Born for Wii: Mario Sunshine

by Wesley Fenlon { Jan 6th 2009 at 12:00PM }

Now that 2008 is tightly packed away into our memories and the glorious new year is unfolding before our very eyes, we're caught between looking backwards at what 2008 imparted upon us and anticipating what 2009 has to offer. Even though Born for Wii is all about looking backwards, it's hard not to be excited about what this year is bringing to the Wii: in just a couple months, the New Play Control version of Pikmin will be hitting the States, and it will be good times. But we've still got awhile to wait until then, and this week we're highlighting a sorely underappreciated Nintendo game of last generation: Super Mario Sunshine.

Mario Sunshine was released in 2002 as the first real successor to the groundbreaking Mario 64, and it was clear from the beginning that things were going to be a little different. For starters, Mario was on vacation on a tropical island, and soon found himself equipped with a water pack for cleaning up sludge. Though it was generally well-reviewed, Mario Sunshine has since become somewhat of a whipping boy in the fan community, and many claim that it didn't live up to groundbreaking pedigree Mario 64 established years earlier. Mario Galaxy managed to exceed its predecessors in virtually every way possible, but in the end, Sunshine still has things worth going back for. The wonderful tropical locale, the FLUDD-less levels, and some fun water pack puzzles all made Mario Sunshine a worthwhile endeavor, and a New Play Control version would give Nintendo the chance to polish its shortcomings and give Mario the vacation he deserved.

NEXT >>

Gallery: Born for Wii: Mario Sunshine

Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, NBA Jam, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

Tags: born-for-wii, gamecube, joystiqfeatures, mario, mario-sunshine, platformer, port, super-mario, super-mario-sunshine

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Adolph @ Jan 6th 2009 1:20PM

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy Sunshine and I do think its a great game.

However compared to the amazing Super Mario Galaxy...

i rather not revisit sunshine. it might be a little more fun with IR controls, but still why go backward.

Shoeboy @ Jan 6th 2009 1:20PM

IF they do this game... then PLEASE, PLEASE make it cooler? The game was painful to play through for anyone over 9 years old.

MowDownJoe @ Jan 6th 2009 1:38PM

It wasn't painful to me.

...Well, except for hunting for Blue Coins when going for all 120 shines. *shudder*

Shoeboy @ Jan 6th 2009 1:50PM

The characters are too cute, the cuteness is too much for me. Same goes for Super Mario Galaxy & Super Monkey Ball games.

Too cute!

SoshiKitai @ Jan 6th 2009 2:08PM

Originally, I was kinda' offended by how you put it.

But now that I think about it, Mario was never cute before... (unless you thought the Goomba and Koopa were cute)
It just happened to turn out that way after they upped the 3D graphics. It seemed the most fitting after they rounded out all the blocky 3D of Mario 64.

I could see why it's embarrassing or annoying for people who happen to dislike "cute".

But no matter what your pleas, Nintendo's most likely never going to change the character designs for a game that has already been released.
...the most you could do is wait for a new Mario game and hope for the best.

Shoeboy @ Jan 6th 2009 2:28PM

I wish they'd get away from the cuteness factor. I think the 1 thing that holds back titles like Mario Sunshine and Mario Galaxy is that people find the games to be too cute.

Let's think back to the big hitters of the Super Mario Series. I'm listing only the ones that I think weren't too cute. Guess what? All huge sellers:
Super Mario Bros 1, 2, 3
Super Mario Land 1, 2, 3
Super Mario World 1
Super Mario 64
New Super Mario Bros

These 3 title's were too cute, hench the lower sales:
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (Also annoying)
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Mario Galaxy

I can't even get my girlfriend to play something this cute. She begs for some Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, GTA, Grand Turismo, Star Wars Unleashed, etc...

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed all these games, they were all challengin, it just gets annoying when 10 years tell me this game is lame. WTF?

PJH @ Jan 6th 2009 1:50PM

I would rather see a sequel to this game. Galaxy was pretty good, but I personally thought this game was much better, and the replay value has lasted for years. I can't say the same about Galaxy and 64.

Drdude12472 @ Feb 22nd 2009 6:56AM

Also, did anyone else find Mario Galaxy way too easy? Sunshine took me 6 months, Galaxy took me 4 weeks. That's with Mario, Luigi, and bonus level. Maybe my skills have improved, but it seems to have been dumbed down for new gamers. Just my take. The Mecha Bowser funfair fight is still my favourite boss fight ever (well, maybe tied with Quadraxis). Bring back Mario Sunshine!

