It's a bit baffling to realize that Super Mario Sunshine is such a polarizing and maligned entry in the series for so many players. Playing it nowadays, it's hard to not fall in love with it's beautiful tropical vacation presentation and full commitment to it, despite its shortcomings.
Sunshine builds up on the foundation set up by the revolutionary Super Mario 64, giving the player a vast choice of movement options to tackle each stage of the game, with simple inputs for newcomers and a high skill ceiling for veterans.
Sunshine ditches out the long jump from 64, but it more than makes up for it with the introduction of it's main gimmick: the F.L.U.U.D., a water pack that Mario carries with him that let's him use water for a multitude of actions. With the fluud you get to hover around for a few secs to long distance platforms and to adjust your position, shoot water at enemies or at the floor so you can slide on it to go faster, and use it as both an horizontal or vertical rocket that shoots you at high speeds. This new mechanic feels right at home with Sunshine's more vast and expansive levels.
Sunshine is unique in the 3D Mario canon by building a much more cohesive and connected selection of stages that all revolve around the same thematic aesthetic. The stages don't just feel like abstracted platforming locations solely made for the player, instead having in-world purpose and sense. Pinna Park is just a functional amusement park where the moving platforms are main attractions you would go on in real life, Bianco Hills is a regular village with windmills and and a lake that you can explore around, and Ricco Harbor is just a port with many scaffoldings and boats to jump around in. This focus on establishing Delfino Island as a real place you can go to really gives Sunshine a very strong identity and creativeness that makes it stand out from the rest of the franchise.
Unfortunately, there's definitely some problems with Sunshine. The progression structure makes it so you can't just tackle what Shines you want to advance and beat the game, unlike Mario 64, restricting the player to the same Shines every playthrough. There's a sense that the fluud had potential for more than what we got, considering the limited nozzle options and the lack of underwater levels that could have made use of it. And yes, there are some Shines that are absolute stinkers. The Pachinko level is janked beyond belief, not being possible to fully excel or perfect it. The watermelon mission will test your patience to the limit. And the lilypad lvel will be one of the most infurating and unfair time wasters you will ever experience in your life that will make you wanna throw the controller at a wall.
But I don't see how those few unfortunate events in Sunshine cast this entry as the "black sheep" of the series. It's still a standout in the still untouched 3D Mario series, and represents a vision that I wish more Mario games would tap into in the future. Don't listen to the haters, give this one a go.
Sunshine builds up on the foundation set up by the revolutionary Super Mario 64, giving the player a vast choice of movement options to tackle each stage of the game, with simple inputs for newcomers and a high skill ceiling for veterans.
Sunshine ditches out the long jump from 64, but it more than makes up for it with the introduction of it's main gimmick: the F.L.U.U.D., a water pack that Mario carries with him that let's him use water for a multitude of actions. With the fluud you get to hover around for a few secs to long distance platforms and to adjust your position, shoot water at enemies or at the floor so you can slide on it to go faster, and use it as both an horizontal or vertical rocket that shoots you at high speeds. This new mechanic feels right at home with Sunshine's more vast and expansive levels.
Sunshine is unique in the 3D Mario canon by building a much more cohesive and connected selection of stages that all revolve around the same thematic aesthetic. The stages don't just feel like abstracted platforming locations solely made for the player, instead having in-world purpose and sense. Pinna Park is just a functional amusement park where the moving platforms are main attractions you would go on in real life, Bianco Hills is a regular village with windmills and and a lake that you can explore around, and Ricco Harbor is just a port with many scaffoldings and boats to jump around in. This focus on establishing Delfino Island as a real place you can go to really gives Sunshine a very strong identity and creativeness that makes it stand out from the rest of the franchise.
Unfortunately, there's definitely some problems with Sunshine. The progression structure makes it so you can't just tackle what Shines you want to advance and beat the game, unlike Mario 64, restricting the player to the same Shines every playthrough. There's a sense that the fluud had potential for more than what we got, considering the limited nozzle options and the lack of underwater levels that could have made use of it. And yes, there are some Shines that are absolute stinkers. The Pachinko level is janked beyond belief, not being possible to fully excel or perfect it. The watermelon mission will test your patience to the limit. And the lilypad lvel will be one of the most infurating and unfair time wasters you will ever experience in your life that will make you wanna throw the controller at a wall.
But I don't see how those few unfortunate events in Sunshine cast this entry as the "black sheep" of the series. It's still a standout in the still untouched 3D Mario series, and represents a vision that I wish more Mario games would tap into in the future. Don't listen to the haters, give this one a go.