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Well, not NGC, but gamesradar which is basically NGC anyway.
For the real page check out;
http://www.gamesradar.com/reviews/ [SPACE] default.asp?subsectionid=168&articleid=63801&pagetype=2
Otherwise read below!
We'll get straight to the point: Super Mario Sunshine is this year's best game. Okay, so it's only July and the game won't see a UK release until October - but we can't picture anything else that will come close to being able to match it. We've always known that, for sheer gaming goodness, Mario is your man and Mario Sunshine - Mario 64's loooong awaited sequel - proves that the little plumber fella hasn't lost his touch.
If that's all you need to know, then stop reading now. If you reckon you can hang on till the autumn to uncover the game for yourself, and don't want a single moment of it to be spoiled, then you might want to give the rest of this review a miss. Otherwise, read on for the full low-down on the game that makes it criminal to not own a Gamecube.
As you'll have gathered by now from the massive amount of hype leading up to the game's Japanese release on Friday (19 July), Sunshine is far more story-led than previous Mario escapades. It begins with our plump pal flying to the holiday destination Dolphic Island ("The world's finest resort facilities") with Peach in tow.
Bit of a problem, though, when they arrive. No, they haven't lost their luggage or discovered that their time-share apartment hasn't actually been built yet. It's worse: someone's been flooding Dolphic Island with a graffiti and huge puddles of a messy, paint-like substance - and the eye-witness description of the culprit matches Mario exactly. Hastily sentenced by the Island's elders, Mario is forced to clean the entire island.
You pick up the water cannon with which you must tidy up the resort at the start of the game and, along with the basic hose function, you can also use it as a hover pack. As you progress, power-ups (such as rocket jump and propeller) can be collected that increase the capabilities of your pack.
Once you've made it past the game's introduction (which also gives you a taste of your first boss, in the shape of a piranha plant), you'll find yourself in Dolphic Town. This area acts as the game's main hub, from which all the other zones are accessed. Completing tasks in the town opens up portals to each of the game's seven main zones.
The portals themselves are in the form of giant Mario-style Ms on walls. When you soak them with your water cannon, they open up, allowing you to be absorbed by the portal and flung to a specific zone.
Each zone is then split up into a number of stories - so you often find yourself covering the same area again, except with a different mission. Different goals often take you to alternative areas within a zone though, so you're not always retracing your steps.
At the start of each story, a brief fly-through directs you to your particular goal, giving you a rough idea of where you need to head. Within each story there's also a host of arrows pointing you in the right direction. Of course, you're also free to explore, which is well worth doing as there are dozens of coins (collect 50 for an extra life), save points (in the form of blue coins) and extra lives to pick up. On top of which, the whole thing looks so good, and is so fantastically playable, that you'll want to spend ages running around and checking it all out anyway.
Completion of a story results in you being rewarded with a Shine sprite (there are nine in each zone), the collection of which is the main aim in the game - well, along with tracking down the nemesis who's framed you, revealed here last week as Baby Bowser.
On winning a Shine, the charming phrase 'Shine Get!' flashes up on screen before you're flung out of the portal back to Dolphic Town. From there, you can either head back into the same zone to move onto the next story, totter off to uncover another zone (there's a great network of tunnels to help you navigate your way round the town more quickly) or, if you really want, you can even replay the story you've just completed. So it manages to attain a perfect balance between being neither too linear or so free-form that it lacks structure.
In all, there's a massive 130 Shines to collect, although you only need around 60 to complete the game. And with it possible to obtain a Shine for every 10 blue coins you collect, you can actually finish the game while still having large sections of it left to uncover.
The main innovation is in the whole water-spraying, paint-cleaning aspect - and even simple wall-washing tasks are surprisingly enjoyable and satisfying. But it's surprising how large parts of the game aren't actually based around using the water cannon to clean things up at all. Indeed, you'll find yourself using it just as often to hover between platforms, with much of the game just offering an updated twist on classic 3D platform puzzles.
