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If there is one divisive entry in the mainline Mario franchise, it has to be Super Mario Sunshine. While not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, Sunshine certainly feels like the odd man out in the series. From unique design decisions to one-off gameplay mechanics, Super Mario Sunshine certainly tried its hardest to be innovative and fresh.

While Sunshine released decades ago, we’re still learning new tidbits about the game today. That’s thanks to a pair of recently-translated interviews by the gang at Shmuplations. Their work translating these classic discussions have given us some details about Super Mario Sunshine that we haven’t heard anywhere else. You can find a quick recap of the finer points below.

  • Nintendo questioned whether it was appropriate to have Mario use tools and items
  • Nintendo considered giving Mario a tank top, but felt it didn’t look right
  • some staffers could picture Mario in a Hawaiian shirt rather than a tank top
  • Miyamoto originally said that he wanted the GameCube Mario to be “something wild”
  • When Miyamoto saw the initial ideas for what would become F.L.U.D.D., he was worried
  • the team was very conscious to not make F.L.U.D.D. look like a gun
  • with the rocket nozzle, the team wanted it to look like a pet bottle water rocket toy
  • early in development, Isle Delfino had normal human tourists, but this felt strange
  • there were originally 10 different nozzle types for F.L.U.D.D.
  • nozzles were whittled down, as gameplay felt more Zelda than Mario

There’s a lot more to be found in the full interviews, which you can read here.

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Comments (3)

kuribo

1+ y ago

Are Mario and Peach not human? To be honest, the “humans” in New Donk City in Odyssey look weird so it’s understandable they’d look weird on Isle Delfino.

Edited 1 time

d_says_hi

1+ y ago

Mario Jersey Shore? ;)


sligeach_eire

1+ y ago

Humans might have seemed strange, but I think I'd prefer them to the Piantas we got. They're a super weak character design. Glad we didn't get tank top Mario. And more F.L.U.D.D. nozzles would have been cool. Maybe they didn't want to overcomplicate gameplay, as well as the Link to Zelda.