Super Mario Sunshine Level Review - Part 1

[Alolan_Apples]

I told you that I will be reviewing every bit in Super Mario Sunshine, including each of the levels. What I'm going to do in each review is to rank all of the shine sprites from best to worst, based on how fun they are to collect and how bad they are. This will not include the blue coin ones, but it does include the yellow coin and Shadow Mario showdown missions.

Bianco Hills:​

The first level of the game doesn't sound like a proper first level for a platformer like Bob-omb Battlefield and Good Egg Galaxy were, but it starts out with the natural hills on the footstep of Corona Mountain. It is known for its windmills, including the big windmill. Based on how polluted Isle Delfino was in the game, this world had more paint pollution than anywhere else.

My overall opinion of the level is mixed, but it's around the bottom three based on how I liked the missions. The biggest problem is that every mission is repeated. You have to face Petey Piranha twice. You have to collect eight red coins, twice. You have to go inside cliffside caves without FLUDD and avoid the bottomless abyss, twice. And the others, are repeated everywhere. You have to spray down Shadow Mario in every level and collect 100 coins in every level. And don't be saying that the goopy piranha plant wasn't repeated. It may be the only level where you have to face a goopy piranha plant, but you have five of them to fight, and they are all within the first six shine sprites. But since there are worse levels IMO, the lowest rank it can be is 5/7 (1/7 being the highest), but that's also as high as it goes.

Best to worst missions:

• #1 - Red Coins of Windmill Village: Believe it or not, this is my very first red coin mission I ever did in a Mario game. And even if red coin missions are very well repeated, I actually liked collecting red coins. It takes eight to get a shine sprite, just like how it takes 8 to get a power star in SM64. But not all red coin missions are that great. This one is just one of the better ones.
  What I liked about this is that the red coins look like they can be collected in a linear path rather than scrambled around. It starts with jumping up tightropes and then walking around on the wall. By the time you get to the top, you still have three to go, which can be achieved by just moving along rather than looking everywhere.
• #2 - The Red Coins of the Lake: Not as good as the previous red coin mission, and repetition makes this level less colorful, but this one was another red coin mission that I give my thumps up. Granted, it requires tightrope walking at high altitudes, but I don't mind it. Moreover, there aren't very many missions in this level that I actually like. This is why I put this one higher on the list.
• #3 - 100-coin Shine Sprite: In my opinion, it's not the blue coins that actually frustrate me or some of the red coin missions. It's actually the 100 yellow coin missions. But the frustration depends on which level you're collecting the coins from. Sorry to say this, but Bianco Hills is towards the bottom three of my list when it comes to the 100-coin missions, but since there aren't very many missions I like so much in this level, I would put this up towards the top three.
• #4 - The Hillside Cave Secret: When I first went inside the Hillside Cave when I was 10, I never knew that Shadow Mario was going to steal FLUDD. And I didn't even expect that or the infinite abyss with all of these blocks and stuff. The lack of FLUDD, the hard to avoid bottomless abyss, and the limited life mechanic we seen in every Mario game made me hate almost every mission like this when I was younger. But as I became a pro at this game when I got older, my hatred towards these kind of missions got smaller over time, as these became the more fun missions. However, there were some misssions I found to be too hard even when I replayed SMS at age 23 (I'm 24 now). It appears that every time the word "secret" pops up in the episode title, we know that it's going to be another "steal FLUDD" mission. But what I do find interesting about each is that they all emphasize on one kind of obstacle.
  Even when I was a child, this obstacle course wasn't as bad as the rest. If you're good at simple jumps, then I bet you that you will at least make it to the spinning star section or even the shine sprite. Just don't let the cubes push you off, or you will pay the price, where in-game lives are the currency.
• #5 - Red Coins of the Hillside Cave: Red coin missions can be fun, or not. But when you have to go back to the secret stages for them, it makes them even worse. And don't get me started on how you don't have much time to get them. But then again, the red coin missions are better in some than the others, and the Hillside Cave Secret is one of them. The hardest part about this is the ones on the spinning stars you can't access without FLUDD, but you'll always have FLUDD every time you replay them.
• #6 - Down with Petey Piranha: According to the story, this is part two of the scenario the first mission was part of. As soon as the road to the windmill is back up, you may continue on until you meet with Petey Piranha. It's pretty annoying that you have to fight bosses like him too early, but that's common in all 3D Mario titles, at least the collectathons. I remember seeing how hard this creature is on the first try, but if you keep replaying the game, it would be hard to imagine this boss being difficult. I was faster than him when he tries to vomit out goop.
• #7 - Road to the Big Windmill: First time you defeat these goopy piranha plants is good. Second time, okay. But this time and beyond, it gets tiring, especially if you're a pro and when they are so common so early. But the good thing here is that if you fight them five times, you will never see them again. The only time you can see them again is if you replay Episode 1, which you will have no reason to do so.
• #8 - Petey Piranha Strikes Back: I hate replaying the same bosses in general, even if they get slightly harder than before. Again, repetition is okay, as we don't want to see some cool missions or tasks only once, but some things aren't worth repeating over and over again, and fighting the same boss is one of them. Not to mention, but even getting to Petey Piranha is worse this time than the last time.
• #9 - Shadow Mario on the Loose: In every level, the Shadow Mario showdown mission is always towards the bottom half, and with rare exceptions, the Shadow Mario mission is towards the bottom three. Not only it's not fun to chase after him, but it's repeated in every level. It's also a bad idea to force people to complete every mission up until the climax in every level if there are level locks like in SM64 and DK64.
  This one was like almost every other Shadow Mario chase. They aren't that challenging, but he can make a run.
• #10 - The Secret of the Dirty Lake: When I was a child, this was my second least favorite "secret stage", and is still my second least favorite. The only difference, my least favorite as in my childhood became my favorite last year. But this one is still hard because of not just the flip-tiles, but also because of the moving cubes you have to stay on. And even getting there is tricky. Swimming in the dirty lake can cost health points, lily pads fall apart after a while, and they are hard to steer.
• #11 - Red Coins of the Dirty Lake: What's even worse than the whole flip-side obstacle course was the same stage, but with red coin time limits. The way the red coins are hidden is very tricky, and you'll have a hard time getting to them. My suggestion, if they want to make another Mario game with these "secret" stages, don't put red coins in if you want bonus missions.