What Sunshine also does so well, though, is to incorporate ingenious mini-games into the main challenges. So, whether it's racing round on live 'jet skis', attempting to cross a huge divide by means of enormous rotating blocks or shooting a huge mechanical Bowser from a rollercoaster, you'll find yourself as absorbed these 'minor' tasks as you will by the game as whole.
Some areas work much better than others, though. In Ricco Harbor, for instance, there's a massive cage structure that you have to clamber over, with trapdoors strewn across it. It's all a bit confusing and frustrating - which isn't helped by the occasionally-dodgy camera. You're given full manual control over it (L centres it behind you while the c-stick allows you to twiddle it round to your heart's content) but, if you just leave the camera alone, you far too often end up with it on the wrong side of walls or showing up some glitching. It just means you soon need to get into the habit of taking control of the camera for yourself.
The other slightly awkward aspect of the game we've uncovered thus far is in the swimming. Having to constantly tap either A (to swim on the surface) or B (to dive) is just a bit of a hassle and it feels rather clunky and unMario-like. But other than those minor niggles, it's difficult to fault the game's interface. After all, it still has that classic Mario feel about it that few games can touch.
If you're thinking of buying an import copy, the Japanese game is actually fairly import-friendly. Although all the text is in Japanese, figuring out basics like the save system is straightforward enough and any spoken dialogue is actually in English, with Japanese subtitles. It's only when you speak to characters around Dolphic Town (simply approach them and tap B) that it's all in Japanese. So you'll miss out in some of the subtleties but, as far as the gameplay itself goes, there should be no problems in playing the Japanese code.
Finally, as far as the game's characters go, we can confirm that, yes, Yoshi is in it as a playable character (he's unlockable in the Pinna Park fairground zone) but there's no sign as yet of Luigi.
If you were feeling churlish, it would be true to say that Sunshine isn't the leap forward from Mario 64 that Mario 64 was from the previous Marios. But of all the titles that are available right now, on viable platforms, this is as good as videogaming gets.
RATING - 92%
For the real page check out;
http://www.gamesradar.com/reviews/ [SPACE] default.asp?subsectionid=168&articleid=63801&pagetype=2
Otherwise read below!
We'll get straight to the point: Super Mario Sunshine is this year's best game. Okay, so it's only July and the game won't see a UK release until October - but we can't picture anything else that will come close to being able to match it. We've always known that, for sheer gaming goodness, Mario is your man and Mario Sunshine - Mario 64's loooong awaited sequel - proves that the little plumber fella hasn't lost his touch.
If that's all you need to know, then stop reading now. If you reckon you can hang on till the autumn to uncover the game for yourself, and don't want a single moment of it to be spoiled, then you might want to give the rest of this review a miss. Otherwise, read on for the full low-down on the game that makes it criminal to not own a Gamecube.
As you'll have gathered by now from the massive amount of hype leading up to the game's Japanese release on Friday (19 July), Sunshine is far more story-led than previous Mario escapades. It begins with our plump pal flying to the holiday destination Dolphic Island ("The world's finest resort facilities") with Peach in tow.
Bit of a problem, though, when they arrive. No, they haven't lost their luggage or discovered that their time-share apartment hasn't actually been built yet. It's worse: someone's been flooding Dolphic Island with a graffiti and huge puddles of a messy, paint-like substance - and the eye-witness description of the culprit matches Mario exactly. Hastily sentenced by the Island's elders, Mario is forced to clean the entire island.
You pick up the water cannon with which you must tidy up the resort at the start of the game and, along with the basic hose function, you can also use it as a hover pack. As you progress, power-ups (such as rocket jump and propeller) can be collected that increase the capabilities of your pack.
Once you've made it past the game's introduction (which also gives you a taste of your first boss, in the shape of a piranha plant), you'll find yourself in Dolphic Town. This area acts as the game's main hub, from which all the other zones are accessed. Completing tasks in the town opens up portals to each of the game's seven main zones.
The portals themselves are in the form of giant Mario-style Ms on walls. When you soak them with your water cannon, they open up, allowing you to be absorbed by the portal and flung to a specific zone.
