Genre: 3d Platformer
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

Super Mario Sunshine confirms the fact that the Gamecube is a little lacking in power compared to the X-box and PC. The textures lack detail and most areas are completely full-bright because of a dearth of dynamic lighting. The player models are only a hair more detailed than their N64 equivalents and so, in short, Mario Sunshine looks like a higher-resolution version of the 6 year-old Mario 64. The game does feature some nice water special effects, but is really unremarkable all around.

By my estimation, in the past 5 years, Nintendo's first-party soundtracks have been simply awful, starting with Paper Mario, resuming with Pikmin, and ending with Super Mario Sunshine. The music, both in melody and instrumentation, is straight out of the toddler cartoon "Rugrats", and is grating to say the least. The voice overs are just as dreadful. In short, this is one of the few games where I actually did mute the volume on more than one occasion while playing.

The game plays a lot like Mario 64 except for the addition of FLUDD, a mechanism oddly reminiscent of the back-pack device Luigi weilds in Luigi's Mansion. With this water spraying device, you can stun enemies and use one of a number of nozzles you unlock, which allow you to do things such as hover and shoot up in the air like a rocket. The controls themselves are ok, but it's the level design that really detracts; every level is almost exactly like the one before it. This certainly isn't the worst playing 3d platformer I've seen, but the level design leaves some room for improvement.

Mario 64 was one of the best games I have ever played, and remains the best 3d platformer of all time. With that said, Super Mario Sunshine is a huge let-down. Not only is it not even a quarter the game Mario 64 was, but even by ordinary platformer standards is only slightly above average. Some of the level objectives are fun, but this title has no variety in the map design, a remarkably cheesy plot, and controls mostly stripped straight from Mario 64, with zero innovation. In summary, Super Mario Sunshine is a solid platformer that is fun at times and has time-tested controls, but the lackluster level design and cheesy plot could have used some work-- disappointing given the pedigree of the franchise.