- Pronouns
- She/Her
So I managed to get my hands on Super Mario 3D All-Stars a while back. I’ve replayed Galaxy to death already, but loved being back with it again due to how gorgeous it is in HD. I liked, as always, to revisit 64 - But it was Sunshine that ultimately was drawing me to the purchase, being a game I have fond memories of, and a game I haven’t touched since 2009. Going back in, it’s been a great time, and I figured it’d be fun to do a little RTTP writeup.
The GameCube era of Nintendo was truly the era of quirky experimentation. They had bunch of excellent games to follow up on - Super Metroid, Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time.. How on earth do you push those three series to the next level after that? It had to be a real head-scratcher over at Nintendo. They did more or less succeed with Metroid, handing the reins over to Retro Studios who returned with the stellar Metroid Prime. Zelda received something vastly different but refreshing in The Wind Waker. But for Mario? They sent him on a vacation.
And what a vacation it is. Super Mario Sunshine is a game responsible for flight ticket cancellations. Why go anywhere, when you can go to Isle Delfino?
Sunshine opens up with a cutscene. Yes, a cutscene! A real deal story in Mario? Call the Pianta cops! But I really think it does work. In all of its elegant quirk and graceful goof, it’s something I really think adds flavor to Sunshine, makes it distinct. It’s corny and cute. I’m all in. The story introduces us to Shadow Mario, and the premise that Shadow Mario has cluttered the island with goop, and that it’s Mario’s job to use the device called Fludd to clean the island of said goop, since people think he did it, and not Shadow Mario. He’s innocent, but the court doesn’t believe him. Sunshine essentially makes a video game out of a crime punishment. It’s genius.
The game introduces us to the hub world of Delfino Plaza, and shortly afterwards the first level, Bianco Hills. Let’s start with Fludd, the place where the game begins and ends. The mechanics, the momentum and the level design of the game lives and dies wih this little fella. I love Fludd, and therefore I love Sunshine. There’s just no real separating the two. I think the basic moveset of Mario himself is a little bit of a downgrade from 64. The long jump is missing, and he feels a bit more skittish, and the footsteps sound effect isn’t quite as satisfying. But oh dear does Fludd make up for it. Hovering really adds a lot to the overall feel and momentum of the moveset, and makes it such a great pleasure to just move around. It’s an entirely new dimension to Mario’s arsenal. I love it.
To jump, and then to hover, just to make it to a faraway ledge is a testament to how a great platformer like Sunshine can just create joy out of the seemingly simplest tasks. And the act of movement only gets better with the addition of the nozzles - the rocket launcher in particular. I think it’s a testament to great tactile feedback when you do things in a game over and over again, just for the heck of it.
This creates such an awesome sense of place. Being this intrinsically tied to the character yo’re playing as does a lot to make the game feel immersive. The bond between player and character is something I always place great importance of when playing games. How I relate to a pre-defined character in an RPG. How I can immerse myself in a silent protagonist. But Sunshine manages to create a strong bond between me and Mario simply because it’s so much fun just being him and moving him. It helps ground me in the world and premise of Sunshine in a way I find fascinating. I just feel like I’m there, like I'm with Mario, in sync with him, tasting the hot air of Isle Delfino on my tongue.
But you can only get so far with controls in a platforming game. The amazing thing about Sunshine, though, is that it - like the best in the genre - allows the movement to go in tandem with the level design. It’s hardly noticeable, but once you really dissect it, it’s amazing how well-designed the levels are when it comes to the nitty-gritty placement of surfaces. What always amazes me about Mario’s 2D outings is that they’re built for you to make your way across, avoiding enemies and acieving power-ups in a carefully created loop. But they’re also amazingly designed for speedruns - if you just run, you can make it across at great speed if you’re skilled enough. That same sense of minutiae and careful planning when it comes to adjusting heights and distances of the surfaces themselves is there in Sunshine once you stop and actually consider it.
Every time I jumped off a rooftop in the Plaza and hovered, I just barely made it to the next rooftop. When I jumped and then hovered between the ledges of Ricco Harbor, I started to notice how I, again, always made it. The height of the houses in Bianco Hills, the way you can land on the pirate ships in Pinna Park .. It’s like everything in the game, despite its conventional layout, still manages to excel as a platformer simply because it does an amazing job when spacing out its actual platforms.
