Prepare yourself for a shock: I never owned Super Mario 64. Even though it defined gaming for 6 years, I never got around to buying it. I did rent it numerous times, sure, but the simple fact of the matter is that the game was a bit too easy for me.

Then, there’s Super Mario Sunshine. At first, the game seemed not that much more difficult than the N64 Mario game, but as soon as you hit places like Mamma Beach, Mare Bay, and finally, Corona Mountain, you’ll be glad there are 1UPs scattered about, because you’re really going to need them. The game just gets harder and harder as you go along, and that’s without mentioning the obstacle course shines. It’s a good thing that it didn’t take long to shake the rust off my platforming skills, since they’ll require you to overcome pin-point jumps, death-defying wall hops, and the occasional disintegrating block. I really enjoyed the one with the bird made entirely out of sand; it took me a good 10 tries to figure out how to beat it.

Of course, the game looks absolutely amazing. There is one point in Mare Bay where you need to go up onto tightrope wires that are way up high, and if you look down, I swear I would have gotten acrophobia had I looked down for too long. Screenshots of this do no justice as to how far down it is, because as you are looking, you can see everything moving. The water, the birds, even the people down on the shore. Incredible.

There are a few things I don't like about Mario, though. Obviously, the control is sweet, but it's not without its problems. The quick high jump (quickly change directions and jump) is great in sticky situations, but it's not so great when you need to make a quick jumping decision, especially in those obstacle courses. I've lost lots of lives just because Mario jumped too high or too far past his target, and it's frustrating at times.

Another small gripe with Sunshine would be its relative length. The game can be beaten in an average amount of time (I put about 20 or 25 good hours into it), and the ending is, I think, a bit weak. However, the reason why I’m going to be playing this game the rest of my life is that trying to get all 120 Shines is next to impossible, because the game is so hard. That’s where the replayability comes in, because even though you’ve beaten the game, you still haven’t beaten the game. Play every game twice to truly beat it, that’s what I believe.

But of course, this is a Mario game, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to enjoy it for what it’s worth, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Now, if I can only find Luigi...