Vookcast Episode #93 – VCR Tape #002: Super Mario Sunshine

Most of you guessed it, and it’s therefore one of our worst kept secrets, but we’ve finally put together our thoughts to bring our viewers a in-depth look at one of Nintendo’s most divisive Mario games – Super Mario Sunshine. A critical and commercial success back when it released, more retrospective looks have been much more critical since then.

The regular team of James, Steven and Daniel take us through the game from beginning to end – covering the development history and cultural context of the games release, the game’s story itself as well as it’s a rather odd emphasis on delivering a more “serious” story. The team then looks at the game’s design – including the game structure, the game’s platforming mechanics and the most divisive inclusion of them all – FLUDD. To close off, we discuss the game’s tropical visuals, it’s soundtrack and even elements of the game that were cut early in production and how they might have impacted on the game at large.

We feel like we’ve kind of found our niche with this new format of the podcast, but those who aren’t fans of Super Mario Sunshine need not to fret – we’ll be back with a brand new episode in a fortnight with the traditional format.

This format is new and we’ll be doing them from time to time, though, so make sure to give us feedback in the comments! We really appreciate it!

As always, we included a very vague snippet to give hints as to what the team is playing to analyse next – did you catch it? What game do you think we’re working on next?

This episode was produced by James and features the following music in order of appearance: –

Piantissimo! (from Super Mario Sunshine)
by Koji Kondo & Shinobu Tanaka

Pianta Village (from Super Mario Sunshine)
by Koji Kondo & Shinobu Tanaka

Pinna Park ~ Beach (from Super Mario Sunshine)
by Koji Kondo & Shinobu Tanaka

A Secret Course (from Super Mario Sunshine)
by Koji Kondo & Shinobu Tanaka

The episode timeline is as follows: –

Beginning to 15:10 – Development History and Release Context
15:10 to 19:35 – Game Design (Game World, Structure and Objectives)
19:35 to 31:13 – Game Design (FLUDD and Platforming)
31:13 to 38:00 – Game Design (Enemy Design and Combat)
38:00 to 41:20 – Game Design (Optional Content and Completion)
42:10 to 51:43 – Presentation (Visuals)
51:43 to 56:20 – Presentation (Soundtrack and Voicework)
56:20 to 1:01:45 – Presentation (Writing)
1:01:45 to 1:07:22 – Beta Elements and Removed Content
1:07:54 to End – Show Wrap-Up and Teaser for Future Episodes