Isle Delfino sucks as a location. Yeah, I said it,
and the more I look back on the game the more I think it's true and that
the place just lacks any of the interesting sights you find on a real
world island.
The main problem therefore is
simple... the whole place is just an extended beach resort. It's
accurate to the title I suppose, the whole restoring Sunshine to the
island by collecting Shine Sprites premise, but it doesn't lend itself
to a memorable video game setting alone.
As a result, the worlds are just boring. I mean, look at them for God's sake!
Delfino
Plaza- Least exciting town design on the planet. No real attractions
bar the Shine Gate. Zero difference in elevation between areas. Feels
nothing like a real coastal town.
Bianco Hills-
A pleasant enough first world, but it's still a standard 'grass land'
equivalent, the tropical island version of Bob-omb Battlefield.
Ricco
Harbour- Interesting, as far as the girders and boats section goes.
That was excellent level design. Pity about the entirely lacking in
content insections set on the shore, or the fact two whole missions are
devoted to Blooper riding in the general area and a sewer respectively.
Gelato
Beach- Standard beach area. Good to include it, but by definition any
non story missions here are going to be quite dull by the fact the area
itself is such.
Sirena Beach- A haunted hotel.
Another beach. The hotel was okay in design (but rather small), but
the beach area was completely void of interesting content despite the
beautiful looking sunset and scenery. The later 'clean up' mission made
that even clearer.
Pinna Park- Very interesting idea, and a fun level in general. Could have done with a new and far better eighth mission.
Noki Bay- Fairly good design, but it feels like the area wasn't used to its full potential.
Pianta
Village- Some decent ideas, but a horrible design for a so called
'village'. Really, change the name or area's design, sinceI don't think
you'll find a single person who'd assume it was an inhabitable
community at first glance.
Corona Mountain-
Total failure of a level. This should have been a full eight mission
world with far better level design and an interesting volcano themed
landscape to go with it.
Airstrip- There was no
reason to even have more than the first shine sprite here. Heck, there
wasn't really a purpose in having that here either, we could have
easily gone straight from the Piranha Plant boss to the courtroom scene
and kept the shine sprite for a more important task.
A
lot's missing from the location to make it feel more like a proper
living world, a real place that people would actually go on their
holidays. In my opinion, here are a few locations that should have been
added in, as well as some changes to be made to the existing ones.
Add
a castle type section. Yes, it's arguably a bit cliche for the Mario
series, but this isn't unrealistic for the setting at all. Look at the
list of castles on Wikipedia, and see the sheer number in mediterranean
countries. For example, it seems every Spanish island in existance has
at least one castle located there, and you'd have thought a place like
Isle Delfino would have some interesting architecture like that after
maybe some Crusaders went there or something. That could have allowed
them to introduce all the clever level design and Mario game stereotypes
found in the other platformers, and unlike with Super Mario Galaxy 2,
actually gave the castle a good reason to be there.
Heck,
what about other interesting buildings? Where's the cathedral type
place most real life Isle Delfino type areas tend to have? Places like
Turkey have plenty of interesting religious buildings that are both
found in tourist filled beach areas and have enough in the way of design
to be both stunning to look at and a prime video game location.
Or
the temples and ruins? Like the ones most Greek islands have? Or the
type that Rome has because the Romans was influenced by Greek
architecture? Nintendo can't honestly be saying the only buildings the
Pianta people made were Pianta Village, can they? Where's our ruin type
area with all kinds of secret passageways, crumbling statues and
references to a thinly veiled rip off version of the Greek pantheon?
Hey, you could even bring together the tropical island resort 'cliches'
and those from Indiana Jones and Donkey Kong Country, and certainly make
the game feel like a more interesting platformer to boot.
But
enough of older buildings and man made objects, there should be a
cruise ship type level, set just off the coast of the island. The ideas
for this level archtype have to be near endless, because you could:
1.
Have a mission or two in the deep ocean where Mario is just free to
swim the crystal blue waters, avoiding sharks and other predators, and
exploring underwater ruins and coral reefs. The underwater parts of
Noki Bay and the coral reef from Gelato Beach would probably make more
sense to be in this 'world'.
2. Other missions
could cruise around various islands and mainland locations, letting
Mario go and find new areas, new characters and new secrets with every
shine sprite.
3. Have a mission or two set
inside the ship itself, with all the fun and havoc that Mario charging
around the decks and exploring the engine room would cause.
4.
If you're really 'daring', make a mission like Titanic where the ship
hits a rock and sinks. The objective could then be to get Mario out of
the sinking ship before it takes on too much water and his air meter
runs out. Dodge water that's flooding in! Avoid tables, chairs and
other non nailed down objects flying towards you because the ship
capsizes. Desperately charge through various rooms and passages looking
for an exit of some kind! Heck, you could even have it so the shine
sprite is found on the lifeboat or have the mission timed!