Each zone is then split up into a number of stories - so you often find yourself covering the same area again, except with a different mission. Different goals often take you to alternative areas within a zone though, so you're not always retracing your steps.
At the start of each story, a brief fly-through directs you to your particular goal, giving you a rough idea of where you need to head. Within each story there's also a host of arrows pointing you in the right direction. Of course, you're also free to explore, which is well worth doing as there are dozens of coins (collect 50 for an extra life), save points (in the form of blue coins) and extra lives to pick up. On top of which, the whole thing looks so good, and is so fantastically playable, that you'll want to spend ages running around and checking it all out anyway.
Completion of a story results in you being rewarded with a Shine sprite (there are nine in each zone), the collection of which is the main aim in the game - well, along with tracking down the nemesis who's framed you, revealed here last week as Baby Bowser.
On winning a Shine, the charming phrase 'Shine Get!' flashes up on screen before you're flung out of the portal back to Dolphic Town. From there, you can either head back into the same zone to move onto the next story, totter off to uncover another zone (there's a great network of tunnels to help you navigate your way round the town more quickly) or, if you really want, you can even replay the story you've just completed. So it manages to attain a perfect balance between being neither too linear or so free-form that it lacks structure.
In all, there's a massive 130 Shines to collect, although you only need around 60 to complete the game. And with it possible to obtain a Shine for every 10 blue coins you collect, you can actually finish the game while still having large sections of it left to uncover.
The main innovation is in the whole water-spraying, paint-cleaning aspect - and even simple wall-washing tasks are surprisingly enjoyable and satisfying. But it's surprising how large parts of the game aren't actually based around using the water cannon to clean things up at all. Indeed, you'll find yourself using it just as often to hover between platforms, with much of the game just offering an updated twist on classic 3D platform puzzles.
What Sunshine also does so well, though, is to incorporate ingenious mini-games into the main challenges. So, whether it's racing round on live 'jet skis', attempting to cross a huge divide by means of enormous rotating blocks or shooting a huge mechanical Bowser from a rollercoaster, you'll find yourself as absorbed these 'minor' tasks as you will by the game as whole.
Some areas work much better than others, though. In Ricco Harbor, for instance, there's a massive cage structure that you have to clamber over, with trapdoors strewn across it. It's all a bit confusing and frustrating - which isn't helped by the occasionally-dodgy camera. You're given full manual control over it (L centres it behind you while the c-stick allows you to twiddle it round to your heart's content) but, if you just leave the camera alone, you far too often end up with it on the wrong side of walls or showing up some glitching. It just means you soon need to get into the habit of taking control of the camera for yourself.
The other slightly awkward aspect of the game we've uncovered thus far is in the swimming. Having to constantly tap either A (to swim on the surface) or B (to dive) is just a bit of a hassle and it feels rather clunky and unMario-like. But other than those minor niggles, it's difficult to fault the game's interface. After all, it still has that classic Mario feel about it that few games can touch.
If you're thinking of buying an import copy, the Japanese game is actually fairly import-friendly. Although all the text is in Japanese, figuring out basics like the save system is straightforward enough and any spoken dialogue is actually in English, with Japanese subtitles. It's only when you speak to characters around Dolphic Town (simply approach them and tap B) that it's all in Japanese. So you'll miss out in some of the subtleties but, as far as the gameplay itself goes, there should be no problems in playing the Japanese code.
Finally, as far as the game's characters go, we can confirm that, yes, Yoshi is in it as a playable character (he's unlockable in the Pinna Park fairground zone) but there's no sign as yet of Luigi.
If you were feeling churlish, it would be true to say that Sunshine isn't the leap forward from Mario 64 that Mario 64 was from the previous Marios. But of all the titles that are available right now, on viable platforms, this is as good as videogaming gets.
RATING - 92%
I dunno what they were thinking when they rated Smash Bros 95%. It's good but not that good.
hmmm yeah Smash Bros got 95...Hopefully TQ is right and NGC will score it differently...i doubt it tho.
Only 92%!
