Four frustrating takeaways from the reissued Super Mario Sunshine

Its not a bad game, but its not great neither. Also I have no nostalgia for it, I was in college during this era and I had no console until Wii U cam out. SMS feels like a bunch of minigames that were meant to show how awesome 3D and solid/fluid mechanics were sorted out by the NGC, not a Mario game.<br /> <br /> OK, we have come a long way from there. Then there is no excuse to not address some of the issues. Put checkpoints. give infinite lives, add clear descriptions on what you need to do on each level, fix the camera, add motion controls to FLUDD, etc. Admittedly Sunshine was rushed. OK. Well, Nintendo was not rush for the re-release, so they just got lazy.<br /> <br /> As others mention, Sunshine did a lot of things right, but the mistakes outshine the good parts. I certainly didn't enjoy it. I had to finish it because I won't give my opinion on a game I didn't complete.

Great article. I don't have the time to practice getting good at a Mario game, and I definitely don't want to pay to be punished (That's what Dark Souls and life are for). If I want to play a Mario game, it's because I want to have, like, actual fun. This article prevented me from splurge buying a game I was interested in but wouldn't really enjoy, which meant it provided a good service. Have fun spending hours getting good at a kids game and bragging about it for meaningless internet points, playas.

Hey, people in the comments! Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!<br /> <br /> This article is subjective and represents a number of issues present for many people in the original Sunshine. It's fine to disagree if Sunshine was a brighter experience for you. <br /> <br /> It does generally take time to adjust to the Pro Controller or Joy-Cons and feels less intuitive than the Gamecube controller when spraying water among other things. I also struggled a bit to properly aim despite 100%ing the original. Also worth mentioning is that this is more about personal reflections playing the original as a kid vs now as an adult and less about how the game has changed between releases.<br /> <br /> Jon also really likes the game and is just being critical. The last paragraph is high praise: <br /> <br /> "Despite all of my grievances, SMS is not a bad game. In fact, it's great, and an insightful look at the progression of 3D Mario, which rebounded with the phenomenal Super Mario Galaxy. It's just a great game with an asterisk – greatness in spite of, not because of, its flaws.

I literally made an account just to say this. I saw this post and the title caught my attention so I read it. I disagree with everything you said above, the game was so easy especially since I played the original as a kid. I had no problems with the controls, I had no issues controlling the camera or aiming fludd. Like the other comments say below you're just blaming the game for your lack of skills. That's all thanks for reading my comment.

Sounds like the author needs to get good

Jon... this is just embarrassing man. Should be retitled "I'm salty about how bad I am at a 20 year old game - here's some excuses." When I saw the first twitter video clip, I thought 'ok, maybe he just didn't understand this Sprite. You just climb the grate and shoot fludd through it to flip the platforms - no hovering or camera movement required.' But as I read on it was clear you just had no idea what you were doing and took it out on the game itself. For example, you apparently went went the wrong way in Noki Bay and got punished for it like in Jared's clip, but you somehow blame that on the controls??? Am I missing something? And the Manta Ray clip - just wait until they swarm you and hover above them, killing them all while you're safely floating above them. I'm honestly at a total loss after finishing this article. It's like people who say Dark Souls isn't good just because it's difficult... except this isn't a fraction as difficult. As other commenters have already noted: don't be salty, Jon, just git gud.

The only level that's truly broken is the pachinko machine. Even the Lily pad level is doable with patience and walking back to the start for multiple passes. The controls and the way Mario handles is much tighter and faster in sunshine than any other game in the franchise. The camera is much more restrictive in Galaxy and 64 than it is in sunshine. And the secret levels provide a nice platforming challenge that you can't just hover over for a change. The Grandmaster Galaxy and Darker Side of the Moon are much harder than any individual level in Sunshine.<br /> Just git gud.

Agreed with all the other comments that say what I was planning on. Bad article, learn more about the game. What about the controls are messy? the controls including turn radius in sunshine are the tightest in the franchise and the secret levels are a testament to that. <br /> your complaints about the camera are only valid in a handful of locations. <br /> Your complaints about aiming the squirt nozzle are true for the first person and running sprays, but 90% of the places you need to shoot something you can jump and press R+A to shoot a shotgun blast of water, which does the same shit, and I didn't see you talk about it, so I'm gonna assume you didn't know you could.<br /> Your complaint about the beginner trap in Noki bay is one of the only remaining ones, and that just comes off as a nitpick and the rest of the article - like the jab at the irrelevant storyline - is just tainted with enough disdain to make it an entire opinion.<br /> There are things about the game that are not perfect. You could complain about the voiceover, it has aged really poorly. You could complain about the mostly underwhelming and religiously formulaic bosses. You could complain about the reduced number of levels compared to 64 in favor of the blue coin collectathon. You could talk about the narrative structure of the shines forcing the player into typically completing them in a certain order, minus a few very specific exceptions. You could talk about the rerelease itself having a worse framerate than the original in many areas. If you want to complain about controls, bring up the god forsaken squirt gun sections where you move a leaf or a boat. But for the love of christ man don't complain about the platforming. You complained about effectively zero valid things in this article for the sake of being edgy. Learn to play.

My guy you are not only an awful journalist you’re a terrible gamer. Did you really just publish an article bashing a game that has been around for decades with Twitter vids of your failures? Do you realize Mario all stars is not a remaster? All the clunks and wonkiness was intentionally not changed. Go back to school you muffin you don’t have any business being a journalist.

Instead of spending the time to write this, maybe you should have practiced the game. I blew through and have 85 sprites right now and I started 6 days ago. You unfortunately just suck. Controls are easy and smooth, jumping is a cinch, and the secret levels are the best part of the game. You want an easy game? Play animal crossing.

I don't say this often, and I hate to tell you this but.. if you truly struggle with any of these, you kinda just suck at the game. I went from playing SM64 and fighting with the controls every step of the way.. to playing Sunshine. I then went to Galaxy, and back to finish up Sunshine. The controls felt every bit as good as Galaxy and the camera was much better. There are maybe 3 brief parts that are poorly designed on the camera, but the game controls incredibly well even by today's standards on 3D platformers. You want proof? Go play A Hat in Time or Yooka Laylee for some recent, AWFUL camera controls.

All of these takeaways were present in the original game... I dont know how people didnt notice the wonky camera angles at the ferris wheel and the secret levels. The glove in the noki bay ruins has always been there as well. Just don't go into that hole.