Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube) > Reviews (39)

A little while ago my sons mate Ian lent us his GameCube and I fell in love....

........with a short dumpy Italian with a strange moustache!

But he belongs to another, some daft girlie looking Princess called Peach, that always seems to get in trouble by being constantly kidnapped! I don't know exactly what is going on between these two but I am jealous :oP

I spent ages with Mario, much more than she does! Finding coins, squirting baddies with water, cleaning up the places we go to and even rescuing her but do I get a thank you off this strange little bloke? You bet I don't! Not so much as a word has passed his lips... mind you he could be mumbling something under that gigantic moustache but I never hear anything... apart from the occasional "OUCH!" when things go wrong. But still I have to spend time with him, in the never ending quest for him to stop chasing after the Princess and just notice me!

The boys went off to their Dads for Easter and what was I doing... was I out on the tiles? NO! I was sitting in playing as much as I could before Mario was taken away from me! Eating pizza to keep me in the Italian mood :oP

Then the day I had been dreading came.... Ian took his GameCube back and I had to go without my daily dose. After trying to take my mind off Mario, by playing a different Mario game on my sons Nintendo 64, I found I just couldn't cope. So what could I do? I couldn't borrow Ian's again, as his Mum had dropped it down the stairs! (Don't ask!) And the one on the N64 just wasn't the same. So I went down to Woollies and got myself a GameCube complete with Super Mario Sunshine. I rushed home, set it up and switched it on.

There he was, back in my living room and I was happy again...... sad isn't it :oP

Now you have discovered what a sad person I really am, I better tell you a bit about the actual game rather than just my Mario fixation!

The Game itself.......

It is your basic run around, solve puzzles and collect things game!

There is a story. Princess Peach is off on her hols with Mario and her usual entourage of royal attendants. They fly into a beautiful sunlit tropical paradise called Isle Delfino, only to find that someone that looks like Mario has been leaving graffiti and gloop everywhere. This slightly spoils the holiday plans as Mario is thrown in jail!

Mario promises to help clean up the mess with the help of Fludd, a strange water squirter robot, that can talk and looks a bit like a duck! This stays on Mario's back throughout the game, apart from when it is stolen by the wanna be baddie see-through Mario on certain levels, (who's identity will be revealed later in the game, so I am saying nothing about who the Baddie really is) :oP

The reason the locals are so cross about the gloop that is everywhere, is that the shine sprites that keep the isle so sunny have all gone away, as they don't like the pollution (a message there if ever I heard one). So not only must Mario clean up, he must also find all the shine sprites and make the place all sunny again.

There are different area's to visit, but only after you have collect the right amount of sprites can you visit them. You start in Delfino Plaza after Mario has been let out jail. By squirting the Graffiti on the main monument you get to go to Bianco Hills. All the gateways to the different area's you visit are somewhere in the Plaza.

There are different puzzles and tasks in each area. Some harder than others, but they can be worked out eventually. For each level solved you receive a shine sprite and a bit more of the Isle gets brighter. And of course the more sprite you have the more areas you can visit :o)

Besides the puzzles and tasks there is the basic collecting coins thing:

gold coins, they are all over the place, 50 give you an extra life, 100 give you a shine sprite.
blue coins, these aren't so easy to find, 10 give you a shine sprite.
red coins, this is one of the tasks in each area, 8 give you a sprite.

You also have to clear up big gloopy messes of what looks like chocolate mouse, but I am sure they aren't, as they hurt when you get covered in them! The baddies leave these messes all over the place and if you make Mario step on it he slips over, gets all dirty and has to clean himself off with some water.

The baddies come in all shapes and forms. Some spit out the gloop, some just attack my hero for no apparent reason and some do both!

If you find a giant egg you can feed this fruit (which is either found on the ground or up trees) and this will turn into Yoshi and you can move Mario around alot quicker when he rides it.

You have a life monitor so you can see how badly Mario is doing, but coins will help top this up to full when you are running out.

You can climb trees.... and fly using the Fludds jet stream mode, so this often helps you get out of trouble, as well as letting you reach those impossibly placed coins!

Also you can swim, and often need to pop in the water just to fill up Fludd as the water supply does run out, as well as cleaning Mario off when he has got glooped!

There are sub tasks for coins on each level which can be easily missed if you just barge through and do just the task in hand and even special nozzle attachments for Fludd to make it do different things.

There are underwater things to do and underground places, that can all be reached easily but aren't always obvious, so it is best to keep an eye out for things.

I think I have covered everything!

In my opinion it is a great game to play (and I am not just saying that as I have a Mario fixation)! Even though there are some quite complex puzzles it is still suitable for all ages, with a bit of help every now and then. I can see me coming back to play this game until I have completed every single little task and then starting again once I have. Well I have to keep playing 'til he actually notices me don't I!?!

The controls are easy to master and the booklet that comes with it has clear pictures of what the buttons do and how everything works.

A highly enjoyable game, that I am so glad I got addicted too :o)

Happy playing
Sarah :o)