How could anyone not love the presentation in Sunshine? The theme is literally my favourite part about the game. I used to joke when I was younger that I would use Sunshine and Wind Waker as substitutes for vacation during the summer. Good feeling bright environments, positive characters and more made me fall in love with these games. This period in game design was amazing. The aforementioned games, Skies of Arcadia, Jet Set Radio, the list goes on. Sunshine continues to be my favourite Mario game.
I love this game. It was so different from other Mario games, even today. Probably there's a lot of nostalgia that makes me love this game, but I love the soundtrack, the levels, the gameplay. I still remember the day I first saw the game, back then with no internet. We have been in vacations in Monaco and there was a mall where I was with my brother while my parents and other adults went into the casino. In the mall, we went into the video game section and there was a trailer of the game. I instantly fell in love with this.
I can believe that Yoshi has the ability to turn into a helicopter, train, submarine or mole...tank...thing by touching a block and spit fire by eating red turtle shells but different juice is too much for my suspension of disbelief!
I'm beginning to wonder if Miyamoto has some sort of vomit fetish o_O First this, then the disturbingly high number of enemies who puke in Odyssey....you're a weird guy, Miyamoto. Weeiiirrd guy.
James Robinson Dude, he has his fingers in every single pie at Nintendo. About the only things he doesn't is the third party shovelware on the online store. It was strange working there.
this is why nitrorad is great; i could have sworn this video was only 10 minutes long. his content is just so entertaining that time literally flies by
Another reason why Nitro Rad/his review of Super Mario Sunshine is great is because when he said he would review it with an open mind, he wasn’t kidding because while he has valid reasons why this game should be given credit, he also has fair complains that make him very acknowledgeable of why it can have big problems instead of take the IGN route by making Pac-Man World 2 a 2002 home console game that while it is good, shouldn’t be more praised than another one (which would be Pac-Man World 2) for hypocritical reasons (re: criticizing PMW2 for home consoles because it can be frustrating to 100% and doesn’t have a perfect camera that shows it was made a couple decades ago, yet even though the same can apply to SMS, they would still overlook these problems in the latter in their typical closed-minded ways just to keep making Pac-Man World 2 the more underrated one out of the two without even admitting it/praising Super Mario Sunshine yet not giving Pac-Man World 2 praises unless it’s to make them sound less stronger than they actually are).
I always thought there was going to be Super Mario Sunshine 3DS, solving the problems NitroRad mentions and adding more characters like Super Mario 64 DS. Hopelly the Switch will solve that. Playing as Shadow Mario would be dope.
I still think it's funny how both Mario and Luigi use cleaning devices in their premiere GCN games. One's a vacuum cleaner and the other is essentially a glorified power washer. Mario and Luigi are literally cleaning up evil. 😁 Also I think it's cool how E. Gadd made both devices. I feel like he should have an even more prominent place in the series, I just love that little cooky inventor!
I've heard it said that Miyamoto stated that Mario Sunshine and Wind Waker are the reasons why he doesn't like deadlines for games, since apparently, these two had a two-year development cycle each, with not enough time to do all that they would have wanted, or to fix everything that could have been fixed. I think the blue coins really point those out for me. If there were two more areas in Sunshine, that would cut down the amount of blue coins by a significant chunk. Likewise, in Wind Waker, the Fire and Ice mountain stages were clearly meant to be full dungeons, but longer Triforce shard hunting was needed to help pad the run time. For me, the things this game does well, it does better than almost any Mario game. The things it doesn't do well, obviously, drag it down. I like the majority of the game, I think it does more good than bad, and the linear structure never bothered me, since most of the missions I found to be at least interesting enough to want to do (except Gelato Beach, my least favorite level). The only thing about the structure I don't like is having to do that simple 'chase Shadow Mario' thing every seventh mission. The roller coaster thing in the amusement park may be a bit tedious, but I would have preferred more encounters like that than the seventh missions that what we got. I actually don't like the FLUDD-less special stages too much. I don't know if its just me, but I always feel the depth perception is off in them, and I mis-judge jumps all the time in them, straight into the bottomless pit.
ShogunGino I would have liked Shadow Mario to be an actual threat in those sections, maybe if he had really fought back or threw paint in your way it could have been more interesting. I also think the game's plot structure is a bit off too, the Bowser Jr thing came up way too early among other things imho.
According to the Debug Level Select that you have to use a Cheat Code for, there area few unused areas that were never worked on. The list includes: Battle/Warship Island, Fire Shrine (honestly that sounds so cool!), Hotel Lacrima, Erto Rock (don't know what that's supposed to be, maybe a rock themed level like the name suggests?), and possibly another village type level. Some of these names (like Erto Rock) are probably just Japanese translations and not localizations (such as Gelato Beach being Mamma Beach in Japan). Considering how these levels were probably scrapped or simply abandonded early into development (but still, they have name slots in the debug select) you cannot select them and play them at all. Here's a video on that ua-cam.com/video/qCyzmgtRcXc/v-deo.html .
ShogunGino A remake of Sunshine for the Switch would be perfect! Nintendo could fix and tweak everything and add more content, without pressure to meet a deadline.
I disagree with the gamecube not being much for innovation, I think the gamecube was some of the weirdest times for Nintendo and stuff, with weird new ideas like luigi's mansion, sunshine, and etc. I dunno maybe I'm wrong
Agreed, I would say the Gamecube was a mix of big innovation (Metroid Prime, Pikmin, Luigi's Mansion etc) small innovation (Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Sunshine, Zelda Wind Waker) and polish (F-Zero GX, Star Fox, Paper Mario)
I have to agree about the connected world in Sunshine. One of my favorite things about Jak and Daxter was how connected the game world is, quite literally because there's zero loading. It also had that detail of putting other worlds in the background.
I've never understood what made the sandbird so bad. The only time i fall off of it is when I"m going for blue coins, and that's even on my first playthrough of the game. And that's not a skill thing, I'm pretty shit at the game, I just don't get where the sand bird gets it's infamy
The first game I ever played was Mario on the NES. It was fun, had a blast, my dad was into games back then too so he'd find all sorts of cool stuff like the infinite 1UP trick, hidden 1UPs, and he even played it with the controller upside down like a boss. Mario 2 came along and confused the hell out of me, but I enjoyed Peach's hovering. Mario 3 was... my God man, it was magical. Multiple maps I could move around on? Secrets and stuff? So cool! Super Mario World was another great step forward, really expanding on the whole map exploration thing and finding the special stages way back when felt so rewarding. But when Mario 64 came out, it rocked my eight year old world. I don't think I can properly describe it to someone who has always known 3D games, but it literally added a new dimension to gaming. Before, we had to be content with only being able to move up, down, left and right, or sometimes North, South, East and West. Sometimes we got the illusion of an open environment with first person dungeon crawlers, but even then it was heavily restricted to the cardinal directions so it may as well have been a top-down perspective. So when Mario 64 came out and plopped us in front of Peach's castle and we could actually move toward it and it would grow larger, we could jump up walls to get to higher planes if we didn't jump at the wrong angle, and we could throw things in any direction we pleased, it was like playing outside. It really did feel like going outside to play, and made the game feel much more real because we could move about in that world like we did our own. And for that, Mario 64 will always have a special place in my heart. Sunshine is still my fave 3D Mario though. Not being a completionist meant that all those blue coins could sod off, and the levels I did have trouble with weren't all that bad. I missed the long jump until I picked up FLUDD, and even when it was taken away I realized that the only thing a long jump would have added was a way to more easily make platform cycles when I was slow. To be fair I haven't played either Galaxy or Odyssey, Super Mario 3D Land felt more rewarding to collect all the stars in, and it's a ton of fun to play with friends and family in 3D World. But in terms of casual single player happy fun times, no 3D Mario comes close to Sunshine.
You should absolutely play Galaxy. It doesn't have the most varied moveset, but the level design is so good and the music is amazing. It's weirdly immersive and atmospheric for a Mario game.
Sunshine and Mario 64 are the best ever made. Sunshine was just an amazing and beautiful game. Now Mario 64 was so good to me because to me idk the game would somehow make me feel super uneasy at times especially with the music and kinda grim graphics in low lit areas.
