Video Game Comparisons: Super Mario - 64 vs Sunshine vs Galaxy (Part 1)

[Alolan_Apples]

Within the past ten months, I played all three of these games, got all 120 stars/shines, and beaten the final bosses. Today, I would like to compare all three games and what they were at their best and their worst.

Title Design:

The first thing to discuss is the title design of all three games.

• SM64 - title is made of wood, with colored letters and numbers.
• SMS - monochromatic with blue and light blue letters, as the O is yellow and stylized like a sun.
• SMG - title is made of chrome with colorful letters as Galaxy has a starry design.

Verdict: I felt that Super Mario Galaxy was a disappointment of a game, but the first impressions are great. The colorful title is a good start. Meanwhile, Super Mario Sunshine has the worst title design, mainly because it's monochromatic. Winner: Super Mario Galaxy; Loser: Super Mario Sunshine.

Graphics:

How do they look? Let's see what it has here.

• SM64 - everything looks blocky with choppy resolution (not framerate) and coloring to make backgrounds look 3D.
• SMS - somewhat like an improved version. When away from some surfaces, they look blurry, but they begin to get detail as I get closer.
• SMG - graphics start to look better, but some of the stuff is cartoony.

Verdict: Graphics are not a good way to judge the game unless if it hinders the gameplay. But boy, look at Super Mario 64. If any game needs an HD remake first, Super Mario 64 is the one. Sunshine seems to be better, but it's no better than Galaxy or 3D World. Winner: Super Mario Galaxy; Loser: Super Mario 64.

Sound and Soundtrack:

Now that we looked at the graphics, let's look at the sounds of each game.

• SM64 - soundtrack seems repetitive (i.e. Tick Tock Clock has the same music as Rainbow Ride), but the music is nice. Good for its time, good today.
• SMS - the background music is beautiful (especially in Noki Bay), secret stages had a Super Mario Bros revival, and the sound effects of enemies totally match. A lot of people didn't like the voice acting, but I did like that Bowser had a voice.
• SMG - music is easily forgettable (other than the purple comets), sounds are weird.

Verdict: This time, Super Mario Galaxy goes in last place. The only time it compares to other games is the purple comet challenge soundtrack. Also, Melty Molten Galaxy > Lethal Lava Land by all means. Other than that, it doesn't compare. The other two are hard to choose, so I'm going to stick with the GameCube entry. Winner: Super Mario Sunshine; Loser: Super Mario Galaxy.

Plot:

I went over the general construction, so let's move onto the plot.

• SM64 - Princess Peach gets kidnapped by Bowser. He also steals all of the power stars from the castle.
• SMS - Isle Delfino gets heavily polluted with graffiti and goop. Shine sprites have disappeared from the Shine Gate. Mario is blamed for it because the culprit disguised himself as Mario. As a result, he was forced to stay on the island to clean up what the imposter did. During his quest to cleaning up the island and recovering the shine sprites, Princess Peach gets kidnapped by the culprit.
• SMG - Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach and takes her castle along with it. Mario ends up at the Comet Observatory and learns that Bowser stole the power stars and grand stars from it.

Verdict: The plot where Princess Peach gets kidnapped is already getting tiring. I'm also ready for a new antagonist to fight in a 3D Mario game. But when it comes to the plots in all three games, Super Mario Sunshine appears to be the most interesting. I know Princess Peach is in trouble after being kidnapped, but Mario is in even bigger danger there since he was accused of polluting an island he never went to. Not only the A subplot is the best, but all seven levels have their B subplots too. The other two are basically the same, but Super Mario Galaxy is more promising since we saw more of what Bowser is doing. Winner: Super Mario Sunshine; Loser: Super Mario 64.

Gameplay Basics:

Now we're going over the basics of gameplay in these games. Just letting you know, all of them are collectathons. You complete a mission, collect a star or shine, return to hub, and if you have enough, you can access the next level.

