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[Hero]

Great game. Definitely underappreciated.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

The game got great reviews. Unfortunately, it's a bore, so people who play a lot of games (like around this board) tend not to appreciate it that much unless their backing a program. Viva le resistance.

 

[Wellington]

Insommiac and Naughty Dog still have some things to learn about intricate character interactions with the environment, though Naughty Dog much less so than "ice skating" Rachet.

What? If anything I'd argue that his lack of mementum makes him too easy to stop and turn on a dime. Last ice-skatey platformer I remember playing was Crash: Warped.

I'll break down exactly what I don't like about SMS just like I broke it down for Gaime the other day. As the game progressed in the early stages and I was doing something new with each shine, I was totally engrossed. If Socreges remembers he can back me up. Pulled almost a full 180 near end game though. :/

SMS had 120 shines. SM64 had 120 stars. SMS has 9 levels and the hub. SM64 had 15 levels and the hub. SMS had 8 objective shines per level, 1 100 coin shine, and maybe one or two secret shines per level, and the rest were from the hub and blue coins. SM64 had 6 objective stars per level, the 100 coin star, and 15 hub stars.

It's simple math, the levels had to be revisited so often in SMS it just really wore me out and started boring me, let alone the fact that the levels weren't great to begin with. And add to that the blue coins which were given for pretty much arbitrarily spraying random objects, it's easy to see why I really just fell way out of love with the game. an extra level or two would have totally made the difference.

 

[boutrosinit]

I don't know about you but I get the impression that SMS can be labeled as an underrated game. It didn't achieve the usual mario AAA reviews, and Sunshine was critisized of not being revolutionary. It's said it was too similar to Mario 64, and that the waterpack was a gimmick.

The controls are great, the graphics and music are okay, and if you are looking to collect all shines you are in for it.

Biggest problem with SMS as I see it is that the level design is very uneven. Some levels are great, while others are just ok. The theme park level is a standout!

Mate. To be honest, the level design and elements of the oevrall design in places was fucking attrocious. Whatever fool came up with the 'If Yoshi touch water, he dead' idea was an ass. The yoshi levels ended up becoming an exercise in frustration and with the moody camera doing it's own thing, you could compound that frustration into a ball of rage.

I guess I'm simply not that forgiving.

Also SMS didn't have the logic or intuitive puzzle design of previous Mario games. I loved the ghost house, but who would've figured out that you had to jump through the ceiling unless they'd played tonnes of other games previously. And what the hell was up with that dumb 'you need Yoshi to eat the fruit out of the blocked pipe' puzzle. Mario could lift fruit three seconds ago, why do I need Yoshi now? It clearly wasn't a Miyamoto game. And the coin collectathon was vintage rareware - hardly rewarding and mostly a chore, with coins hidden in stupid places like sign-posts.

Honestly. One of Nintendo's weakest AAA titles. I'm surprised they'd be all precious about Mario 128, when they'd let out a game so broken like this. It would make a good RARE game, but as a Nintendo game? No chance.

 

[DDayton]

I think SMS's biggest problem was the forced level progression... Super Mario 64 handled things a lot better, with lots of "optional" levels and the ability to skip around. Super Mario Sunshine required you to complete a world's levels in a specific order, and required you to beat the first 8 levels of ALL the worlds in order to beat the game. These two things made the game a LOT more linear and helped turn people off to the game.

I'll admit that I found the first 30% of the game great, the second 30% good, the next 20% so so, and I haven't even bothered to attempt the remaining blue coin challenges yet.

If SMS had handled boss/stage areas more like Super Mario 64 (gathering X number of shines to progress, as opposed to beating all the levels in an area) and had allowed you to attack a world's shines in any order (allowing folks to skip annoying or more difficulty levels), the game might have had a shorter "first play", but I think the replay would have been appreciated. As it is, few people want to TOUCH the game again after making their way to Bowser.

 

[Jak140]

SMS is he best game this generation, IMO. The level of interactivity it allows is pretty much unprecedented, and it's by far the most fun game I've played in years.

 

[TekunoRobby]

I'd like to add my vote for the "Love Mario Sunshine" category.

No this game wasn't a work of Nintendo brilliance (aside from the very clever water mechanic) and no I don't beleive it to be comparable to Mario64. What you have is an excellent peice of software that is just a hair away from utter greatness.

 

[Teddman]

SMS is he best game this generation, IMO. The level of interactivity it allows is pretty much unprecedented, and it's by far the most fun game I've played in years.

Do you by any chance work for Babel Media?

 

[Socreges]

By who? And relative to what?

SMS is an excellent game. Maybe my favourite game so far on the GC. But I find it difficult to then say that everyone else is "underrating" it as a result. Depends on what you're looking for and how critical you choose to be of certain aspects.

