The Italian plumber is back, but this time he has a... a... jetpack thingy? Whaaa?? Lugi must've kicked so much ass with that vacuum cleaner, that Mario wanted to get himself hooked up. Yeah, ok. So the premise of this game is that Mario wanted to go on a vacation, right? But when he gets there, he finds the island has been vanadalized. Wierd goopy stuff is everywhere, and the citizens are blaming Mario! So its up to you and your wierd ass water pack to be a janitor. Yeah...

It was nice to see Mario again. After seeing Sonic come back, completely revamped with a new look, it was nice to see Mario arrive in the same fashion. The game starts off with a little movie of all the characters in a plane going to towards the island, but whatever, you'll find out when you play the game. The game begins with a very simple task: Clean up the runway. To do so, you're introduced to your water pack thing. At first it seems like worthless excess, 'cause you want to get your "jump" on. Anyway, you clean up the goop and you face a simple boss. This is a nice introduction to the rest of the game, and enough to get me excited for the however many hours I would end up putting into this game.

What'd you expect? This is Mario we're talking about. The graphics are really really colorful. I mean, colors are great. I love colors, especially in a Mario game. Ok, enough sarcasm from me today. Lets start by talking about the levels. The levels in Mario are large, imaginatively designed areas. Imagine the areas in Mario 64, then add in 10 times the amount of detail, massive draw-in distance, etc... What about the character models? They're the same characters you've learned to love, but with so many polygons that you'd swear they're... well... not made out of triangles. Then there are things I like to call element effects. These are things like water and fire. Things that tend to look very cheap and 2d in most games. The water effects in this game are jaw-dropping, and they have to be. I mean, every level in the game has water, due to you jetpack thing. Then there's one situation, when you're fighting against a boss in the amusement park, where I had trouble figuring out if the movies were pre-rendered or whatever. You'll know it when you see it, trust me. Overall, I was very impressed by these graphics. Is this the true potential of the Gamecube hardware? I don't know, but they sure as hell must be pushing it.

To be fair, I don't have a doulby set-up in my house. Due to this, I'm not going to be able to hear the full Pro Logic soundtrack that's encoded on the Mario disk. All I can hear is my puny built-in stereo speakers. *sigh* But the music is good, don't worry. We get a variety of tracks for the different locals, although since there's is a single theme connecting them all, there simply isn't as much variety as we're used to. Well, there's some different styles of music, but I can't think of any particular tracks that really jump out. My favorite track is, actually, the music that plays when you're in the strange "secret" stages. In these stages, you lose the jetpack temprorarily, and must use your platforming skills to get to a "shine". During these stages, a remix of the music from the first Super Mario game plays. Also, when you walk through the tunnels beneath the town, there's a remix of the classic tune that would play in NES Super Mario "underground levels". The voices are pitifully acted, but whatever. There's not much speach in the game, so it doesn't really matter. Nothing spectacular here except a few nostalgic remixes, but it works!

Have you played Mario 64? I'll admit, I'm one of the few who hasn't logged in that much time on the game. I've played it over at a friends house, but that's about it. From what this particular friends tells me though, Mario Sunshine is quite similar in terms of design to Mario 64. Obviously though, there is one major difference. That jet pack thingy. That jet pack thingy is actually incredibly cool. After you've had as many hours of practice as I have with it, you'll use it to extend your jumps 5 fold, and other absurd distances. You'll use it's other modes (rocket and jet) with such precision and efficiency as to amaze all those who witness it. The jetpack is enough to occupy you obsesive gamers for hours on end. Spraying paint is nowhere near as tedius or stupid as it may seem. You can find lots of stuff hiding under the paint, like piantas with blue coins. If you clean the paint off them, they'll give you this important currency. Speaking of blue coins, they have become the bane of my existance. You need 10 coins to earn a shine; in my quest to find EVERY single shine (as of writing, I am only 3 shines off of getting them all!) I have to find every blue coin as well. They are... well hidden to say the least. The shines and blue coins allow for a quite a bit of play value after you've beaten the "story". Overall, the gameplay is this... uhhh.. game's real strength. It's imaginative and fun.

I shall never give up my belief in Gamecube's controller! NEVER! It just fits so well in, well, any hand. The design is different and unique, compared to other controllers. The control for this game is simple and intuitive. It's perfect in pretty much every respect, except Mario can't really turn on the dime, per say, and it can get sticky in certain situations. If you're in the water, sometimes you have to spin around in circles to try and reach a certain spot. But, this is just a very very minor gripe. The control just works well, especially considering the different situations you'll use it in (rocket nozzel, jet nozzle, hover nozzle, boats, special stages, etc...).

I like this game. It's pretty much everything I wanted from a new Mario title. It's got the variety, the graphics, the music, the control, and most especially the gameplay to keep me happy and ignorant of all the stuff happeneing in the world for quite some time. Welcome back Mario, we missed you.

+ Imaginative and varied gameplay

- Somewhat sticky control in certain situations

? Mama Peach? Do you really think you could give birth to a... never mind.

+ The most amazing ass-fall graphical effect

Overall (not an average): 9/10
A really great game that everybody, not just violent crazed gamers, can enjoy