While playing through Super Mario Sunshine, I seem to
have stumbled across something that comes as somewhat of a surprise.
I was playing through one of the levels (Gelato Beach, I believe) on
an episode which I can't remember when I decided to chill out with my
shades and shirt on the beach.
To my amazement, initiating conversation with the sunglasses
vendor made the screen ripple and flow like water. I ran for my digital
camera and caught a picture of this. The next thing I knew, the screen
went blank for about half a second and I popped up at the Mushroom Kingdom
palace from Mario 64.
I paused the game and phoned my brother who told me to
wait for him to come home for me to continue. He'd just left to go see
his girlfriend so it was a good four hours before he returned. When
he did though, it was game time.
I walked around for about two minutes but there didn't
seem to be much to do so I approached the castle. As I was heading over
a ridge and onto the bridge, the screen broke up and flew away. I now
found myself in a small portion of the first level from SM64, with Bowser
on the loose.
The battle was pretty similar to the final battle of SM64.
You had to run close to him and he breathes fire at you. After a few
moments, his face becomes really red and you have to spray it to cool
it off. When this happens, he becomes dazed and you must grab at his
tail, swing him around and chuck him into the side of the hill. It is
an interesting play on the original battle that was quite tough and
definitely fresh enough to make it new for veterans of the predecessor.
At this point, I packed away my Gamecube (because my mom
doesn't like us playing on the big TV) and sat down for some late-night
Aladin viewing.
One thing I noticed about the whole thing were the graphics.
The architecture was the same as the N64 version but a few key things
had changed. The lighting engine was supplied by SMS (look at the shadows),
Bowser looks more like he does in the cutscenes from SMS, and the coins
were those from SMS, not SM64.
I don't know exactly what caused it but here are my stats.
I have 120 shines, a LOT of playing time (due to the fact that
I didn't use a strategy guide), and three complete saves (the other
two having used the strategy guide). I'm not sure, but some of this
may have effected the whole thing: I entered the level with Yoshi (orange
if it makes a difference), I've completed the fruit collection missions
in Delfino Plaza several times for each woman, my times for Il Piantisimo
are all under 00:20...I don't know. There's a lot of little stuff.
Have fun!
