Super Mario Sunshine Afterthoughts

[Fuddle]

I found SMS too easy. The only level I found hard was Yoshi's fruit adventure, and that was only because I climbed along the cliff bit instead of shooting the fish with yoshi.

I wouldn't mind a game with more of the retro levels. Those were great.

i remember that yoshi level....at the time it drove me nuts, i thought it was impossible, but i went back to it about a month ago, took it slow, and did it on my first attempt....so happy

totally agree on the retro levels though, easily the best part. (except the one where the blokes throw you around...bit too random)

Sunshine is the type of game i go back to every few months, just to run around and spray the old toad guy. its just a fun game to play in, without actually doing anything

[NINTY]

Im at 85 shines although i stopped playing months ago so im gonna finish it along with Zelda and prime this summer

[Paul3704]

Oh come on, it was nice, but I expected a whole lot more. I was massively dissapointed with it. Reading through this thread, I've come to realise a common factor. Ask your self the following question

Did you complete Super Mario World 100%?

Did you complete Mario 64 100%?

Why didn't you bother completing Super Mario Sunshine 100%?

Simply answered, theres nothing to look forward to towards the end of the game. No visual gimmicks (think the never ending staircase in mario 64, the tiny/huge levels, the slides, the caps) nothing warrant any thought or capture your attention (in mario 64, there were stars you could see, but not quite get initially, this was left out of sunshine, it was more linear i thought) and no final surprise (Get everything in Mario 64, you see Yoshi, what do you get in sunshine?)

Remember when you first played 64 and the camera panned round the pipe right at the beginning, out popped mario and the game was on? You moved the stick and he moved. It was perfect. It felt right. Sunshine had no magic for me.

And i thought the new Zelda was poor as well.

[Shin Gouki]

I played Mario a while back now and decided to go for Bowser after getting all the the main shines on each level,all the task shines,the blue coin shine and the 2 red coin shines(at least i think it's 2) that way i didn't rush the game and IMO completed it correctly.I couldn't be arsed to go for all the shines like i did in mario 64 and i ended up with about 85(the main ones and a few blue coin ones) in the end.

I think SMS had some great old school moments in there which really kept me on the edge of my seat and made LMFAO at the same time .
I loved this game to bits and it is the best Game ive played on the cube,not as good as mario 64 tho.

[Durham Red]

Audio/visually it was possibly the most charming game I've ever played, it created a truly lovely atmosphere but playing the damn thing left me cold and I got bored and dumped it after around 40 shines. I have no inclination to ever go back to it...

[rjpageuk]

Did you complete Super Mario World 100%?

Did you complete Mario 64 100%?

Why didn't you bother completing Super Mario Sunshine 100%?

Is that a good way to judge how much you enjoyed a game though?

I have played Ikaruga 150 hours but I havent completed it 100% (I cant complete it without losing a life), I loved Rez but havent completed that fully.

I loved WInd Waker and OOT, havent completed either of those fully either...

Oh and incidentally I apologize about the speed times I suggested as possible earlier for SM64 - I was wrong (and most of you suspected anyhow). The best time for completion of SM64 including the end credits is under 90 minutes (getting 70 stars). Apparently you can complete it with just 31 stars with a glitch which only takes about 50 minutes, but to get all 120 stars takes more like 3 hours.

[SharkAttack]

A lot of people seem to be moaning about SMS saying its crap because there is no incentive to 100% it. Not all games need to be 100%'d to have been damn good fun.

As for extras on finishing it. I liked the ending movies. I like the fact that the holiday is NOW on (you can just go and play around with the levels and get the 120 shines if you WANT to). I'm sure you only get the Hawai shirt on Mario after you've defeated bowser.

As for "Do you get anything after 120 shines? NO. Wheres the incentive? Well wheres the incentive to get your lap times down on a racing game? Wheres the incentive to beat your high score on a shooter? Its all self fulfillment.

[Shez]

Lo,

I enjoyed the game, the graphics where bright and sharp, and the speed of the game was great. If I wanted to rush through already accessed areas of the game I was able to do this, because the game engine allowed me to do it.

However, I didnt like the camera control, and I didn't like some of the sub 'retro' levels. Especially the ones which involved using your flud to control yourself while floating down flowing water, and at the same time trying to collect items on the way..a bit much imo.

The slowdown on the last boss was horrific, and it almost ground to a halt for me as well.

Overall it was an enjoyable romp, but the desire to collect every shine beat me. I had over 100, but having to sub-collect all those blue coins got a bit tedious, and imo was a bit of a cop out on the part of the developer.