• SM64 - everything is much simpler at this time. Mario has all of his basic jumping moves, his basic attacking moves, and other basics. It's also the only true 3D version of Super Mario Bros (the original). The only gimmick is the colored caps, where one makes him gain the ability to fly, one turns him into metal, and the other allows him to pass through some walls. Not only that, but this is the least linear Mario game.
• SMS - the physics, open-worldness, and some of the moves is a lot like Super Mario 64's, but this is when it starts to switch up. Most of the time, you have to use FLUDD to clean up the graffiti. You can also use him to help you move across gaps, jump high places, and move really fast.
• SMG - the game starts to get a lot more linear. In addition, it starts to get easier. Gimmicks include the gravity mechanic, the spin attack, star bit shooter, star launchers, and magnetic stars.

Verdict: There's no way I would put Super Mario Galaxy st the top here. I'm okay with the star bit shooter and spin attack, but the physics shows that it's not a real 3D platformer. I'm okay with the gravity mechanic, but the way it was implemented makes it too cheesy. I know levels are broken into many different objects with their own gravity to make it more "galaxy", but I was disappointed at this. I also don't like how linear it is. If I had to choose between 64 and Sunshine, I would go with 64. I know SM64 has aged badly, but if levels are larger with more complicated missions and same mechanics, it would easily beat Sunshine by the distance between New York and Los Angeles. Sunshine was okay, but there's no back flip or long jump. The worst part is that Yoshi cannot swim, and he instantly dies if you land in the water. I'm not sure if it's out of laziness or if it were to make it more challenging, but it shows that Yoshi is unnecessary for this game. Winner: Super Mario 64; Loser: Super Mario Galaxy.

Missions:

Let's look at all of the missions. This includes the 100-coin ones, red coin ones, prankster comets, secret galaxy missions, motion control missions, and the FLUDD-less/Bowser stages.

• SM64 - by today's standards, missions are short, simple, and easy. The 100-coin ones are still tough. What I like is that all 15 levels have only 8 red coins. There are also red coins in the Bowser stages, secret stages, and switch levels too. The simplest missions are the toads and rabbit catching ones.
• SMS - the missions are very interesting in this one. Every level, there are 8 main shine sprites, 2 secret shine sprites, one shine sprite where you can earn after collecting 100 coins, and 30 blue coins (remember that 10 blue coins equals one shine sprite). While a lot of people didn't like the blue coins since they were excessive and cleverly hidden, there were actually five really bad missions. Those would be the pachinko game, the toxic river one, the watermelon contest, the village underside, and the village underside + red coins. This shows that Sunshine not only is hard, but in the wrong ways. But there are some that I liked (such as Mysterious Hotel Delfino, the Caged Shine Sprite, and the Runaway Ferris Wheel). And a lot of the secret levels are pretty fun nowadays.
• SMG - after a long and hard game was a much easier ones. All missions are linear, which means once you reach a new platform, there's no going back. There are also secret missions, repeat missions through prankster comets, and the 100-purple coin missions.

Verdict: Obviously, Super Mario Galaxy is a big loser. The missions are too easy, and if we take out the easy ones, all we're left with are the really hard ones. The purple coin ones don't bother me. It's the other prankster comets. And I don't even wanna get started on the garbage ones in Battlerock and Dreadnought since they are literally impossible. I don't like the linearity, gravity mechanic, motion controls, or the prankster comets. So it's a toss-up between Nintendo 64 and GameCube. I would like to side with SM64, but the missions are way too simple by today's standards. Since I prefer missions to be less simple, less linear, and with real game physics (not only that, but Sirena Beach's Yoshi mission), Sunshine is obviously a winner. But if all games receive an F for anything, it has got to be repetition. There are several repeat missions in SM64, too many red coin and Shadow Mario missions in SMS, and the prankster comets in SMG. Winner: Super Mario Sunshine; Loser: Super Mario Galaxy.

Stay tuned for Part 2 later.