 

[evilromero]

I enjoyed Mario Sunshine very much. It was the kinda game you're up till 3am everynight for a week playing trying to get in extra time while your girlfriend is at school or work. It is one of my most played games this gen. I don't really think it is underrated by popular media, but I think it is kinda abused on boards like these by a greater audience.

 

[ruffles]

I lost my copy.

 

[Dr.Guru of Peru]

Yeah, the game has flaws. But the more I play it, the more it growns on me. Its bumped a couple games off my list of best games this generation recently.

 

[COCKLES]

It's good fun, but not the second coming of Christ that many hoped for.

Sadly not every console can host a game as great as Halo.

 

[8bit]

Heh, try as I might, I just can't get into Halo. I must be a devil worshipper or something.

 

[Insertia]

SMS had a lot to live up to, and it wasn't able to. For me it's proof that reviewers will inflate the score of a terribly average platformer if it has Mario in it. The game isn't worthy of it's averaged 9.2. Had it come from Acclaim, and featured a lame mouse mascot in place of Mario, it would have received average scores across the board.

EGM lost all creditbility when they gave this nearly perfect 10's, and at the end of the year ,after the backlash, say it was one of the years most disappointing games.
Biased bastards...

 

[Red Dolphin]

I freaking hate the haunted hotel level though.

IAWTP. Such a chore the ENTIRE level. Only good thing about that level was the beautiful sunset outside the house!

I think SMS's biggest problem was the forced level progression... Super Mario 64 handled things a lot better, with lots of "optional" levels and the ability to skip around. Super Mario Sunshine required you to complete a world's levels in a specific order, and required you to beat the first 8 levels of ALL the worlds in order to beat the game. These two things made the game a LOT more linear and helped turn people off to the game.

I'll admit that I found the first 30% of the game great, the second 30% good, the next 20% so so, and I haven't even bothered to attempt the remaining blue coin challenges yet.

If SMS had handled boss/stage areas more like Super Mario 64 (gathering X number of shines to progress, as opposed to beating all the levels in an area) and had allowed you to attack a world's shines in any order (allowing folks to skip annoying or more difficulty levels), the game might have had a shorter "first play", but I think the replay would have been appreciated. As it is, few people want to TOUCH the game again after making their way to Bowser.

That was one of my biggest problems with the game too. The other was the lack of variety in level themes unlike Mario 64's many themes. It just allowd more variety in level design too.

I actually really enjoyed Mario's controls and the waterpack a lot. Mario's controls were just as good as Mario 64 (although I really missed the long jump). Plus those bouncy ropes were really fun.

Music sucked arse too though Mario 64 had some fantastic tracks like the Bower level music, the special cap music, water level music etc.

Those void stages ROCKED though.

 

[Dr.Guru of Peru]

say it was one of the years most disappointing games.
Biased bastards...

When did they say that?

 

[jett]

The gameplay mechanics of SMS are fucking PERFECT. Too bad the game has asstastic level design.

 

[Insertia]

When did they say that?

GOTY edition for 2002.

 

[Dr.Guru of Peru]

GOTY edition for 2002.

They gave it the Gamecube GOTY in that edition, ahead of Animal Crossing and ED.(MP was disqualified because it won overall GOTY, and was not allowed to compete in any other award).

 

[Vargas]

Super Mario Sunshine is a cool game. It just has some features that I just cannot stand. Certain shines are a chore to get, the Pachinko and Poison Water shines in particular. Then thereis Yoshi, who is the moron that decided to make Yoshi die the second he touches the water? It is like suffering from hydrophobia and living on an island.

 

[Saturnman]

Great game. Definitely underappreciated.

Calling it underappreciated is a bit of a stretch to me. It's not like the game had a unfair chance to be played by gamers. It was sort of the flagship NGC title when it was released, it was advertized heavily and it was even the pack-in game with the console for a while. It got its shot, sold enough copies to probably make a decent return for Nintendo, but it still disappointed and underwhelmed many people.

If Nintendo ends up releasing another Mario game in the future, one that actually achieves more widespread acclaim, it's unlikely the lofty claims made by some for SMS will stick.

 

[Bigfoot]

They gave it the Gamecube GOTY in that edition, ahead of Animal Crossing and ED.(MP was disqualified because it won overall GOTY, and was not allowed to compete in any other award).

Ha Ha. Insertia just got owned. SMS deserved the good scores it got, and as others have pointed out, it would probably have gotten better scores if it was made by somebody else and didn't have Mario in it. Expectations were high for this game, and some people took off points because it was just good/great, but not fantastic.

 

[psikonetik]

I love super mario sunshine, the control is just perfect.

