I’ve just started this after completing first SM64 and SMG which I had played on their home systems - I never played SMS sunshine upon its initial release. I’m five sprites and in and all I can say is wtf?! The controls feel horrendous; or, more specifically, the way Mario moves feels atrocious. A gentle forward nudge on the analog stick makes Mario seem to catapult about five billion feet forward, making judging small distances a pain as often he leaps right over where I intend him to go. In this game, he seems to have some of Luigi’s slippery landing and turning style, so when he lands he slips forward a small amount, often enough though that he falls from great heights. He doesn’t stop or turn in time, FLUDD doesn’t feel natural; the whole thing just feels so off to me. I hate to say this about a Mario game, but usually I’m having so much fun within about five mins of booting up a Mario game and even if I’m not so good initially, the movement and controls are so tight I quickly get the hang of it. At this point in the game, I’m really not having fun at all. I know it seems really early on to say that, but again, usually with Mario games I’m having a blast from the off. Anybody else find this either regards to this game? I know there will be a few “get good” comments but honestly, with how unintuitive it feels, I’m not sure I want to invest the time to bother. Really interested to hear other folks thoughts! 

Ps if you love this game and have not encountered these problems, I’m not bashing it as a hideous game. These are just my initial thoughts and I’m sad about it as Mario games are some of my favourites ever and I’ve never encountered this with any game in the franchise.

I agree that the controls are difficult to learn. I remember that I had the same feelings back then. Stick with it, though. Once you've got the hang of controlling FLUDD, you can be very precise and increase your movements massively, to the extent that you might probably miss him in a few certain occasions.

Sunshine has issues, but not sure where you're coming from with the controls. Mario accelerates more quickly, but his controls are the opposite of Luigi. Mario stops and turns pretty much instantly if you tilt in the other direction and unless you're holding forward when you land, you're not going to move at all.

Maybe I’m wrong about it being the controls, but when Mario lands he does slip even without holding forward. I’m not doubting that’s not your experience, but it is honestly mine, I don’t know what to tell you. He seems to slip and slide all over the place. I think it’s that he almost feels too “light” in this game, every movement even when intentioned to be slight just seems to send him flying all around the place. In other Mario games he feels heavier, and I don’t really have to do anything other than think what I want Mario to do and he does it; if I want him to do a little jump or jump forwards little, he does, and vice versa for higher or longer jumps. It’s almost as though I merge with the controller, however with sunshine this seems lost. Again, I’m not putting the game down and I’m happy enough to admit I’m just probably not “getting” it, but as I stated I’ve never had to work hard or even at all to get to grips with movement in other Mario games, and he really does slip or slide when he lands without me touching the stick. I’ll press on a little longer and see if it improves, but so far, not enjoying it.

Thanks, I will stick with it. The first major hurdle I had was the first time not using FLUDD (the hidden cave) and yes, I missed him there! I just couldn’t get the hang of Mario jumping so damn far ahead, so different to other games. I guess that was partly due to removing the long jump but it feels I’ve less control. 

I was disappointed with it as a kid, and hated some of the aspects of the game like riding Yoshi on top of a boat and jumping boat to boat avoiding the water for 10 minutes and the prize you get is the toughest level in the game, where once you lose all your lives you have to do the annoying Yoshi boat jumping again. I felt like throwing my controller through my tv as a kid in 2002 playing the pachinko level, it was so frustrating. But when I replayed it this past November for the first time since 2002, I kind of dug it. I used the Pro controller for it, so that might have helped, but I didn't die nearly as often as I did when I was younger. I still consider it the worst of the main Mario games, but it wasn't as bad as I remembered it. My biggest complaints now are a lack of diverse levels, and too many blue coins.

Have you considered that you have joycon drift issues? Because this isn't really a matter of my experience vs yours unless your copy has a different physics engine. If you're not holding the joystick when you land, you will not move forward after a jump. The effect would be more noticeable than in the other games because Mario accellerates more quickly. 

I get that and I was trying to respectful - obviously they don’t use different physics engines but I’m sorry, he’s slippery. There’s no other way for me to describe it. I’m not new to Mario so I can see and feel the difference. Maybe the controls are just more sensitive in this game? I don’t know. I’m not being obtuse but I’m telling you what is happening. I don’t have joy con drift either as I’ve not encountered any problems in any other games. 

It's not a good game at all. Remove Mario from the name and it would get mediocre reviews on a good day. So many stupid design choices. The controls are not the best. The game has the most glitches of any Mario game I played. Has some severe perspective issues. Fuck whoever made the Pachinko level. So many dumb in world choices. The camera is awful. Even for a Mario game, the story is just bad. The levels suck. The areas without FLUDD areas suck more. There is not one thing I like about it. Until those shitty NSMB games came along this was the worst Mario game.

My least favorite Mario game. Didn't even finish the story, much less collect all the ding-dongs and whatnot. A fairly stark contrast to Mario 64, which was plundered for all it was worth. Remember finding it difficult as well, although I wasn't exactly driven to git gud by the my enjoyment of the game. Disappointing and uncharacteristically weak. Good luck @Majora. Maybe you'll have a breakthrough.