Super Mario Sunshine (2002)

All right, I'm going to go ahead and say I'm done with this game. It is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. It is not fun to spray water at goop all day. Controls and movement are jank. Levels all look the same, quests are repetitive and tedious. Challenge areas without the water pack are especially egregious. I also just don't like how it looks or sounds, the game as a whole is aesthetically displeasing and obnoxious. I'll allow for the possibility that some people legitimately love this one, but I do find it funny how often I see people admit to a long list of flaws and then still give it an 8 or 9 out of 10 anyways. Pretty sure this one would not be held up as such an "underrated classic" if it starred Greg the Talking Bagel instead of Mario.

Beat it 100% in my run through 3D All-Stars. Super fun, awesome game but I really can't recommend completing it. Unlike Mario 64, where going for 100% gives you a sense of getting to know the game better for searching every nook and cranny, the blue coins and the secret stars really do feel like chores that pad out the journey. That plus the addition of some infamously annoying shines are the only things wrong with this. I love FLUDD, I love the corny dialogue, and I've even come to enjoy the challenge of the classic sections more (which I used to find too hard but handled fine this time around). This is a perfect summer game and a ton of fun if you avoid completion and don't mind a couple rough edges.

Playing Sunshine as part of the 3D All-Stars. It seemed like going for completion would be completely awful, but after checking out plenty of "top 10 hardest shines" lists I think I've gotten past the most annoying ones. I got the shines from the pachinko machine, lily pad ride (as horrible as advertised), rollercoaster balloons and watermelon festival. So at this point the only really tough ones I can think of are being tossed by piantas and steering the boat through lava in the final level. How much of a pain is getting all the blue coins? Seems like the biggest hurdle towards 100% at this point.

It’s so funny seeing people complain about this games difficulty 18 years after its release due to the Switch rerelease. This game has always controlled slippery and has always been one of the harder Mario titles, and I’ll always love it for that. Just beat it for the first time ever (I was a dumb kid that didn’t understand how to progress in games). What a fantastic experience.

Already further in than I got as a kid and having fun. Playing in handheld mode on the Switch. Like SM64, something occasionally feels “off” for me in terms of gameplay when compared to later games that I’m more used to. The camera is obviously hurting it, as it will often get behind a wall and make it impossible to see, or suddenly decide that it won’t move anymore—but beyond that I haven’t quite nailed down what it is that makes it feel imprecise or hard to get a grip on in some way (reluctant to blame the game). Like I said, the overall game is fun, though, and the visuals hold up really well. Will probably slowly complete it over time.

I missed the gamecube era when it was first released so I just played this for the first time this week. I really didn't like it at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it. I ended up loving it. Although the panchinko and lily pad levels were as awful as everyone said they would be. Took me over an hour to finish them.