Yeah, that's something I really hate about most fonts. Would it really have taken up that much more room just to have horizontal lines on the top and bottom of the I's?
Not gonna lie, I groaned at the thought of watching a 30 min video on a game I've already played the heck out of Yet, somehow, I was entertained the whole way through! :) Well done and nice analysis, Nitro!
"Instead of paintings, we find ourselves diving into graffiti" graffiti is kind of less formal paintings, so I like that consistency between games. It's like paint transports you to a new world, and it helped me get a better grasp of what to do going from mario 64 to sunshine. It just felt intuitive. I always just assumed it was the same magic being used between the games, like maybe bowser jr. Has the same brush wand bowser used to make the paintings into portals to collect the power stars. It all just made sense to me.
There’s also another instant death trap that I absolutely dislike. When you accidentally hit a solid object when surfing on a blooper you instantly die
I played through the game about 8 years ago and loved the "vacation" vibe. I wanted to get 100%, but unfortunately I encountered a bug where it would not count a blue coin, so I was one short.
Foster Wood i mean, i did it myself just for the fun of it. I don't 100% games just for the 30 second reward, that's retarded. I do it because I like it. even with the blue coins, this was still a pretty fun game to explore and complete personally
I’m so glad someone is sticking up for this amazing game. Personally it’s my favorite 3-D Mario and I’m sick of people only talking about the 2 or 3 janky parts. Thank you Nitro Rad, you’re a game reviewer like no other.
You're honestly my favorite video game youtuber. Your videos are always unique and interesting. I find out about so many cool games through you! This is my favorite Super Mario Sunshine review to date. I love this game so much. Keep up the good work!
You're an underrated UA-camr. Listening to you is like talking with one of the bros. Some may see it as less professional, but honestly it's refreshing as all hell to me
i love Mario Sunshine, and i love that that era of Nintendo in general. with games Sunshine, Majora's Mask, and Double Dash. i felt they put alot of really fun and interesting twists on the formula of many of their games during that time. all three of the above mentioned games are my favorite of their respective franchise.
Great review! Nice and fair, and THANK YOU for showing that Sunshine's level design IS varied; I never understood how that argument came about. Two thumbs up!
One thing that also really impressed me about this was, like you mentioned, the detail in the worldbuilding. It was so awesome that you could see the other levels from one place! I always tried to look for them when I played it.
When most youtubers go from their live action commentary toward the game footage it usually feels out of place and a bit annoying however whenever you do it the transition is so smooth and natural which is honestly one of my favorite parts about this channel. Its the little things you know Keep up the great content my dude
See, this is why I subbed to your channel - even for games I didn't personally care for, I love seeing your pure, unbridled joy talking about them. You get so excited to share your favorite games with us, and it's an absolute treat to watch. Thank you for being you.
20:25 YES! That's exactly what I need! I'm missing ONE blue coin. If I had it I would have completed the game. But I have no idea which one I'm missing. And if you don't know every one by heart and you don't keep track yourself, then you're screwed. And I can't just ask someone "Hey, where's the last blue coin?" I tried looking at guides but I could swear I have all of them. The only way for me to find this coin is by pure luck or by finding a guide and going through all of them one-by-one until I find the one I'm missing. If the game would just tell me in which world I'm missing something, this problem wouldn't be nearly as bad. I like the idea of the blue coins but the execution is unacceptably bad.
The game actually does tell you which world your missing blue coins in. If you press the z button and then scroll over each stage, it will show you the total blue coins. The normal stages should have 30, corona mountain should have 10 and delfino plaza/airstrip should have 20.
This is the best video of this game on UA-cam! You perfectly explained why you loved the game, but didn't ignore the blue coins and other flaws this game has at times. You were especially spot on about how the Shines don't really follow the traditional collectathon structure.
Enjoying these videos a lot. They are engaging and don't rely on loads of shouting and silliness. I also like the fact that bad games are given a chance and not just totally slated. Keep up the good work!
20:37 "If there is ever a remake..." Man, this makes me dislike the 3D All Stars thingamajig even more. Because of it being a thing, the new and improved Sunshine that can be completed without a guide is nothing but a dream for another 10 years or so.
I gotta say, I love how every time you talk and gush about something you like, you always go back and make sure to talk about when it DOESN'T work and what they could have done better. Especially with a game as big as Mario Sunshine, so many reviews equate to constant gushing over their nostalgia for it, and I feel like this was a very fair review
I freaking love Sunshine. This game kicked my tail as a kid, but I love everything about the tropical island. I felt there were secrets that felt so satisfying to find and figure out. The cohesive world is so fresh, and I love Bowser Jr. as a villain. The music, the NPCs, the varying levels, the aesthetics. This video brought back so many memories.
I’m pretty upset with some of the beta stuff that was cut from Sunshine, like the train that would take you to even more levels, such as a lighthouse island and a battlefield island. When 64 DS was released, I hoped that a Sunshine remake would get rid of the blue coins entirely to include the beta levels. Though it would probably take a lot more time to do, it would at least give the players more fun levels to explore for shines rather than making them pull their hair out finding all of those optional but hard-to-find blue coins. I mean, every time I found a blue coin that I thought was unfairly hidden as a kid, I ended up just holding my head for a whole minute trying to grasp what I just witnessed. Spraying the fish basket in Ricco Harbor’s eighth mission, spraying a certain window in one of the houses of Bianca Hills, spraying the MOON while standing on top of a SINGULAR golden mushroom in Pianta Village...How would anyone ever think about doing any of this without a guide? Overall, Sunshine’s an excellent game, but the flaws that it carries really keep it from being on par with some of the best Mario games.
It's always refreshing to find someone who agrees with me in that 64's controls weren't that great. Super Mario 64 controls like utter shit, to be honest.
14:31 The Piantas are actually voiced by Charles Martinet. 18:30 This is where I recommend getting the Super Mario Sunburn mod for Sunshine, which gives you the freedom like 64 (plus some bonuses) and doesn't require every 7th Shine, only 70 total. Although, there is an option to have either 70 Shines required or get every 7th Shine like the base game. It works on Emulator and on actual console as well, provided you have the right tools.
I honestly prefer Odyssey slightly more due to you not being kicked back to the beginning every time you find a collectible. If they got rid of that in Sunshine, it'd be more fun for me.
One interesting to note, i wonder how many kids saw the pipe all the way on edge of the left side from the delphino plaza stage on brawl and were "there's a pipe there????" So then they booted up sunshine to look for it and surprise it's right there.
The reference to Mario 3's Sky World at 13:25 was a fantastic comparison on theming and world interconnectivity. Also, great long-shot reference to a previous game within the same franchise, rather than something else. Nice review, Rad.
Can I just say how happy I am this video exists? It always made me sad when people say that Sunshine was an unsuccessful game that was overshadowed by Super Mario 64, which I always disagreed with. This game, while more conservative with the scope of the world, opened up more possibilities for exploration within a world that... feels like a world. 64 had cool levels, but they only felt like levels. Abstract obstacle courses with a coat of paint to give it a theme. Sunshine levels have communities and more complicated objectives. It's like you said; the level is slightly restructured every time you go in. 64 shines rarely venture off the idea of reaching this part of the level or collecting something to reach the star. There was Koopa the Quick and some bosses, but really, it's just the "reach this part of the level" mechanism with a slight tweak. But Sunshine actually presents you with a problem that the level wants you to solve, and when it does fall back on the "reach this part of the level" mechanism, it makes sure to do it in a way you haven't done yet. Like with Mysterious Hotel Delfino; the shine is just sitting there in the pool, but you can't just platform your way to it; you first need to find secret passages to connect the various rooms to find a pineapple to feed Yoshi, then take him up to the attic to traverse a maze and find the opening that leads to the pool. It's just genius!
Nice to see someone do a video on sunshine and talk good about it. Mario sunshine has always been my favorite 3d Mario game. Something I'm surprised you didn't mention is that once you have opened the world up you don't have to use the hub world to get to other places. You can use the jet stream to blast across the water to the amusement park, and you can drop off the ledge over looking rico harbor to get to it and so on.
