Was Super Mario Sunshine a bad game...

...or a boring one?

Wasting time in the library reading messages and such so I figured I'd ask. I had some spare time recently after finishing a major project (plus my computer has been down for a while) so i needed to find some time to waste. In the wake of all these Mario games and such I decided to go back and do something that I had not done: beat Mario Sunshine with as many shines as possible.

The last time I played the game I got stuck on the Manta Storm and gave up in frustration. So far I've managed to get all shines on Delfino Isle (including that @$#%&*^%$ pachinko board and the unnecessarily hard and long poisonous waterway, and pretty much every shine up to the third one on Sirena Beach/Hotel Delfino including all secret shines and 100 coin shines. The only stages left are the remainder of Sirena Beach, Noki Bay, and Pianta Village. This leads me to my complaints/praises.

I don't necessarily think that Sunshine was a bad game or deserves the knocks it gets BUUUUUUT I do see why it gets them....

For one thing, theres no variety in stages. Where's the caves? The ice world? The lava fields? (dont say Corona Mountain because that technically isnt even a full stage, just a small area before the final battle with Bowser & Bowser Jr.) Everythings a bit TOO bright and cheery for Mario game if there is such a thing. the only stage that seems to differ from the norm is Hotel Delfino which acts as the ghost house. (my own problem here is that Hotel Delfino seems a bit problematic of sorts but I havent played it much really) Another thing that bothers me is that outside of some simple changes in game aesthetic - most notably the addition of the Fludd and riding Yoshi (which IMO is far too short lived considering their disintegrating with water) - a lot of it is the same.

On a plus note however - Sunshine adds a LOT of classic Mario things back to the mix in innovative ways - the fence climbing, the FLUDD manuevers (my only gripe with this is only being able to use one alternative nozzle at a time), riding Yoshi's, etc. I dunno - I like the game a lot but theres also several things I dislike about it. Plus while it greatly benfitted from gamecube enhancements it still very much felt like a N64 game. Perhaps had it actually remained the second Mario N64 game it would have fared better.

i'm rather curious. What are your opinions of the game? Likes? Dislikes? What kind of things are you expecting to see in Mario Galaxy that Sunshine and 64 did or didnt provide.

Jam it back in, in the dark.