...yeah, summer, sanitation, clever segue, Super Mario Sunshine. Here we are.
Mario has come up a couple of times on my blog. The game of his that is and will always be the closest to my heart is Yoshi's Island because of the connections to my childhood: particularly how my mother used to play it for me when I was ill or sometimes just because. It is one of the key events that got me into gaming in the first place - so thanks, Mom!
Of course, there are more Mario games out there than there are clouds in the sky. There are the main series games, there's the Paper Mario series, the Mario Kart series, the Mario Party series, the list stretches on into infinity...namely because Nintendo really knows how to milk a franchise dry.
See also, Pokemon.
Super Mario Sunshine is the first Mario game that I played at length and completely on my own, and sadly never finished when I was a kid. So after letting my GameCube fester away in a box for however many years until I dug it out and hooked it back up to do my review of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy last time.
Also that review of The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age I did even longer ago, but I didn't even remember that until I looked it up.
So my earlier joke about sanitation comes into play with a double meaning for once with Mario. As we know, with Mario being the Italian plumber that has somehow become the go-to person to save the monarch of a Kingdom of questionable size, Mario is indeed at least a former worker in the field of sanitation. Super Mario Sunshine goes the extra mile of upgrading Mario with...a backpack that functions as a water gun.
...let me start over.
Super Mario Sunshine begins with Mario, Princess Peach, Toadsworth, and a bunch of Toads flying to the scenic Isle Delfino for a well-deserved vacation with the promise of sun, sand, and succulent sea food. When they arrive, however, it seems that someone who looks suspiciously like Mario has been polluting the island with a strange, paint-like substance. On the airstrip, Mario makes the acquaintance of F.L.U.D.D., or Flash Liquidizing Ultra Dousing Device. Made by Professor E. Gadd of Luigi's Mansion fame (I'll get to it at some point), it is...well, it's a high-powered backpack that stores water and sprays it out via a series of different nozzles that Mario can equip to it.
Mario controls pretty much like he does in every other 3-D game. "A" jumps, the player moves with the control stick, and F.L.U.D.D. allows Mario to shoot water at a target with the right trigger while aiming with the control stick. Standard stuff, though the 3-D perspective always messes me up when I play Mario games for some reason. Something about the 2-D simplicity of the earlier games appeals to me more than the newer ones.
Getting back to the plot, Mario assists in taking out an ink Piranha plant with F.L.U.D.D.'s help and promptly gets arrested and put on trial. It seems that the people of Isle Delfino think that Mario is behind all of this, given that that said someone who looks suspiciously like Mario has been polluting the island. Of course, the fact that Mario just arrived to the island doesn't enter their heads at any point or we may just not have a plot.
You also might think that the detainment of one of their greatest heroes might start...oh, I don't know, some kind of military conflict where the Mushroom Kingdom invades Isle Delfino or something of the like, but you're forgetting that Mario is the only one capable of doing anything and he's the one being detained so...yeah, that's not happening. It definitely would have upped the entertainment factor at least for me.
And so, Mario goes through several different hub worlds in a way that will be ripped off pretty much note for note by a certain Rare game that I cannot mention without screaming in rage for 20 minutes, so I'll avoid mentioning it. Instead of stars, Mario collects "Shine Sprites", which serve essentially the same function although without the added bonus of making Mario invincible for a limited time. However, they are "the source of power on Isle Delfino" and thus very important to the people who live there.
To the point where they control the very weather, their absence making the sun go from sunny to not really sunny over the Plaza and makes the leaf-headed people of Isle Delfino a little depressed, but otherwise doesn't seem to affect them all that much.
Clearly, this is a travesty that must be righted!
I joke, but there's really no particular urgency to get a hold of them. Peach doesn't even get kidnapped properly until later in the plot by the evil Mario, or shall I call him Bowser, Jr. as that is who he is. Far from being one of Bowser's 800 illegitimate children as seen in other games. In fact, they don't even get mentioned, which kind of makes Bowser look like a hilariously inept father beyond the whole using them as child soldiers against Mario thing.
...actually, I think I get why they don't get mentioned.
Also, Bowser, Jr. insists that Peach is his mother. Despite him saying at the end that he knows that she isn't...Peach never actually denies this claims.
I think we know where the 800 illegitimate children came from...
Other that, besides following on from the Super Mario 64 model of a hub world leading into several different other worlds, Super Mario Sunshine plays out pretty much like every other main series Mario game plays. Go through worlds, find item "x", defeat Bowser in a final boss battle that is hard to get to, but surprisingly easy once you actually do it.
Jokes aside about a certain pandemic going on at the time of this writing - Corona Mountain and it's bullshit lava boat section can go straight to Hell! The 3-D perspective is a little wonky to the uninitiated, being that this was Mario's second jaunt through 3-D after Super Mario 64, and aim is definitely a friend you need to get through the jump puzzle leading into the final battle against Bowser and Bowser, Jr. that is, as I mentioned before, surprisingly easy.
Other than that, there really isn't much to say. It's a Mario game with a gimmick added on. Apart from that, it has all the hallmarks of a Mario game so as to not have anything be too different. Remember, Nintendo likes to milk their cash cows!
That's basically it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some sunshine to catch...
Super Mario Sunshine is brought to us by Nintendo, originally for the GameCube.
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