We can always count on Nintendo to bring us something innovative when it comes to how we play a Mario game. Whether it's introducing a green dinosaur that you can ride or the purple mushroom that hurts you, a new Mario game always means new ideas.
Super Mario Bros 3 is one that I don't need to talk about. You all know of the awesomeness. Likewise with Super Mario World. And then onto the exciting world of 3 dimensions, Super Mario 64, another excellent game for many well-known reasons.
I picked up Super Mario Sunshine a while ago, expecting the Gamecube equivalent of Mario 64 or Super Mario World.
It's not a terrible game. But it doesn't seem "Mario" to me. The water tank with its various attatchments and uses seems like it should be a power-up, similar to a Mushroom or Leaf (in SMB3). It doesn't seem very Mario that you are required to carry a weird gadget with you, all the time (except when getting a "Secret of the..." Shine Sprite, and usually it would come in handy for those).
As well, the characters on the island with Mario don't belong in a Mario game. I've forgotten what they're called, the fat guys with the big noses that inhabit the island. But you can talk to just about all of them, and that doesn't fit much in a Mario game, either, unless you're talking Mario is Missing. Think back to Mario 64. When did you talk to people? You'd run into Toad every now and then, and he'd tell you something, and that was it. Mario games have always been able to be super fun and big part of that was not having to concern yourself with dialogue. I don't mind reading dialogue (I'm a huge classic FF fan, so I like that sort of thing), but I don't like it in my Mario games.
I guess the actual gameplay itself is pretty fun, and really challenging at times, but I think they could've put the game together in a better way.
I'm sure that someone will remind me that I said Mario games always bring out something new. And then they may ask why I'd complain about the game featuring a great deal of dialogue, which is something new for the Mario games. And I'll tell you why.
There are certain traits that have always defined Mario games. In SMB3, he gets a leaf which makes him grow a tail and enables him to fly. In SMW, he get a feather which gives him a cape and enables him to fly. In Mario 64, he can put on a Wing Cap which enables him to fly. So while those three games are different from one another, and they all offer something new, they have enough in common to develop some staples of the games which makes Mario games unique from other games, yet at the same time different from one another.
Super Mario Sunshine just seemed too new and different. It was a whole breed of game that didn't quite fit as the follow up to SM64.
I may have liked SMSunshine a lot more had it not been a Mario game, because then I wouldn't have gotten into with certain expectations that have always been met by other Mario games.
Here's hoping for Super Mario Galaxy, which looks promising.
By the way, did anyone else die SEVERAL times on almost all of the "Secret of the..." levels before finally getting it?
I'll have to agree on that one. Most of the Secret red coins are somewhat tough and I'll be falling over and over because that one platform moved over and... yeah.
It's funny, because we should be used to those kind of stages since Mario 64, but then you had that jet pack to save your butt. Since it's gone now, I would find myself hitting R, just to remember it's gone. I lost a few times because of the timer (which reminds me, just how the heck does time reaching 0 INSTANTLY sap the life from Mario?)
But for the game overall, it took me awhile to realize it wasn't the same as I'd be used to. Actually I really didn't care (they even gave Bowser a voice... I mean woah...)