115 replies to this topic

[SL the Pyro]

I rather liked Super Mario Sunshine, too. There WERE some things that were so tedious they made me cry out in rage, though...

Example: Pianta Village, Mission 8. After collecting all of the Red Coins and getting the Shine Sprite to finally appear, I say, "WHY IS IT ALL THE WAY OVER ON THAT CLOUD!?" Incidentally, I died no less than three times just trying to land on the damned pile of white fluff because I couldn't see where I was dropping. I finally smartened up and grabbed a rocket nozzle to countermand this.

But angst aside, I did like the times when -- as Yahtzee puts it -- the programmers take that asinine water pistol away and leave you navigate a set of colourful platforms floating in a bleak, empty void. It's about as good as 3D platforming can get.

[Raien]

I can remember when I first got Super Mario Sunshine. On the birthday where I got my Gamecube, I went into town with friends and saw Super Mario Sunshine on the shelves. The game had been released two days earlier and I didn't even know it existed until that point. So we rushed home to play it and... meh. We thought it was good, but I certainly couldn't help feeling underwhelmed.

Of course, the game didn't really start sucking until Shadow Mario was revealed to be Bowser Jr. That, for me, stands as one of the worst video game moments I've ever personally experienced. "Leave my mama alone, you bad man!" is a line I'd expect to hear in a crappy cartoon adaptation, not from Nintendo's biggest video game franchise.

Edited by Raien, 22 November 2009 - 08:43 PM.

[SteveT]

Silly Raien, plots are for books.

[Raien]

Silly Raien, plots are for books.

Hah!

[D~N]

Here's Sunshine summarized:

-Goof around in the awesome Hub-world.
-enter tropical world "x," collect some fruit or w/e, get shine.
-repeat

-alternate ending: enter awesome-fun-world and lose your jet pack for bad-ass platforming.

Galaxy is summarized as follows:

-no fooling around, get right down to business.
-enter a world; this world can be anything. Bees, boos, lava, tropical, classical, desert, etc.!
-complete a unique challenge. Get star.
-enter ANOTHER unique world, this time you're upside down! get a star!
-enter ANOTHER!!! unique world - this time you're in a bubble! get a star!

the list goes on. there's no repeating: every world was unique. In sunshine, I was bored of the tropical theme by world 2. The only thing that saved that game was the platforming-in-space levels. Those were awesome...and they remind me of...oh yeah, Mario galaxy.

Galaxy was a better game in this regard: much more variation.

[Masamune]

On the other hand, I didn't care for the platforming-in-space levels, which has a lot to do with why I don't like Galaxy. The omission of FLUDD, which solved a lot of the problems I have with 3D platformers, was removed. I realize the character FLUDD was unpopular, but its function was pretty important. It's the same problem I have with Mario Kart Wii. They got rid of a new feature (double racers) and went backwards with the formula, rather than building on it. Just because Sunshine and Double Dash were not incredibly popular does not mean that their 'gimmicks' were bad and shouldn't be revisited. I hate seeing a series go backwards. It's why New Super Mario Bros. Wii is so much better than the original New Super Mario Bros.

[D~N]

but they replaced the FLUDD with a much more natural mechanic: the spin! It's natural, it's incorporated perfectly, and it makes more sense than a water pack. And it serves the same purpose - get that extra little bit of height, change the direction of your jump mid-jump, etc. It made sense to drop the jet pack in favor of the spin.

[Raien]

Just because Sunshine and Double Dash were not incredibly popular does not mean that their 'gimmicks' were bad and shouldn't be revisited.

It depends on whether those gimmicks contributed to the lack of popularity. Personally, I fucking hated the double racer mechanic and was glad to see the back of it. Likewise, FLUDD was widely seen as unintuitive and needlessly complicated what is normally seen as a simple and accessible series that anyone can jump in and understand how to play.

Edited by Raien, 22 November 2009 - 10:59 PM.

[Mad Scrub]

Yeah I hated Double Dash too. The voice acting in SMS was pretty bad, especially Bowser. He sounded like something out of a Hanna Barbera cartoon. And the final battle was shit.

[Sir Turtlelot]

I actually liked the ability to be two characters in Double Dash, I thought it was kinda cool.

