benefits the level design. it's weird that a lot of the cool fludd stuff (slip and slides/shotguns blasts/ect) are hidden and you just gotta figure it out on your own but it's whatever you've watched a sunshine speedrun before and watched them turn shadow mario to dust. I have no problem with fludd, he's great.
Individual stars are a mixed bag. I'd argue that most of them are good, but the stinkers are crazy. I said it before but lily pad red coins is genuinely awful. I do think a lot of the levels people point to as being annoying is mostly just because people didnt fully understand the mechanics. Things like the Manta Ray/cleaning up Sirena beach are much easier then they seem if you know what a shotgun blast is; and to be honest I never understood how people walled by things like Sandbird/blooper racing.
But the stars that ARE definitely fucked up, things like Pachinko or I'm A Chuckster! idk I just think they're funny. If dying in a single player video game hurts your ego no matter what or something, first go to therapy second it's not really a big deal. Most of the Secret levels have a 1up mushrooms early in the level to keep you going. Is pachinko fucked up? yeah. It is really funny to see mario go to hell on a stub? also yeah. Am I being bias? yeah fuck you.
And like I mentioned before, something I really like about this game is difficulty. If you read my review from a few years ago on Galaxy 1, what brought me down on that game was that despite it's insane polish and strong gameplay gimmick, was how easy the game is. All the polish in the world means nothign to me when most of the game is completely frictionless because there's like 5 stars total where there's even a risk of dying, it becomes a snoozefest. Mario sunshine is much harder then it's companions, and I like that. It's not like it's a complete ball buster but I have pay attention and try to win, and most of the Secret levels are gonna take you multiple tries to get at. 64 is not as bad about thsi but most of 64 is kinda a cakewalk anyways.
Something I like about this game that doesn't come with an * is the aesthetic . God. This game is still wonderful to look at. I've been chasing this game's aesthetic since it came out. One of my incredibly bias gripes about Pokemon Sun Moon (bet you didnt think that game would show up) is that I thought that game aesthetically would be the Sunshine 2 that i craved, and in the end i got Just Regular Pokemon.
The summer theming and the commitment to the aesthetic. It's so so good. No backing down to generic areas, the most generic you get is a volcano area and thats the final level. It's a summer vacation aesthetic; We got the easy beach stage but we also got other sick shit; an amusement park, a dock, a scenic beachside nice hotel with the casino you parents didnt let you come with and it might be haunted too (idk whats up with this I never really associated summer with horror but it's apparently a classic japanese summer thing so w/e), villages that are probably tourist traps, ect. It's wonderful. I want this more and no game as given it to me. It's either every level looks the same or every game has rapidly different designs for the sake of variety. The commitment to an aesthetic idea and variance without giving up on the core idea. it's perfect. I will never get this game's aesthetic again and it hurts.
To get back to being negatives despite that I love this game, the game's star structure is weird. To hit credits you need to beat the 7th level of every stage unlike 64 which was just get X amount of stars to progress to the next part of the castle, leading to only needing 49 stars to beat the game. Along with that a large chunk of the stars in this game are attached to blue coins, which suck but oh now you all agree with me that collectathon shit like banjo sucks? you all love banjo but hate blue coins? whatever man. To put it all together the reward for 120 stars is really ass; 64's isnt much better but there's not that many stars that feel like filler in 64 and obviously later into the franchise you get crazy 120 star rewards like galaxy. I say do all the main stages and grab delfino stars, and see how many blue coin stars you got by the end, you're not missing too much going blue coin hunting. you can also skip lily pad. fuck lily pad.
Sunshine is flawed, but I love the flaws. For everything it lacks it has something nothing else has. I'm also bias. fuck it. I should replay mario galaxy 2.