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I decided to write up my issues with this game because people seem so
surprised that someone who likes Nintendo games would hate SMS. I'm
sure I've forgotten some but this is plenty.
First of all, I find a lot of the control of Mario unintuitive due to
the unrealistic rules that apply to him. I know this is a game and
therefore guaranteed to be unrealistic to some degree, but the game's
control should still make sense. For example, when traveling a long
flat distance it makes no sense that belly sliding is faster than
running. It's not even user friendly because bellysliding does not
provide much lateral control. Another example is the unusual jumping
mechanics. If Mario is confronted with a high platform that he must
jump into, he must first face away from the platform and then perform a
backflip. This is unnatural since a standard jump should always be
stronger than a backflip.
I place jumping in a category all to itself with the 3D Mario games
because I can't for the life of me figure out why these mechanics were
chosen. What's up with the sideways spin jump? The only jumps that I
think Nintendo pulled off well are the wall jump (which, camera
permitting, is extremely easy to perform) and the triple jump maneuver
(which is totally useless).
Another control problem is overloaded functionality of the "B" button.
Stand next to an object that you want to pick up, hit "B" and suddenly
you're doing a bellyslide. Stand next to someone and hit "B" before
the game decides to present the "B" icon and you'll find yourself
bellysliding into the person instead of speaking. Usually this design
flaw is just a nusiance, but it's not uncommon for this unexpected
bellyslide to cause you to fall off a ledge. How many times did you
find yourself bellysliding when trying to pull on the Big Bloober's
tentacle? How many times when you tried to speak to a running Pianta?
This behavior was better handled in "Zelda" where the main action
button changed its purpose based upon the context, but I don't know if
that would work in this game due to the flaky jump mechanics. Stand
next to a Pianta and suddenly you'd be doing a sommersault instead of
asking them about the weather.
Mario requires an awful lot of distance in order to change direction
he's facing. Even if he's standing still he can sometimes require a
full body length or more in order to change direction. On a small
ledge, this can easily result in a fall.
The play control mechanics on chain-linked fences is downright bizarre.
On a vertical wall the "B" button will cause Mario to punch while the
"A" button will cause him to jump from the wall, but when hanging from
a horizontal fence the buttons switch their purpose. Suddenly "B" will
cause Mario to jump from the ceiling and "A" will cause him to kick.
(I guess we're supposed to think "B" controls the hands and "A"
controls the feet but this is a really, really unintuitive design) And
is it absolutely necessary for Mario to "hoot" every time he changes
hands while hanging?
A targeting system with the FLUDD device would have been handy. When
starting a squirt the nozzle is almost always pointing in the wrong
direction, and by the time you adjust the camera and the nozzle to see
what you're squirting, it stops squirting water.
Ah, there's so much I miss from the old Super Mario universe. Whatever
happened to invincibility stars? Are fire flowers out of season again?
Where are the cool upgrades like the leaf, feather, and Hammer Bros
suit? Speaking of the Hammer Bros, where are they and for that matter
where are the koopas, the goombas, and buzzy beetles? I guess I can
understand eliminating the mushroom size-increase upgrade and the
flying upgrades because that could really foul up the new 3D nature of
the games, but "Sunshine" seems like a generic 3D platformer with a few
Mario characters pasted in.
Aside from a ridable Yoshi, can anyone name any real Mario universe
element that exists in the game that really matters?
OK, so I've complained but how would I improve play control?
- The "B" button would lose the bellyslide, and gain the ability to
accelerate Mario. This is the same behavior in the old 2D games and
works well and should continue to work well in 3D. This would work
well with the overloaded features of the button (picking up objects and
speaking to people)
- The height and distance of a jump would be directly related to the
player's speed and the length of time they've held down the "A" button.
- The distance Mario requires for changing his direction would be
related to how fast Mario is moving.If he's stationary, then he should
turn around on a dime. If he's running fast then it should take an
approperate amount of space.
- I would allow the user to swap the digital buttons to their liking.
If they'd rather use the "B" button for their "A" button then they
should be allowed to do so. This should be a trivial change, and I'm
surprised at how rarely games allow changes like that. A lot of games
will use "B" for jump while others use "A" and this gets confusing when
jumping from game to game.
Is there anything about the control that I like?
- Control on the tension ropes is remarkably well done. As bad as the
rest of the control is in this game they really could have fouled this
up, but those ropes are actually easier to navigate than walking down
the sidewalk.
- Yoshi. Compared to Mario, he's a breeze to control.
- I like the butt slam jump. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever if
you think about the physics, but since it causes Mario to fall straight
down, it can help save you from the effects of some unexpected jump
mechanic.
The biggest flaw with the camera is how it swings around Mario at
exactly the wrong moments. Say you're walking across the narrow
surface of a wall or an elevated path (a common situation in a platform
game) the camera forces the user to take baby steps because if they
tried to steadily run across such a place the camera's stubborn
movement will inevitably result in the player losing control of Mario
and causing him to fall. The camera also has a habit of ignoring
manual repositioning because the second the user begins moving Mario
after adjusting the camera the game will change it back to the bad
position it was in.
The second biggest flaw with the camera is that objects that sit
between Mario and the camera do not become transparent. I recently saw
the demo of "Battalion Wars" and noticed that obsticles often sit
between the character and the camera, but because they become opaque
they do not interfere with gameplay. This is a new game, but the
concept existed long before "Sunshine" because the same technique was
used in Luigi's Mansion.
I have plenty of superficial complaints too!
- Mario's vocal acting is absolutely horrible. What where they
thinking giving him the voice of Mickey Mouse?
- "Run Forrest, Run!" Mario looks ridiculous with his arms flailing
about when he runs.
- Bowser Jr? What happened to the other Koopa kids? Are they in
college now? Was Bowser Jr. a result of Bowser acting spontaneous
during a midlife crisis?
- The numerous broken graphics bothered me. Come on Nintendo, is this
an SNES game with an FX chip or is this the Gamecube?
- Did I mention the horrible vocal acting? Even if it was good,
there's no need for Mario to giggle like he's high on drugs when
something horrible happens, and there's no need for him to hoot every
time he changes hands when hanging.
The universal love of this game amazes me, especially when the praise
is related to the play control because I can't help but wonder if
they're playing the same version that I am. Another fan reaction that
surprises me is when someone says they don't like Sunshine but loved
Super Mario 64, how can someone say that when they are basically the
same thing? The levels are clearly different, but all of the core
concepts are the same. It's like saying "Metroid Prime 2 sux but
Metroid Prime rulz!" or "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was da bomb
but Zelda: OoT was horrible"
Well, that's why I don't like it. I'm only playing it because I
want to finish it.
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