PAL copy played on a Nintendo Wii.
Over the Christmas period my girlfriend and I played Super Mario Odyssey. We'd played Galaxy together back in uni but Odyssey was such a well polished experience that I wasn't quite ready to stop playing when we'd finished.
Enter Super Mario Sunshine - supposedly the bastard stepchild in the 3D Super Mario games and I can certainly understand why. Playing this game is a right fucking pain in the arse at times, back when Nintendo still hadn't gotten the hang of 3D camera control or had polished it's general control scheme as far as Galaxy had. When it works, the gameplay is very fun, with highlights being the challenging ambient platforming stages when Fludd is taken away and the large open levels where you have room to breath. I actually quite enjoyed the Fludd platforming and I'm a sucker for basic AI/robot characters, but when Sunshine wants precision in your movements, expect a lot of game overs (accompanied with those fucking clown honks I just know were specifically designed to piss you off) and primal rage. It doesn't do a very good job at directing you to what you're meant to be doing either with the game out right refusing to tell you what to do between the 20th and 70th shine, leaving me to feel if my disc was busted or I was missing something obvious.
The visuals however are fucking amazing. Playing the Gamecube version on a Wii with the right setup looks downright stunning on a 4k TV - bright blocky colours with lovely post-processing visual effects giving Delphino Isle a real tropical look as the environment around you shimmers in the heat. The soundtrack gives super chill and relaxing vibes too for the majority of the stage themes, with a fun accapella rendition of the Super Mario theme for those abstract platform stages and a heart pumping electronic version of the dungeon theme whenever you have to chase "Shadow Mario".
Overall, graphics and music are amazing, the actual gameplay is fun with bursts of anger-inducing frustration, and the sound design with the "game over" theme and Mario's pain noises cab go fuck themselves. Looking forward to play the new release of Super Mario 3D World and Bowser's Fury next.
Over the Christmas period my girlfriend and I played Super Mario Odyssey. We'd played Galaxy together back in uni but Odyssey was such a well polished experience that I wasn't quite ready to stop playing when we'd finished.
Enter Super Mario Sunshine - supposedly the bastard stepchild in the 3D Super Mario games and I can certainly understand why. Playing this game is a right fucking pain in the arse at times, back when Nintendo still hadn't gotten the hang of 3D camera control or had polished it's general control scheme as far as Galaxy had. When it works, the gameplay is very fun, with highlights being the challenging ambient platforming stages when Fludd is taken away and the large open levels where you have room to breath. I actually quite enjoyed the Fludd platforming and I'm a sucker for basic AI/robot characters, but when Sunshine wants precision in your movements, expect a lot of game overs (accompanied with those fucking clown honks I just know were specifically designed to piss you off) and primal rage. It doesn't do a very good job at directing you to what you're meant to be doing either with the game out right refusing to tell you what to do between the 20th and 70th shine, leaving me to feel if my disc was busted or I was missing something obvious.
The visuals however are fucking amazing. Playing the Gamecube version on a Wii with the right setup looks downright stunning on a 4k TV - bright blocky colours with lovely post-processing visual effects giving Delphino Isle a real tropical look as the environment around you shimmers in the heat. The soundtrack gives super chill and relaxing vibes too for the majority of the stage themes, with a fun accapella rendition of the Super Mario theme for those abstract platform stages and a heart pumping electronic version of the dungeon theme whenever you have to chase "Shadow Mario".
Overall, graphics and music are amazing, the actual gameplay is fun with bursts of anger-inducing frustration, and the sound design with the "game over" theme and Mario's pain noises cab go fuck themselves. Looking forward to play the new release of Super Mario 3D World and Bowser's Fury next.