Saw it yesterday, can't wait to get this game. By the way it sin't NGC it is actually Gamesradar reviewing it, NGC always complete the game before reviewing it and also it would have said 'from NGC' at the top of the review.
Anyway I can't wait, roll on October.
Anyway I can't wait, roll on October.
Well, not NGC, but gamesradar which is basically NGC anyway.
For the real page check out;
http://www.gamesradar.com/reviews/ [SPACE] default.asp?subsectionid=168&articleid=63801&pagetype=2
Otherwise read below!
We'll get straight to the point: Super Mario Sunshine is this year's best game. Okay, so it's only July and the game won't see a UK release until October - but we can't picture anything else that will come close to being able to match it. We've always known that, for sheer gaming goodness, Mario is your man and Mario Sunshine - Mario 64's loooong awaited sequel - proves that the little plumber fella hasn't lost his touch.
If that's all you need to know, then stop reading now. If you reckon you can hang on till the autumn to uncover the game for yourself, and don't want a single moment of it to be spoiled, then you might want to give the rest of this review a miss. Otherwise, read on for the full low-down on the game that makes it criminal to not own a Gamecube.
As you'll have gathered by now from the massive amount of hype leading up to the game's Japanese release on Friday (19 July), Sunshine is far more story-led than previous Mario escapades. It begins with our plump pal flying to the holiday destination Dolphic Island ("The world's finest resort facilities") with Peach in tow.
Bit of a problem, though, when they arrive. No, they haven't lost their luggage or discovered that their time-share apartment hasn't actually been built yet. It's worse: someone's been flooding Dolphic Island with a graffiti and huge puddles of a messy, paint-like substance - and the eye-witness description of the culprit matches Mario exactly. Hastily sentenced by the Island's elders, Mario is forced to clean the entire island.
You pick up the water cannon with which you must tidy up the resort at the start of the game and, along with the basic hose function, you can also use it as a hover pack. As you progress, power-ups (such as rocket jump and propeller) can be collected that increase the capabilities of your pack.
Once you've made it past the game's introduction (which also gives you a taste of your first boss, in the shape of a piranha plant), you'll find yourself in Dolphic Town. This area acts as the game's main hub, from which all the other zones are accessed. Completing tasks in the town opens up portals to each of the game's seven main zones.
The portals themselves are in the form of giant Mario-style Ms on walls. When you soak them with your water cannon, they open up, allowing you to be absorbed by the portal and flung to a specific zone.
Each zone is then split up into a number of stories - so you often find yourself covering the same area again, except with a different mission. Different goals often take you to alternative areas within a zone though, so you're not always retracing your steps.
At the start of each story, a brief fly-through directs you to your particular goal, giving you a rough idea of where you need to head. Within each story there's also a host of arrows pointing you in the right direction. Of course, you're also free to explore, which is well worth doing as there are dozens of coins (collect 50 for an extra life), save points (in the form of blue coins) and extra lives to pick up. On top of which, the whole thing looks so good, and is so fantastically playable, that you'll want to spend ages running around and checking it all out anyway.
Completion of a story results in you being rewarded with a Shine sprite (there are nine in each zone), the collection of which is the main aim in the game - well, along with tracking down the nemesis who's framed you, revealed here last week as Baby Bowser.
On winning a Shine, the charming phrase 'Shine Get!' flashes up on screen before you're flung out of the portal back to Dolphic Town. From there, you can either head back into the same zone to move onto the next story, totter off to uncover another zone (there's a great network of tunnels to help you navigate your way round the town more quickly) or, if you really want, you can even replay the story you've just completed. So it manages to attain a perfect balance between being neither too linear or so free-form that it lacks structure.
In all, there's a massive 130 Shines to collect, although you only need around 60 to complete the game. And with it possible to obtain a Shine for every 10 blue coins you collect, you can actually finish the game while still having large sections of it left to uncover.
The main innovation is in the whole water-spraying, paint-cleaning aspect - and even simple wall-washing tasks are surprisingly enjoyable and satisfying. But it's surprising how large parts of the game aren't actually based around using the water cannon to clean things up at all. Indeed, you'll find yourself using it just as often to hover between platforms, with much of the game just offering an updated twist on classic 3D platform puzzles.