Sunshine kind of has almost everything i want from a mario game. It has : 1. World building 2. Platforming 3. Open worlds to explore 4. Involved plot 5. A buncha cool tight and fun controls But it also has : 1. Pachinko 2. Poison river 3. Watermelon 4. I’m a chuckster 5. Balloons 6. Tile door Still a good game tho
I feel Sunshine is the Mario game, that along with Odyssey, will get worse and worse in people's eyes the longer time goes by. This sucks because to me they're amazing games.
It really depends on whether someone's an optimist or a pessimist I feel. There's plenty of people who are willing to trudge through some cruddy parts if it means they can appreciate the majority of the game, but there's others who feel problems, even in small amounts, ruin the game and will refuse to play it entirely. Personally, I've played a lot of flawed games that I've still really enjoyed. The older I get, my patience wears more thin, so it can be a little more difficult to do this now than it was when I was a kid. But I still try to get through it if I'm enjoying the rest of the game. If the credits hit and I can say I enjoyed myself, that's what really matters to me.
I honestly never know why most people considered Mario Sunshine to be the worst out of the 3D Mario series. I thought the game was just as amazing as the others
29:35 Funny you should say that 'cause while Nintendo themselves copped out by just merely emulating the game for 3D Allstars (albeit kinda poorly in comparison to even Dolphin), a fan by the name of Wade picked up the slack. Have you ever heard of Super Mario Sunburn? It's a mod that pretty much alleviates the majority of design flaws present within Sunshine's structure by letting you collect most shines in the levels in almost any order with some restrictions still present (a lot SM64 when you think about it), which busts the game wide open (That watermelon mission you hated? Because of the mod's more open ended structure, I was able to complete that one with ease because I had access to Yoshi and used them to eat all the quacks to make the mission much more bareable). As an added bonus, having most of the missions present all at once makes the levels look much busier and more fully populated in a GOOD way, which goes a long way into making every area of Isle Delfino feel as alive as the game's most adamant defenders back in the day claimed the vanilla version of Sunshine was. It also adds other quality of life improvements such as getting rid of that stupid save prompt every single time you collect a blue coin, polishing the missions such as the physics of that dreaded pachinko machine, and letting you get to Corona Mountain by collecting 70 Shine Sprites (IF you choose that version of the mod of course.). Oh... and Mario also got his long jump back, which makes the FLUDDless secret stages more of a breeze. Heck, it even opts to make the game more open world. The other locations you see in the distance of each level? You can actually SWIM over to them, and BAM. You're in that area regardless of whether or not you already unlocked it. I'll admit that I used to be a HUGE Sunshine hater before. Whilst I did warm up to the vanilla game eventually, I still found it to be a bit overrated in comparison to it's contemporaries in the early 2000s (due to Journalists propping it up on a high pedestal and dumping on all the other non-Mario platformers) and wished it had more time in the oven. Sunburn pretty much fixed most of my gripes to the point where I now LOVE Sunshine. Granted, Yoshi STILL dies in water even in that mod, but what can you do, eh?
Wait, what the hell is that blooper type enemy at 13:33? I swear I have never seen that before in any of my Sunshine playthroughs. When does that thing show up?
13:25 the fact that you could see your previous area in sky world blew my 5 year old mind, and there are nostalgia bombs going through my mind thinking about it.
I've never seen a game so underrated, overhated, overrated, and underhated at the same time It's a very fun game, but also very frustrating It has great and responsive controls, that are unfinished and often glitch out to make you do stuff you didn't intend to do And the floor glitches out of existance all the freaking time, I've died so many times in this game just by walking And not to mention the stupid shines that are horrible throughout the whole level The sand Bird The chucksters Pachinko Machine And the Poison River is even horrible before you can enter the level, and if you fail, you gotta do it all over again just to enter the level
This may sound weird but my favorite npc in the game is the Pianta in the women's room of the hotel. She gets more frustrated with you entering the women's room with episode and by episode she stops fighting you.
I've been playing it again recently and have had so many issues with the maneuvering... the spin jump, for some reason, is not registering half the time. I thought it was my controller, but now I'm thinking it's the design of the divets around the analog stick, they're precluding a smooth circular motion from occurring. Or something. I swear I'm doing it right! And wall jumps seem hard to activate unless the camera is centered just right. I've had a heck of a time starting walljumps so many times. When you start the jumping, it's fine, but starting them seems more difficult than they should be. And speaking of that camera, I'm surprised you didn't say anything about it. It has been so unkind to me, mostly in tight spaces. Like the shine where you have to climb that cage stuff in Pinna Park to punch that electric turtle making the ferris wheel go really fast, that camera was seriously terrible. I haven't had many moments matching that level fury, but there still have been many instances of the camera not doing well in tight corridors/spaces. I didn't like that in the first blooper squid race, if you hit the finish line in not the right time, you get kicked out of the level completely... that's super strange considering if you hit the wall with the squid, you just respawn back at the start of the race. The Yoshi juice points respawing is a terrible idea mostly due to that one level on that island. It's not the easiest level to do, either. But you have to have Yoshi ride 3 boats, the process I think seriously takes 5 minutes, which is a long time for not having much freedom! And you do the level, fail too many times, restart from Delfino Plaza, do the journey again. That design decision boggles my mind. I am annoyed that there are 2 shines in Delfino Plaza that you can activate but not pick up until you get the rocket nozzle. I worked so hard to climb to the top of one of those bell towers, and worked doubly hard getting to the top of the big shine, but it was literally impossible to get those shines without the rocket nozzle., something I didn't have at the time. A minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things (as all these are), but they compound greatly. And yes, the lack of a blue coin counter is frustrating, as well as the method of unlocking Corona Mountain. Now on to the stuff I actually like: I love the art style, the connected world, the personality, the actual story with a legitimately unexpected twist, the satisfaction of picking up a shine, the satisfaction of cleaning, the outstanding maneuvering systems at your disposal (when the spin jump works). That feeling of zipping around, climbing, hovering, diving... it all feels so goooooood. I like the idea of those levels where they remove your FLUDD. You have to not rely on the thing you've been using for so long, and it sharpens your skills as a player with the raw platforming elements, so later you can utilize them alongside your FLUDD to become unstoppable. Pinna Park is such a great level that I love. I really really love getting the blue coins, though until watching this video I didn't know just how many of those there were. I guess it makes sense now just how that shine total can climb to 120! I love the daring approach to a follow-up to Super Mario 64. Or maybe it's not so daring, since it's Nintendo and they nin-tended (I'm so sorry) to switch things up with each Mario sequel, Lost Levels notwithstanding. But still, from Mario 64 to Sunshine, it's a pretty big departure in a lot of ways, but not in so many ways that it doesn't feel like a completely different series. I think the sound clips from 64 help with the transition quite a bit. See? I don't just hate it! I'm having a great time, but I'm surprised to hear that your thoughts on some things I believed to be objective (bad camera and touchy spin jump/wall jump) are not affecting you as much... Hm...
I’ve heard of this channel for so long, but didn’t think anything of it, now I find and it is awesome!! Favorite gaming channel now, binging in process!
I know this may sound petty or selfish, but I've always hated how this game *never* got any type of port or remaster. I never owned a Gamecube so this is the only 3D Mario I have never played and your review makes me wanna play it even more! Most of the best Gamecube games got great ports/remasters: Metroid Prime 1 & 2, Pikmin 1 & 2 got ports for the Wii. Wind Waker & Twilight Princess got remasters for the WiiU. Resident Evil 4 got ported on every console. Like you said, there are things about Sunshine to be fixed. So I always thought Nintendo was gonna remake it for the 3DS, or even better, for the WiiU like they did Wind Waker. I'd take a Switch remaster or a Virtual Console port at this point. I just really wanna play this game and, for now, it seems the only way I can do that is by saving up and buy a Nintendo Gamecube. P.S: It'd be cool if they remastered/rereleased Luigi's Mansion and Paper Mario TTYD as well.
