Super Mario Sunshine Day 2: A Roller Coaster Can't Do Nothing to Me
Date: January 8, 2023
Play time: around 4 hours
Enjoyment of the game: Enjoying a lot
So at this point we've reached about 10 shine sprites and at the end of the play through today I would have around 20 shine sprites. After defeating Petey Piranha and the big squid in Ricco Harbor we tackled some more shine sprites. Fairly uneventful, a lot of collecting red coins and making it through obstacles courses. They were fun, but nothing to write home about.
One of the biggest battles was when we reached Gelato Beach. I loved the name. Sounds like a dream palace to go, a beach made out of ice cream. I didn't find any ice cream but what I did find was a multitude of those ducks which was also pretty funny. So, we make it to the beach and go through the sand castle. Then, for the nxt start there is this big caterpillar that I thought we destroyed when we knocked him off the tower. Him sleeping up there was terrifying enough, but lo and behold, when we returned to the beach this guy was running after us full force.
So after a fifteen minute battle we bested the monster and we were able to get the shine sprite as well. At this point we were around fifteen shine sprites into it, which I was happy about. During this time we finally earned ten blue coins and apparently we could turn those in for shine sprites, which was cool. Also, it was fun giving fruit to people and getting blue coins. So basically for the fifteen shine sprites we gravitated between these three worlds: Bianco Hills, Gelato Beach, and Rico Harbor.
After 15-16 shine sprites we see this crazy bowser-looking boat. This thing was hideous. We learned that the princess has been kidnapped yet again, and this time by this crazy Mario look-alike figure. So we go over to the side of town with the cannon and confront him. He escapes on his boat which speeds off when we run up to him. Luckily, the cannon works and shoots us over to Pinna Park. At this point we follow the look-alike Mario and have a really awesome battle with him on the roller coaster. This look-alike Mario has this huge bowser machine that he is hiding inside and we must destroy this machine. So we are riding on this roller coaster and using our FLUDD device to destroy bullet bills which this guy is shooting at us. While avoiding these bullet bills, we also find small rockets on this roller coaster. We are able to shoot these rockets at the huge bowser machine and quickly are able to incapacitate this look-alike Mario.
Sweat off my brow, I can take a deep breath. This guy seems defeated and we can return the princess back to Isle Delfino. Boy, were we wrong. Supposedly, this Mario imposter isn't a cooler looking version of Mario at all. It's some twerp who bad mouths us and calls Princess Peach his "mom". I thought this part was weird as a young kid playing this game, but now as an adult I find it even stranger Anyways, we make it back to Isle Delfino and get a couple more shine sprites (defeated that big squid again) and that was the end of the playthrough for that day.
Experience
I've really been enjoying Super Mario Sunshine. I remember playing Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64 and then waiting years to play Sunshine. Now that I have the Super Mario 3D AllStars game I have played both games back to back.
One of the things that I love the most is that the camera moves better. This, for the most part, makes gameplay easier. There were times in Super Mario 64 where I needed to see something or had to make it through some narrow part but because the camera wouldn't adjust well I would have troubles. I am thankful that the camera is more "flexible" in Sunshine. I don't want to ramble too much, so I'll keep it brief. I've enjoyed the story so far, and hope to continue playing. I've really enjoyed the boss fights. Fighting Petey piranha, bowser Jr., the big squid, and Wiggler have been really enjoyable. A lot of the other missions though are somewhat boring. I feel like Super Mario 64 did a better job at having more enjoyable missions to get stars. However, I am still early on in my journey through Sunshine so hopefully my mind will change later on.
Overall, though I've enjoyed the game and hope to be able to play once more this week before I leave for vacation.