Other possibilities are endless, don't you think?
You
could have a jungle to explore, with the usual tree climbing, vine
swinging and not at all Donkey Kong Country like feel that brings.
Maybe even have you dodging Mario equivalents to crocodiles (Kremling
reference?), piranha fish, snakes, etc.
A safari could be a good setting, with lions, hippos and wildebeest.
Or
a cave type area, based on the many, many subterranean tunnels and open
areas that can be found around the world. These areas can be found
nearly anywhere in real life, so it doesn't seem too implausible Isle
Delfino might have a similar series of tunnels and caves. More
interestingly, unlike Hazy Maze Cave from Super Mario 64, such a system
could well be more natural and less like a mine, with various rock
formations and perhaps even underground rivers and lakes of a greater
degree than the one that Dorrie was found in back in the Nintendo 64
days.
Let's not forget another gaming staple
that could well have been introduced in this game either, pirates! Nice
timing too, since Super Mario Sunshine did only come out one year
before Pirates of the Caribbean did, and many of the standard pirate
tropes would have made for a good Mario level.
There'd
be dodging cannonball fire, exploring ancient galleons of the kind K
Rool used in the Donkey Kong Country series, pirate enemies, climbing
the masts of the ships and fighting the ship captain (who'd probably be
allied with Bowser and co in some way) as a ranging storm goes on in the
surrounding area and strong waves smash into the ship every few
seconds. Think something like this:
Heck,
even Wario Land did it twice, so why don't the main series Mario games
make a level like this? Especially in a game where it'd fit perfectly.
Another
concept would be another natural location, like some mountains or
cliffs or something. Waterfalls, rivers with a strong current, maybe a
few cliffs, dangerous walkways... that sort of thing. I know that Noki
Bay was similar, but it'd make more sense for a place like this to be
inland... heck, I even visited such an area once in real life.
That's
just what they could have done for new levels (and the ones listed
would be more than enough to bring it to a similar length to Super Mario
64) Old levels could be improved too...
Delfino
Plaza for one should have been a hill side town, like many real world
capital cities on smaller islands. The roads should go downhill towards
the beach (which would make the area far more interesting than the
completely flat foundation Delfino Plaza seems to have), and the
buildings should be flat roofed and and overlook various cliffs. This
would make the town look less like a planned community or city built in
the middle of nowhere and more like a historic centre of commerce
located in it's current spot for defense reasons.
Ricco
Harbour should be a bigger area, with more scaffolding at greater
heights. Make the stars take a lot more climbing to get, in the style
of the traditional 2D platformers. Obviously, remove the Blooper riding
missions, which add nothing to the game whatsoever and replace them
with just about anything else. Maybe have a small village with more
than one street alongside it, like Jolly Roger's Lagoon from Banjo Tooie
and locate the last two or three shine sprites there. Have one Blooper
fight take place in the village centre/fountain area, and the other on
the helipad to make it the best of both worlds.
For
Gelato Beach, not sure. The coral reef would have been moved to the
cruise ship set level, so a good replacement might be surfing or such
like. Maybe you could even have a flight power up here and have a few
missions in the air, since real world beaches tend to be good places to
go hang gliding and well, Treasure Trove Cove from Banjo Kazooie was a
good inspiration too.
Pinna Park was fine, bar the final mission. Just replace it and add a new ride in to set the last task on.
Sirena
Beach is fairly okay, it'd just need to remove the pointless 'clean up
the beach with FLUDD' mission and replace it with something else.
Perhaps also expand the hotel building to have more rooms and floors.
How about even letting Mario go on the balcony and roof, and end up back outside the hotel if he falls off?
Noki
Bay is fine, although it'd need some new missions to replace the diving
ones, and the altogether pointless 'red coins in a bottle' task.
Pianta
Village just needs a building overhaul, to look more like a town made
from actual houses, with a style remniscient of a proper settlement. The
giant tree theme was fine, just put an interesting village locale there
and keep the same missions.
As you see, just a
few changes and a bit more thought on Nintendo's part could have made
this game into a true classic like Super Mario 64 or Galaxy, with at
least as many worlds and just as much variation without even having to
diverge a little from the tropical island theme.
Apart
from some horrible town design that looks nothing like a real town, the
levels in general just needed some more variety to fully capture the
feel of a holiday on a island in either the mediterranean or down by the
equator, and to make the setting have more appeal for those of us (who
make up a fairly large part of Nintendo's audience, considering what
kind of people play video games) who aren't beach lovers who just like
hotels and sun bathing all day long. Mario Sunshine should have taken
in some cues from the kinds of locations that really exist on these
islands and that non beach goers visit to make Isle Delfino truly feel
like a tropical resort one would want to visit.
Waluigious says: Mario Sunshine would have far better received with pirates in it.