E3 | Super Mario Sunshine

Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Action/Adventure
Platforms: GC

The Down and Dirty
Mario is back, and this time he is trying to take a vacation. The pudgy plumber has finished saving the Princess for the last time, and needs to take a little break. When he arrives on an island paradise, someone has been impersonating him and ruining his good name by putting up graffiti. (We don't know if it is Bowser or a new villain.) Mario must regain his good name by removing the offending artwork and finding out who is behind it in the first place.

The Goods The biggest change between this game and other Mario games is the addition of the water pump. This device is attached to Mario's back and can perform a variety of tasks. First, it is a basic weapon and clean-up device. You can fire a stream of water in any direction you are facing stun enemies and clean-up graffiti and sludge. Hit the X button, and the water pump changes into a jetpack that allows Mario to hover. An interesting side effect is that the water streams that are shot downward will also perform clean-up duty and knockout enemies. The final form of the water pump is a rocket pack. After charging up, it launches our hero to higher platforms.

While the addition of the water pump does add several key gameplay elements, Mario has also been given a several new moves and attacks. The spin jump goes higher that any of the normal jumps and damages enemies on the way down and on the way up. To show off his balance a bit, Mario can walk on tightropes with relative ease. The most useful new move is the belly slide. By sliding on sludge or other slick surfaces, Marion builds momentum that allows him to continue sliding even when he transitions to normal surfaces. In the levels we got to play, there was never a chance to find out if the slide could be used as an attack. However, it was the most interesting way to get down sludge-covered hills.

Even with the changes, several hallmarks of the series remain unchanged. All six of the levels available to us were extremely large and had a variety of nooks and crannies to explore. For the player who wants to take some time to explore them, there will be plenty of secrets to find. Getting around the levels is still fairly simple thanks to an outstanding control scheme. Every thing you would want to do is within reach, and even the most complex moves require only two button presses.

The only issue with the gameplay is the camera. While you are able you to rotate the camera to just about any position you want, there are some times when it locks into one location. Unfortunately, the angle chosen makes it a bit difficulty to gauge which direction to jump. In one case, Mario is climbing a hill with a gap filled spiral path. The camera makes it look like jumping forward over a gap will connect you to the other part of the path. If you jump forward, you miss the other part of the path and drop to the bottom of the hill. To complete the jump properly, you have to jump at a slight angle. Things like this have become part of the standard set of issues with platforming games in general. Hopefully, instances like the one mentioned above will be kept to a minimum.

The visuals have kept the general theme of previous games in the Mario franchise. They are reminiscent of the worlds from Super Mario Brothers 3 (NES) and Super Mario World (SNES), except rendered in full 3D. All of the objects are covered in brightly colored textures. The most complex textures are simple geometric patters like polka dots and stripes. This keeps the light-hearted tone from the previous game.

While the environments are excellent, two things are truly outstanding. First, the character and enemy models look exactly like all of the artwork that has been shown over the years. If you were to put a screenshot next to some artwork, you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference. Second, there are a ton of small details. When Mario slides through sludge and hits normal terrain, a little trail of sludge shows where he slid around. After he stands and starts walking, footprints made of sludge appear. These are only two of the more noticeable details. I could go on for pages, but will stop with these.

The Verdict
It's Mario. Never have two words implied so much. The gameplay has expanded from the previous games, the levels are larger, and the graphics are brighter and more detailed. More importantly, Super Mario Sunshine is filled to the brim with fun and typifies the quality we have come to expect from a Nintendo first-party game.

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