Platform Game Review: Super Mario Sunshine

Super Mario Sunshine is the most divisive Nintendo-produced Super Mario game. Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto has even gone so far as to publicly regret that he and his team created it. With the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo Classics GameCube emulator for Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers incoming, it is the perfect time to look back and see if the title deserves the hate it gets.

When the Nintendo 64 was released in 1996, Super Mario 64 was one of its launch titles. It proved to be a game changer, as it popularized the 3D platformer genre and was instrumental in the change from pixel-based two-dimensional development to polygonal-based three-dimensional development in the video game industry. When the GameCube came around, fans were looking forward to the next installment. The Super Mario 128 tech demo at the 2000 Nintendo Space World trade show had 128 Marios running around the screen, leaving many people hoping that the next Mario game would move the platformer genre forward as much as the previous game. Instead, Super Mario Sunshine was released in 2002 and the next truly inventive 3D Mario game would come five years later on the Wii in the form of Super Mario Galaxy.

Super Mario Sunshine played mostly like its predecessor, except this time Mario is forced to be a janitor of sorts. Mario, Peach, and her Toad entourage take a trip to a tropical island. When they arrive, they learn of a shadowy figure shaped like Mario. This doppelganger is going around the island painting everything and ruining Mario's reputation. As punishment, Mario is given a device named the FLUDD, or Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device. This allows him to shoot out water forward as well as to shoot it underneath him to propel himself upward.

The FLUDD mechanics bring a completely new feel to the game. Bosses are now fought with water rather than jumps and the propelling mechanics allow Mario to hover for a bit. The drawback is that Mario needs to be in water in order to fill the FLUDD and once it is depleted, he has to head back for a refill. This doesn't take long, as Mario is on a tropical island with water all around it.

Alongside the frustration of FLUDD refilling, the setting of the game is among its drawbacks. While Super Mario 64 was filled with level variety, including sunny fields, platforms high in the sky, snowy mountain tops, and undersea exploring, Super Mario Sunshine is a completely tropical experience. The only breakup in the pattern is the challenge stages that take away the FLUDD and make Mario jump across spinning blocks with only his Super Mario 64 moveset. These levels are well made and feel like a true continuation from Super Mario 64, making it weird that there weren't more levels that used this style of gameplay. They were a welcome breakup of the overly familiar setting of every other level in the game.

The other welcome addition to the game is the return of Yoshi as a rideable companion. He does everything he did in Super Mario World, running, jumping, and eating anything he can get his tongue on, provided the would-be food is not covered in spikes or spines. The Sunshine team even brought one of the fun aural pleasantries that came with riding Yoshi on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Whenever Mario rides his dinosaur steed, bongos are be added to the current music track, and once you are no longer atop Yoshi the bongos stop.

Speaking of music, as with all Super Mario games, Super Mario Sunshine is full of wonderful compositions. With each change of audio hardware, Koji Kondo and the music team had more freedom as to what music they could produce. With Super Mario Sunshine, they went all in on the tropical setting and made some island music that lifts the game and gives it a charm that it would likely be lacking otherwise. I sometimes pop in the Super Mario 3D All-Stars compilation on my Switch and play some Super Mario Sunshine just to hear the amazing soundtrack.

The game ultimately does not deserve all of the hate it gets. It's an inventive, enjoyable 3D platform game. The FLUDD does slow down the gameplay, making it feel like something other than a Super Mario game, but judged on its own, it is a fantastic platformer. It didn't light a fire in the industry like its predecessors, so companies did not use the Sunshine formula in its own games. That works out in its favor, however, since its unique gameplay makes it different than almost every other game out there.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Super Mario

Super Mario 64 Review

Super Mario Galaxy Review coming soon

Mario

Mario Kart 64 Review

Super Mario Galaxy Review coming soon

Freemium Fighting Game Review: Multiversus Season 1 - Puns and Villainy

MultiVersus is ending at the end of May 2025 after only a private alpha, two open beta seasons, and five seasons after the final release. The first season of the latter began only last year, as of this writing. The long wait between the closure of the open beta and the launch of the final version caused it to lose thousands of players. The launch of the new characters didn't help bring players back and led to the closure of the developer, Player First Games.

The first season of the open beta was promising, the second season was disappointing, and the launch of the final version did not do much to improve the level of disappointment towards the game. The first season of the final version brought four new characters. Three were well known characters that fit the fighting genre. The Joker from DC Comics was the main draw, and the character that personified the "Puns and Villainy" subtitle of the season. He was voiced by Mark Hamill, joining his Batman: The Animated Series colleague Kevin Conroy who reprised his role as Batman in one of his final performances before his death at age 66 on November 30, 2022. The other two fighters that fit the fighting game genre were Jason Vorhees, the villain of the Friday the 13th series, and Agent Smith, the villain of The Matrix and its sequels. The final fighter was completely out of left field. That character was a Banana Guard, one of the dimwitted and useless supposed protectors of the Candy Kingdom in Adventure Time and some of its spin-offs.