This is doubly true for the ”secret” levels, where Mario are stripped of Fludd and forced to rely on foot-only movement to make it across more abstract challenges. I think they are essential to the game, and a more than necessary variation to the free-form exploration of the standard levels. I think they are almost all excellent, and great fun and challenging to navigate. It’s something you do with your tongue between your teeth, another thing I consider a sign of great platforming design.
What does let me down, though, is the absence of the long jump, which makes Mario, when not aided by Fludd, feel slightly kneecapped compared to 64. Sunshine may have the single greatest movement in all of Mario - spraying water in front of you, tossing yourself into the water and then slide at great speed with the added momentum - but the absence of the long jump feels like an unnecessary removal. It would make the secret levels all the more fun and varied, had they been designed with the long jump in mind, and it would make traversal in general feel even more fun.
The levels are eight in number (because we do count the Plaza) but they are huge. They’re quality over quantity. I love Bianco Hills, it’s a great starter area and a playground for the player to get used to the Fludd mechanics. Ricco Harbor and Pinna Park are amazing places to jump around in. Same goes for Noki Bay, and I really dig how Sirena Beach is the game’s answer to a ghost house. Pianta Village may be the odd one out, its missions mostly concerend with menial tasks rather than Shines that yield themselves to you as a reward for exploration and overcoming challenges. Then there’s the Plaza itself, half hub world and half a level in and of itself with hidden Shines and fruits to swallow with Yoshi. One thing I don’t really like is how the Plaza is all dark in the beginning of the game, and doesn’t really light up until you’ve gathered 40-50 Shines. I think this deincentivizes exploration in the Plaza, since navigating it when it looks glooming and dark isn’t that much fun.
There's also the inclusion of the blue coins. Since the levels are so huge and open, I think it’s essential to the design to offer the player incentives to go off the beaten path, and that’s what the blue coins are there for. I love going into Pinna Park for a mission, and then find myself hunting down blue coins instead, at my own leisure, creating my own little side adventure. And they still count for something, since the nozzles are still locked behind set number of Shines, like the keys in 64 are. What nobody likes about the coins, though, is how incredibly obtuse some of the locations are. If I recall correctly, there are some enemies that only have a Blue Coin in them in one mission, and not in the others, and I think that holds true for some "M" sign as well. I’ll admit - as anyone should - that this is a significant flaw of the game.
The missions in Sunshine are eight per level in the seven main levels. They’re not all amazing, but I think those who really encourages exploring the levels and tackle challenges - red coin ones in particular - are excellent. The game makes room for some great boss battles, as well as more odd Shines that are there for variation, like the Il Piantissimo races. What separates Sunshine from its other 3D contemporaries in the series is that you’re required to invest equal amounts of time in every level - the final boss doesn’t unlock until you’ve beaten the seventh Shine in every level. I like this, it might come off as trite, as it makes some less fun missions ”mandatory”, but I personally didn’t mind that, and I liked feeling like I had to invest an equal amount of time in every level.
Here’s some of my favorite missions - sorry for the names slipping my mind:
* Bianco Hills 8 - As mentioned, the eight coins missions are the best in the game in the way that they invite exploration in such a good way. In Bianco Hills, you have to gather them high up in the sky, while bouncing on ropes.
* Ricco Harbor 3 - Ricco Harbor is my favorite level, and this one, where you have to make your way to the top of the level for a caged Shine, is an amazing exercise in platforming.
* Noki Bay 5 - My favorite ”the secret of” level. Extremely well designed and challenging.
* Sirena Beach 3 - As mentioned, I love the ”ghost house” nature of Hotel Delfino. This one, where you have to navigate the mysterious hotel for a pineapple for Yoshi, makes you think as you twist your way through various hidden passageways.
All in all, I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed revisiting Sunshine this time around. It’s an amazing game, essential to the more offbeat side of Nintendo’s portfolio, and one that truly stands on its own weird feet between 64 and Galaxy. I think the more grounded, ”realistic” approach to world building is refreshing in the context of a series that usually relies on surrealism, and it amazed me how little it gets in the way of the actual level design. I come from the game with three irks, the missing long jump, the Plaza being convered in shadow in the beginning and some of the more obtuse blue coin locations. But aside from a few frustrating missions, I love everything else in the game a lot. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had just controlling Mario, it’s among the closest games have ever come to portray the feeling of vacation, and it has chucksters.