[rjpageuk]

This blue coin issue is such a sticking point - it seems there are people like me who think they were a good idea (even though I didnt collect them all) and others that just think they were a "cop out".

However, ask yourself this - if there were no blue coins in the game at all, and it finished at 90 shines, would it of made it a better game? Would you have been more happy with it then?

Just because they are part of the game, it doesnt mean you have to do it, and for those that spent the hours it took to collect them I am sure they were pleased with the added lifespan. For those, like me, who didnt bother to collect most of them, it didnt affect the rest of the game one iota.

[insin_]

This blue coin issue is such a sticking point - it seems there are people like me who think they were a good idea (even though I didnt collect them all) and others that just think they were a "cop out".

However, ask yourself this - if there were no blue coins in the game at all, and it finished at 90 shines, would it of made it a better game? Would you have been more happy with it then?

Just because they are part of the game, it doesnt mean you have to do it, and for those that spent the hours it took to collect them I am sure they were pleased with the added lifespan. For those, like me, who didnt bother to collect most of them, it didnt affect the rest of the game one iota.

I enjoyed collecting the blue coins up a point, as it really encouraged you to explore the levels thoroughly for anything which looked out of place or might hold a blue coin (I got up to 116 shines).

The problem was that there was no way to tell which episodes contained the blue coins you needed (some coins only appear in certain episodes as well), only the number of coins you had collected so far on each level.

[rjpageuk]

That is definately a fair comment insin_.

It would have been nice to have known how many blue coins you had already collected from each episode (and how many there were), because as you say once you get to around 115+ shines it must have been pure guesswork.

[Kirby]

I am enjoying the game, but personally i feel it's let down by the awful awful camera and the travesty of technical problems. Like Saurian said, every time you die it feels like it was the game not your skill level.

Asthetically the game is lovely. Nice bright colours, great water, great effects, nice animation etc but..

The camera is crap, the clipping problems are PITIFUL, the low res is pants, the low FPS and nasty nasty nasty aliasing problems just make it look like complete bollocks at times (the grids in Ricco Harbour look like crap) and more often than not the game digresses into a gibbering mess of broken grates and lines. Plus the less said about falling through floors the better. And do me a favour, did they even frigging test that ghost level on Sirene beach, or the pirate ships? Oh look i've fallen through the floor, again. This is a MAJOR 1st party title, possibly the biggest Nintendo 1st party title, so these technical problems, which IMHO do compound the gameplay should never ever have been left in the game.

SM64 felt fun and fair but SMS seems to border on putting in crap trial and error jumps and tricks glued togethor with a mish mash of level types (of arguably differing quality) to subsitute for a genuine difficulty level like SM64 had.

Oh and the camera IS CRAP. oooooooooooooooh i've made a huge leap, OH NO the camera has swung around and is BEING BLOCKED BY A 3D TREE WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE CLIPPING RANGE BUT IS INSTEAD NOW CONSUMING MY SCREEN. jkhfwer98ty?$%?$^B$%$%?B^"

/sound of a wavebird hitting the wall

[Max M]

Kirby, I thought the camera was fine. If you mess up it's your own fault because you're the one who controls it, and not a lot of people know that if you hold down L to just before the click it will follow you around perfectly. The level design is too complex to have an auto-camera though, imagine what a nightmare the docks would've been when you're jumping around on the fences!

Did you complete Super Mario World 100%?

Did you complete Mario 64 100%?

Why didn't you bother completing Super Mario Sunshine 100%?.

I didn't complete Mario 64 100%, I just got to bowser, think I stopped at about 109. You're right, Mario Sunshine doesn't give you anything special at the end, but then Mario 64 only gave you an extra jump which was completely pointless because you'd already done everything! Seeing Yoshi was nice, but not worth the effort of those tedious last stars. They should've let you ride him.

Audio/visually it was possibly the most charming game I've ever played, it created a truly lovely atmosphere but playing the damn thing left me cold and I got bored and dumped it after around 40 shines.

It's weird, because I'm the other way around. I loved the gameplay and was pleased by the more linear nature of it because it reminded me of the 2D Mario's which I've always favoured, but I hated the soundtrack and the strange enemies. It just didn't look or sound like a Mario game and lacked the charm you would expect. I did like all the Toad children and Toadsworth mind.

[Kirby]

I know about L. If that didn't exist i would have smashed up my GC a long time ago and used the SMS disc as a hockey puck.

[Tom Salter]

re: Mario Sunshine's graphics...

Is it me, or is everything a tad 'bright', giving off the impression that you are looking into the sun and everything is difficult to see?

But if you get the shades/shirt, everything dims down a little so you can see a lot better? Man, only Nintendo would think of that!!

That's if it's not just my eyes...