The most disappointing part of the release of the new characters was the way they were obtained. While the beta had a balanced path to get the characters, through points obtained through normal gameplay, one of the most popular characters of the bunch, Agent Smith, was locked at the end of a season track path. This broke the balance, making the premium players have an advantage over those playing solely as free-to-play. It made the game feel like more of a cash grab than it ever had before. Personally, this made me quit the game completely, and judging by the drop-off of players, I was not the only one.

The game also felt lacking compared to the beta. The game was remade in Unreal Engine 5 versus the beta which used the fourth version of the Unreal Engine. This was surely a factor in the long period of waiting between the end of the beta and the final, however, the engine upgrade was not enough to make the wait worth it. This is especially true as game modes in the beta were absent in the final release. The free-for-all mode was missing at launch and was added later in the first season, whereas the ranked mode was missing completely.

Multiversus Season 1: Puns and Villainy was another huge disappointment after the lackluster release of the second season of the beta way back in November of 2022. The addition of the Joker, played by the oft-cited as the best animated Joker performance of all time, Mark Hamill, was not enough of a draw to make the final version of MultiVersus worth the wait. Only four new characters were added, which was one less than the promising first open beta season. The fact that one of these new characters, the Banana Guard was way out of place as a fighter in the game didn't help matters. On top of this, one of the most popular chacaters, Agent Smith, was locked behind a prize track. Add in the fact that the final lacked the ranked mode from the open beta, and you are left with a very flawed final product.

Final Verdict:
2½ out of 5

MultiVersus Season 2 (Open Beta) Review

MultiVersus Season 2 Review Coming Soon

Open World Action-Adventure Delivery Simulator Shooter Review: Death Stranding

Hideo Kojima has made a career out of making games with way-out-there storylines that somehow remain enjoyable despite their concepts, and often, despite their convoluted nature. Death Stranding is the most decisive of the games by Kojima Productions, but it still have all of the hallmarks of a Kojima title.

The game world takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. An organization named Bridges is attempting to bridge the new cities of the land together into a reconstituted United Cities of America under the former president of the United States, Bridget Strand. 

The world has returned to the caste systems of olde, where people stay in the professions they had before the United States blew up as a result of the titular death stranding, which merges the world of the dead together with that of the living. Explosions known as voidouts take place when corpses blow up in a phenomenon known as necrotization which can only be prevented by cremation. 

The game follows a man who goes by the name Sam Porter Bridges, who is a legendary porter who works for the Bridges organization.  His profession is based on real life Japanese bokka, who transport packages over mountains and across rivers using nothing but their feet and wooden ladders. 

Sam is the only person known as a repatriate, which means that he can return to the world of the living after dying. He carries an unborn fetus known as a Beached Baby or BB that was taken from a brain dead mother and placed in a pod full of liquid that simulates the conditions in a mother's womb. BBs are treated as mere tools, as they can allow the holder to view the souls trapped between the living and dead world.

These souls, known as Beached Things or BT, appear in rain known as timefall. The timefall ages anything with which it comes into contact, meaning any vehicles or structures used by porters will quickly rust and will eventually collapse if they are not regularly repaired or upgraded.

The part of the game that makes it the most divisive is in its main gameplay. Sam is regularly given jobs to port packages to places throughout the former USA. The jobs that are marked as for Sam are those that are needed to be delivered in order to unlock more of the story. There are others marked as standard deliveries which are used to gain more stars at each delivery point. Alongside deliveries are long fetch quests, which require retrieving lost or stolen packages and returning them to their owners.

When not dealing with BTs or fighting or fleeing from enemy thieves known as MULEs, the game works essentially like a twisted Animal Crossing, minus the home building and collecting. It also lacks the decorating, except for the ability to craft and decorate Sam's backpack. The rest is there though, as Sam befriends neighbors, does favors for them and delivers their packages. This makes it a mostly relaxing game, especially when playing it after the end of the story.  The large open world, however, can be detrimental to its playability factor, as trips can be excessively long.

