What's your game?

Super Mario Sunshine

So, I’ve got a living shitload of games lined up to play, some for work and some for fun, and what do I spend two hours on last night but Super Mario Sunshine. After some frustration two months ago I put it down and didn’t look back. Last night I didn’t feel like any online carnage in Wolfenstein or a complex Rise of Nations campaign. I just wanted something simple, that didn’t require too much thought and Mario fit the bill perfectly.

As far as platformers go, it’s got the same high level of difficulty as the Rayman series. At least one mission in every area is an old-school 3D jumping puzzle floating in space. In order to succeed in the missions, you must master different jumping techniques, be able to land accurately, and be able to time your jumps very precisely. Some of these levels are insanely difficult, with challenges of increasing difficult until it peaks near the end. That means that you have to muddle through a difficult puzzle, just to fail at the very end and restart at the beginning. It can get very frustrating, until you figure out exactly what you’re supposed to be doing and how to do it.

I’d been stuck on the difficult jumping-in-space levels on three or four different worlds, since I stopped playing the game. Last night, I managed to plow through three or four of those levels last night, and was really surprised to find that the difficulty level was ratched way down for the missions after that.

Gina’s at a meeting tonight, so that means its time for more Wolfenstein.