firebush03 said:
I guess what I don’t understand is how somebody could find 64 to be so good yet Sunshine not sit well with them. My first play-through of these two games was back-to-back in June 2018, and the impression I was left with was that SMSunshine was SM64 but with a much better camera, far more lenient level design, refined movement, and a nozzle on your back. It was Mario 64 but better in every single way, just without the innovative aspect. |
Just to come back to this - as I said in my post, I'm a fan of both 64 and Sunshine, but I think it's understandable why someone might like 64 and not Sunshine. Some complaints I have seen over the years:
- FLUDD
I think you downplayed this, as it's quite a significant change. I mean, if you don't like walking around and spraying stuff, then you're not going to enjoy Sunshine. It changed Mario's move set slightly - no more punching, kicking, or picking up enemies, and the long jump is removed as the hover mechanic made it redundant. The latter also ties into another change - there's far less jeopardy and precision required as far as platforming is concerned (maybe this is what you meant by more lenient level design?). The only real challenges in this regard are with the secret courses in each level, when you get FLUDD taken away from you.
- Controls / physics
This is my favourite 3D Mario as far as controls and how Mario handles, but I know some feel it's too slippery and think the physics are a bit off. It's going to vary from player to player.
- Lack of freedom
There's a lack of freedom in Sunshine in the way you can approach the game in comparison to 64. In 64, you can collect a lot of the Stars in almost any order you want, and you can be more creative in the different ways in how you can collect some of them. As long as you get up to 70, you can go and face Bowser to finish the game. You can ignore entire levels if you want, and this approach allows you to still progress if you're having trouble with one particular Star. No such luck in Sunshine - almost every single Shine in a level has to be collected in order, and you have to get the seventh Shine (where you chase Shadow Mario) in every level in order to complete the game. As much as I enjoy Sunshine, some of these Shines aren't fun to collect (although some of the notorious ones, such as the pachinko machine and poison river are optional), so I could see this being a roadblock for some players.
-Blue coins
You'll need all of them if you're going to 100% Sunshine, and there's no way in game to really keep track of which ones you've collected (other than knowing how many you've got). Some of them are in random areas (e.g. just spraying a random spot on a wall), and some are also restricted to certain episodes in each level, so it's not the easiest task to find them unless you're going to use a walkthrough and make your own checklist. I know some also feel their inclusion was padding (as there's so many of them) and indicative of a lack of polish, which was something of a feature around this time for some Nintendo games.
- Lack of variation in locations
Regarding the hub / island theme @curl-6 referred to - I don't mind this so much. I like that everything feels cohesive and linked to one another, and also that when you're playing one level, you can sometimes see other levels off in the distance. Good world building from Nintendo. I think each level is distinctive enough whilst also tying in to the central theme, but can understand why others would disagree.