That being said, (remember: I never played Super Mario Sunshine) I've always been one of those people who criticized Sunshine for it's lack of theming, yet you made a very solid arguement on this video and I must admit you're right: Theming is not always on the actual place you are. You showed me that Super Mario Sunshine has variety in the levels, a casino, a jungle, an amusement park, etc. And they're all connected in one solid place: An entire island. It's clever theming and It looks fun and it made me wanna play the game even more. Kudos for that. *BUT* I still think this game lacks variety in it's environments and I think it's an issue that it's hard to explain but I'll give it a try. You see, as someone who never played Sunshine, looking at gameplay, reviews, trailers, etc is important to determine wether you wanna play it or not. When I watched a trailer or review for say, Super Mario Odyssey, I inmediately understand that game has a lot of variety in it's levels without the reviewer having to say anything. It's obvious just by looking at the game footage. But when I do the same with Sunshine...all the levels look the same to me. Or at least very similar. And it kinda makes you not wanna play the game. Think about it, I know about this game since it was released and I was always interested in it but it wasn't until this review that I realized the levels have a lot of variety in them, it just isn't something you inmediately notice by taking a glance at gameplay of the game. Did that make sense? no? Well, this is an opinion from someone foreign to Mario Sunshine. I'm sure I'll change my mind whenever I get to play it haha
Spooder man I know but I'm from Argentina and GameCube controllers are impossible to find and are very expensive. Besides, like James said, there's a lot about Sunshine that could be fixed so a remake could make it an even better game.
The more shines you get, the brighter the plaza actually becomes. You can "skip" Bianco Hills and go straight to Pianta Village with good jumps to get other Shines before the first world, and after 10 or so shines, the Plaza's light circle is indeed bigger than when you got there. Also, the more shines you get, the more transparent the Graffiti M on the Plaza on the map (that's quite a few "on the's") will become, until it dissapears completely. Also, the game manual says that the Yoshies on the island are a different species, which is why they dissapear upon contact with deep water.
James, Your videos are unique and loveable, never stop being you because youve very swiftly become one of my favorite UA-camrs. Have a wonderful Christmas my friend, you deserve it. :)
Fun fact: Yoshi was going to be in Super Mario 64, however much like the reason he wasn’t in the NES games, he was scrapped due to hardware complains. However, unlike the NES games Yoshi had a model made and was part-way through development when he had to be scrapped, so the devs made him an easier egg as they didn’t want to waste all their effort.
Excellent video, might be your best ever imo!!! Also the best vid I've seen on Mario Sunshine. Always loved the game and also prefer it to Mario 64. Wonky camera here and there and some bad levels scattered about don't ruin the overall experience for me. PLUS I am a sucker for beach levels. Can't get enough of water effects in games lol!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for criticising this game's structure! So many kinda brush it off, but for me, it's the main factor in stopping me enjoying the game. I mean, what's the point of doing an exploration-based platformer if there is no reward for exploration?
I loved this game. I think people wrote it off because of nostalgia for 64. Being poor, I didn't have a 64 (I just had the cheapest consoles. So I went NES, Gen, PS1 and Cube), So, I could only play 64 at a friend's. I never owned it for me to be nostalgic for it. So Sunshine was fresh. The controls were spot on, I could control the camera. People thought FLUDD made things easy and it did for a bit, it was a bit more help getting to places but if you had "mad skillz brah" (God, I miss living in Hawaii) you could use FLUDD for some serious platforming and even skipping some steps. When I see 64 and Galaxy 1 and 2 show up on best Mario games, I feel like Sunshine is an underappreciated gem.
How could anyone not love the presentation in Sunshine? The theme is literally my favourite part about the game. I used to joke when I was younger that I would use Sunshine and Wind Waker as substitutes for vacation during the summer. Good feeling bright environments, positive characters and more made me fall in love with these games. This period in game design was amazing. The aforementioned games, Skies of Arcadia, Jet Set Radio, the list goes on. Sunshine continues to be my favourite Mario game.
pastelshoal haha i thought the same. Wish more games would have a setting like this nowadays
I have to say it. The piantas have so much more personality than the toads.
Well said
I love this game. It was so different from other Mario games, even today. Probably there's a lot of nostalgia that makes me love this game, but I love the soundtrack, the levels, the gameplay. I still remember the day I first saw the game, back then with no internet. We have been in vacations in Monaco and there was a mall where I was with my brother while my parents and other adults went into the casino. In the mall, we went into the video game section and there was a trailer of the game. I instantly fell in love with this.
fr3dricks0n lucky
I can believe that Yoshi has the ability to turn into a helicopter, train, submarine or mole...tank...thing by touching a block and spit fire by eating red turtle shells but different juice is too much for my suspension of disbelief!
Same
Caz
The juice must be too lose.
I'm beginning to wonder if Miyamoto has some sort of vomit fetish o_O First this, then the disturbingly high number of enemies who puke in Odyssey....you're a weird guy, Miyamoto. Weeiiirrd guy.
Amelia Bee lol funny but Miyamoto actually had almost nothing to do with Mario Odyssey.
James Robinson Dude, he has his fingers in every single pie at Nintendo. About the only things he doesn't is the third party shovelware on the online store. It was strange working there.
this is why nitrorad is great; i could have sworn this video was only 10 minutes long. his content is just so entertaining that time literally flies by
U read my fucking mind
@@cumcockproductions6433 what up strollin' stu
Another reason why Nitro Rad/his review of Super Mario Sunshine is great is because when he said he would review it with an open mind, he wasn’t kidding because while he has valid reasons why this game should be given credit, he also has fair complains that make him very acknowledgeable of why it can have big problems instead of take the IGN route by making Pac-Man World 2 a 2002 home console game that while it is good, shouldn’t be more praised than another one (which would be Pac-Man World 2) for hypocritical reasons (re: criticizing PMW2 for home consoles because it can be frustrating to 100% and doesn’t have a perfect camera that shows it was made a couple decades ago, yet even though the same can apply to SMS, they would still overlook these problems in the latter in their typical closed-minded ways just to keep making Pac-Man World 2 the more underrated one out of the two without even admitting it/praising Super Mario Sunshine yet not giving Pac-Man World 2 praises unless it’s to make them sound less stronger than they actually are).
Figuratively*
"And that's why this stage sucks my big butt." -Nitro Rad 2017
Nym eggs vs big butt
Still think ExoParadigmGamer has the hugest ass! XD
😅 Idk why but this Comment makes me laugh
I mean, he's not wrong.
No theming in this game's level? we all know the only themes allowed are grassland, desert, forest, jungle, ice world, fire world, boss- *Uncha Uncha*
swguygardner Yes.
The zero punctuation guide to world theming in platform games
But Sunshine had none of that; that's what made the theming so good.
(Conveniently leaves out beach worlds)
swguygardner mountain, sky and an additional rainbow galaxy world!
I always thought there was going to be Super Mario Sunshine 3DS, solving the problems NitroRad mentions and adding more characters like Super Mario 64 DS. Hopelly the Switch will solve that. Playing as Shadow Mario would be dope.
Nintendo isn't very keen on remakes but man I'd love that to happen on any system
The lack of analogue LR buttons makes it seem pretty impossible to port Sunshine to any other consoles unfortunately.
@drifloon just make the R button the stay-and-spray and the ZR button the run-and-spray
Lunii
Or they can make it so if you hold ZL it goes into a third person shooter camera similar to the new Ratchet and Clank
Jorge Gutierrez or they do it Like with the Wii so you have to buy a Special Controller
I still think it's funny how both Mario and Luigi use cleaning devices in their premiere GCN games. One's a vacuum cleaner and the other is essentially a glorified power washer. Mario and Luigi are literally cleaning up evil. 😁
Also I think it's cool how E. Gadd made both devices. I feel like he should have an even more prominent place in the series, I just love that little cooky inventor!
Heck, in Super Mario Sunshine, is even hinted that the "magic" brush that Bowser Jr. used was also from E. Gadd.
Nintendo was in their experimental era during the GameCube
I've heard it said that Miyamoto stated that Mario Sunshine and Wind Waker are the reasons why he doesn't like deadlines for games, since apparently, these two had a two-year development cycle each, with not enough time to do all that they would have wanted, or to fix everything that could have been fixed. I think the blue coins really point those out for me. If there were two more areas in Sunshine, that would cut down the amount of blue coins by a significant chunk. Likewise, in Wind Waker, the Fire and Ice mountain stages were clearly meant to be full dungeons, but longer Triforce shard hunting was needed to help pad the run time.