The GameCube era of Nintendo was truly the era of quirky experimentation. One such experiment was to send its biggest star to a remote island just to see what happened. And what happened was nothing other than an explosion of pure joy.
The GameCube era of Nintendo was truly the era of quirky experimentation. They had bunch of excellent games to follow up on - Super Metroid, Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time.. How on earth do you push those three series to the next level after that? It had to be a real head-scratcher over at Nintendo. They did more or less succeed with Metroid, handing the reins over to Retro Studios who returned with the stellar Metroid Prime. Zelda received something vastly different but refreshing in The Wind Waker. But for Mario? They sent him on a vacation.
And what a vacation it is. Super Mario Sunshine is a game responsible for flight ticket cancellations. Why go anywhere, when you can go to Isle Delfino?
Sunshine opens up with a cutscene. Yes, a cutscene! A real deal story in Mario? Call the Pianta cops! But I really think it does work. In all of its elegant quirk and graceful goof, it’s something I really think adds flavor to Sunshine, makes it distinct. It’s corny and cute. I’m all in. The story introduces us to Shadow Mario, and the premise that Shadow Mario has cluttered the island with goop, and that it’s Mario’s job to use the device called Fludd to clean the island of said goop, since people think he did it, and not Shadow Mario. He’s innocent, but the court doesn’t believe him. Sunshine essentially makes a video game out of a crime punishment. It’s genius.
The game introduces us to the hub world of Delfino Plaza, and shortly afterwards the first level, Bianco Hills. Let’s start with Fludd, the place where the game begins and ends. The mechanics, the momentum and the level design of the game lives and dies wih this little fella. I love Fludd, and therefore I love Sunshine. There’s just no real separating the two. I think the basic moveset of Mario himself is a little bit of a downgrade from 64. The long jump is missing, and he feels a bit more skittish, and the footsteps sound effect isn’t quite as satisfying. But oh dear does Fludd make up for it. Hovering really adds a lot to the overall feel and momentum of the moveset, and makes it such a great pleasure to just move around. It’s an entirely new dimension to Mario’s arsenal. I love it.
To jump, and then to hover, just to make it to a faraway ledge is a testament to how a great platformer like Sunshine can just create joy out of the seemingly simplest tasks. And the act of movement only gets better with the addition of the nozzles - the rocket launcher in particular. I think it’s a testament to great tactile feedback when you do things in a game over and over again, just for the heck of it.
This creates such an awesome sense of place. Being this intrinsically tied to the character yo’re playing as does a lot to make the game feel immersive. The bond between player and character is something I always place great importance of when playing games. How I relate to a pre-defined character in an RPG. How I can immerse myself in a silent protagonist. But Sunshine manages to create a strong bond between me and Mario simply because it’s so much fun just being him and moving him. It helps ground me in the world and premise of Sunshine in a way I find fascinating. I just feel like I’m there, like I'm with Mario, in sync with him, tasting the hot air of Isle Delfino on my tongue.
But you can only get so far with controls in a platforming game. The amazing thing about Sunshine, though, is that it - like the best in the genre - allows the movement to go in tandem with the level design. It’s hardly noticeable, but once you really dissect it, it’s amazing how well-designed the levels are when it comes to the nitty-gritty placement of surfaces. What always amazes me about Mario’s 2D outings is that they’re built for you to make your way across, avoiding enemies and acieving power-ups in a carefully created loop. But they’re also amazingly designed for speedruns - if you just run, you can make it across at great speed if you’re skilled enough. That same sense of minutiae and careful planning when it comes to adjusting heights and distances of the surfaces themselves is there in Sunshine once you stop and actually consider it.
Every time I jumped off a rooftop in the Plaza and hovered, I just barely made it to the next rooftop. When I jumped and then hovered between the ledges of Ricco Harbor, I started to notice how I, again, always made it. The height of the houses in Bianco Hills, the way you can land on the pirate ships in Pinna Park .. It’s like everything in the game, despite its conventional layout, still manages to excel as a platformer simply because it does an amazing job when spacing out its actual platforms.
This is doubly true for the ”secret” levels, where Mario are stripped of Fludd and forced to rely on foot-only movement to make it across more abstract challenges. I think they are essential to the game, and a more than necessary variation to the free-form exploration of the standard levels. I think they are almost all excellent, and great fun and challenging to navigate. It’s something you do with your tongue between your teeth, another thing I consider a sign of great platforming design.
