I didn't like Super Mario Sunshine.
I was more of a Sonic kid back in the day (still am), so I entered the Mario scene pretty late. The first Mario game I played was Super Mario Bros. 3 and I thought it was a crowning achievement. That led me to play Super Mario 64 and I still proclaim it as one of the best games ever (so does everyone else, but can you blame them?) I have so many memories of the challenging platforming and the essence of exploring all these worlds that had different themes. Tick Tock Clock and Rainbow Ride were my favorite courses, and I actually felt like Nintendo put in a lot of creative thought into designing them.
When I played Super Mario Sunshine, I thought the concept of using FLUDD to clean up graffiti completely mutlated the platforming aspect. Now you can simply Spin Jump + Hover to any platform of your choosing and instead of jumping on enemies you can simply squirt them away. To me it didn't fit "the Mario formula", but I did praise all the "secret levels" (the areas where Shadow Mario stole your FLUDD) because you actually had to time your jump and rely on the games physics to get you there. I wish they made the game with simply those levels, that would have been fun!
The areas in my eyes also weren't that stellar to look at either, especially Gelato Beach, Sienna Beach, and Pianta Village. I know that this was supposed to take place in a tropical island resort, but part of the reason why I loved Super Mario 64 is that every course had a theme that didn't repeat (Tick Tock Clock being inside of a clock, Rainbow Ride being in the clouds, Bom-omb Battlefield being on a....battlefield!) I was getting sick of the beaches and palm trees because it just felt all too similar to me.
