Super Mario Sunshine Level Review - Part 3

[Alolan_Apples]

I hope you're enjoying my level reviews because I'm moving on to the third level - Gelato Beach.

Gelato Beach:​

The third level of the game is set what you would imagine seeing most when you think of tropical islands. That would be really sunny beaches, cabanas, tropical fruits, and sports like surfing. And this level has everything. It's also where you start seeing the other race for the first time - the Nokis. While we were used to the plant people from early on, the shell people start appearing in this level.

The mid-three levels in Super Mario Sunshine are all resort-themed levels. We have a sunny beach full of summer activities, an amusement park, and a hotel. These three levels show how unique Super Mario Sunshine is for a 3D platformer. What's even more amazing is that all three of these levels are the only ones to have beaches, both Piantas and Nokis, and unique sets of enemies exclusive to the levels they are in. Oh, and the bosses (not including Shadow Mario) are not repeated, and all three of them have different ways of accessing.

However, Gelato Beach continues from the same streak we seen in Bianco Hills and Ricco Harbor. What they all had in common is that the levels can be accessed while Peach is still in Delfino Plaza, they require defeating the goopy piranha plants to reveal the landmarks, and have a rainbow M portal. Oh, and the music is the same with the same scale, but different instruments.

Best to worst missions:

• #1 - Dune Bud Sand Castle Secret: Yes, it is strange that I would put up a FLUDD-less stage as the best this time, but it is an anomaly. The missions after weren't as good as the first one, and the secret stage is one of the better ones in the game. The only obstacle here is the dissolving sand blocks. When you step on them, the start dissolving until they are gone, but they regenerate after a while. Stay on them too long, and you'll lose a life. But the trap is easily avoidable. The key here is to run and jump, and the only time you can stop is when you're on a wooden platform. Not much action though, but this one is super easy.
• #2 - Red Coins in the Sand Castle: The bad news about these missions is that even the red coin counterpart of the first mission was better than the rest. The secret stage is not just the easiest, but the red coin collection in the secret stage is the easiest of all red coin stages in the secret stages.
• #3 - Sandy Shine Sprite: Yet, even another mission involving spraying dune buds up high on my list. What's even weirder is that you can get all three of the top three from Episode 1 of Gelato Beach.
• #4 - Red Coins in the Coral Reef: Not one of my favorite red coin missions, but there are worse than that. All you have to do is to swim in the coral reef and collect the red coins. It's easy as pie and not rocket science. It only ranks high because it's a red coin mission.
• #5 - The Sand Bird is Born: The second, third, and fourth missions in the level are basically tied, but if I had to rank them, I would put the sand bird one first. It's a red coin mission. It may be tricky to stay on the sand bird due to its tendency to soar sideways, but if you can stay on its side when it happens, it won't be bad.
• #6 - Mirror Madness! Tilt, Slam, Bam!: Gelato Beach may seemed to be peaceful, but the second and third missions show how even Gelato Beach isn't drama free. What happens here is that the mirrors (which were tilted towards the crystal above the tower) were covered in these weird bird creatures (Plungelos) to keep them away for the giant caterpillar to rest on. And this was in a time when the sand bird was about to hatch.
  Slamming the mirrors to throw these strange birds off wasn't one of the best missions, but the fact that this mission is not repeated beyond the level makes this one more unique.
• #7 - Wiggler Ahoy! Full Steam Ahead!: Getting the Plungelos may have saved the sand bird, but it made the situation even worse. Because how it's rampaging on the whole beach.
  This one is a bit trickier than the other level bosses. All you want it to do is to charge into you when you spray the dune buds, but that always makes Mario bounce very high. But it does capsize the caterpillar. I may have it tied with missions 2 and 4, but I didn't like this boss as much as the rest.
• #8 - II Piantissimo's Sand Sprint: Believe me on this, but none of the II Piantissimo racing missions were in my top half of each level it appears in. What I hate is that you just get to the flag before him and that's it. That, and if you lose, you die. That is a very cheap death, and this is a flaw with both Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy. At least you don't get in trouble for cheating if you take a shortcut like you can in SM64. But it makes simple racing missions even worse.
  I could see II Piantissimo's name as a portmanteau of Pianissimo and Fortissimo, where one represents music at the quietest and the other is music at the loudest.
• #9 - It's Shadow Mario! After him!: Four missions after the giant caterpillar dies, Shadow Mario appears to run around in the beach. The plot appears to be so weak that this didn't seem to be a climax. In fact, it's rather an anti-climax. And like always, spraying him down is not as fun.
• #10 - 100-coin Shine Sprite: This time, because of how good the other missions are and how bad collecting 100 coins is in this level, I'm gonna rank it really low, but not at the bottom. There are coins high in the sky, and you need to master your tightrope skills here. Worst of all, the tightropes were poorly arranged this time.
• #11 - The Watermelon Festival: This one is not just the worst mission in Gelato Beach, but also the worst 8th mission in Super Mario Sunshine. In fact, this was one of the very few missions in Super Mario Sunshine that prove how bad this game really is. When I said some of the missions is like doing dishes while wearing roller skates, this is what I'm talking about. But it sure isn't the worst mission in any Mario game. In my opinion, the worst two are the Dreadnought garbage cleanup and the Sinking Lava Spire when the Daredevil Comet gets mixed in. Both of them coming from Super Mario Galaxy. But I have to agree with the popular opinion that this is one of the very few missions where Nintendo's expectations are too high.
  A trick you can do is to wipe out the cataquacks, but you can only do this for the bottom level, as you have to roll the big watermelon down by two levels. Congratulations Nintendo! You made this too hard.

Level Rankings:

• Plot - 7 out of 7: While most of Isle Delfino is under the horrible goop and darkness, Gelato Beach is actually rather peaceful. But there are still shine sprites hidden all over this level. The only real drama here is when the sand bird was under attack.
• Theme - 3 out of 7: The middle three levels were the better ones when it comes to theme, and this level is one of them. All you're on is a resort beach that is like what you imagine of a beach to be.
• Music - 10 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 - 4 out of 7: The level was sure a lot better than the first two when it comes to the missions. At least it had two unique missions that were not repeated or following the same idea as the other missions in Sunshine.
• 100 Coins - 7 out of 7: To be honest, when it comes to collecting 100 coins, Rainbow Ride, Tiny-Huge Island, and Lethal Lava Land of Super Mario 64 are the only ones worse than this level. Like I said, the tightropes were poorly placed, and you may have to enter the secret stage to get your 100-coin shine.
• Blue Coins - 4 out of 7: Aside to the shines and yellow coins, the blue coins are a mixed bag. Some are pretty creative, but others are not. My favorite one from this level is when you throw any fruit but a watermelon into the jumbo juicer on the top of the Surf Cabana.
• Secret Stages - 2 out of 10 (Sand Castle): This was my favorite as a child, but it's bumped down to #2 due to my changing opinions. I still like this one, so it's ranked really high.
• Overall - 4 out of 7: It was an okay level for me anyway. I like the theme and some of the missions, but it has its weaknesses too.