The Super Mario franchise has been Nintendo’s crown jewel for decades now, and it’s been amazing to watch how the character and the franchise as a whole have evolved along with Nintendo since their humble beginnings. Every Super Mario game tries to innovate the platforming genre in a major way, with some of these risks paying off more than others.
Mario is still Nintendo’s greatest tool to move hardware, but both Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine have become important titles and learning experiences for Nintendo. There’s still a ton of nostalgia that’s associated with these games, but they’re both subject to a number of flaws and advantages.
10 Super Mario 64: It Pushes The Series Into 3D
It’s a major turning point when any video game franchise that’s been around since the earlier generations finally transitions over into 3D. Some properties can’t survive the shift, but the Super Mario series has skillfully acclimated while still finding clever ways to embrace its 2D roots.
Every 3D Super Mario title is special in its own way, but Super Mario 64 opened the floodgates and showed audiences what’s possible. It’s still considered to be one of the best video games of all time, and if its launch wasn’t so successful then the landscape of the series could’ve been very different.
9 Super Mario Sunshine: Its Storyline
Super Mario 64 is a great game for a number of reasons, but its storyline is not one of them. Granted, the Super Mario titles are fairly barebones when it comes to their narratives, but Super Mario 64’s plot is particularly scant. Super Mario Sunshine still sees Peach in peril with Mario coming to the rescue, but it goes much further.
The story begins with Mario being framed for some widespread vandalism, which also introduces the vile Shadow Mario. Additionally, there’s the first appearance of Bowser Jr., who is informed that Peach is his mother and it’s Mario who’s the villain here.
8 Super Mario 64: Its Music
All of the games in the Super Mario franchise have some of the most celebrated and recognizable music from any Nintendo titles. Koji Kondo is the composer responsible for the engaging music for the majority of the Super Mario games, including both Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. Sunshine still features some amazing music, both original and remixes of old classics, but Super Mario 64’s soundtrack just slightly beats it and features a few more iconic tracks that have become emblematic of the Super Mario franchise.
7 Super Mario Sunshine: Its Variety Of Boss Battles
Super Mario 64 does an excellent job translating many of the traits of the classic Super Mario titles into a modern, three-dimensional environment. However, if there’s any element that suffers in the Nintendo 64 title it’s that the boss battles are fairly one-dimensional. Most of the fights revolve around Mario either throwing or jumping onto an enlarged energy, including the Bowser battles. Super Mario Sunshine really gets creative with its bosses, which make use of Mario’s acrobatics, as well as the FLUDD concept, with one fight even set on a raging rollercoaster.
6 Super Mario 64: It Doesn’t Complicate The Formula
Super Mario 64 is an excellent lesson in restraint due to how it doesn’t overload the player with copious upgrades and power-ups. Many titles in the Super Mario series, both before and after Super Mario 64, can go overboard with all of Mario’s abilities, with many of them often being unnecessary. Super Mario 64 restricts itself to three different Caps that offer Mario diverse skills. These Caps don’t fundamentally change the gameplay in any way. They’re much simpler than the whole FLUDD concept and its various nozzles, by comparison.
5 Super Mario Sunshine: Its Use Of Yoshi
It’s been revealed that at one point Super Mario 64 had plans to incorporate Luigi, but the game ends up being very light with Mario’s supporting cast of friends. Yoshi makes a very brief appearance on the top of Peach’s castle as some minuscule post-game content. Super Mario Sunshine makes Yoshi a crucial part of the game and there are a number of stages with Yoshi-centric Shines. The Yoshi mechanics may be more complex than necessary, but it’s appreciated that Mario’s companion is brought into the game.
4 Super Mario 64: How It Handles Secret Goals
Super Mario 64 is fairly direct with its goals and even though the hints for each star are presented as riddles, none of them attempt to confound the player or really push their deductive reasoning. However, there are a number of stars and secrets hidden in the game that are not advertised nearly as well. None of these things are mandatory, but it’s the perfect balance to keep gamers on their toes and looking for secrets. Even objectives like knowing to look into the skylight to enter the Wing Cap stage are far from obvious on the initial playthrough.
3 Super Mario Sunshine: Its FLUDD-less Secret Levels
As innovative as it is for Super Mario Sunshine to introduce the FLUDD concept into Mario’s platforming arsenal, it somehow becomes even more ambitious to then take FLUDD away from Mario in a number of hidden stages. Super Mario Sunshine contains some optional secret levels where Shadow Mario steals FLUDD and forces Mario to improvise with his natural platforming skills. These levels are pure platforming bliss and while they’re more difficult than the standard stages, they’re tons of fun for dedicated fans of the platformer genre. It’s a level of platforming far beyond anything in Super Mario 64.
2 Super Mario 64: It’s More Accessible
Super Mario 64 faces a difficult task in the sense that it doesn’t just try to cater to longtime Super Mario fans, but also to new adopters for the Nintendo 64 who might not even be gamers in the first place. Super Mario 64 rises to the occasion with gameplay that retains the essence of the previous games in the series, yet remains accessible. Super Mario 64 allows players to beat the game without collecting absolutely everything. Super Mario Sunshine is more punishing with its gameplay and goals, which can discourage some that don’t want to put in the work.
1 Super Mario Sunshine: It’s A Harder Mario Game For More Hardcore Platforming Fans
Super Mario Sunshine often gets overlooked because it’s an outlier in the Super Mario franchise that mixes things up more than the average entry in the series. However, Super Mario Sunshine is the perfect game for fans who are hungry for an actual challenge. Super Mario Sunshine throws a lot at the player and features some very punishing platforming. There are different uses for FLUDD, many unique varieties of secret stages, races against Shadow Mario, and a collection of hidden blue coins, which are perhaps the game’s biggest challenge.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply