Super Mario Sunshine

This game was sort of a let-down. I had fun at first, but after awhile I noticed that there were two types of levels:

1) Those that are extremely easy (though it might take awhile to figure out what you need to do). 2) Those that are extremely tedious. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're hard, it just means that you need to do them over and over and over again until you get lucky enough that Mario doesn't slip, slide, or fall the wrong way. Almost all of the obstacle course levels are like this.

It's one of those games that derives almost all of its difficulty from the fact that you're trying to control a 3-D environment with a 2-D interface. Most gamers would call that poor design.

Probably the most annoying thing about the gameplay is the backward-loop high jump. It never happens when you're counting on it, and it often does happen when you really don't want it to. After you've spent 10 minutes climbing a wall, and you fall all the way down to the bottom again simply because Mario decided he didn't want to do a backward high-jump this time, you just feel like turning it off. I did many times. I only came back because I figured it would get better. It never did.

I found myself saying after just about every level: "I'm glad I'll never have to do that level again."

Except for the gameplay, this game is excellent. Good graphics, somewhat good story, and it's a big game -- there's a lot to do.