Nintendo touted this title at last year's E3 among pretty stiff competition. While some of the updated classics for the GameCube have turned out quite well, Mario Sunshine seems to have fallen short for many reasons. The game is fun in the simplest sense of the word, but camera issues and odd control decisions give a little tilt to the enjoyment.

From birth, Mario's been plagued by flying turtles, mushroom-shaped foes and the constant nagging suspicion that he can't escape his past. This time around, a mysterious visitor interrupts our heroic plumber friend's well-deserved vacation. Graffiti left around his vacation spot of Isle Delfino is immediately blamed on Mario, despite the fact that he's just landed there. Though he couldn't possibly have been involved, local law enforcement decides to sentence him to a maintenance job anyway. Armed with a robotic assistant named FLUDD (Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device), he sets about the task of cleaning things up.

Shifting Mario about the island proves a generally simple task. Standard 3D platforming fare applies here, the analog stick controlling your walking/running/aiming at all times. The classic Mario 64 triple jump makes a return, allowing you to reach the heights of some of the larger levels. A new twirling jump has been added that gives you a little extra height if you manage to pull it off with any consistency. Alongside all of this, a big change comes with controlling FLUDD. The right analog shoulder button lets you spray water in the direction that Mario is facing. Pushing the button to its stopping point allows you pseudo-first person control. Also included is the ability to hover, blast off and propel yourself with special packs you pick up throughout the game.

Getting around the island seems fairly simple at first, but I eventually found myself becoming frustrated due to the lack of proper camera control. Often times the camera would get stuck behind a corner and I wouldn't be able to wrench it away in time to pull off whatever insane acrobatics I was attempting. While I always laud developers for making use of the C stick, keeping the camera from getting stuck would have added heaps to this title. That being said, when you can see things they tend to look pretty good. The water effects are outstanding and admiring them can be enjoyed from afar or while skimming across the water with your special FLUDD propulsion unit. Mario and his antagonists are very well detailed and the endless brightness of the franchise shines through in mostly beautiful design. The textures are crisp and just cartoonish enough, but often times look very ugly up close. At the very least, the character design adds a lot to the experience.

Those characters you encounter generally want you to do something for them. Whether you're cleaning them off or taking care of their pets, you'll find the locals are a fairly demanding lot. They're always asking you to retrieve "shines," little star shaped icons that they apparently use to fuel things. Collecting these shines is basically implied with the completion of most levels and seems like more of a plot device than an actual goal. The real goals in the game require you to race, hover, balance, slam and teeter on the brink of things to defeat the various adversaries.

Using these skills to defeat bosses can be rewarding at times, but they don't often translate into the rest of the game. You'll encounter many puzzle bosses that require you to decipher how to defeat them. While most of them are very easy to figure out, the methods of defeat are often somewhat weird. The most prominent example of this is the final level, which seemed very anticlimactic given the relative complexity of some of the other bosses in the game. Also problematic is the seemingly endless number of beach levels in the game. I understand that the game is set on an island, but more fire or ice levels would have been a welcome addition. Puzzle levels are also present, requiring you to navigate tumblers, moving platforms and characters that toss you around. At the beginning of each of these levels you're relieved of your FLUDD unit to make things a bit more difficult.

Upon finishing this title, I had mixed opinions of the game. While I enjoyed the addition of FLUDD, I found that controlling him was somewhat annoying and often detracted from an enjoyable experience. My initial wonderment at the graphics was very quickly replaced by boredom with the repetitive nature of the levels. The happiness I gained when I realized I'd be controlling Yoshi was almost immediately replaced with nausea when I realized how little his character added to the game. Throw in somewhat decent sound effects plagued by repetition and the lack of a decent soundtrack and you'll find yourself liking the game less and less. I suppose if you were a fan of Mario 64 you might enjoy this as a continuation, but it seems like the new content is almost as frustrating as it is interesting and enjoyable. While I did enjoy the title despite its flaws, Super Mario Sunshine is more of a rental than a purchase. I don't really see myself going back through to collect everything after having finished off the main game.