The character models and animation are top notch. Given Kojima's well-known love of Hollywood films, his studio employed well known personalities to portray the game's main characters. Two of the most publicized were those who were slated to work on Kojima's Silent Hills that was scrapped after he was unceremoniously fired from Konami. The main character of that game was slated to be played by Norman Reedus and it was to be co-directed by Guillermo del Toro. Reedus plays Sam Bridges, both in facial capture and voice, while del Toro provides the face of Sam's guide Deadman. Jesse Corti provides Deadman's voice. The actors are fantastic, and help suck you into the game's world.

Music is sparse, as it only occurs during specific points in the game's world, in some cutscenes, and in music played when upgraded structures are activated. Once a song is heard, it is added to the music list and can be played in the menu or inside Bridges shelters. Most of the time, the only sound heard is sound effects, which adds to the desolate feel of the game. The sound effects, whether they be from Sam's feet or the humming of vehicles such as dirt bikes or trucks, are well done.

Death Stranding is a hard game to rate. It is a very divisive game as its gameplay is not for everyone and music is sparse. However, it has a unique story, excellent acting and fantastic character models and animation, and it is a unique take on a delivery game. It is worth playing for anyone who doesn't mind games that consist of long deliveries and fetch quests.

Final Verdict:
4 out of 5

I Will Not Review SNK Games Until The Company Is Sold

As I said with Hogwarts Legacy and Atomic Heart, I won't review games due to anti-LGBT actions and support for murderous regimes. This policy is now going to apply to SNK games as well. My reasons are in the Mastodon toot listed below, minus the hashtags.

SNK is majority controlled by the non-profit owned by Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.

I won't review SNK games until if and when it is sold to another party.

MBS regime arrests LGBT people, murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and throws money on entertainment to distract.

As I said prior, I founded WE Computers Museum which is all about the preservation of all computer software, so it will definitely have them at some point. However, I have decided to only buy them for the museum used from Goodwill since they are LGBTQIPA+ inclusive.  I recommend everyone do so as well.

Stealth Action Game Mega Review: Metal Gear for C64, DOS, and NES

Metal Gear for the Nintendo Entertainment System is a very different game than the original MSX2 game of the same name. It, along with the lesser known Commodore 64 and DOS ports, has become something of a red-headed stepchild as it was both created without the input of series creator Hideo Kojima and suffered from meddling when the management at Konami requested that it be as different as possible from the original. It gets a lot of flack for those reasons, but it really isn't a bad game, especially considering the constraints of its development. 

The game has the same general set up as the MSX2 Metal Gear. Solid Snake has to infiltrate an enemy encampment and has backup off-site through radio contact such as with his mission commander, Big Boss. The primary difference here is that the mission takes place in an outdoor military encampment whereas the original took place inside a sprawling enemy base. This makes it have more in common with Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater than the original Metal Gear Solid, which took direct inspiration from the MSX2 Metal Gear games.

The comparison is superficial however, as Kojima has stated his dislike of the NES Metal Gear games. This is unfair however, as the game is quite fun on its own. I did play it often on my toaster NES when I was a little girl, so I'll admit some of my like of the game may be rose-colored glasses. However, even when I replayed it recently on the Metal Gear Solid Collection: Vol. 1 for the Nintendo Switch, I still had a lot of fun with it.

The game has the oft-mentioned poor English translations such as "I feel asleep". It also doesn't have as strong of a story as the original, although even the MSX2 version doesn't have the context-heavy radio calls for which the series would become known. The game also doesn't have the titular final boss. Due to hardware restraints of the NES and the limitations of the mapper used, Solid Snake a giant super computer instead of a Metal Gear mech.

The Nintendo Entertainment System version of Metal Gear is still fun to play, if you are open to playing top-down two-dimensional 8-bit action stealth games. With its outdoor locales, you may have fun with this game even if you played the MSX2 game or its console remake. The limitations of the console even work out for making it a different experience due to the very different final boss. It is not as good of a game as the MSX2 original, but in my opinion it comes really close.

Final Verdict:
3 out of 5

Metal Gear Review

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake Review

Stealth Action Game Review: Metal Gear

Metal Gear for the MSX2 computer is a very different beast from the Nintendo Entertainment System version that international players received. It is also the version that connects to the later games, as the two NES games are ignored by the storylines of the Metal Gear Solid games. The full three-dimensional third-person presentation of the latter made it a bonafide worldwide hit. However, even in the top-down perspective of the original game, many of the stealth mechanics that made Solid so popular were already present.

Metal Gear was released in for MSX2 in 1987 as the first game in the eponymous series. It was released in Japan and Europe, but the latter received a truncated version of the game with nearly half as many radio transmissions and truncated messages. 

