Product Description

If you picked the GameCube over the Xbox and PlayStation 2, this man is likely on your list of reasons why. You'd need an abacus to count the number of games Mario has appeared in over the last two decades, yet Nintendo has been very careful to back up the plumber with high-quality gameplay at every turn. While Mario excels at kart racing, tennis and golf, Super Mario Sunshine offers his speciality: platform adventure. In this game, Mario and Princess Peach take a vacation to a perpetually sunny island where Mario is framed for vandalism. Armed with a water scrubber, Mario has to clean up the graffiti, catch the impostor and restore his good name. Maybe those Jet Set Radio hooligans are involved...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5635 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Nintendo
• Released on: 2003-10-10
• Platform: GameCube

Amazon.co.uk Review
Six years. Six long years we've had to wait for a new Mario game and finally it's here. And even considering the ridiculously unfair expectations, Super Mario Sunshine is almost entirely as good as you'd hope and expect.

The premise of the game is that Mario's tropical holiday is ruined when he's stitched up by an evil lookalike for daubing graffiti all over the island. Rather conveniently there's an extremely useful water pump waiting for him to use, which not only washes away the mess but also doubles as a handy jet pack. The jet pack aspect means that whenever you fall off something you have the chance to immediately recover yourself; this built-in safety net means the game can afford to be far more ambitious in its level designs than ever before, with massive levels filled with trampolines, tightropes, water-powered windmills, huge coral reefs and mountains and mountains of platforms.

The whole thing looks amazing, too, with the most realistic water ever seen in a video game and a near infinite draw distance. And that's without evening mentioning the rideable, fruit juice-spewing Yoshis, the extra water nozzles, the super-hardcore platform levels where Shadow Mario nicks your jet pack, or the goop-generating bosses who seem to live to make Princess Peach's laundry a nightmare.

After the sweet but rather short pleasures of Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin, you need have no fear that Mario Sunshine is of a similarly brief nature. There are a total of 120 shines to collect--the same number of stars as in Super Mario 64--and the game world is at least as large and far more interactive. This is without question the best game on the GameCube yet; that may be no more than you'd expect from a Mario game, but it's certainly more than most of us mere mortals deserve. --David Jenkins

GamesMaster Magazine
"Mario reclaims his crown as the king of the 3-D platform adventure. Your GameCube simply isn't complete without it. 95%."

Manufacturer's Description
Super Mario Sunshine will be a 3-D action/adventure game packed with classic Mario gameplay and plenty of new surprises. Developed under the watchful eye of Mario's legendary creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Super Mario Sunshine is destined to break new ground and give players a gaming experience unlike anything they've encountered before.

The storyline is much different than what you might expect. This time, things are much more complicated than simply rescuing Princess Peach from Bowser. The adventure starts when Mario and Peach decide to take a well-deserved vacation to a beautiful island in a remote location. Since the island is perpetually sunny and inhabited by friendly locals, it seemed like the perfect choice at first.