What does let me down, though, is the absence of the long jump, which makes Mario, when not aided by Fludd, feel slightly kneecapped compared to 64. Sunshine may have the single greatest movement in all of Mario - spraying water in front of you, tossing yourself into the water and then slide at great speed with the added momentum - but the absence of the long jump feels like an unnecessary removal. It would make the secret levels all the more fun and varied, had they been designed with the long jump in mind, and it would make traversal in general feel even more fun.
The levels are eight in number (because we do count the Plaza) but they are huge. They’re quality over quantity. I love Bianco Hills, it’s a great starter area and a playground for the player to get used to the Fludd mechanics. Ricco Harbor and Pinna Park are amazing places to jump around in. Same goes for Noki Bay, and I really dig how Sirena Beach is the game’s answer to a ghost house. Pianta Village may be the odd one out, its missions mostly concerend with menial tasks rather than Shines that yield themselves to you as a reward for exploration and overcoming challenges. Then there’s the Plaza itself, half hub world and half a level in and of itself with hidden Shines and fruits to swallow with Yoshi. One thing I don’t really like is how the Plaza is all dark in the beginning of the game, and doesn’t really light up until you’ve gathered 40-50 Shines. I think this deincentivizes exploration in the Plaza, since navigating it when it looks glooming and dark isn’t that much fun.
There's also the inclusion of the blue coins. Since the levels are so huge and open, I think it’s essential to the design to offer the player incentives to go off the beaten path, and that’s what the blue coins are there for. I love going into Pinna Park for a mission, and then find myself hunting down blue coins instead, at my own leisure, creating my own little side adventure. And they still count for something, since the nozzles are still locked behind set number of Shines, like the keys in 64 are. What nobody likes about the coins, though, is how incredibly obtuse some of the locations are. If I recall correctly, there are some enemies that only have a Blue Coin in them in one mission, and not in the others, and I think that holds true for some "M" sign as well. I’ll admit - as anyone should - that this is a significant flaw of the game.
The missions in Sunshine are eight per level in the seven main levels. They’re not all amazing, but I think those who really encourages exploring the levels and tackle challenges - red coin ones in particular - are excellent. The game makes room for some great boss battles, as well as more odd Shines that are there for variation, like the Il Piantissimo races. What separates Sunshine from its other 3D contemporaries in the series is that you’re required to invest equal amounts of time in every level - the final boss doesn’t unlock until you’ve beaten the seventh Shine in every level. I like this, it might come off as trite, as it makes some less fun missions ”mandatory”, but I personally didn’t mind that, and I liked feeling like I had to invest an equal amount of time in every level.
Here’s some of my favorite missions - sorry for the names slipping my mind:
* Bianco Hills 8 - As mentioned, the eight coins missions are the best in the game in the way that they invite exploration in such a good way. In Bianco Hills, you have to gather them high up in the sky, while bouncing on ropes.
* Ricco Harbor 3 - Ricco Harbor is my favorite level, and this one, where you have to make your way to the top of the level for a caged Shine, is an amazing exercise in platforming.
* Noki Bay 5 - My favorite ”the secret of” level. Extremely well designed and challenging.
* Sirena Beach 3 - As mentioned, I love the ”ghost house” nature of Hotel Delfino. This one, where you have to navigate the mysterious hotel for a pineapple for Yoshi, makes you think as you twist your way through various hidden passageways.
All in all, I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed revisiting Sunshine this time around. It’s an amazing game, essential to the more offbeat side of Nintendo’s portfolio, and one that truly stands on its own weird feet between 64 and Galaxy. I think the more grounded, ”realistic” approach to world building is refreshing in the context of a series that usually relies on surrealism, and it amazed me how little it gets in the way of the actual level design. I come from the game with three irks, the missing long jump, the Plaza being convered in shadow in the beginning and some of the more obtuse blue coin locations. But aside from a few frustrating missions, I love everything else in the game a lot. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had just controlling Mario, it’s among the closest games have ever come to portray the feeling of vacation, and it has chucksters.
The GameCube era of Nintendo was truly the era of quirky experimentation. One such experiment was to send its biggest star to a remote island just to see what happened. And what happened was nothing other than an explosion of pure joy.