A faithful remake of the original version was developed in the J2ME subset of Java and released for feature phones in Japan in 2004. It included an easy mode with a bandanna that gave infinite ammunition, larger text, and end-of-game statistics and related player codenames. This version was the basis of the version that was released worldwide in 2005 as a bonus on Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.

Solid Snake begins his mission in much the same manner as he would later in Metal Gear Solid. Snake travels through the water to infiltrate an enemy base and receives a transmission from his mission commander who is known by the codename Big Boss. As the game progresses, Snake will be able to make and receive radio transmissions from other characters as well.

Snake finds keycards throughout the game, which can be used to unlock doors. In these doors, he may find weapons and gadgets to help him in his mission. He can also go into the back of trucks to find items to use, but sometimes enemy guards will be found instead. Snake can punch these guards or use the weapons he found. He can also use rations to refill his health bar.

There are two storage compartments where Snake keeps his items. The first stores items such as keycards and rations, while the second stores weapons. These can be set as active at all times. This allows Snake to enter doors with a keycard without having to manually activate the keycard. It also sets the weapon, which lets Snake fire it while it is active. This is especially helpful with rations, as Snake's health will be automatically refilled to an extent when it reaches zero.

The rations help a lot with the boss battles. There are no memorable bosses as in the Solid series. You won't find Psycho Mantis-style originality here, but the bosses do offer some variety as Snake battles terrifying gun-wielding soldiers and huge mobile weapons. The latter gives the player the first taste of the nuclear-loaded mecha known as Metal Gear.

Metal Gear is not as welcoming as its Solid brethren, but it does offer fun stealth action to those who are open to 8-bit game mechanics. With many of the game mechanics the Metal Gear Solid games would become known for, this is a fascinating game to play to see how the series started, if nothing else. It is also very easy to come by as the 2005 remake version has been ported to most consoles as well as Windows since that came out since it was first released. 

Final Verdict:
3½ out of 5

Metal Gear (Ultra Games) Review

Fighting Game Review: SNK Gals' Fighters

SNK Gals' Fighters is a chibi-style two-dimensional fighting game, developed by Yumekubo and Paon, that was the first all-female fighting game published by SNK. It was released on the Neo Geo Pocket in 2000, proving to be one of the best fighting games on a console that had no shortage of great fighting games.

Female fighters compete in the Queen of Fighters tournament. Eight characters are available from the start. SNK's most popular fighting game series are represented, with playable characters including Athena Asamiya from Psycho Soldier and The King of Fighters series, Yuri Sakazaki from the Art of Fighting series, Akari Ichijou from The Last Blade series, Mai Shiranui from The Last Blade and The King of Fighters series, Nakoruru and Shiki from the Samurai Shodown series, plus Leona Heidern and Shermie from the The King of Fighters series

In addition, Whip, Miss X, and Yuki, all from the King of Fighters series, are unlockable. Miss X is Iori Yagami in disguise as a female fighter and Yuki is Kyo Kusanagi's girlfriend who makes her only playable appearance.

The Neo Geo Pocket family of systems were unique for their time in that the systems each included an digital micro-switched eight-directional pad controlled with a thumb pad. This made it uniquely suited, at the time not withstanding its mere two action buttons, for arcade-style games such as fighting games. Fighting games benefit from precision control to pull off special moves. 

The port through emulation, as part of NEOGEO Pocket Color Selection Vol.1, to the Nintendo Switch and Steam for Windows support controllers with analog thumbsticks. These lack the clicky feel of the Neo Geo Pocket and feel a bit off as a result, but it is still fun to play. The compilation also supports the directional pad, and I personally used both control methods, with the thumbstick for movement and the D-pad for pulling off special moves. If you have never used the Neo Geo Pocket Color D-Pad, it is possible that this won't be an issue, since both control methods do work quite well.

Like most fighting games, especially at the time of the release of Gals' Fighters, the story is quite simplistic. There is an artifact that is said to grant one wish to anyone who possesses it. Every character has their own story related to the artifact, and their wishes are not always as expected. Some of them are quite comical. These amusing endings definitely go a long way toward convincing the player to play through the game with the other characters to experience them all. Winning matches also sometimes gives items, which can be used to affect gameplay, although some objects have no effect at all.

SNK Gals' Fighters is not only one of the best fighting games on the Neo Geo Pocket Color system, it is one of the best games on the console regardless of genre. The fighting is fast, precise, and smooth, the characters are fun and quirky, and the art style is pleasing. The super deformed characters still look pleasingly cute today, although the two-color palette of the characters stand out more than they did at the time of release. This is mitigated, however, in the fact that the backgrounds use the full color palette available on the console and fit with the art style of the characters well. If you ever get the chance to try this game, it is well worth the play.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5