For me, the things this game does well, it does better than almost any Mario game. The things it doesn't do well, obviously, drag it down. I like the majority of the game, I think it does more good than bad, and the linear structure never bothered me, since most of the missions I found to be at least interesting enough to want to do (except Gelato Beach, my least favorite level). The only thing about the structure I don't like is having to do that simple 'chase Shadow Mario' thing every seventh mission. The roller coaster thing in the amusement park may be a bit tedious, but I would have preferred more encounters like that than the seventh missions that what we got.
I actually don't like the FLUDD-less special stages too much. I don't know if its just me, but I always feel the depth perception is off in them, and I mis-judge jumps all the time in them, straight into the bottomless pit.
ShogunGino I would have liked Shadow Mario to be an actual threat in those sections, maybe if he had really fought back or threw paint in your way it could have been more interesting.
I also think the game's plot structure is a bit off too, the Bowser Jr thing came up way too early among other things imho.
According to the Debug Level Select that you have to use a Cheat Code for, there area few unused areas that were never worked on. The list includes: Battle/Warship Island, Fire Shrine (honestly that sounds so cool!), Hotel Lacrima, Erto Rock (don't know what that's supposed to be, maybe a rock themed level like the name suggests?), and possibly another village type level. Some of these names (like Erto Rock) are probably just Japanese translations and not localizations (such as Gelato Beach being Mamma Beach in Japan). Considering how these levels were probably scrapped or simply abandonded early into development (but still, they have name slots in the debug select) you cannot select them and play them at all. Here's a video on that ua-cam.com/video/qCyzmgtRcXc/v-deo.html .
How long did this you guys to write you nerds
ShogunGino
A remake of Sunshine for the Switch would be perfect! Nintendo could fix and tweak everything and add more content, without pressure to meet a deadline.
PotatoAim It's really not that long. Also, grammar is important if you want people to understand what the hell you're talking about.
I disagree with the gamecube not being much for innovation, I think the gamecube was some of the weirdest times for Nintendo and stuff, with weird new ideas like luigi's mansion, sunshine, and etc. I dunno maybe I'm wrong
Jose Lastname i think you’re right where game concepts are concerned but the controls of Mario GameCube games are just improvements and polishing.
I agree with you conpletely
There were plenty of innovations in that time. Hell, Metroid was 3D for the first time, wasn't it?
Agreed, I would say the Gamecube was a mix of big innovation (Metroid Prime, Pikmin, Luigi's Mansion etc) small innovation (Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Sunshine, Zelda Wind Waker) and polish (F-Zero GX, Star Fox, Paper Mario)
Also Starfox Adventures haha
I have to agree about the connected world in Sunshine. One of my favorite things about Jak and Daxter was how connected the game world is, quite literally because there's zero loading. It also had that detail of putting other worlds in the background.
Can we all just agree that Sunshine's graphics were stunning at the time?
They still look good.
Load it up on Dolphin and it will surprise you even more.
It’s a great game except for the freaking camera, the camera is so abysmal.
even today the game still looks great (which is something that can be said about most gamecube games)
That freakin water man. Just.. Mm
The water was the entire reason I bought that game. It hits a deep emotional thing in me... its beautiful. Especially the surface effects.
You didn’t mention the sand bird.
You _always_ mention the sand bird.
Was so beutiful.... yet everyone fall a lot
I've never understood what made the sandbird so bad. The only time i fall off of it is when I"m going for blue coins, and that's even on my first playthrough of the game. And that's not a skill thing, I'm pretty shit at the game, I just don't get where the sand bird gets it's infamy
* gasps * The Sand Bird
The Legendary Sandbird
Sand bird at 24:46.
The first game I ever played was Mario on the NES. It was fun, had a blast, my dad was into games back then too so he'd find all sorts of cool stuff like the infinite 1UP trick, hidden 1UPs, and he even played it with the controller upside down like a boss. Mario 2 came along and confused the hell out of me, but I enjoyed Peach's hovering. Mario 3 was... my God man, it was magical. Multiple maps I could move around on? Secrets and stuff? So cool! Super Mario World was another great step forward, really expanding on the whole map exploration thing and finding the special stages way back when felt so rewarding.
But when Mario 64 came out, it rocked my eight year old world. I don't think I can properly describe it to someone who has always known 3D games, but it literally added a new dimension to gaming. Before, we had to be content with only being able to move up, down, left and right, or sometimes North, South, East and West. Sometimes we got the illusion of an open environment with first person dungeon crawlers, but even then it was heavily restricted to the cardinal directions so it may as well have been a top-down perspective. So when Mario 64 came out and plopped us in front of Peach's castle and we could actually move toward it and it would grow larger, we could jump up walls to get to higher planes if we didn't jump at the wrong angle, and we could throw things in any direction we pleased, it was like playing outside. It really did feel like going outside to play, and made the game feel much more real because we could move about in that world like we did our own. And for that, Mario 64 will always have a special place in my heart.
Sunshine is still my fave 3D Mario though. Not being a completionist meant that all those blue coins could sod off, and the levels I did have trouble with weren't all that bad. I missed the long jump until I picked up FLUDD, and even when it was taken away I realized that the only thing a long jump would have added was a way to more easily make platform cycles when I was slow. To be fair I haven't played either Galaxy or Odyssey, Super Mario 3D Land felt more rewarding to collect all the stars in, and it's a ton of fun to play with friends and family in 3D World. But in terms of casual single player happy fun times, no 3D Mario comes close to Sunshine.
You should absolutely play Galaxy. It doesn't have the most varied moveset, but the level design is so good and the music is amazing. It's weirdly immersive and atmospheric for a Mario game.
@@TheAbsol7448 and galaxy 2 is even better
@@turtleanton6539 I liked Galaxy a lot more.
Ok boomer galaxy is better ;)
Sunshine and Mario 64 are the best ever made. Sunshine was just an amazing and beautiful game. Now Mario 64 was so good to me because to me idk the game would somehow make me feel super uneasy at times especially with the music and kinda grim graphics in low lit areas.
The Pianta you race is actually named Il Piantissimo. That's a capital letter I and a lowercase letter L. Hella confusing, I know
He’s not even a pianta. HE’S THE RUNNER FROM OCARINA OF TIME.
Yeah, that's something I really hate about most fonts. Would it really have taken up that much more room just to have horizontal lines on the top and bottom of the I's?
That's why I always put the two lines on the top and bottom when writing a capital I
Not gonna lie, I groaned at the thought of watching a 30 min video on a game I've already played the heck out of
Yet, somehow, I was entertained the whole way through! :) Well done and nice analysis, Nitro!
Me: i gotta go to sleep
**sees a new nitrorad video**
Me: sleep is for the weak
SonicMotion weak is for the sleep.
SonicMotion lol
And you're not weak. YOU'RE NOT WEAK!
Same just it was an old video for me instead
Mario has logged in.
IT'S-A ME
M A R I O
I see wahoo
I turn around
Mario say boo
My pants go brown
Depression has logged off.
MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
"Instead of paintings, we find ourselves diving into graffiti" graffiti is kind of less formal paintings, so I like that consistency between games. It's like paint transports you to a new world, and it helped me get a better grasp of what to do going from mario 64 to sunshine. It just felt intuitive. I always just assumed it was the same magic being used between the games, like maybe bowser jr. Has the same brush wand bowser used to make the paintings into portals to collect the power stars. It all just made sense to me.
"Two Piantissimo"
Ah, the joys of the Latin alphabet...
29:36 this didn’t age well
What do you mean? 3d all stars is the very first time sunshine got a second release... ever
Matanumi he said that he didn’t want a straight port, but rather a remake
I searched for this comment hahaha
Nitro Rad: No more instant death traps
Corona Mountain Spikes: *Exists*
They’re easy to avoid, just wait until they disappear
There’s also another instant death trap that I absolutely dislike. When you accidentally hit a solid object when surfing on a blooper you instantly die
@@mistertazington1014 just git gud
You lost a race??? Good thing you got more lives than a cat
You can't say the spikes "exists." The verb conjugation is just "exist."