In typical fashion, though, poor Mario never gets a chance to relax. When he arrives on the island, he notices ugly scribble marks covering the walls throughout the community. What's worse, the person responsible for the scribbling has disguised himself to look just like Mario! Mario is falsely accused by the locals, so he decides to get to the bottom of things. Armed with a new water-pumping backpack, Mario sets out to clean up the scribbling and reveal the identity of the true villain.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic.
I won't go into details about the plot of this game, FLUDD or the occasionally problematic camera because you know all that from other reviews. This is a supremely polished game, no matter what anyone says. OK, there is the occasional texture that looks a bit N64 but does real life, on the whole, look as good as Super Mario Sunshine? No. It's the perfect extension of pure Nintendo escapism- a beautiful holiday island. Sliding flat on your belly down a chalk-white pathway drenched in the water spraying from a nearby fountain in Bianco Hills is the second most fun thing that can be done in the privacy on your bedroom. The first, of course, is pulling a giant squid's tentacles until he dives into a nearby harbour. Mario's movement is more bouncy than ever and he can kick his way up walls! The continuity on this game is excellent- you can see the complicated series of scaffolding in Ricco Harbour from Bianco Hills, for instance. Such is your belief in the immersive environment that you feel throughly disappointed when you hit an invisible wall, such as that in the middle of the sea. It's like the closing scene of The Truman Show- the realisation that there are still boundaries in Mario's world and a world beyond video games. Sorry if I'm getting a bit too philosophical but this game makes you get like that. So what's wrong with the game? Well, the Corona Mountain level is thoroughly short and feels rushed. It's linearity might be deliberate, though, on a par with the old-skool levels where FLUDD is taken away from you. There is too much repetition, like chasing Shadow Mario. And the warp pipes, while handy, mean that Ricco Harbour is easier than it could have been. But the water effects are wonderful, on a par with Wave Race: Bluestorm, and the game is alive with movement, such as birds that perch on the elasticated ropes and fly away when you come close. Just look up at the clouds in Delfino Plaza too- they are the PERFECT cartoon clouds, putting Disney to shame. Contrary to popular opinion, I also think that many of the tunes ARE memorable, especially those of Delfino Plaza and Pinna Park. Cutscenes and voice acting are largely ignored after the opening scenes too. Conker's Bad Fur Day was built around brilliantly funny cutscenes but, in fact, this game shows Mario doesn't need them quite as much. The amount of freedom you have is amazing and it is one of the main reasons why I love this game- it really is like being on holiday- you can work, rest or play. Fantastic Nintendo brilliance.

Still in the shadow of Mario 64
I bought this game thinking i was going to get the best gaming experience on any console. For the 1st week i truly thought I had found just that but the novelty began to wear off. Superb graphics and sound make this game very good indeed but a true classic needs more than just these 2 crudentials. As lots of other people said the camera can be a real pain in the neck as you usually find that your view is being blocked by a wall or other object.

The missions are very well thought of but very repetetive. For instance you have to race this little elf thing called piantisimo about 4 times which is annoying after a while and in the 1st level you have to defeat the same flower about 3 times. A very crafty way of adding missions me thinks.

Onto the good things now and there are indeed a few but not enough. The obstacle courses are very challenging and fun to play, you'll find yourself pulling your hair out at not being able to do one, i was. Some of the missions are fun and also very challenging (the balloon popping one being very annoying).

The game overall is quite good but far to short, i've had it for about 3 weeks now and already i'm onthe last level which is very short itself. I thought mario games just kept getting better but this one is a long way from being a true classic like Mario 64.

Excellent game! 9/10
I'm really annoyed. I'm annoyed at the fact that Sunshine has had some terrible reviews, causing its average score to plummet to an average 4 stars! First of all, the people who have given this game a 1,2 or 3 star review are not providing a lot of detail and aren't really conveying their opinions to the best of their ability- this automatically should cause their reviews to be ignored, and maybe even deleted.
Sunshine's an excellent game, offering beautiful sceneries and worlds, filled with lots of colour and water! The graphics are amazing, especially as it was released very early in the gamecube's lifespan. The water may very well be the most realistic looking water ever in videogames, and i'm not using the word "ever" in vein at all. It's wonderful and amazingly fun to splash about in the deep oceons that Sunshine provides, and also rewarding as you can find hidden treasures and mini-games, resulting in Shine Sprites! By the way, Shine Sprites are the new Stars, and they look so cool, believe me!
The game mechanics are similar to 64, except that this time around you have a new compadre, Fludd! This doesn't ruin the game at all, but merely improves it. For example, if your simply running around with mario, you could spray a bit of water in front of him and slide down the path with sprays of water rushing from mario's sides. This is both, fun and visually stunning. Sunshine offers everything you could want from a platformer. Cool, unique bosses, big and bright levels and simple controls. This results in a game that is, without a doubt the best platformer of this generation. I've played lots of platformers, jak and daxter (all of them), ratchet and clank (all three) and even that platformer on the xbox based around a stupid racoon. Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank are amazing games, flawless on the PS2, but compared to Sunshine they're nothing. I'm not a nintendo boy, but Sunshine is the best. I can understand people complaining about the fact that its worse than Mario 64, but be realistic, no game is going to have the same impact Mario 64 did, ever! Bottom line, this is the best this generation is going to offer when it comes to platformers. 9/10. It's not a 10 because the background characters are simply annoying, and because it's not mario 64;) Just give it a chance.