Video Game Comparisons: Super Mario - 64 vs Sunshine vs Galaxy (Part 3)

[Alolan_Apples]

Now I'm back to some more comparing of the three games. I went over levels, hubs, unlocking levels, and the enemies. There's a few other nitpicks to the series, and I'm gonna cover them.

Characters:

Let's look at the other characters in the game besides Mario, Peach, Bowser, and the enemies.

• SM64 - at the time, having good and entertaining characters along with executing the gameplay very well wasn't important, but there were a few exciting characters. We see te penguins, the killer piano (I need to remind you of this), the Loch Ness Monster, the Snowman, the Bob-omb Buddies, Koopa the Quick, and a few monkeys.
• SMS - Super Mario Sunshine has a lot weirder enemies and a much different setup, but the characters are very interesting. The most common types of people are Piantas and Nokis. They are the inhabitants of Isle Delfino. In every level except Noki Bay, the plant people from the mountains are everywhere, and in half the levels (Delfino Plaza included), the shell people from the seas can be found. And Sunshine isn't the only game to have them. You can see them in Mario Kart and even in Super Mario Galaxy 2. And did I forget to mention, this is the first game we see Bowser Jr.
• SMG - the series continues to have interesting characters, and we see more of them. In this game, we have the Lumas, the honeybees, the penguins, the gear robots, Guppy, and a few other characters. Above all, we have our third princess - Rosalina.

Verdict: This time, we can say that the winner is a toss-up between the Piantas and Nokis AND Rosalina and Lumas. Rosalina is pretty, but she really isn't enough to prove that Super Mario Galaxy is the best when it comes to characters. The Piantas and Nokis had just as much character development as all of the Paper Mario 64 characters. Some are just in the background, but there are others with more importance, including the old fisherman in Noki Bay and the mayor of Pianta Village. While Rosalina is still carried onto the other Mario games, the 3D Mario game to be the most referenced in the spin-offs is Super Mario Sunshine. The enemies aren't that good, but the characters are. Winner: Super Mario Sunshine; Loser: Super Mario 64.

Difficulty:

This might be confusing, but this is what it means. How well did the game represent the difficulty?

• SM64 - after all these years, SM64 is now rendered easy, mainly because it was simple. But if you were younger and played this game, it's still hard. And based on the difficulty as the game progressed, they really nailed it on the difficulty curve. Bob-omb Battlefield and Whomp's Fortress are very easy while Tick-Tock Clock and Rainbow Ride are tough. Shifting Sand Land is in the middle. The difficulty curve did well among the levels and the Bowser Stages.
• SMS - if you were a lot younger, you would complain about how hard Super Mario Sunshine was. And it's true. This game is hard, and it's for the wrong reasons. Example: the Toxic River Run had narrow ledges to walk on, coins are over the river, and if you fall off the platform or in the river, you lose a life. And the lilypad disintegrates as you move it. You can't miss a coin or you will be forced to walk on the narrow ledges on the way back. The Watermelon Contest has a similar problem. Basically, it's like setting a cap on at the wrong angle. Can you wash the dishes while wearing roller skates? Can you clean your room in the dark? Can you cook dinner without instructions? This is how bad Super Mario Sunshine is when it comes to difficulty. It's not like giving you more dishes to do or making you clean under time pressure or cooking a more complicated meal. I can handle all of these part in Super Mario Sunshine, but a lot of you wouldn't.
• SMG - while Sunshine is too hard, Galaxy is too easy. The gravity mechanic nearly eliminated bottomless pits, and even if you only have just three hit points, enemies aren't as tough or overwhelming like in Sunshine. However, there are parts that aren't too easy, and that's when it's harder. Those would be the prankster comets, motion control missions (which were genious, but difficult), and some side missions like the Dreadnought garbage cleanup. It kinda made the difficulty more inconsistent, but Bowser was still tough.