I literally stopped porn for this
what kinda porn
Nitro Rad your other videos
if they work so well I should start uploading them to pornhub...
69 likes babyyyy
These comments are life.
I played through the game about 8 years ago and loved the "vacation" vibe. I wanted to get 100%, but unfortunately I encountered a bug where it would not count a blue coin, so I was one short.
I like 100% completing certain games.
Foster Wood i mean, i did it myself just for the fun of it. I don't 100% games just for the 30 second reward, that's retarded. I do it because I like it.
even with the blue coins, this was still a pretty fun game to explore and complete personally
I’m so glad someone is sticking up for this amazing game. Personally it’s my favorite 3-D Mario and I’m sick of people only talking about the 2 or 3 janky parts. Thank you Nitro Rad, you’re a game reviewer like no other.
You're honestly my favorite video game youtuber. Your videos are always unique and interesting. I find out about so many cool games through you! This is my favorite Super Mario Sunshine review to date. I love this game so much. Keep up the good work!
You're an underrated UA-camr. Listening to you is like talking with one of the bros. Some may see it as less professional, but honestly it's refreshing as all hell to me
i love Mario Sunshine, and i love that that era of Nintendo in general. with games Sunshine, Majora's Mask, and Double Dash. i felt they put alot of really fun and interesting twists on the formula of many of their games during that time. all three of the above mentioned games are my favorite of their respective franchise.
All the Gamecube Nintendo games are the favorites of each franchise for me
Nintendo and their fans don't like change. That's why you see a lot of negativity every time any drastic change is made to anything established.
So wait, bowser jr. knew that mario and friends were going on a vacation, bought a plane ticket, flew there first to set up his shenanigans?
Ah, Christmas came early!
Hey this game is 20 years old now.
Great review! Nice and fair, and THANK YOU for showing that Sunshine's level design IS varied; I never understood how that argument came about. Two thumbs up!
One thing that also really impressed me about this was, like you mentioned, the detail in the worldbuilding. It was so awesome that you could see the other levels from one place! I always tried to look for them when I played it.
Jesus your voice and your reviews are very in depth (subbed)
Corona mountain!!! Mario was ahead of his time in more ways than one!
Corona is a beer
@@ryanm8529
It means other things too
@@Thebossstage1 yeah but that comment doesn't make sense
@@ryanm8529
It can mean multiple things
people like you are so fucking stupid
When most youtubers go from their live action commentary toward the game footage it usually feels out of place and a bit annoying however whenever you do it the transition is so smooth and natural which is honestly one of my favorite parts about this channel. Its the little things you know
Keep up the great content my dude
The music in this game makes me feel so happy. This deserves to be on the Switch above anything else. Such a fun experience.
See, this is why I subbed to your channel - even for games I didn't personally care for, I love seeing your pure, unbridled joy talking about them. You get so excited to share your favorite games with us, and it's an absolute treat to watch. Thank you for being you.
"they never really did any character development again"
Roselina: hold my beer
thats not really development thats backstory
@@wistfulanthophila9317 yea
Corona Mountain aged like milk
20:25 YES! That's exactly what I need! I'm missing ONE blue coin. If I had it I would have completed the game. But I have no idea which one I'm missing. And if you don't know every one by heart and you don't keep track yourself, then you're screwed. And I can't just ask someone "Hey, where's the last blue coin?" I tried looking at guides but I could swear I have all of them. The only way for me to find this coin is by pure luck or by finding a guide and going through all of them one-by-one until I find the one I'm missing. If the game would just tell me in which world I'm missing something, this problem wouldn't be nearly as bad. I like the idea of the blue coins but the execution is unacceptably bad.
The game actually does tell you which world your missing blue coins in. If you press the z button and then scroll over each stage, it will show you the total blue coins. The normal stages should have 30, corona mountain should have 10 and delfino plaza/airstrip should have 20.
This is the best video of this game on UA-cam! You perfectly explained why you loved the game, but didn't ignore the blue coins and other flaws this game has at times. You were especially spot on about how the Shines don't really follow the traditional collectathon structure.
1:41
“This is probably the closest thing to a real plot any mario game has ever had.”
When you forget that Super Paper Mario exists.
I'm talking the main series, not spinoffs like the RPG games.
Enjoying these videos a lot. They are engaging and don't rely on loads of shouting and silliness. I also like the fact that bad games are given a chance and not just totally slated. Keep up the good work!
20:37 "If there is ever a remake..."
Man, this makes me dislike the 3D All Stars thingamajig even more. Because of it being a thing, the new and improved Sunshine that can be completed without a guide is nothing but a dream for another 10 years or so.
Agreed
I gotta say, I love how every time you talk and gush about something you like, you always go back and make sure to talk about when it DOESN'T work and what they could have done better. Especially with a game as big as Mario Sunshine, so many reviews equate to constant gushing over their nostalgia for it, and I feel like this was a very fair review
Sunshine's Bloopers are pretty much Alola Bloopers
Yes
I freaking love Sunshine. This game kicked my tail as a kid, but I love everything about the tropical island. I felt there were secrets that felt so satisfying to find and figure out. The cohesive world is so fresh, and I love Bowser Jr. as a villain. The music, the NPCs, the varying levels, the aesthetics.
This video brought back so many memories.
I LOVE how the Piantas go “Nooooooo!!” when you spray them with water, and then they lose their shit at you after😂😂😂😂
This was always me and my mom’s favorite game to play. I really appreciate you going over this one. 🥺❤️
Sunshine is definitely my favorite main series Mario, it was just such a big part of my childhood, and I was obsessed with this game.
I’m pretty upset with some of the beta stuff that was cut from Sunshine, like the train that would take you to even more levels, such as a lighthouse island and a battlefield island. When 64 DS was released, I hoped that a Sunshine remake would get rid of the blue coins entirely to include the beta levels. Though it would probably take a lot more time to do, it would at least give the players more fun levels to explore for shines rather than making them pull their hair out finding all of those optional but hard-to-find blue coins.
I mean, every time I found a blue coin that I thought was unfairly hidden as a kid, I ended up just holding my head for a whole minute trying to grasp what I just witnessed. Spraying the fish basket in Ricco Harbor’s eighth mission, spraying a certain window in one of the houses of Bianca Hills, spraying the MOON while standing on top of a SINGULAR golden mushroom in Pianta Village...How would anyone ever think about doing any of this without a guide?
Overall, Sunshine’s an excellent game, but the flaws that it carries really keep it from being on par with some of the best Mario games.
It's always refreshing to find someone who agrees with me in that 64's controls weren't that great.
Super Mario 64 controls like utter shit, to be honest.
Everything you've said about this game reaches out to me Nitro. This video is my reason for subscribing.
Nitro Rad, will you ever review Parappa the Rapper, or other small but unique games?
Dylan Kelso holy crap I literally have been PaRappa the Rapper remastered and watching the anime since I've been on break!
Eyyy.
Sadly he only does platformers
Ya know, for a mario game where all the levels were tropical (or generally water) themed, i gotta say, there’s a lot of variety in it.
HERE WE GO!
OFF THE RAILS!
DON'T YOU KNOW IT'S TIME TO RAISE OUR SAILS!
IT’S FREEDOM LIKE YOU NEVER KNEW!
Don’t need bags or a pass, say the word and I’ll be there in a flash!
YOU COULD SAY MY HAT IS OFF TO YOU!
14:31 The Piantas are actually voiced by Charles Martinet.
18:30 This is where I recommend getting the Super Mario Sunburn mod for Sunshine, which gives you the freedom like 64 (plus some bonuses) and doesn't require every 7th Shine, only 70 total.
Although, there is an option to have either 70 Shines required or get every 7th Shine like the base game.
It works on Emulator and on actual console as well, provided you have the right tools.
I'm surprised by these comments.. I think this might be favourite 3D Mario game. Even more so than Odyssey.
