First, I personally adore the FLUDD mechanic and all it's different nozzles. I love not only how each nozzle functions mechanically(some nozzles admittedly being more useful then others via the main episodes), but view FLUDD as a whole as a wonderfully creative gameplay mechanic. I'm on the side that not only welcomes FLUDD, but feel it's a awesome progression/improvement on Marios 64 moveset as unpopular as that may be to say.

Also contrary to what I weirdly see often said(or at least as of late), but Mario himself has never controlled more snappy and responsive, I feel he controls EXTREMELY better then in 64, and I understand why Galaxy was more stiff/weighted with its controls, but none the less feel Mario has never controlled better then in Sunshine. However, Odyssey maybe the best Marios controlled overall(and maybe best moveset), but I feel in Sunshine Mario feels a bit more "electric", I'm unsure quite how to describe it, but Mario feels INCREDIBLY acrobatic in this game(more then he usually is), he feels he runs faster/can get more natural momentum(especially via fludd) then in any other game, he feels he jumps higher examples being his triple jump which feels like it has an extra oomph (jump height + foward momentum) compared to his other 3D titles, his backflip also personally feels more satisfying to pull off then any other entry. His slide/water slide is incredibly fun and amazing for getting speed/travelling in more open areas. Personally Sunshine is tied for my favorite controls/move set in any Mario game.

As for the games setting, Isle Delfino is by far to this day still my favorite hub world in the series, heck it may be my favorite hub world in 3D platformers as a whole. Incredibly, vibrant, creative, and most important of all, fun to explore around. You can start the game doing by simply wondering around Isle Delfino completing missions/getting shine sprites without even entering the first world of the game. Heck even after completing the game, Isle Delfino is simply a blast to run around in like a mad man, this is helped of course by the different FLUDD nozzles, making the mindless traversing all the more entertaining. Seeing the Island progressively get brighter and brighter the more shines/episodes you complete is incredible.

As an avid fan of 3D collectathons, he blue coins as a whole really didn't personally bother me truthfully. The scavenger hunt for these coins scratched that collectathon itch, and felt satisfying to get...However I do feel some of the locations these blue coins were placed in(some in particular episodes), are a bit strange/dumb, and I can definitely see this can make those seeking to 100% the game quite annoyed, this certainly doesn't affect me as I see it detrimentally affect others, but I can see how annoying many of these blue coin placements can be for first time players.

The games structure is more linear compared to 64, also the game requiring you do every episode 7 of each world to unlock the final level, but you can of course unlock multiple worlds all at once and doing the episodes from each world as you please, feel like taking a break from Gelato Beach? Well, try to take a break in Pinna Park and do an episode there.

The worlds themselves are all great, despite all having the core theme of being "tropical" in some form, they all make themselves unique, and are visual spectacles. Noki Bay, Pianta Village, Pinna Park, all these levels are still beautiful to look at, and again, incredibly creative. While I adored a lot of levels from Mario 64 such as Hazy Maze Cave, Lethal Lava, Big Boos Haunt, and Tall Tall Mountain, I found the rest of the worlds in 64 leaving a lot to be desired on multiple aspects. I feel Sunshines weakest locations are far stronger then 64s weakest, and find it's best locations as great if not personally more enjoyable. Like 64, there are particular episodes that can be quite annoying/irritating, Gelato Beach and Sirena Beach being home to some infamous episodes.

Another complaint I notice is the obvious Shadow Mario stages, I found myself frustrated in some of the later occurrences of this type of level, but in the end I could only be mad at myself, very rarely have I ever felt a death in any of these levels was the games fault or atrocious level design, I find a majority of the Shadow Mario stages a fun and admittedly difficult at times, though I wouldn't categorize them as anything to ride home about.

In the end, from controls, bosses/boss design, levels/level design, visuals, enemies, core gameplay mechanics, etc. I found this to be a phenomenal successor to what came before it, personally, this game improved on almost about every aspect. I'll say while the soundtrack is great, I felt myself listening back more on 64s then this game, but that may be nostalgia, either way both have phenomenal OSTs. Great/Underrated game imo.

Honestly, what ultimately holds me back from rating this any higher comes down to how incredibly short/how little it has to offer, a racing game with only 5 stages. The music I adore, every track in this game is vibrant, catchy, and just good. the stages are also vibrant, and overall nicely crafted, each having decently cool branching paths (though some stages do this way better then others). The coins/emerald collectables are a decent completion reward, and the roster is pretty diverse. The roster is definitely super unbalanced stat wise, Super Sonic is to overpowered, along with Metal Knuckles, and characters like Amy, Egg Robo, and Tails Doll are far to weak/slow to compete. The controls contrary to popular belief are fine(I'm playing on the Sonic Gems Collection so that might be why I differ) and can be pretty fun depending on the character you pick, double jumping with Sonic, flying with Tails, gliding with Knuckles, all feel good and certain characters like Metal Sonic can hop repeatedly on water, while some characters will drown. Each character has stats and attributes unique to them(for the most part). The side modes like the tag, or balloon hunting seem like they can be ok fun with 4 friends, and the varied weather/atmospheric effects that change the environment/certain effects of the stages is personally really awesome, but aside from that my main gripe is really how tiny this game is, would have been grateful for at least 10 stages and the obvious character balance. Aside from these gripes this is a pretty well put together game with so much missed potential imo.

