---
layout: post.html
title: The Shadow Behind Mario Sunshine
date-written: 12 February 2024
---

Super Mario Sunshine is loved by a lot of people. However, the game has several problems. I could write a whole novel about this topic, but I'll try to condense my thoughts into this blog post.

## Blue Coins

There are exactly 240 blue coins scattered across Delfino Island, but almost none of them are enjoyable to collect. The gameplay pauses every time you collect a blue coin so that you can save your progress.

There is a shop where you can trade 10 blue coins for a shine. I would have been less redundant to just have the shine spawn immediately upon collecting the 10th blue coin. Perhaps Nintendo had more planned for this shop.

In my opinion, the game would have been fine without the blue coins. Imagine if Super Mario Bros. had random blue coins placed in blocks. While it might've incentivize players to hit more blocks, it sounds far more tedious than fun.

## 100-Coin Shines

In Super Mario 64, you can't collect the 100-coin star in Jolly Roger Bay on episode 1. Otherwise, collecting a 100-coin star is always possible.

In Super Mario Sunshine, almost every stage requires you to be on a specific episode. Otherwise, there won't even be 100 coins in the stage to collect.

## Some Other Bad Shines

### Yoshi's Fruit Adventure

You need a random fruit to hatch Yoshi, and the fruit spawner is RNG. 

### The Watermelon Festival

This shine is tedious. Many players have nightmares of popping the melon close to the end. Luckily, there's a way to clip into the roof and collect the shine, although this is not intended.

### Red Coins in the Hotel

I recall this particular shine being challenging due to the scattered placement of the red coins. The stage would have been much better without the time limit for completing it.

### Pachinko Game

The game gives you an artificial rightward force when you're in the machine. This force is only applied in the air, but it gets stored when you're on the ground. Nintendo must've lacked the time to make this force feel natural.

### Lily Pad Ride

Firstly, you have to endure a 2-minute boat ride with Yoshi just to reach the stage. Then, you have to control a lily pad on a poisonous river and collect 8 red coins. The flow of the river prevents you from going back and getting a red coin you missed. If you game over, you have to repeat the boat ride.

## How Did This Happen?

Nintendo likely felt the need to rush this game's development to compete with the Playstation 2.

You may have noticed that everything that I have mentioned so far is not necessary to beat the game. In Super Mario 64, there isn't a specific star you have to collect. What matters is how many stars you collect. 

To unlock Corona Mountain in Super Mario Sunshine, you need to collect the 7th shine of every main stage (and every shine needed to access the 7th episode). Everything else is a side objective that doesn't have to be polished.

## Other Garbage Features

### Reused Bosses

Having three Gooper Blooper fights in the game feels unnecessary. The Gatekeeper bosses are also repetitive.

### Blooper Racers

There are three options for blooper racers: Easy, medium, and hard. However, they all swim at the same speed. The only difference is their handling. It begs the question of why the options were included if there's no benefit to the harder options.

### Inconsistent Flip Gate Controls

From the side, you press B to flip and A to jump off. From below, you press A to flip and B to let go. It would have been helpful if the game indicated which button to press in each situation.

### Chucksters

The angle at which the chucksters throw you is based on your position in relation to the chuckster. This makes aiming unreasonably difficult.

### Durians

Durians are the only fruits that you cannot hold. Instead, you have to kick them, which can be more challenging than kicking a durian in real life. You need to kick durians for a blue coin and occasionally to hatch Yoshi.

### 30 FPS

The game was originally planned to run at 60 FPS, but Nintendo opted for 30 FPS due to challenges with optimizing certain areas of the game at the last minute. Lame.

## Final Notes

There is an excellent video by Ceave Gaming that explains a lot of Sunshine's issues. I recommend watching it [here](https://yt.chaotic.ninja/watch?v=FnzKUwDLP8A).

Additionally, there's a romhack called [Super Mario Sunburn](https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5302/) that addresses many of the game's problems. While it doesn't fix everything and introduces some unnecessary features, it still provides a better overall experience than the original game.
