One awesome game. Too bad it wasn't longer!
Nintendo made the right choice of leaving this game to their new Tokyo studio since they have been exceptionally good when it comes to graphics. 2005's Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was their first project which was both fun to play and was tasty eye candy. Nintendo's studio took that work and ran with it on the Wii, giving us stunningly beautiful worlds to explore along with great-looking character models. I loved the way Mario looked in the game. Just awesome.
Super Mario Sunshine was Mario's last 3D platformer, and it didn't sit too well with many fans, including me. Sure, it was fun to be able to run around these island locales with a water pack, but it got boring in some places. I enjoyed the "secret" levels that the courses held however.
As for the music, it totally kicked some behind. Many fans have scrambled for the soundtrack ever since the game's release, managing to grab a song or two. Even though four out of the 28 songs in the game were composed by Koji Kondo (doh!) the other songs manage to hold up extremely well. The songs are each funny. dangerous and even epic in some places. You feel big when stomping your way through levels like Buoy Base Galaxy and Gusty Garden Galaxy. It's amazing!
As for my dislikes about this game... Getting the first 60 Stars was, yes, easy. If it were more of a style like Super Mario 64 (70 Stars) I would have liked it a little better but it doesn't bother me much. Some levels were simply easier than others but some could get brutal on you. This is what makes the remaining 60 Stars harder. If I can recall, after getting all the Stars in the game, a death counter appears by the date in your file name and I had about 242 deaths in total with Mario. That's how hard the game may get on that final mission. I liked that. And who says the story needed more fleshing out? I thought it was OK, and as for Rosalina's story, although some may have called it "irrevalant", was not a burden at all to me. I found it to be a nice distraction from my adventuring.
This game is very nice. Anyone who doesn't have it might as well sell off their Wii.