LokeSTL @ Jan 6th 2009 1:59PM

As long as we're on the subject of "New Play Control", I want a Wii version of Ocarina of Time with widescreen and new progressive scan. A "NPC" version of Crystal Chronicles would be awesome too. They also need to speed up the Metroids so I can get my hands on them!

Shoeboy @ Jan 6th 2009 2:31PM

I'm all for for a new Metroid. Especially if they include other hunters and multi player online (death matches, CTF, etc...)

And please no more friend codes!

LokeSTL @ Jan 6th 2009 2:43PM

I was actually refering to Metroid Prime 1 & 2 which are already in developement for Wii "New Play Control" versions. But, a new Metroid is most welcome also. In that case, I would hope for a return to the 3rd person perspective. I like to see Samus while playing her.

Danny @ Jan 6th 2009 2:12PM

The wii remote would make shooting the water gun a lot easier, which would make the game way more fun.

GHU.weebly.com

maduin @ Jan 6th 2009 2:54PM

I've always thought that what we now know as the Wii Remote was originally intended to be released with Super Mario Sunshine. As the hype train gathered speed for SMS, Miyamoto and company always hinted at a revolutionary new feature that they wouldn't reveal too early because they knew that every developer would copy the idea.

Then we found out that it was FLUDD and we were all like "what the hell, that's it?". Perhaps the Wii Remote, originally intended as a GameCube addon, was meant to be a pack-in with SMS, but that never happened, perhaps due to the R and D being too early in the research phase.

Long before the Wii was announced, developers were introduced to early prototypes of the Wii Remote to possibly integrate the new technology into GameCube games.

Okami was probably originally going to be "Freehand Controller" game, but the the addon was dropped and the game moved to the PS2. Nintendo probably wanted many first party games to be "Freehand" compatible, such as Wind Waker and it's baton movements, Pikmin of course, and Metroid Prime, just to name a few.

I've always thought that the Wii is what the GameCube was originally intended to be and the revolutionary idea was just a little ahead of it's time at the start of the century.

Gewurz Man got equipped with... XBox 360! @ Jan 6th 2009 6:48PM

I've always enjoyed Sunshine for exactly what it was. Despite the stereotypical dismissal of Sunshine as a sub-par sequel to Mario 64, I always felt it was actually better than Mario 64. But maybe that's because I didn't get an N64 until after getting a GameCube.

Anyway, I don't know if Wii controls would make people like the game more or less. While Pikmin with new controls has me interested, a Wii-remake of Sunshine would not. I like the GCN controller for the game just as it is.

TwEE @ Jan 6th 2009 7:38PM

Mario sunshine is a great game, not enough variety in the stages and the collecting bits sucked, but I think I got more use out of it then Galaxy.

aang1818 @ Jan 6th 2009 9:26PM

Sunshine doesn't get nearly enough credit, it's just as good as Galaxy in many ways. In my book it surpasses Galaxy just because Galaxy's "auto camera" is the worst camera system in any of Mario's games to date, making exploration a chore and underwater levels virtually unplayable.

koolzero @ Jan 7th 2009 8:33AM

I still enjoy Mario Sunshine better than Galaxy. Galaxy was fun, but I just thought premise of it was kind of stupid, I could believe Mario going on a vacation more than I could of Mario flying around in space.

To me the levels seemed much larger in sunshine, and I thought the idea of the FLUDD added a new spin on the series. Galaxy didn't seem to offer me much new, other than turning into a bumble bee, and Ice Mario and ice skating around and being able to run around the planets as it rotated was cool.

Being able to hoover with in Sunshine was a blast, and I enjoyed spraying the ground to clean up the goo. It could be a nice born on wii addition, but doubt I would buy it since I have the GC one, unless they added some new features that would warrant it.

Drdude12472 @ Feb 22nd 2009 6:45AM

Not only was Sunshine the first gamecube game I owned, it was the first video game I ever played. It made me into a Nintendo fan, and stunned me. The graphics were amazing, sound great and the locations actually made me say wow on more than one occasion. Brilliant, and I'd definitely go back and buy a Wii version.