SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE
GAME CUBE
NINTENDO
**

In this adventure, Mario and the Princess are taking a tropical vacation only to find out that an evil shadow-Mario (not Wario) has been running amok tagging the whole island with his mark. Also, the island is overrun by pollution. A very cartoony pollution, that is. Since the culprit is a shadow-Mario, obviously you have been blamed for this and have to make up for it. Really the specifics don’t matter and the story itself is rather stupid. We all know Nintendo makes “kiddy” games, but they have brought it to a new extent with this game. As if Mario’s adventures weren’t cartoony enough, he has gone to a lighthearted tropical paradise, where his primary goal is to squirt water at walls to clean them off. (Yes, it is as exciting as it sounds!)
For those of you who truly appreciated Super Mario 64 (the pinnacle of truly non-linear games) some sunshine will fall upon you. The game play is identical, with the addition of the F.L.U.D.D., your multi-faceted water utility pack. Even the differences aren’t that different. Instead of collecting Stars you collect Shine Sprites (which look like little suns). The boards open the same way and you collect multiple stars (Whoops, I meant Shine Sprites) on each board, though not all from one board at a time. The game is just as sophisticated as Super Mario 64 (though hardly a platform-generation more sophisticated) and has many clever actions and feats to accomplish. If you can get by the fact that in this game you can’t even throw a fireball at a turtle like in previous Mario games, but instead spend your time squirting flowers with water and cleaning up dirt, then shine on with Super Mario Sunshine.
BT

More Reviews: Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance