Game Info Name: Super Mario Sunshine review Category: Platform Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Players: 1 Score 8.9 Screenshots

First and foremost I must comment on the title. Just having the words “sunshine” in the title will probably instantly turn off a lot of gamers out there with their lame attitudes towards any game that doesn’t have cursing, violence, or sex in it. Well at least in the States it seems that way sometimes. You can bet your gold coins that there is NONE of that in this game; it’s a Mario game for cryin’ out loud! In fact, this is SO MUCH a Mario game that it’s literally oozing of pure Mario game goodness.

For those that do not know, the game focuses around Mario, Peach, and Toadsworth (her loyal Toadish butler) on a vacation to Isle Delfino. The dolphin-shaped island has been vandalized by someone who looks just like Mario(except he’s got red glowing eyes and he looks like he’s made out of water). It also seems that Shadow Mario has scattered “Shines” (read: Stars), the island’s source of power, everywhere. Anyway, you are framed for the vandalization of the island and are forced to clean up the mess and get all the Shines back using FLUDD, a water pack that fits on your back. Together you form a symbiotic relationship much like the one achieved in Banjo Kazooie. FLUDD helps Mario take that next step further and lets him do things a normal plumber couldn’t.

Gone are the fist punches of Mario 64, and are now replaced with water squirts. You may not think this is much of an improvement, but FLUDD has high water pressure. Have you ever seen people take graffiti off of brick walls with a power-washer? You can kill someone with one of those things! Anyway, FLUDD basically does everything for you: he is your main attack, your speed booster, your rocket pack and hover ability, your shield from harmful sludge, and most importantly, he makes these ultra cool puddles of water that reflects Mario in real-time. It’s just something that must be seen yourself. You can run and squirt at the same time by holding the R trigger in halfway, or you can stand there and aim your water in any direction by pressing R all the way down. The innovation truly shines (sorry, bad pun) when you use these two options to their full potential. The other Mario gameplay standards are all there as well: hops, bops, wall jumps, belly slides, side somersaults, triple-jumps, a spin jump, the butt stomp, and all are perfectly achieved with pin point accuracy. This game probably has the most accurate gameplay of any platform game out there. And that’s a very good thing because at times this game is really freakin’ hard! You can no longer do a backflip, crawl around on the ground, or do that breakdance kick thing, but that doesn’t really matter because you will never have the need to do these moves. Oh and you can finally ride Yoshi around in all the stages. And since you can’t use FLUDD while riding Yoshi, Yoshi has the ability to spit, *ahem* BARF fruit juice at unsuspecting victims! There is also one downer about Yoshi: HE CAN’T SWIM! What’s wrong with that you ask? Well maybe due to the fact that there’s water EVERYWHERE!! And once Yoshi hits the water, he dissolves away and you have to go find his egg again. Yoshi has his uses every now and then, but making him not be able to swim takes away most of the fun of riding him around. Even though the designers made Yoshi non-swimmable on purpose because it adds to the challenge of getting some of the Shines, I really wish they could have let him swim around. Ah, c’est la vie…

The game plays out very much like Mario 64, where you go to different parts of the island from a main hub area. The game has less areas than Mario 64 did, but they are ultimately larger than M64’s, so it doesn’t matter. Each world has 8 different episodes, one per shine, and then 3 extra shines, one for a red coin classic challenge, one for a secret hidden shine, and one for getting 100 coins,<