[Showsni]

You got fed up of all the levels being tropical island themed? I didn't even really notice... I guess SMS was my first 3D Mario game, but I liked it a lot. I don't really feel that Galaxy was better than it...

Maybe if you'd played Mario 64 first you'd expect a lot of different themed worlds, and I didn't have that expectation? Still, there's a theme park, beach, hotel, village, cove, etc...

[Raien]

I personally didn't have a big problem with the themes in Super Mario Sunshine. The problem for me was that platforming with FLUDD wasn't fun, and the tasks for getting Shines were often boring. Finding a fruit for Yoshi or kicking a melon from one area of a stage to another does not compare to the original platforming stages in Galaxy that were designed to throw different ideas at you at every stage of the journey.

[SL the Pyro]

Argh, that's my main grievance with SMS. The Yoshis were taken completely out of context; they can't throw eggs, they regurgitate fruit juice and -- my personal favorite -- THEY CAN'T SWIM. Yoshi was so pitiful in SMS that he might as well have been cut.

[Masamune]

Yoshi seems to suffer from constantly getting gimped. I think it's because Yoshi was so cheap in Super Mario World, that subsequent games have tried to 'control' Yoshi usage. Even Super Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros. Wii only give you limited access to Yoshi.

[Steel Samurai]

In other news, this thread actually inspired me to go play a bit on galaxy. Just one observatory left and I can power up the engine!

How many stars are there, total?

[Raien]

How many stars are there, total?

120, although if you collect them all with both Mario and Luigi, an extra star appears for both characters in the Trial Galaxies area.

[SL the Pyro]

That reminds me that I still have to do my Luigi run. I've collected all 121 stars with Mario, but I don't think I've even started with Mr. L yet.

[Raien]

That reminds me that I still have to do my Luigi run. I've collected all 121 stars with Mario, but I don't think I've even started with Mr. L yet.

Can you collect the 121st star before collecting all 120 with Luigi? I'm pretty sure the secret area where this star appears is not unlocked until you've beaten the game with Luigi.

Edited by Raien, 25 November 2009 - 09:39 AM.

[D~N]

Just beat Bowser in NSMBwii.

EPIC BOSS BATTLE IS EPIC! Oh man, was that fun! Music was badass too! This game is just packed with fun. =)

[Showsni]

I'm only on World Two still. But then, I've been spending all my time on the new Tales of Symphonia game that came out a week and a half ago...

[Masamune]

I've been collecting Star Coins personally. I've got everything from World 1-5, so I'm almost there. I've played around with the World 9 stuff, but I'm ashamed to say I keep dying.

[SL the Pyro]

That reminds me that I still have to do my Luigi run. I've collected all 121 stars with Mario, but I don't think I've even started with Mr. L yet.

Can you collect the 121st star before collecting all 120 with Luigi? I'm pretty sure the secret area where this star appears is not unlocked until you've beaten the game with Luigi.

You can get the 121st without beating the game with Luigi. It's unlocked when you collect all of Mario's 120 stars. Same with Luigi's 121st.

[Raien]

You can get the 121st without beating the game with Luigi. It's unlocked when you collect all of Mario's 120 stars. Same with Luigi's 121st.

Well that's good to know, and it makes a lot more sense than what I previously thought.

[Average Gamer]

I was glad that we got to fight Kamek in NSMBW. I felt like I was finally getting the battle that I was cheated out of in Yoshi's Island.

NSMBW is very enjoyable, but I've found that the characters slide around a bit and it doesn't feel like you have full control over them. I've also noticed that the characters sometimes won't respond to certain commands, such as jumping or ground pounds. It's beginning to become annoying.

Edited by Average Gamer, 29 November 2009 - 09:19 PM.

[Raien]

NSMBW is very enjoyable, but I've found that the characters slide around a bit and it doesn't feel like you have full control over them. I've also noticed that the characters sometimes won't respond to certain commands, such as jumping or ground pounds. It's beginning to become annoying.

Unresponsive characters isn't a general complaint I see on the internet, nor is it something I've personally encountered, so either there's something wrong with the way you're playing it or the controller is breaking.

[SL the Pyro]

Or you're pressing the jump button when you don't have any feet on the ground.