Verdict: In deciding who wins or loses, Sunshine is easily gonna lose. Not only the game was too difficult to the younger ones, but some of the stuff require reading a guide. Now Nintendo has scaled down the difficulty of their games. The NSMB series is much easier than the original Super Mario Bros, Super Mario 3D World is even easier than Super Mario Galaxy, and the Zelda games moved to a lower difficulty. Super Mario Galaxy would be okay, but I wish it had more challenge. Winner: Super Mario 64; Loser: Super Mario Sunshine.

Controls:

I did go over the moves before, but let's identify the controls of each game.

• SM64 - all basic moves are here, including swimming. Simple, quite easy. The only problem is the camera, which results in awkward angles.
• SMS - some of the basic moves are gone, but the FLUDD Mechanic is cool. The analog triggers determine how powerful the water goes. You can also spray some water on the ground and have Mario slide to move quicker. The camera re-centering when using FLUDD is a problem, but the camera is a lot smoother.
• SMG - motion controls are the dominant controls in SMG. I'm okay with the motion controls, but the worst part about the controls is the camera. SMG has a really bad camera in terms of controls. It puts a limit on how to use the camera.

Verdict: Since controls have always been cool, the camera controls can determine the winner, so we can safely say that Sunshine is in the lead again. Winner: Super Mario Sunshine; Loser: Super Mario Galaxy.

Limits:

This is on the limits of using Mario and how they affect the gameplay.

• SM64 - Mario has eight hit points. The health meter and water meter are tied to each other. If he swims underwater, his health meter drops slowly, and drops faster if he takes damage. He can swim to the surface to recover the water meter, which is the health meter. This can be used as an advantage to help recover health, which is a messed up system, proving why it makes it easier today.
• SMS - Once again, Mario has eight hit points. This time, the health meter and water meter are separated. However, collecting coins underwater only recover the water meter and not the health meter. Fortunately, there are no enemies underwater, except for the Cheep Cheeps, which only drag you down. FLUDD's tank is also a good limit on using him.
• SMG - Mario now has three hit points. No matter how severe the attack is, any attack takes off one hit point. Sometimes, he can get more hit points by picking up a starry mushroom. And the water meter and health meter are completely separated. Now it doesn't affect his health meter to stay underwater while collecting coins underwater restores his health meter. The star bit shooter having a limit is good too. We don't want the game to be too easy.

Verdict: This issue shows another reason why Super Mario 64 has aged badly. I already talked about the simplicity of the missions, the size of the levels, and the graphics. Now I'm talking about the health meter. I may be disappointed in Super Mario Galaxy, but this is one of the few things that prove why SMG is better. 3 hit points really isn't enough. I prefer 8. Winner: Super Mario Galaxy; Loser: [color=#FF000]Super Mario 64[/COLOR].

Replay Value:

Time for a showstopper. Are these games worth playing over and over again?

• SM64 - the game today is now simple. You would have some fun if you play it over and over again, but only to a certain point. After like four or five times, it's not as fun.
• SMS - if you don't have to worry about coins or unnecessary missions, I'm sure you would have fun in this again. It's not as simple, so it will take longer, but the blue coins kinda ruined it.
• SMG - even if I don't like this game as much since some missions aren't worth playing, Super Mario Galaxy seemed to be good with it. There are no cleverly-hidden coins like Sunshine, the game is not as simple, and you can still enjoy the challenges. Plus, you can experience both Mario and Luigi.

Verdict: Judging which game has the best replay value is highly subjective. So I'll go over what each game would be good and bad with when it comes to total replay. Starting over Sunshine completely means collecting all of the blue coins again, making it tedious. A tedious game isn't worth playing over and over again. I did mention how SM64 gets boring after a certain extent. In fact, all games get boring after playing them multiple times. But SM64 today has a low replay value. The Zelda counterpart, Ocarina of Time, still has its replay value today. Sorry SM64. Winner: Super Mario Galaxy; Loser: Super Mario 64.

Tomorrow, I will go over the results.