Super Mario Sunshine

Super Mario Sunshine is a Mario action-adventure 3D platformer. It follows Super Mario 64, and is the second 3D Mario platformer. Gameplay features a combination of action and puzzle solving, with numerous…

90 19 July 2002

Adventure Platform Action Sandbox

Super Mario Sunshine is an adventure developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development, released 19 July 2002 on Nintendo GameCube. The main story takes about 25 hrs to finish.

Verified 15 Oct 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What Super Mario Sunshine is

Super Mario Sunshine is an adventure game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development and released in 2002. It was published by Gradiente. It is available on Nintendo GameCube only.

The premise, in the publisher's words

Close your eyes and imagine…soothing sunshine accompanied by the sound of waves gently breaking on the shore. High above, seagulls turn lazy circles in a clear blue sky. This is Isle Delfino. Far from the hustle and bustle of the Mushroom Kingdom, this island resort glitters like a gem in the waters of a southern sea. Mario, Peach, and an entourage of Toads have come to Isle Delfino to relax and unwind. At least, that’s their plan…but when they arrive, they find things have gone horribly wrong... According to the island inhabitants, the person responsible for the mess has a round nose, a thick mustache, and a cap… What? But…that sounds like Mario!! The islanders are saying that Mario's mess…

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a bird view / isometric perspective. Its themes are action and sandbox. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.

Where it sits in the Mario Bros. series

Super Mario Sunshine is the 28th of 66 entries we hold in the Mario Bros. series. It arrived 10 months after Luigi's Mansion. The next entry was Mario Party 4 in 2002. Its critic score of 90 is 16 points above the series average of 74. The highest-rated entry is Super Mario World at 100.

See all 66 Mario Bros. games in release order →

How it was received

Super Mario Sunshine holds a critic score of 90 out of 100. That places it above 92% of the 7,525 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 2002 averaged 68, so it scored 22 points above the year average. Player ratings track closely with critics at 86, across 531 votes.

How long it takes, and what that costs

The main story runs about 25 hrs.

What it launched against

Super Mario Sunshine launched on 19 July 2002, within three weeks of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, SoulCalibur II and Syberia. It reviewed better than 1 of the 4.

Released around the same time: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, SoulCalibur II, Syberia.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Super Mario Sunshine yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

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