What Sunshine also does so well, though, is to incorporate ingenious mini-games into the main challenges. So, whether it's racing round on live 'jet skis', attempting to cross a huge divide by means of enormous rotating blocks or shooting a huge mechanical Bowser from a rollercoaster, you'll find yourself as absorbed these 'minor' tasks as you will by the game as whole.
Some areas work much better than others, though. In Ricco Harbor, for instance, there's a massive cage structure that you have to clamber over, with trapdoors strewn across it. It's all a bit confusing and frustrating - which isn't helped by the occasionally-dodgy camera. You're given full manual control over it (L centres it behind you while the c-stick allows you to twiddle it round to your heart's content) but, if you just leave the camera alone, you far too often end up with it on the wrong side of walls or showing up some glitching. It just means you soon need to get into the habit of taking control of the camera for yourself.
The other slightly awkward aspect of the game we've uncovered thus far is in the swimming. Having to constantly tap either A (to swim on the surface) or B (to dive) is just a bit of a hassle and it feels rather clunky and unMario-like. But other than those minor niggles, it's difficult to fault the game's interface. After all, it still has that classic Mario feel about it that few games can touch.
If you're thinking of buying an import copy, the Japanese game is actually fairly import-friendly. Although all the text is in Japanese, figuring out basics like the save system is straightforward enough and any spoken dialogue is actually in English, with Japanese subtitles. It's only when you speak to characters around Dolphic Town (simply approach them and tap B) that it's all in Japanese. So you'll miss out in some of the subtleties but, as far as the gameplay itself goes, there should be no problems in playing the Japanese code.
Finally, as far as the game's characters go, we can confirm that, yes, Yoshi is in it as a playable character (he's unlockable in the Pinna Park fairground zone) but there's no sign as yet of Luigi.
If you were feeling churlish, it would be true to say that Sunshine isn't the leap forward from Mario 64 that Mario 64 was from the previous Marios. But of all the titles that are available right now, on viable platforms, this is as good as videogaming gets.
RATING - 92%
For the real page check out;
http://www.gamesradar.com/reviews/ [SPACE] default.asp?subsectionid=168&articleid=63801&pagetype=2
Otherwise read below!
We'll get straight to the point: Super Mario Sunshine is this year's best game. Okay, so it's only July and the game won't see a UK release until October - but we can't picture anything else that will come close to being able to match it. We've always known that, for sheer gaming goodness, Mario is your man and Mario Sunshine - Mario 64's loooong awaited sequel - proves that the little plumber fella hasn't lost his touch.
If that's all you need to know, then stop reading now. If you reckon you can hang on till the autumn to uncover the game for yourself, and don't want a single moment of it to be spoiled, then you might want to give the rest of this review a miss. Otherwise, read on for the full low-down on the game that makes it criminal to not own a Gamecube.
As you'll have gathered by now from the massive amount of hype leading up to the game's Japanese release on Friday (19 July), Sunshine is far more story-led than previous Mario escapades. It begins with our plump pal flying to the holiday destination Dolphic Island ("The world's finest resort facilities") with Peach in tow.
Bit of a problem, though, when they arrive. No, they haven't lost their luggage or discovered that their time-share apartment hasn't actually been built yet. It's worse: someone's been flooding Dolphic Island with a graffiti and huge puddles of a messy, paint-like substance - and the eye-witness description of the culprit matches Mario exactly. Hastily sentenced by the Island's elders, Mario is forced to clean the entire island.
You pick up the water cannon with which you must tidy up the resort at the start of the game and, along with the basic hose function, you can also use it as a hover pack. As you progress, power-ups (such as rocket jump and propeller) can be collected that increase the capabilities of your pack.
Once you've made it past the game's introduction (which also gives you a taste of your first boss, in the shape of a piranha plant), you'll find yourself in Dolphic Town. This area acts as the game's main hub, from which all the other zones are accessed. Completing tasks in the town opens up portals to each of the game's seven main zones.