I honestly prefer Odyssey slightly more due to you not being kicked back to the beginning every time you find a collectible. If they got rid of that in Sunshine, it'd be more fun for me.
I am so happy I found your channel. you are honestly one of my favorite channels on youtube. top 5 for sure
Is it just me, or does Nitro Rad look like how I imagined Kevin McAllister to grow up to be?
One interesting to note, i wonder how many kids saw the pipe all the way on edge of the left side from the delphino plaza stage on brawl and were "there's a pipe there????" So then they booted up sunshine to look for it and surprise it's right there.
This will always be my favorite Mario game, this and Luigi's Mansion. What a great era of gaming to have grown up in, so blessed! 🌅⛱️🌴
You’re so awesome! Always looking forward to your newest videos!
Well I predicted Super Mario 64 DS correctly, like a Christmas miracle.
The reference to Mario 3's Sky World at 13:25 was a fantastic comparison on theming and world interconnectivity. Also, great long-shot reference to a previous game within the same franchise, rather than something else.
Nice review, Rad.
just one hour ago i rewatched all your Lisa Videos and thought to myself: "Man i wonder when Nitro is gonna release a new Video"
i love you Nitro!!
Mario may not have NEEDED this level of world-building, but boy did I enjoy soaking up every little bit of it.
The piantas are jerks.
I do like your idea for how the blue coins could've been a more enjoyable thing, though.
Can I just say how happy I am this video exists? It always made me sad when people say that Sunshine was an unsuccessful game that was overshadowed by Super Mario 64, which I always disagreed with. This game, while more conservative with the scope of the world, opened up more possibilities for exploration within a world that... feels like a world. 64 had cool levels, but they only felt like levels. Abstract obstacle courses with a coat of paint to give it a theme. Sunshine levels have communities and more complicated objectives. It's like you said; the level is slightly restructured every time you go in. 64 shines rarely venture off the idea of reaching this part of the level or collecting something to reach the star. There was Koopa the Quick and some bosses, but really, it's just the "reach this part of the level" mechanism with a slight tweak. But Sunshine actually presents you with a problem that the level wants you to solve, and when it does fall back on the "reach this part of the level" mechanism, it makes sure to do it in a way you haven't done yet. Like with Mysterious Hotel Delfino; the shine is just sitting there in the pool, but you can't just platform your way to it; you first need to find secret passages to connect the various rooms to find a pineapple to feed Yoshi, then take him up to the attic to traverse a maze and find the opening that leads to the pool. It's just genius!
Smooth McGroove = Ruff McRuff
Nitro... This might be the best joke you've ever told.
Nice to see someone do a video on sunshine and talk good about it. Mario sunshine has always been my favorite 3d Mario game. Something I'm surprised you didn't mention is that once you have opened the world up you don't have to use the hub world to get to other places. You can use the jet stream to blast across the water to the amusement park, and you can drop off the ledge over looking rico harbor to get to it and so on.
The most overhated mainline Mario, honestly it gets way too much flak, even if it has some low lows.....
Sunshine kind of has almost everything i want from a mario game. It has :
1. World building
2. Platforming
3. Open worlds to explore
4. Involved plot
5. A buncha cool tight and fun controls
But it also has :
1. Pachinko
2. Poison river
3. Watermelon
4. I’m a chuckster
5. Balloons
6. Tile door
Still a good game tho
I feel Sunshine is the Mario game, that along with Odyssey, will get worse and worse in people's eyes the longer time goes by. This sucks because to me they're amazing games.
It really depends on whether someone's an optimist or a pessimist I feel. There's plenty of people who are willing to trudge through some cruddy parts if it means they can appreciate the majority of the game, but there's others who feel problems, even in small amounts, ruin the game and will refuse to play it entirely.
Personally, I've played a lot of flawed games that I've still really enjoyed. The older I get, my patience wears more thin, so it can be a little more difficult to do this now than it was when I was a kid. But I still try to get through it if I'm enjoying the rest of the game. If the credits hit and I can say I enjoyed myself, that's what really matters to me.
I honestly never know why most people considered Mario Sunshine to be the worst out of the 3D Mario series. I thought the game was just as amazing as the others
@Giro and Milla Salt.
29:35
Funny you should say that 'cause while Nintendo themselves copped out by just merely emulating the game for 3D Allstars (albeit kinda poorly in comparison to even Dolphin), a fan by the name of Wade picked up the slack.
Have you ever heard of Super Mario Sunburn? It's a mod that pretty much alleviates the majority of design flaws present within Sunshine's structure by letting you collect most shines in the levels in almost any order with some restrictions still present (a lot SM64 when you think about it), which busts the game wide open (That watermelon mission you hated? Because of the mod's more open ended structure, I was able to complete that one with ease because I had access to Yoshi and used them to eat all the quacks to make the mission much more bareable). As an added bonus, having most of the missions present all at once makes the levels look much busier and more fully populated in a GOOD way, which goes a long way into making every area of Isle Delfino feel as alive as the game's most adamant defenders back in the day claimed the vanilla version of Sunshine was.
It also adds other quality of life improvements such as getting rid of that stupid save prompt every single time you collect a blue coin, polishing the missions such as the physics of that dreaded pachinko machine, and letting you get to Corona Mountain by collecting 70 Shine Sprites (IF you choose that version of the mod of course.). Oh... and Mario also got his long jump back, which makes the FLUDDless secret stages more of a breeze.
Heck, it even opts to make the game more open world. The other locations you see in the distance of each level? You can actually SWIM over to them, and BAM. You're in that area regardless of whether or not you already unlocked it.
I'll admit that I used to be a HUGE Sunshine hater before. Whilst I did warm up to the vanilla game eventually, I still found it to be a bit overrated in comparison to it's contemporaries in the early 2000s (due to Journalists propping it up on a high pedestal and dumping on all the other non-Mario platformers) and wished it had more time in the oven. Sunburn pretty much fixed most of my gripes to the point where I now LOVE Sunshine. Granted, Yoshi STILL dies in water even in that mod, but what can you do, eh?
I still can't fathom that this dude does not have a single video over 1 million views, he deserves WAY MORE support
bruh the vary next video has 1 mil views, literally
@@Distant_Dubstep bruh this comment was 9 months ago
Wait, what the hell is that blooper type enemy at 13:33? I swear I have never seen that before in any of my Sunshine playthroughs. When does that thing show up?
Rewatching while playing Mario Sunshine on Switch with all stars ahh
13:25 the fact that you could see your previous area in sky world blew my 5 year old mind, and there are nostalgia bombs going through my mind thinking about it.
I've never seen a game so underrated, overhated, overrated, and underhated at the same time
It's a very fun game, but also very frustrating
It has great and responsive controls, that are unfinished and often glitch out to make you do stuff you didn't intend to do
And the floor glitches out of existance all the freaking time, I've died so many times in this game just by walking
And not to mention the stupid shines that are horrible throughout the whole level
The sand Bird
The chucksters
Pachinko Machine
And the Poison River is even horrible before you can enter the level, and if you fail, you gotta do it all over again just to enter the level
This may sound weird but my favorite npc in the game is the Pianta in the women's room of the hotel. She gets more frustrated with you entering the women's room with episode and by episode she stops fighting you.
I've been playing it again recently and have had so many issues with the maneuvering... the spin jump, for some reason, is not registering half the time. I thought it was my controller, but now I'm thinking it's the design of the divets around the analog stick, they're precluding a smooth circular motion from occurring. Or something. I swear I'm doing it right! And wall jumps seem hard to activate unless the camera is centered just right. I've had a heck of a time starting walljumps so many times. When you start the jumping, it's fine, but starting them seems more difficult than they should be.
And speaking of that camera, I'm surprised you didn't say anything about it. It has been so unkind to me, mostly in tight spaces. Like the shine where you have to climb that cage stuff in Pinna Park to punch that electric turtle making the ferris wheel go really fast, that camera was seriously terrible. I haven't had many moments matching that level fury, but there still have been many instances of the camera not doing well in tight corridors/spaces.
I didn't like that in the first blooper squid race, if you hit the finish line in not the right time, you get kicked out of the level completely... that's super strange considering if you hit the wall with the squid, you just respawn back at the start of the race.