I initially played this years ago, enjoyed it for the surreal and unusual experience it was, then moved on. I never really delved in passed a few dream days, now I decided to revisit this title properly. As a disclaimer I'm not really sure what rating to give this game, I initially gave it 3/5 but I'm not to confident in this rating, frankly I'm not to sure exactly what to rate this "game", as many know this is more of an "abstract art fever dream simulator" rather then a game, after all this was the intention of the main creator/devs of this title, and depending on how you view this aspect/intention of the devs, it can affect how you rate/view the title as a whole. Either you get what they were going for, or you don't. And like almost anything in media, it's not for everyone, which is fine.

The core mechanics consist of simply exploring the dreamscape. Either walking/or running through different bizarre locations, and sometimes interacting with weird NPCs/Objects via the Circle button. And also at the end of each dream is a grid which decides weather your dream was a "upper", "downer", "static", or "dynamic" dream. As far as I'm aware I'm not to sure what decides these things but I'm sure there's people out there who know why the grid decides what your dream was. There's no end goal besides I suppose reaching 365 days and getting the strange end cutscene. As far as gameplay mechanics this is about it.

When I first played this years ago, the initial days I played were for sure strange and weird, but after a bit I visited most of the locations the game had to offer and simply stopped. Personally, a mistake on my part, one of the main things about this game is the longer you play, the weirder and weirder the dreams get, the more bizarre the NPCs get, the more corrupt the worlds become. This is the perfect game to experience alone AND with a friend, seeing the reaction of someone on how incredibly offbeat the game starts becoming (if it already wasn't offbeat from the start), is a treat. The peculiar, and at times INCREDIBLY ambient music, also makes the experience all the more intriguing. The longer you go on, the more randomized events start to pop up, you might randomly see a weird/cryptic quote about a cat with a disturbingly robotic tone, and that will count as a whole day/dream. Or you might see the locations that are familiar to you growing increasingly more distorted, textures in places they seemingly shouldn't be, NPCs doing who knows what, etc. You might randomly see a cutscene of a plane calmly traversing the sky, a car driving on the road and crashing itself into the ocean, a farris wheel that (if interacted with) you can ride, along so many more uncanny, surreal and occasionally creepy/unsettling events that can transpire.

If I understand correctly, whenever you interact(/run into) with something or someone, you are often transitioned to the next random area, sometimes when you are transitioned you see a white transition screen, which is a neutral link, when you see a red screen transition, it represent a nightmare or negative link, a blue being a positive link, and I'm unsure what cyan, pink, or yellow represent nor am I sure what in the algorithm determines how the game decides these transitions, but that simply adds to the mystery of this title, I THINK they help determine where you land on the grid at the end of a dream, but I could be mistaken.

And a pretty important mechanic I have yet to speak on, is the incredibly mysterious/stress inducing Grey Man. He is the closest thing this game had to an "antagonist" and I can see why many say this. He will occasionally appear on certain day/locations and when you see him he will follow you, if he gets to you, he will erase your ability to "flashback" on a certain day/dream. It's best to run away as soon as you see him(as most do), sometimes if you were already running he appears right in front of you and due to the controls you can't turn around in time which can get a little annoying, but I think that can emphasize to the player not to be running all the time, simply incentivizing to merely walk, and truly take in/explore every detail of each location, also promoting the player to catch new NPCs/events that were not previously there.

The Gray Man, and MANY more elements of this game, if not the whole game all together, are all oozing with much speculation/fan theories. Supposedly the creator intended that there are no hidden meanings to anything, no hidden story elements, etc. But that certainly hasn't stopped the community, in fact many of the theories this game has are quite intriguing and somewhat make sense. I won't delve into them, but for the Gray Man for instance, there's been theories of him an Alien who's probing your mind/dreams, or That he's a murderer, or he's the result of the player trying to suppress bad memories, upon many more theories for him alone.

There is SO much more to delve into on theories alone, this is an aspect that personally enhances this experience, whether any of is true or not, I feel it may add "reason" to an otherwise strange, bizarre, and sometimes disturbing abstract experience. as most things there's so much more to discuss, but this was my experience with the game. If you're not boring, I definitely recommend this title, or at the very least, play through the first 20 or so days. But once again, this isn't for everyone.

If anyone cares, here's some moments of me playing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpmZF7AwErI