GameTavern - Miyamoto Speaks on His Baby

Quote:

Shigeru Miyamoto: We've had a lot of questions about the gameplay in Super Mario Sunshine. As you can see the game system is essentially based off of Mario 64--an expanded version of that. In terms of the actual gameplay and game scenario it will be somewhat similar, but in Mario Sunshine you'll be collecting essentially what's called shine. Mario will collect these different shines in the different levels of the game. It's kind of like Mario 64 in that you'll have to choose an area that you want to go to and you'll be getting different scenarios to earn these shine stars. But one of the biggest differences between Mario Sunshine and Mario 64 is that in Mario 64 when you chose a specific area there wasn't a whole lot going on. There would be just a main focus of the level and that would be it. But in Mario Sunshine we've have some very large areas with a lot of stuff going on in them all at once. You can stand on one end and look far to the other side and see what's going on over there. So I think that wi ll be a big distinction for Super Mario Sunshine.

We added the water pump, which Mario can use to spray water or he can use it to hover around. And thereby it becomes a mode of transportation. So this has actually added a lot to the game. We've added areas that will be very hard to reach with the idea that people, because we have given them a whole lot of freedom with the controls in this game, will be able to play the game and find their own routes and try and come up with their own ways for getting some of the shine stars and items in the game. So I think we've really added a lot of freedom to the controls in this game as well.

Rather than being a kind of strategic "go from one place to another" kind of game, it's really just about the freedom of the player and being able to get out there and do what you want to do and find your own ways of having fun within the world of Super Mario Sunshine.