The portals themselves are in the form of giant Mario-style Ms on walls. When you soak them with your water cannon, they open up, allowing you to be absorbed by the portal and flung to a specific zone.
Each zone is then split up into a number of stories - so you often find yourself covering the same area again, except with a different mission. Different goals often take you to alternative areas within a zone though, so you're not always retracing your steps.
At the start of each story, a brief fly-through directs you to your particular goal, giving you a rough idea of where you need to head. Within each story there's also a host of arrows pointing you in the right direction. Of course, you're also free to explore, which is well worth doing as there are dozens of coins (collect 50 for an extra life), save points (in the form of blue coins) and extra lives to pick up. On top of which, the whole thing looks so good, and is so fantastically playable, that you'll want to spend ages running around and checking it all out anyway.
Completion of a story results in you being rewarded with a Shine sprite (there are nine in each zone), the collection of which is the main aim in the game - well, along with tracking down the nemesis who's framed you, revealed here last week as Baby Bowser.
On winning a Shine, the charming phrase 'Shine Get!' flashes up on screen before you're flung out of the portal back to Dolphic Town. From there, you can either head back into the same zone to move onto the next story, totter off to uncover another zone (there's a great network of tunnels to help you navigate your way round the town more quickly) or, if you really want, you can even replay the story you've just completed. So it manages to attain a perfect balance between being neither too linear or so free-form that it lacks structure.
In all, there's a massive 130 Shines to collect, although you only need around 60 to complete the game. And with it possible to obtain a Shine for every 10 blue coins you collect, you can actually finish the game while still having large sections of it left to uncover.
The main innovation is in the whole water-spraying, paint-cleaning aspect - and even simple wall-washing tasks are surprisingly enjoyable and satisfying. But it's surprising how large parts of the game aren't actually based around using the water cannon to clean things up at all. Indeed, you'll find yourself using it just as often to hover between platforms, with much of the game just offering an updated twist on classic 3D platform puzzles.
What Sunshine also does so well, though, is to incorporate ingenious mini-games into the main challenges. So, whether it's racing round on live 'jet skis', attempting to cross a huge divide by means of enormous rotating blocks or shooting a huge mechanical Bowser from a rollercoaster, you'll find yourself as absorbed these 'minor' tasks as you will by the game as whole.
Some areas work much better than others, though. In Ricco Harbor, for instance, there's a massive cage structure that you have to clamber over, with trapdoors strewn across it. It's all a bit confusing and frustrating - which isn't helped by the occasionally-dodgy camera. You're given full manual control over it (L centres it behind you while the c-stick allows you to twiddle it round to your heart's content) but, if you just leave the camera alone, you far too often end up with it on the wrong side of walls or showing up some glitching. It just means you soon need to get into the habit of taking control of the camera for yourself.
The other slightly awkward aspect of the game we've uncovered thus far is in the swimming. Having to constantly tap either A (to swim on the surface) or B (to dive) is just a bit of a hassle and it feels rather clunky and unMario-like. But other than those minor niggles, it's difficult to fault the game's interface. After all, it still has that classic Mario feel about it that few games can touch.
If you're thinking of buying an import copy, the Japanese game is actually fairly import-friendly. Although all the text is in Japanese, figuring out basics like the save system is straightforward enough and any spoken dialogue is actually in English, with Japanese subtitles. It's only when you speak to characters around Dolphic Town (simply approach them and tap B) that it's all in Japanese. So you'll miss out in some of the subtleties but, as far as the gameplay itself goes, there should be no problems in playing the Japanese code.
Finally, as far as the game's characters go, we can confirm that, yes, Yoshi is in it as a playable character (he's unlockable in the Pinna Park fairground zone) but there's no sign as yet of Luigi.
If you were feeling churlish, it would be true to say that Sunshine isn't the leap forward from Mario 64 that Mario 64 was from the previous Marios. But of all the titles that are available right now, on viable platforms, this is as good as videogaming gets.
RATING - 92%