Super Mario Sunshine | Nintendo GameCube

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A holiday interrupted on Isle Delfino

Super Mario Sunshine sends Mario, Princess Peach and their travelling companions to Isle Delfino, where a seaside holiday becomes a cleanup mission. A mysterious double has covered the island in pollution, and the locals blame the visitor who looks just like him. Mario must restore the missing Shine Sprites and pursue the real troublemaker while exploring the island with FLUDD, a water-spraying backpack. The setting gives the adventure a particular character: beaches, waterways and resort buildings become places to climb, investigate and repair, with the search for the next Shine drawing Mario farther into the island.

Movement with a water-powered partner

Mario still spends much of his time running, jumping, climbing and sliding through three-dimensional spaces. Spin jumps and carefully linked leaps help him reach awkward platforms, while FLUDD adds ways to affect the ground and objects around him. Water clears pollution, but it also makes the environment part of the movement system, including opportunities to propel a floating lily pad. A route can therefore ask for more than a well-timed jump. Looking at where a stream of water might help, then combining that effect with Mario's movement, is central to solving the island's obstacles.

The original GameCube controller gives spraying two distinct uses. Partially pressing the R trigger lets Mario move while firing water; clicking it fully down holds him in place for more deliberate aiming. The standard hover nozzle supplies a short burst of lift, useful for crossing a gap or correcting a landing. Its pressure is limited, so hovering requires a destination rather than an expectation of indefinite flight. Together, these controls make small adjustments meaningful: a moving spray serves a different purpose from planted aim, and a late hover can change how safely a jump ends.

Episodes, secrets and changing objectives

Delfino Plaza serves as the central area, with entrances leading to the island's main stages and additional activities hidden within the plaza itself. Stages are revisited through episodes, each giving Mario another objective in a familiar location. Returning is therefore a chance to use knowledge of the terrain for a different task, rather than simply repeat the same route. Shine Sprites mark progress through these challenges, and the full collection reaches 120. Exploring beyond the most obvious objective matters for players who want to uncover the island's optional rewards and finish their collection.

The episode goals vary in what they ask you to notice. Some direct Mario toward a boss, while others involve a race, a red-coin search or a pursuit of Shadow Mario. Blooper riding introduces a faster way of moving across water. These activities share the same island geography but emphasize different skills: a chase rewards maintaining contact with a moving target, whereas collecting scattered coins calls for a route that does not overlook a corner. Learning a stage's layout makes those changes easier to read, even when the next episode rearranges your priorities.

New ways to reach the island's heights

Additional FLUDD nozzles change which routes Mario can attempt. The rocket nozzle provides a strong upward launch, while the turbo nozzle sends him rapidly across ground or water. These replace the hover option when selected, making their different movement properties consequential. A high ledge suggests one solution; a long, open stretch suggests another. The equipment expands the uses of spaces you have already seen, giving a reason to reconsider a destination that once appeared out of reach. Each nozzle asks for its own approach to positioning, direction and the eventual landing.

Secret platforming courses put a different demand on Mario's movement. On the initial visit to these challenges, Shadow Mario takes FLUDD away, leaving a course of suspended structures and moving obstacles to cross without a hovering correction. The absence of the backpack changes how you judge a jump. You need to commit to the takeoff and account for the next platform's movement before leaving the current one. These sections give the broader island adventure concentrated tests of timing, with the destination often visible even when reaching it requires several precise steps.

Yoshi also joins the island adventure, bringing fruit and juice into certain puzzles. Feeding him different fruits changes his juice, which can transform enemies into useful blocks with different properties. That creates another way to read a scene: an enemy may be part of the route, and nearby fruit may matter to the solution. Yoshi's sections give the player a different set of possibilities to consider alongside Mario's nozzles. They fit the island's emphasis on using an unusual tool in a specific place, then turning the result into a path forward.

The original GameCube island adventure

This is a single-player GameCube adventure built around exploring a bright, connected holiday setting. Hotel grounds, a theme park, village areas and the surrounding sea keep the island theme present as the objectives change. Colourful scenery and music with tropical rhythms accompany the cleanup, while the secret courses bring back a vocal arrangement of the classic Mario theme. The experience combines a continuing search for Shine Sprites with practical control of Mario and FLUDD, from spraying a small target to reaching a distant platform that becomes accessible with the right approach.