Current Events > Why does Super Mario Sunshine exist?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Or, to put it more clearly, why was it designed the way it was?

Don't get me wrong. I think it's an excellent game. I probably have something like 100 hours on it. But, why does it only have 7 worlds, and why are they similar to each other? People like variety, large numbers of worlds, and also, Super Mario 64 established an excellent template for 3D platform-adventure game design...which has been followed by almost every 3D Mario since. It's clever, how Miyamoto put variety into the levels, but it could've been a lot more variety. In a way, the lack of worlds bothers me even more. Why not put in 9 or 10 worlds? Maybe an extra cove level (like Noki Bay), or a cave level. Another problem, is the amount of filler content. There seem like a fair number of filler challenges, both in the hub world and the individual worlds.

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I love Sunshine, a lot more than I did Galaxy.
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"why do budgets exist"
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Why not put in 100 worlds?

Same reason it always is: time and money.

Seems to me that the team had an idea in mind behind "resort" and just built off that, and the effort was spent in creating a believable resort area with multiple sections that made sense than things like "ice land" or "desert land". They still had the challenging obstacle course areas tucked away as individual challenges, but not in a way where they clashed with the aesthetic.

Also Miyamoto didn't direct Sunshine. It was Yoshiaki Koizumi and Kenta Usui. Miyamoto just served as producer.

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I can accept some of that, but time and money were also factors in Super Mario 64.

Also, isn't producer a very important position?

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It was a great game for its time. Havent played it since the GameCube though.
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I always found it weird that a lot of the game seemed to have been designed without knowing you'd be able to hover.
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To paraphrase from Ren & Stimpy: the producer is the guy who tells everyone else what to do, and when the project is finished, he gets to take all the credit.

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They were too fixated on making the game's general atmosphere being a cheery, tropical locale which is normally an ideal vacation spot. That explains the kinds of choices they made for each of the seven levels plus the hub.

A cave level? "Eeeww, the average tourist never goes to a cave, they're all dark and damp and icky and stuff." Most definitely something opined by these devs.
Same reason why Corona Mountain only makes a brief appearance as the final boss's level. I guess these people have never heard about Hawaii's volcanoes being famous tourist attractions.

Not to mention there are some blatantly odd(and personally, decidedly negative) features in it, like Blue Coins(which actually ties in with the lack of levels already mentioned) and the weird mutant Yoshis.
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I must admit, I really enjoyed the blue coins. I know most people might consider them the SINGLE worst element, but I thought they were very cool. And also, it goes with the theme of different coloured coins, e.g. gold and red coins.
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this game was awful
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Known removed maps;

dolpic_ex5
dolpic_ex6
dolpic_ex7
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pinna_ex0
pinna_ex1
pinna_ex2
pinna_ex3
pinna_ex4
pinna_ex5
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monte_ex1
coro_ex3
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Because "beach" is the best theme and every other theme wishes it was that great.

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I thought it was pretty fun
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MeIon Bread posted...

I must admit, I really enjoyed the blue coins. I know most people might consider them the SINGLE worst element, but I thought they were very cool. And also, it goes with the theme of different coloured coins, e.g. gold and red coins.

They picked the wrong color for it.

Super Mario 64(and some earlier 2D Marios such as SMB3 and World) had already established that Blue/Silver Coins are supposed to be coins that only appear with switch activation and in turn provide much heavier bonuses when collected(e.g. 5x coinage in SM64). Now suddenly, they're separate from the coins you get in each level and are directly correlated to Shines, 1/10 apiece? What? And this aspect of Blue Coins is never visited again as they revert to the original idea they had in later games?
They should have chosen some other color. Only Yellow/Gold, Red, and Blue/Silver had been already taken pre-development in the series. Why not use Green? Or Purple? White? Or even, make it so they aren't 'coins' but rather differently-shaped tokens of some sort? Why instead try to use a color that's already been used to denote coins of a different nature in previous titles?

Not to mention that the feature was lazily implemented. You literally need a guide(or at least, have to painstakingly record every single Blue Coin you get on paper, including their exact locations) for 100% completion because the game doesn't track which ones you've gotten. And there's 240 of them. It's as if the higher-ups demanded that there be 120 plot-driving McGuffins(Shines) in the game total late into development, yet the devs had only visualized seven levels total for the game plus the hub so in a panic they designed the feature to account for a whopping 24 Shines and just threw the Blue Coins into each level willy-nilly. As mentioned above, this ties into lack of content since they make do with such a large number of Shines with a coin hunt that has no satisfactory explanation, just some guy who's all like 'Ay, I know this island is suffering from the loss of Shines, but I happen to have a ton of 'em locked up and I ain't givin' 'em up unless you pay me with these special coins heh heh'.

Case in point, Super Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 had Purple Coins. Nobody complains about Purple Coins, even when you search the whole level to gather 100 of them hidden away all over the place.
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I enjoyed it

It's a feel good game

i hate the term mcguffin
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Such a beautiful game, except for the chucksters, fuck them

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Why does the best 3d Mario game exist? Hmm I have no idea.
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Mario 64 > Odyssey > Sunshine >>> dog poop > galaxy

IIRC it had a lot of cut content.
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I liked it except for that awful last level and last boss.
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I felt the levels differed from each other well enough. It never felt repetitive.
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