Anniversary Super Mario Sunshine Released In North America 20 Years Ago Today

Super Mario Sunshine celebrates the 20th anniversary of its release in North America today. The GameCube game, which is one of the more divisive 3D Mario titles, landed on US store shelves on the 26th August 2002.

At the time, US publications were largely positive about the platformer, with Game Informer calling it "exciting" and "fast-paced" while GamePro awarded it a perfect score. However, over the last few years, fans have become more and more polarized about the quality of the game, with one side of the debate usually arguing that it is among the best 3D Mario games ever made, while the other is keen on placing it towards the bottom of that list.

Criticisms of the game tend to be mostly directed at the camera system, as well as one-off levels like the Pachinko Game and the Lily Pad Race, which can often prove troublesome and frustrating for players. But there's no doubting that the game's tropical aesthetic and expansive hub world make it one of the more colorful and inviting of the 3D Mario games.

With Super Mario Sunshine celebrating its 20th birthday in the US, we thought it would be a great time to ask you, the readers, what you think of the game all these years later. Is Super Mario Sunshine as bad as some people say? Or do you think it lives up to its perfect scores? Let us know!