Level Rankings:

• Plot - 3 out of 7: The plot for the level is quite interesting. It starts out with Petey Piranha landing on the windmill and Mario is to get rid of him. But first, he needed to get the ramp to go back up. Then he can go on and fight the monster. After that, drama in the hillside cave occurred. But what makes the plot kinda dumb is how repetitive it got.
• Theme - 7 out of 7: I honestly think the theme for this level is the most bland out of all themes in every level.
• Music - 9 out of 11: I didn't seem to like the overall music as much as most of the game's. But that's because of the repeat in the main theme among most levels with different tunes.
• Missions - 5 out of 7: Like said before, the problem with the missions in this level is that they are repeated. Two secret stages, two bosses, two red coin missions, two red coin in secret stage missions, and three missions repeated either among all levels or within the first strip of the game. It doesn't have its unique missions.
• 100 Coins - 6 out of 7: To be honest, collecting all 100 coins here wasn't as good as it was in most of the levels. There's only one level that ranks below this, and I will explain when I get there.
• Blue Coins - 6 out of 7: Even the blue coins weren't as fun to get there. They are well-hidden in this level, and if you can memorize where to find them, this may fog your memory.
• Secret Stages - 3 out of 10 (Hillside Cave) and 9 out of 10 (Dirty Lake): I liked the Hillside Cave one because of how easy it is compared to the rest, but not the Dirty Lake one because of how it still remains difficult.
• Overall - 6 out of 7: The level was alright, but it didn't seem to be one of my favorites.