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Super Mario Sunshine
by Jolex Del Pilar
Friday, September 27 2002
Nintendo's follow up to the king daddy of 3D platformers fails to live up to the hype, yet still impresses slightly.
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Title:
Super Mario Sunshine
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Platform:
Gamecube
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Publisher:
Nintendo |
Developer:
Nintendo |
#
of Players: 1 |
Genre:
3D Platformer
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Origin:
Japan
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Expected
Release:
September 2002 |
Grapevine:
Make no mistake, as a reviewer I won't pull any punches or bite my tongue for any company. Nintendo, surprisingly, has disappointed me this time. That is a crying shame. |
When Super Mario 64 came out in 1996, the game was so fantastic that it managed, along with one other title, to carry a console (N64) for nearly 3 months on its own merits alone. Quite a task for any game besides one as superb as "Mario 64". The Nintendo Gamecube launched last year surprisingly without a Mario title at all, quite contrary to previous Nintendo console launches. Yet, gamers were soothed over by the prospect of Super Mario Sunshine, first shown at the 2001 Tokyo Game Show. Now that the wait is over, there are mixed feelings abound.
It's hard for Nintendo fans to accept any mediocrity when it comes to games involving Nintendo mascots. Donkey Kong 64, an excellent game in its own right, but not perfect, caused quite an outcry and many Nintendo gamers were calling for heads to roll. With Sunshine, most fanboys will be willing to overlook its flaws and consider it a perfect game, but a rational gamer will find those flaws so that they may be corrected next time. We here at VGLN.com are rational gamers.
Super Mario Sunshine is a good game. However, it's not excellent. Usually I don't start talking about the visual aspect of games this early in a review but this is perhaps what most bothered me about the game. Super Mario Sunshine, even when the first screenshots were being released seemed a bit under whelming. Blurry at first, and undetailed textures seem to put doubts into this reviewers mind about the visual style of this game. Perhaps a developer who stood next to me at E3 put it best while I played Super Mario Sunshine in front of him, "This looks a lot like Super Mario 64...", and that's just it. The game, for all its time in development, and all the hype, looks like an upgraded version of Super Mario 64, a game that was released on the N64 more than 6 years ago. PS2 gamers can look to a title called Jak and Daxter and find easily better visuals in that title, this coming from a console supposedly inferior in graphics prowess. Amazingly, nothing has changed from the E3 version of Sunshine (which I thought to be fairly crude compared to what was out at the time), and the retail version that hit stores this month. In fact, I speculate that Sunshine's fairly crude models and level detail were in fact part of an earlier planned N64 title, perhaps Super Mario 64 Deux. The one bright point of the visual appeal of Sunshine was the environmental effects, from the giant caterpillar who runs and kicks up sand, to the amazing looking water. However, those are only minor details and the overall visual style is fairly poor (Did I just say that... about a Mario game?!!). Jax and Daxter, as well as the new incarnation of Ubi Soft's Rayman look considerably better.
Another problem I had with the game was the use of the grainy Full Motion Video (FMV) cut scenes. Puuhlease........ is that the best Nintendo can do? Who would've thought that with 1.4 gigabytes of disc space that Nintendo couldn't have better quality FMV, this is almost original PSX quality (which wasn't bad, but there is certainly better now). The overall presentation of the game is, again, poor. Non-voiced characters during gameplay (again, 1.4 gigs, where does the space go to people?!), grainy video, and awful bleeps that act as voices make this a very poor effort. The voice acting that is here in the aforementioned FMV is barely tolerable. Not Shenmue NPC annoying, but not nearly as good as other games (Jax and Daxter comes to mind, especially Daxter). Note to Nintendo: Go to Naughty Dog, or even Red Storm and learn what the word "Presentation" means, thank you.
In the sound arena, Sunshine manages to do fairly well, but not great. While the main theme is simple fantastic, a variation on the original Mario theme, the other music is simply under whelming and uninspired. In fact, the game probably has less than half a dozen tracks on the whole which is just pathetic (1.4 gigs?!!! C'mon now). What is the point of having surround if the game isn't going to use it?
Now that we've got the icing covered, it's time to speak about the gameplay Sunshine offers, this is a part where the game actually manages to surpass the prior title it was based on.
Sunshine has some of the most well designed levels of any game out there (although not as pretty). Dolphic Town, and the south-eastern edge of Dolphic Island are full of some nicely designed levels. Noki Bay is one of the better looking levels, also it's very well designed. Continued completion of this level, and others, opens up new areas to be explored. This is great for those who want to delve deep into the levels they explore. The bad news is that there are only 7 levels in all. That being said, Sunshine will keep you occupied for at least a week, that's certainly not too bad. Not at all.
One of the new additions to Sunshine is the water pack. This thing is darned fun to play with. It gives Mario not only a weapon, but also a limited Jet Pack (don't except Rocketeer type flying), and an environmental tool with which to cleanse the Super Mario Sunshine environment. The game on the whole makes good, logical use of the water pack, but there are a few exceptions. Some of the more difficult "Shines" (like Stars in Mario 64) require some water pack use and those Shines are sometimes exceedingly difficult to get. A good or bad thing depending on your frustration threshold. Personally, it didn't bother me, but to younger gamers, I can see a total onset of frustration.
The control in Sunshine is one of high points of the game. The Gamecube controller is almost perfect for this type of game and it shows. A is used to jump, B is used to slide while running, the C stick is used to control the camera, the X button switches between the water gun and whichever secondary function you have selected for the water pack(there are three secondary functions - hover pack, rocket jump pack, and speed boost pack), Y is used to look around, R is to used to spray water or to use your hover pack/rocket jump/speed boost (which ever one is equipped using X), and L is used to center the camera behind Mario. There are also many button combinations, such as the butt stomp (L+A), or the back flip(hold R +A), etc. Yoshi (the green hungry dino from Mario 64) controls very similar to Mario expect B is used for Yoshi's tongue. Using his tongue, you can eat enemies, fruits to re-supply juice, and many other functions. To spray juice, which is more effective than Mario's water, press the R button. The camera of Sunshine is also greatly improved from Mario 64, and is one of the best cameras I've seen used in a 3-d platform game.
Now about Shines, there are in total 120 of them. By collecting shines, you progress deeper into the game. The sad part is, you don't need to collect all 120 Shines to beat the game, in fact, I believe I was able to complete the game with less than 55. The same was true in Super Mario 64, where you only needed 80 or so Stars, but the fact that I only needed just about half of the Shines to complete Sunshine was kind of a bummer. What motivation do you have to collect all 120 besides "bragging rights"? (Believe me, you don't want to brag to a girl about how many "Shines" you've collected). Collecting all those coins for nothing kind of takes a big punch out of the gameplay in this game. This is very reminiscent to Donkey Kong 64 where you had to collect tons of banana peels in pointless missions. Not too good Nintendo.
I won't even comment on the farce of a boss battle included in Sunshine. Just consider it a "bonus mini-game". That's about how enthralling the final Boss was.
Super Mario Sunshine isn't a bad game, not by far. It's just not as good a game as we're used to seeing Nintendo put out. Perhaps Sunshine is a victim of its own pre-release hype, or perhaps Nintendo just isn't the same company it used to be. Recent news of Rare's defection to Microsoft seem to support the latter, but with Nintendo I try to be positive. However, as a game reviewer who has been syndicated on half a dozen major websites, as well as numerous company product advertisements, it's my responsibility to tell it as it is. Make no mistake, as a reviewer I won't pull any punches or bite my tongue for any company. Nintendo, surprisingly, has disappointed me this time. That is a crying shame.
--- Jolex Del Pilar
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