Mario's time in the sun could have been brighter
After watching Giant Bomb East play through a part of this I had to revisit it to see if it holds up at all. Out of all the Mario games, this one has a bit more story to tell via CG cutscenes. Most of it is kinda weird with the gist of it being about an evil Mario that has painted Isle Delfino with a bunch of paint. Mario gets blamed for the vile act and he must now clean up the town. After getting introduced to the ruined island paradise it quickly becomes obvious that Nintendo wanted to make Super Mario 64 again but with a twist. That twist even has a name and it is F.L.U.D.D.
The Fludd is a talking pressure washer that fits on Mario’s back. Its standard mode lets him spray water in the direction he is facing. It also has a alternate mode that acts as a hover pack for a few precious seconds. Both of these modes work although it does take a bit to get used to them if you’ve never played this before. Other than that Mario's one other new move is his belly slide that lets him quickly dash forward in the air or the ground. When starting this I was worried that the controls might be bad but they aren’t an issue at all. Jumping around feels like it should with Mario only missing jumps if the player mistimes a button press. Although he does have a bit more momentum than usual leading to a few mistimed jumps that can at least be corrected with the hover pack. In most cases the level design doesn’t punish the player for missing a jump.
Every level is set up in a similar way with Mario needing to unlock it in the Isle Delfino Plaza hub. Either Shadow Mario will be holding an item you need or a painted paranta plant will need to be dealt with before the next level gets revealed. Once Mario jumps in the world it is set up where he must obtain 7 shines in that world to compete the game. Each shine has a different objective that must be competed to earn it. Some consist of fighting a boss like Petey Piranha by using the different mechanics in the world to succeed. Another type that shows up a lot is the challenge level that takes away your backpack and tests your platforming skills. While most of them make use of each level's unique design some are just repeats that were easy to implement multiple times throughout the adventure. Having a race with Piantissimo wasn’t much of a challenge the first time or the third time he shows up near the end of the game. The first 8 red coin shine may not look like a design flaw but it becomes one when they rely on it too much.
Collecting things in video games can be done well it’s just when it starts to become a easy way out of doing something unique it becomes a real issue. 40+ shines rely on collecting a variety of coins. Either get 100 coins per level, 30 blue coins per level and 8-16 red coin challenge levels. All of these require the player search through every level again after finishing them multiple times already. Obviously this is only really an issue if you decide to collect every shine in the game. Really it just comes down to the fact that I’m doing the same thing too much.
The best Mario games have enough variety to keep me entertained for the entire time. I took the time to get 120 stars in SM64 and even did it twice in Super Mario Galaxy. Yet just like my last save in SMS I got to 60 shines and then stopped. Once the credits rolled I had my fill of Mario’s Fludd filled adventures. It has some good moments and I still liked playing it. Yet I had more than a few sections where I got annoyed by the fluud or the level layout that it wasn’t always fun time. Still a good Mario game but it isn’t a great one. This isn’t the highest recommendation but I do think this game is worth playing till the credits roll.
