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Mario's GBA Luigi Team-Up, Sunshine Revisited

Posted by simoniker on from the best-buddies-forever dept.

Thanks to GamerFeed for their impressions of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for GameBoy Advance, as they explore the November-due turn-based handheld RPG, suggesting: "Anyone who has played Super Mario RPG or Paper Mario should find themselves right at home with Mario & Luigi", and claiming it's "shaping up to be one of the best RPGs on a Nintendo console to date." Nintendophiles also have hands-on impressions of Mario & Luigi, but also take the opportunity to look back on Super Mario Sunshine, over a year after release. Opinions on this GameCube flagship title range from "Mario Sunshine will not be remembered like other Mario titles on past Nintendo systems", to "It took everything Mario 64 did, and went one step further with it" - but overall, they conclude it's not a 'classic'.

13 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. real life effects by notanatheist · · Score: 3, Funny

    If playing shoot 'em up games inspires children to shoot cars will Mario inspire kids to eat 'shrooms? Do we really need another flower power era? It's also inhumane to throw turtles around! Whatever is this world coming to.

  2. I know opinions are subjective and all. . . by Alaric42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    . . . But this guy's Sunshine retrospective took a huge credibility dive when he called Yoshi's Island ridiculous with no other explanation than the graphical style, then followed it up with a lame disclaimer about how he doesn't have anything against kiddy games. Unless I've been reading in all the wrong places, it's rather widely acclaimed as one of the most solid platformers on the system, and the optional Red Coin/Star/Flower collection to unlock bonus levels added replay value and a type of added difficulty level that an Easy/Medium/Difficult toggle could never provide.

    1. Re:I know opinions are subjective and all. . . by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      " But this guy's Sunshine retrospective took a huge credibility dive when he called Yoshi's Island ridiculous with no other explanation than the graphical style, then followed it up with a lame disclaimer about how he doesn't have anything against kiddy games."

      Seems like he's entirely missed the point of both games. I didn't really appreciate Yoshi's Island until I got it for my GBA. What made that game fun was that it constantly threw new challenges at you that you really kind of had to think your way through. Not so much puzzle type of challenges, but challenges that tested your control over the game. Yoshi's Island was brilliant for that.

      And you know what? Mario Sunshine was too. It was so much richer in so many ways. Was Sunshine to Mario 64 the same as Mario 64 to SMW? No. Still exciting none the less. (I do agree with his comments about the camera in SMS causing problems, ran into that myself.)

      If somebody's in a bad mood, I could see ripping Sunshine apart. But for somebody who sits down waiting to enjoy themselves, it really does pack quite a bit of fun in there. The addition of the water pump was brilliant. You really have to think to beat some of those challenges.

      Okay, I'm done defending Sunshine. Not sure why I posted this. I usually get negative responses where people have oversimplified the game and try to tell me it's just like M64.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:I know opinions are subjective and all. . . by CashCarSTAR · · Score: 1

      Agreed completly. Calling Yoshi's Island "ridicilous" completly ruined all credibility. YI is maybe the best 2d platformer of all time, (along with SMB 3)..there are problems with the game. The sound of Mario crying is horrid. But other than that, it's the masterwork of 2d platformers.

      SMS is a lot of fun. I loved the "hyper stages". In fact, that was my favorite part. The game was NOT too easy. The last boss was too easy (the last boss in pretty much every mario game is very easy 'tho). However, trying to get 120 Shines is not easy at all. There are some very difficult challenges in there.

  3. Paper cuts make me happy. by chadlnx · · Score: 1

    I'm glad to see Mario and Luigi is shaping up nicely. I really look forward to Paper Mario coming to the GameCube.

    I have always been a "casual RPG fan" (Legend Of Zelda) Super Mario RPG). I really thought Paper Mario was the perfect sequel to the mario RPG series and it looks like Mario and Luigi will take that mindset and run with it.

    As for Mario Sunshine, I really enjoyed the gameplay on isle delphino and the fact that you could ride yoshi in 3d. However, I quickly got aggrivated with the multiple hyper platform stages. After a handfull of them they seemed to be the filler of the game and actually dragged down the personality of the game for me. I have faith that Miyamoto's Mario 128 project will be the classic next-gen Mario game we all hoped for.

  4. Far too easy? by M3wThr33 · · Score: 1

    Wow, I haven't completed SMS yet(About 40%), although I'm not that dedicated, but getting every star is hardly an easy task. Don't these reviewers ever think that it's been 5 years since SM64 and they've played so many games that there's no more challenge left? It takes a smart person to seperate himself from his opinions and consider what the public believes. Like it or not, it's the second best seller on the GameCube, below SSBM and above Wind Waker.

    1. Re:Far too easy? by prockcore · · Score: 1

      Wow, I haven't completed SMS yet(About 40%), although I'm not that dedicated, but getting every star is hardly an easy task. Don't these reviewers ever think that it's been 5 years since SM64 and they've played so many games that there's no more challenge left?

