Here’s How to do a Remake of Super Mario Sunshine
Last month the internet was bombarded with seemingly credible rumors stating that Nintendo was planning on re-releasing much of Mario’s back catalog in 2020, including remasters of Mario’s 3D outings. While the buzz has died down considerably, many people still cling to the hope that these games exist and might still come out this year, even with the global pandemic slowing down development on many projects. I’ll admit that I am one of those people, if only for one reason: Nothing would make me happier than being able to play one of my all-time favorite games on my favorite console.
When it comes to what we “know” about these remasters, there isn’t much. We have no idea if these games will come in a collection, if they’ll be simple ports or if they’ll be up-scaled to HD, or if there will be any additional content added to any of them. I’m inclined to believe they’ll receive an HD face-lift, but nothing major. After all, Nintendo would be releasing these games all at the same time, and redoing the graphics and adding content will add a considerable amount of development time to a project that doesn’t need it in order to sell a massive amount of units. However, there’s no fun in dreaming about the bare minimum, so I want to talk about what my dream remake of one of these games would look like.
When I think about Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Galaxy, I can’t think of much I would change about the games in order to make them better. I think you can update the graphics and controls to modern standards, maybe add extra content, and that’s it. I wouldn’t do anything to the core content found in those games. However, despite Super Mario Sunshine being my favorite of the three, and my second favorite game of all time, it’s definitely the game I would change the most.
Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. I would, of course, update the graphics and controls. One thing to note about the controls is that the original game utilized the analog triggers of the GameCube controller, a feature not present in Nintendo Switch controllers. This allowed for the firing of Mario’s FLUDD to have different properties depending on how far the player pressed down the trigger. My solution to this is simple. The Nintendo Switch controllers have one more shoulder button than the GameCube controller. The R button can be used to allow Mario to fire his FLUDD while walking, while the ZR button should be used to make Mario stay in place while shooting, allowing for better aiming and emulating the difference between pressing down the trigger all the way or just a little bit in the original game.
The other obvious fix is to fix the game’s physics engine. The physics of the original game were extremely wonky and often led to certain sections not functioning properly (see the infamous “pachinko” level.) With physics more akin to Mario’s more recent outings, the game should be a much smoother and more fair experience.
Now for more major changes. I would change the game’s progression system. In the original game, you would need to clear up to episode seven in every world in order to beat the game. This presented an issue as it meant that only fifty specific shine sprites actually contributed to progression. I have no problem with fifty being the magic number to beat the game (although I do think it’s a very low number, considering the game has 120 total) but dictating which fifty those have to be means that any other shine collected is utterly pointless unless the player wants to collect them all. This means that any shine collected in Delfino Plaza, the game’s hub world, or any shines collected via blue coins, are pointless to the casual player. I would change it so that it doesn’t matter which shines are collected, just the number. This gives the player extra choice on which challenges to tackle. If there’s a mission in the second world that a player really hates, they can just pass it up and do extra missions in another world instead. This is how progression worked in Super Mario 64, so it’s strange that Nintendo decided to switch it up for the sequel.
Now, this new progression system would give greater incentive to collect the game’s blue coins. In the original game, ten blue coins would equate to one shine sprite. But, as previously mentioned, those shine sprites were practically useless unless the player wanted to collect them all. However, I have something in mind that might even give more incentive to collecting blue coins. Instead of having shines be the reward for blue coins, why not power-ups instead? The original game had a strange way of handling its power-ups. There were only two extra nozzles for your FLUDD device, and they were unlocked arbitrarily after beating a certain level and collecting enough shine sprites. However, that only unlocked them for the hub world. In order to unlock them in each world, a player would have to find the specific box that held the power-up in that world, and then the power-up would appear in every box in that world that was previously transparent. It was a strange way of handling them, and made the eventual unlock in the hub world feel less special. By unlocking them with blue coins, players can feel a better sense of accomplishment after unlocking them, knowing that they needed to work to find enough blue coins to earn them. You can also add a few more power-ups, such as a fire-based power-up that changes FLUDD’s squirt nozzle to now shoot flames, aiding in fighting enemies. If the developers can’t think of enough power-ups to fill the entire store, they can also have blue coins unlock new costumes, bonus levels, or the Yoshi egg, which was previously unlocked the same way as the power-ups.
Another small change I would make to the power-ups is that once they’re unlocked, you should be able to use them at any time. The original game’s insistence on making players find a box in the level and replace their hover nozzle is, frankly, outdated design. It leads most players to completely ignore the power-ups unless they’re absolutely required. This is a shame, because the rocket and turbo nozzles allow for a wide-range of new movement options and are genuinely fun to use. Putting them out of the way and making you replace your precious hover nozzle to use them, however, makes them less than ideal grabs. Imagine if they’re as simple to toggle on as the hover or squirt nozzle. You just press X (or whatever button is assigned) to change your nozzle from squirt, to hover, to rocket, to turbo. This will add so many new ways to tackle missions, and the reliable access to the turbo and rocket nozzles will surely set the speedrunning community by storm. Some extra balancing may have to be done to assure that these changes don’t make the power-ups too strong, such as increasing the amount of water used by these nozzles.
Now, with blue coins being relegated to unlocking power-ups and other goodies, twenty-four shine sprites are left unaccounted for if the game wants to retain the same amount of total shine sprites as the original. Obviously these shines should be added back in the form of new worlds to explore. Ideally these worlds should take advantage of the new abilities Mario has in this remake, such as any new power-ups or just the increased access to older ones. These should still retain the setting of the game, and should be themed around a tropical resort, while still bringing in new themes that weren’t present in the original. Maybe one world can be a tropical rain forest that has Mario jumping from massive trees? Or maybe there can be level on a mountain peak to fulfill the lack of a snow-themed level in the game? How about a level in a Yoshi village that utilizes the Yoshi mechanic in more creative ways than the original game was able to manage? Whatever the developers are able to come up with, getting to play new content is something I think all players can agree will be an amazing addition.
It surprises me how much I’d like to fix about this game, despite it still being one of my favorites. As mentioned previously, I would barely touch Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Galaxy if given the chance, and those are games I enjoy less than the original Super Mario Sunshine (although they are still games I enjoy tremendously). Perhaps that’s mainly because of my nostalgia for the GameCube title, but it hasn’t blinded me to knowing there is so much one can do to this game to really transform it into the best game it can be. While I don’t expect any of these changes in a possible future re-release of the game, I can still hope, and I can still dream.
