Super Mario Sunshine Afterthoughts

[Chief H]

Ever the late arriver, I just bought a Cube Sunshine pack last week and had finished SMS by the weekend and must confess it is good fun although it's not the sort of game that really makes me want to duke it out to get those last shines. I have all of the episode shines bar one and quite a few of the other sines as well. But it doesn't sit me down and make me want to finish it all like mario 64 or even the two sonic adventure games did.

I just think it's a little too open-ended.

I liked the way that a large majority of the stars in 64 each had an objective title (especially the cryptic ones). I liked the way each emblem in SA and SA2 was outlined. I just liked knowing where to go. Knowing what I was looking for - that's why I've enjoyed finding the spisode shines. "what's changed on this map? How do I fix this problem?"

For me, the blue coins have been a real sticking point in SMS. At first I enjoyed coming across them as part of the other objectives. Throughout the game, whenever I saw a blue coin I would go for it, so I have a reasonable tally, but not even knowing whether I'm close to finding all the blue coins on a level really bothers me. Especially when it comes to the point of going into a level looking specifically for them. That just gets me down and I can't really be bothered. Much to the point that I've stoppede playing before I've found all the other non-blue coin shines. I know I won't have the motivation to go searching for that last blue coin (if such a thing exists on a level) and that has affected the rest of the game for me. I fell like I've 'finished' before I really have finished it all.

Chances are, I'll go and do all the ??? red coin bonuses and have a little hunt for the last few delphino plaza shines (I have quite a few) sometime, but for now SMS has been laid down. Zelda is the order of this week.

[rjpageuk]

It seems strange to me to critisise SMS because one cannot be bothered to collect all of the blue coins, whereas in SM64 one was willing to get every shine/star.

It is obvious the blue coins were added in to add to the lifespan of the game for those that wanted to do it.

I have only ever got around 110 shines, and I loved the game. I cant be bothered to get them all, but that doesnt detract from the game for me - I still spent a lot longer with it than with Super Mario 64 (which is actually a much shorter game).

[gamelife]

people collected the 120 stars in mario 64 as each one had its own objective (apart from getting 100 coins per level)

in SMS, walking around looking for blue coins is just a crap way of adding lifespan to a game when they could have come up with more puzzles and objectives instead

i think people will agree, i mean, what would you all prefer?

[rjpageuk]

in SMS, walking around looking for blue coins is just a crap way of adding lifespan to a game when they could have come up with more puzzles and objectives instead

i think people will agree, i mean, what would you all prefer?

You missed my point entirely. It is not about what you would prefer. If you didnt like collecting the blue coins you didnt ever have to do it...

SMS was easily as long a game as SM64 without ever collecting any blue coins...

[Kieran76]

I didn't mind the blue coins, but getting some of them was just luck - no logic to their placings.
But to be honest when it comes to Mario those moments of frustration are outweighed considerably by moments of gaming genius.

[gamelife]

yeah but that is the point, because mario 64 had 15 worlds to explore with 120 stars to collect it gave the game proper lifespan, i did'nt stop playing till i'd got all 120

in sms i got to like 75 then i was left to collect blue coins , what the hell is the point? hrm, lets go back to previously explored levels just to walk around and find missing coins - a big waste of my time is what it is

[rjpageuk]

Yes but it took you just as long to get 75 shines in SMS as it did to get 120 in SM64!

[Mayhem]

It didn't for me... I got 70 shines in SMS in under a week and then gave up cos I couldn't be arsed (as mentioned) to get the blue coins. I took me a good month or so to get all 120 stars in SM64, simply because it took more skill and frustration at times (especially world 15) to complete the tasks...

[rjpageuk]

Mayhem you honestly believe it took more skill to get the stars in SM64 than SMS?

Personally I found SMS a much harder game, and with that it took more skill to gain many of the shines and some levels (particuarly the secret of levels) more frustration.

I went back to replay SM64 recently, and couldnt believe both how short and how easy it was compared to SMS. Only on the final two levels of SM64 did it ever get even a modicum of difficulty.

There are people who have managed to fully complete SM64 in an hour and collect all 120 starts in under 90 minutes!

[Lebowski]

Mayhem you honestly believe it took more skill to get the stars in SM64 than SMS?

Personally I found SMS a much harder game, and with that it took more skill to gain many of the shines and some levels (particuarly the secret of levels) more frustration.

I went back to replay SM64 recently, and couldnt believe both how short and how easy it was compared to SMS. Only on the final two levels of SM64 did it ever get even a modicum of difficulty.

There are people who have managed to fully complete SM64 in an hour and collect all 120 starts in under 90 minutes!

90 mins my arse, im sure it would take longer just to get through the levels. proof is required here i think.

90 mins to get 120 stars is about 40 seconds a star.

[superkully]

Hmmm... I havn't played this yet...

I think I'll pick it up as it is only ?9.99 at my local Indie.

Who'd believe a Mario title dropping to such an absurd price in less than a year!?

[rjpageuk]

90 mins my arse, im sure it would take longer just to get through the levels.

You would be surprised.

There are a few people out there who could fully complete and collect every item in Super Metroid in under 90 minutes, and there is one person who has completed Metroid Prime in under 90 minutes too.

No one who has done it for Super Mario Sunshine though!

[Corrupt Rose]

All I know is that I got every single last bloody Star in M64, but only got about 30 Shines in SMS before getting bored of the damned thing. [Shrug]. At least it wasn't as bad as trying to find all the furry things in Jet Force Gemini.

Tribals, or something...

Heh.


- Corrupt Rose

[Saurian]

I wasnt feeling this game at all - from the very start it just pissed me off. I seriously feel that Mario should never have been taken to 3D, started playing Yoshi's Island a bit recently and it's a far better game than Mario Sunshine.

Every time I died in Mario Sunshine I never felt it was my fault - I'm the sort of person who trains up hard to get good at games but this was just unfair! There was one level where I fell miles through the floor and had to reset to get out of it, there were far too many times when the view angle was the reason for failure. I did learn how to keep good control of the camera at all times but it still pissed me off.

Taught me a good lesson tho - I'll never buy a 3D Mario game again.

[Corrupt Rose]

Saurian,

Quick question... Did you ever play a game called 'Ruff 'n' Tumble' on the Amiga? I think it may have been released on other platforms (SNES?) but it may have been under a different name.

Although my memory is hazy, it was a brutally hard, but extremely fair platform game. No real reason to bring this up, but your last comment made me think of it.


- Corrupt Rose