The Yoshi juice points respawing is a terrible idea mostly due to that one level on that island. It's not the easiest level to do, either. But you have to have Yoshi ride 3 boats, the process I think seriously takes 5 minutes, which is a long time for not having much freedom! And you do the level, fail too many times, restart from Delfino Plaza, do the journey again. That design decision boggles my mind.
I am annoyed that there are 2 shines in Delfino Plaza that you can activate but not pick up until you get the rocket nozzle. I worked so hard to climb to the top of one of those bell towers, and worked doubly hard getting to the top of the big shine, but it was literally impossible to get those shines without the rocket nozzle., something I didn't have at the time. A minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things (as all these are), but they compound greatly.
And yes, the lack of a blue coin counter is frustrating, as well as the method of unlocking Corona Mountain.
Now on to the stuff I actually like: I love the art style, the connected world, the personality, the actual story with a legitimately unexpected twist, the satisfaction of picking up a shine, the satisfaction of cleaning, the outstanding maneuvering systems at your disposal (when the spin jump works). That feeling of zipping around, climbing, hovering, diving... it all feels so goooooood. I like the idea of those levels where they remove your FLUDD. You have to not rely on the thing you've been using for so long, and it sharpens your skills as a player with the raw platforming elements, so later you can utilize them alongside your FLUDD to become unstoppable. Pinna Park is such a great level that I love. I really really love getting the blue coins, though until watching this video I didn't know just how many of those there were. I guess it makes sense now just how that shine total can climb to 120! I love the daring approach to a follow-up to Super Mario 64. Or maybe it's not so daring, since it's Nintendo and they nin-tended (I'm so sorry) to switch things up with each Mario sequel, Lost Levels notwithstanding. But still, from Mario 64 to Sunshine, it's a pretty big departure in a lot of ways, but not in so many ways that it doesn't feel like a completely different series. I think the sound clips from 64 help with the transition quite a bit.
See? I don't just hate it! I'm having a great time, but I'm surprised to hear that your thoughts on some things I believed to be objective (bad camera and touchy spin jump/wall jump) are not affecting you as much... Hm...
It's not just you, SMS blooper design is amazing
This is my favorite mario game hands down so far and people who complain about the theme i jujst don't understand them. sah guuuud!
I’ve heard of this channel for so long, but didn’t think anything of it, now I find and it is awesome!! Favorite gaming channel now, binging in process!
I know this may sound petty or selfish, but I've always hated how this game *never* got any type of port or remaster. I never owned a Gamecube so this is the only 3D Mario I have never played and your review makes me wanna play it even more!
Most of the best Gamecube games got great ports/remasters: Metroid Prime 1 & 2, Pikmin 1 & 2 got ports for the Wii. Wind Waker & Twilight Princess got remasters for the WiiU. Resident Evil 4 got ported on every console. Like you said, there are things about Sunshine to be fixed. So I always thought Nintendo was gonna remake it for the 3DS, or even better, for the WiiU like they did Wind Waker. I'd take a Switch remaster or a Virtual Console port at this point. I just really wanna play this game and, for now, it seems the only way I can do that is by saving up and buy a Nintendo Gamecube.
P.S: It'd be cool if they remastered/rereleased Luigi's Mansion and Paper Mario TTYD as well.
That being said, (remember: I never played Super Mario Sunshine) I've always been one of those people who criticized Sunshine for it's lack of theming, yet you made a very solid arguement on this video and I must admit you're right: Theming is not always on the actual place you are. You showed me that Super Mario Sunshine has variety in the levels, a casino, a jungle, an amusement park, etc. And they're all connected in one solid place: An entire island. It's clever theming and It looks fun and it made me wanna play the game even more. Kudos for that.
*BUT* I still think this game lacks variety in it's environments and I think it's an issue that it's hard to explain but I'll give it a try. You see, as someone who never played Sunshine, looking at gameplay, reviews, trailers, etc is important to determine wether you wanna play it or not. When I watched a trailer or review for say, Super Mario Odyssey, I inmediately understand that game has a lot of variety in it's levels without the reviewer having to say anything. It's obvious just by looking at the game footage. But when I do the same with Sunshine...all the levels look the same to me. Or at least very similar. And it kinda makes you not wanna play the game. Think about it, I know about this game since it was released and I was always interested in it but it wasn't until this review that I realized the levels have a lot of variety in them, it just isn't something you inmediately notice by taking a glance at gameplay of the game.
Did that make sense? no? Well, this is an opinion from someone foreign to Mario Sunshine. I'm sure I'll change my mind whenever I get to play it haha
Kind of a simple answer to all that you just wrote but.. you can actually play Sunshine on the Wii
Spooder man I know but I'm from Argentina and GameCube controllers are impossible to find and are very expensive.
Besides, like James said, there's a lot about Sunshine that could be fixed so a remake could make it an even better game.
ObsidiusFan you can also use a Classic Controller If you boot it Up trought nintendont
+ObsidiusFan Yeah, i Was quite ignorant. Lets just hope for a remake then :{
The more shines you get, the brighter the plaza actually becomes. You can "skip" Bianco Hills and go straight to Pianta Village with good jumps to get other Shines before the first world, and after 10 or so shines, the Plaza's light circle is indeed bigger than when you got there. Also, the more shines you get, the more transparent the Graffiti M on the Plaza on the map (that's quite a few "on the's") will become, until it dissapears completely.
Also, the game manual says that the Yoshies on the island are a different species, which is why they dissapear upon contact with deep water.
And now to play it again in HD.
James,
Your videos are unique and loveable, never stop being you because youve very swiftly become one of my favorite UA-camrs. Have a wonderful Christmas my friend, you deserve it. :)
Welp, with 3D All-Stars announced, it's just a straight port to the Switch instead of a complete remake like in the original Mario All-Stars. :(
That one dude who posted stuff Remaster. Not port.
Think the PS3 rereleases of Jak and Daxter rather than the N Sane Trilogy or a ROM.
@@IfOUGHTpIRANHAz Did you see the gamexplain video too?
Fun fact: Yoshi was going to be in Super Mario 64, however much like the reason he wasn’t in the NES games, he was scrapped due to hardware complains. However, unlike the NES games Yoshi had a model made and was part-way through development when he had to be scrapped, so the devs made him an easier egg as they didn’t want to waste all their effort.
12:15 I wouldn't say it's naive of people to not enjoy it. Sunshine gets pretty repetitive with its ocean aesthetic.
Didn't say it was naive not to like it, said it was naive to say it doesn't do theming well.
Nitro Rad I feel ya boo 👌
Thank you for talking about my favorite 3D Mario. You brought up everything I love about this game.
Excellent video, might be your best ever imo!!! Also the best vid I've seen on Mario Sunshine. Always loved the game and also prefer it to Mario 64. Wonky camera here and there and some bad levels scattered about don't ruin the overall experience for me. PLUS I am a sucker for beach levels. Can't get enough of water effects in games lol!
best mario game imo. goat controls, best vibes, music is so great, story is actually more in depth(for a mario game), true sense of place, etc.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for criticising this game's structure! So many kinda brush it off, but for me, it's the main factor in stopping me enjoying the game. I mean, what's the point of doing an exploration-based platformer if there is no reward for exploration?
I will forever die atop of the hill of Super Mario Sunshine being the best 3D title next to the Galaxy series.
Corona Mountain back then was just Corona Mountain, now it’s *corona virus*
God damnit...does everything with a fuckin corona theme get associated with a virus now? Silly
I loved this game. I think people wrote it off because of nostalgia for 64. Being poor, I didn't have a 64 (I just had the cheapest consoles. So I went NES, Gen, PS1 and Cube), So, I could only play 64 at a friend's. I never owned it for me to be nostalgic for it. So Sunshine was fresh. The controls were spot on, I could control the camera. People thought FLUDD made things easy and it did for a bit, it was a bit more help getting to places but if you had "mad skillz brah" (God, I miss living in Hawaii) you could use FLUDD for some serious platforming and even skipping some steps. When I see 64 and Galaxy 1 and 2 show up on best Mario games, I feel like Sunshine is an underappreciated gem.