A 9.5 for me because of the high difficulty and perhapsof the small world(of course its not small but I'd like it bigger)

 

[fart]

SMS is a great fucking game, but it just has to be the one game i forgot when i moved ://///

 

[TheGreenGiant]

IAWTP. Such a chore the ENTIRE level. Only good thing about that level was the beautiful sunset outside the house!



That was one of my biggest problems with the game too. The other was the lack of variety in level themes unlike Mario 64's many themes. It just allowd more variety in level design too.

I actually really enjoyed Mario's controls and the waterpack a lot. Mario's controls were just as good as Mario 64 (although I really missed the long jump). Plus those bouncy ropes were really fun.

Music sucked arse too though Mario 64 had some fantastic tracks like the Bower level music, the special cap music, water level music etc.

Those void stages ROCKED though.

Ahh. so the haunted house stage you guys are talking about IS HOTEL DELPHINO. Yeah.. I didn't like the running around too much but the jumping through the roof bit didn't take too much figuring but this stage had its moments

1) ghost boss who you had to

Spoiler

chuck chillies at

. Quite fun, I though
2) the cleaning bit was fun and
3) manta ray rocked. MY vote for top ten inventive boss fights this gen. Boggled my mind that they did THAT in a 3d game. You can't say Nintendo has lost their touch
4) free 2 ups everytime you come back here to rescue the 2 goop-sunk shell like creatures

 

[Memles]

Loved it, although can definitely say it was too short, and the Blue Coins were a cheap way to get to 120 Shines. But, some great experiences.

 

[Chipopo]

I'll break down exactly what I don't like about SMS just like I broke it down for Gaime the other day. As the game progressed in the early stages and I was doing something new with each shine, I was totally engrossed. If Socreges remembers he can back me up. Pulled almost a full 180 near end game though. :/

SMS had 120 shines. SM64 had 120 stars. SMS has 9 levels and the hub. SM64 had 15 levels and the hub. SMS had 8 objective shines per level, 1 100 coin shine, and maybe one or two secret shines per level, and the rest were from the hub and blue coins. SM64 had 6 objective stars per level, the 100 coin star, and 15 hub stars.

It's simple math, the levels had to be revisited so often in SMS it just really wore me out and started boring me, let alone the fact that the levels weren't great to begin with. And add to that the blue coins which were given for pretty much arbitrarily spraying random objects, it's easy to see why I really just fell way out of love with the game. an extra level or two would have totally made the difference.

Absolutely true.

 

[wipeout364]

I didn't get into it at all. The game played well but honestly the worlds and the characters are just lame. No really, I just don't dig Mario or peaches or yoshi or any of that whole scene. Part of game design nowadays is creating a world you want to spend time in on top of play mechanics, for me it is all too childish and really holds no interest. Not to disrespect anyone who likes it but it just struck me when I was reading Nintendodorks article they said they couldn't imagine playing HALO at 40, Well that's how I feel playing Mario at 30.

 

[MetatronM]

I think one of the problems with SMS is that it shows you, many times, how good the game COULD have been with the "Secret" levels. I think it's very telling of everything that is wrong with the rest of the game when the traditional, no-nonsense, pure platforming, abstract stages with the real Mario theme music are BY FAR the best thing about the game. Those stages cut the bullshit, dropped the gimmick, dropped the Sunshiny vacation element and just got down to business, and they were infinitely superior to the rest of the game.

Which is not to say the rest of the game was bad. But by Mario standards, it was a pretty poor showing.

 

[Ranger X]

Mario Sunshine never got my full attention. Controls are great and also some gameplay elements and parts of some levels but hey, it's OVERrated IMO. Graphics are nothing more than ok (except the incredible water), the sound is so-so, levels are asstastic for most of them (those little pure platforming bonus levels are total joy though). I've never had a good feel with Mario and the water thingny. It always make me feel i'm weak and NEED a fucking mechanical accessory to succeed.... Mario is not like that...

 

[Gattsu25]

I enjoyed playing SMS which automatically makes it better than Mario 64, in my eyes

 

[Red Dolphin]

I think one of the problems with SMS is that it shows you, many times, how good the game COULD have been with the "Secret" levels. I think it's very telling of everything that is wrong with the rest of the game when the traditional, no-nonsense, pure platforming, abstract stages with the real Mario theme music are BY FAR the best thing about the game. Those stages cut the bullshit, dropped the gimmick, dropped the Sunshiny vacation element and just got down to business, and they were infinitely superior to the rest of the game.

Which is not to say the rest of the game was bad. But by Mario standards, it was a pretty poor showing.

Weren't the majority of the secret levels left over levels from Mario 64? It would explain why they were so good