      I have to agree with you on this. I'm getting sick of all these reviewers labelling every damn game as "too easy". I've beat every mario game in existence, except for SMS.

      SMB3 is often called the best mario game ever, and yet it's a cakewalk compared to SMS. But these reviewers would never admit it because to call a game hard would insult their manhood or something.

    2. Re:Far too easy? by M3wThr33 · · Score: 1

      The only games I've recently heard people mention a high level of difficulty on is Mega Man Battle Network and Ikaruga, both GCN-Only(God bless Dreamcast) games.

  5. SMS and myself by Metroid72 · · Score: 1

    I bought Super Mario Sunshine and looked at the intro, played a few minutes and stopped.

    It's been sitting on its case for over a year. I'm pretty sure it's a good game, but it really hasn't done it for me for a year. We'll see what happens in the future.

    I think Resident Evil zero is going to have the same fate. The controls aren't really good.

    No complains about other games though.

    Currently suffering on F-Zero's "Rescue Jody" story mode chapter"

    1. Re:SMS and myself by the_riaa · · Score: 1
      I bought Super Mario Sunshine and looked at the intro, played a few minutes and stopped. It's been sitting on its case for over a year. I'm pretty sure it's a good game, but it really hasn't done it for me for a year. We'll see what happens in the future.

      I did the same thing, except in reverse, when I got my Gamecube. I only played Mario Sunshine, and left Metroid Prime sitting in its box. One day, I gave Prime a shot, and all I remember about the next week was using every free minute I had to romp through Tallon, killing everything that stood in my way.
      Mario Sunshine is good, but it just didn't have the fun factor that Mario 64 had for me. Even collecting 120 stars on M64 is a whole hell of a lot more fun than getting 120 shines in Sunshine.
      My biggest problem with Sunshine is the blatant patterns that every single level seems to follow. There's a cross the whole level to fight a big boss stage, a obstacle course/maze, a Shadow Mario chase, red coin hunt, some sort of race/action sequence - and every single time those repeated, I just found myself saying "Oh great. Another damned obstacle course. Original."
      Mario 64 was at least original in its levels. Though yes, there were the typical red coin hunt and the oh-too-familiar "venture to the top of the mountain/level" stars, Nintendo at least made it fun. Sunshine is a decent game, but the bar set by previous Mario titles make it look like somewhat of a failure. I guess that's how Miyamoto felt too, as he's said before that the next Mario game will be the one he really wanted to make, getting back to the M64 roots.
      --
      The Kingdom of Retarsia
  6. I'll remember SMS...as the worst Mario ever..... by HomerJ · · Score: 1

    The game was nearly impossible to have fun with. The play control just KILLED any chance of fun with the game. The damned camera would just move around at will dispite you having control over it. and the movement on the stick was based on the view. So nothing was worse they trying to walljump, and falling off because the camera decided to move.

    And to anyone that's played it a while, I don't have to mention the level that took you behind the ferris wheel. It gave you the chose of two views, behind a wall, and behind a fence. I finnished the level by sheer luck. It also cost me a contoler, when I almost got past it, the camera changed to behind the wall, and I fell off. I ended up just tossing the controler into the fireplace...

    That little water pack to float a little? The bad play control is why it was there..The jumps would have been impossible unless you had a way to correct the movement in midair. And sometimes that wasn't even enough.

    The only part of the game that was remotely fun were the "classic" hidden levels, which really took the old gaming experience into 3D. If the game was those alone, THEN it would have been a true classic.

    As it stands now, it's not a classic, but WILL be remembered for being one of the worst Mario games of the series. I celebrated finishing it(by the way, the WORST Bowser fight ever), by tossing the game into the side of my house. Damn thing didn't even break correctly eaither, just cracked....

  7. My Sunshine Experience by BTWR · · Score: 1

    I bought SMS when i got my gamecube, and i played a level or two and was like "This isn't Mario 64, this sucks!"

    Now, a year later, I hadn't gotten through ANY of my gamcube games (I have 17). I kept getting too many, played each for a week, then went to a new game. (I got 45% through Metroid and stopped for 6 months - i have to restart now cuz i dont know where anything is).

    Flash forward to this summer, I decided to adopt a new strategy: Play each game until i beat it. I've gotten 46 shines in Mario Sunshine and I have to say it's one of the funnest games I've played in a long time. How do I know? because not only are the boards so well designed, but when i beat a challenging level, there is SUCH a satisfaction, like when you first beat level 8-2 or 8-3 in the original super mario bros. Oh, and yes, the retro levels are amazing. Truly, as one person said, Mario for adults. No WAY a 5 year old can beat some of those...

    Overall, and EXCELLENT game. Up there with SM64 (but sm64 wins by being so original)

  8. Best rpg on a nintendo console yet? by evilhayama · · Score: 1

    That's a HUGE call. Final fantasy 6? Chrono Trigger? I'd be very surprised if this game beat either of those for timeless greatness. If you restrict it to the GBA there's still Golden Sun, FFTA, Seiken Densetsu... It will probably be good, but the greatest?