Topic: super mario sunshine - strategy questions...

[sledgmb]

hi all.  just picked up sunshine and all i can say is wow.  what a blast!  the graphics may not be the best i've ever seen, but it's just plain fun.  heck, all the gamecube games i've bought (prime, rogue leader, sunshine) are just plain fun.  i've got a bunch of technically impressive xbox games, but there's a different feel to the cube games.  can't believe it took me so long to pick a cube up.  

anyway, to my question.  i think i've opened up about 3 "portals" in delfino plaza.  when i say "portal", i mean the multicolored "M" that you can transport through.  from what i can tell, each portal leads to about 8 sub-levels?  is this correct?  should i try to complete all 8 sub-levels within a certain "portal" before i move on to the next portal and its own 8 sub-levels?  is there only 1 shine per sub-level?  should i ever re-visit one of the sub-levels?  or once i have the shine from the sub-level i'm done with it?

thanx

[Lumas Etima]

The beauty of the game is you can do whatever you want.  The first "M" portal you opened, the one on the statue, leads to Windmill Village or whatever it's called...each level like that has 8 (I think) "chapters," each with its own shine.  So yes, each sub-level has a shine.  When you get the first shine in that level, and are back on Delfino Isle, you can jump back in and go for the 2nd shine, OR you could go visit another level, and get a shine there.  You can't do anything OUT of order, so don't worry about screwing yourself over in that regard.

As for revisiting sublevels (I call 'em chapters), you get a shine by collecting 100 coins in a level, and some chapters are easier at coin-collecting than others...so, say chapter 3 has lots of easy coins to get, that's the one you want to revisit.  I think you can get 100 coins in any chapter you re-visit, but some are easier than others.  Each level also has a hidden shine or two, but that's for you to find out