Headscratchers / Super Mario Sunshine

Headscratchers for Super Mario Sunshine.

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Unused Yoshi egg item

• There is an unused item in the games files called “Yoshi egg generator” https://tcrf.net/Super_Mario_Sunshine/Unused_Objects#Egg_Generator which has two egg types, one green which looks like the ones in the final game but also a purple one which was cut and seems to be called “bad gene egg model” and I can’t help but wonder what was supposed to be bad about a yoshi that comes from said egg. Does anyone know anything about that or at least what the whole “bad gene” was supposed to do?
  • Without directly asking the devs, it’s all mass guessing. Perhaps originally the plan was to have Green Yoshis that didn't disappear, and Purple ones that did?

Is it a postgame or not?

• When you beat the game, Peach is not with the group and the toads are still worried about her being kidnapped, despite you beating the final boss level and rescuing her. To make this more confusing, the other residents act like the Shine Sprites have been restored, meaning that the events after fighting Bowser had to have happened.
  • That's because SMS does not have a Playable Epilogue. The Shine Sprite that is earned from defeating Bowser is meant to be the final Shine Sprite in the game. Even if it isn't the final Shine Sprite earned in-game wise, it is still meant to be that very final Shine that completes the game (hence the celebration from the Piantas).

Out-of-the-way airstrip

• Why is the airstrip out on its own little island off the coast of the main island? It's a bit of a hassle to land in a plane only to have to take a boat trip as well...
  • Have you seen Isle Delfino? There's no place to land a plane on the whole island. Presumably, the landing strip was added in once they became popular.
  • Truth in Television, sort of. Venice's Marco Polo International Airport is a bus and short boat trip away from Venice.
  • In fact, most airports are a good distance away from the cities they're associated with, for the simple reason that, well, you need a lot of room to land a plane safely, and a lot more room to make sure you have a buffer just in case things go wrong. When This Troper went throughout Europe, nearly every airport he landed in was a solid hour drive or more away from the city the airport was nominally in.
    • Not to mention planes are really freaking loud, which is why property values near airports are so low.

Why can’t the Yoshi swim?

• Why do the Yoshis dissolve when they touch water? Are they made of water soluble paint? And isn't it stupid that out of all the species of Yoshi in the world, it would be the island-dwelling ones who would be unable to swim?
  • A group of Yoshis got to the island a long time ago, and in later generations, they never learned how to swim. As for the dissolving thing, I got nothing.
  • Aren't most Yoshi island dwellers? It could be that they aren't real Yoshis. Since a large part of the plot was someone painting on the island, is it really out of the question that the Yoshis are also just painted things that Bowser Jr. created because he was trying to imitate one of his father's schemes?
  • As hinted by the unused Egg Generator and confirmed by Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros, the Yoshis seen in-game are indeed made of paint.
  • Don't Yoshis in all games have the ability to dissolve and return to their eggs? The Delfino Yoshis might've just never learned to swim after living on the island for so long, and their "warp back to egg" thing is the only way they know to keep from drowning.

Detached Noki mother?

• There's a Noki woman with a baby standing outside of Pinna Park. The weird part is, when you talk to her, she never once suggests that it's her kid or if she's related to it at all, referring to it as "the child" and "this baby." Did she kidnap it? Is she babysitting it? Is she just really detached? It's a small detail to get hung up on, granted, but it still bugs me. (You see her again later in Noki Bay, but I can't remember if she says anything more revealing then or not. I don't think she does, but...)
  • Maybe she thinks Mario's smart enough to fill in the blanks. Maybe she just talks weird. Maybe Mario doesn't need to know every detail about her life.
  • I think the Japanese version for "this child" (この子) and related is common in that language for referring to one's child, and they just made the translation pretty literal.
  • actually, in her appearance in Noki bay, the grandson of the Noki elder tells Mario that those two are "his wife and child," guess that should be of help.
  • Considering how shy Nokis are said to be, it might be a tradition (or biological instinct) for them to be protective of their young by refraining from mentioning direct parental affiliations with strangers. And considering that Mario allegedly vandalized Isle Delfino, her means of being protective seem legit.

Was Mario ever proven innocent?

• Isle Delfino gets cleaned up in the end, and everything is supposedly fine and dandy...but did they ever prove that it wasn't Mario who messed everything up? Does Mario still have a criminal record??
  • I think seeing Mario go the extra mile convinced the inhabitants that Mario is a good man. He only needed 50 Shine Sprites to restore Isle Delfino, but he tracked down all of the missing Shine Sprites anyway. Most of those, I'd bet, were not even stolen by Bowser.

Shifty Tanuki business

• How come no one ever questions what the two Racoons/Tanukis are doing charging Blue Coins in order to get Shine Sprites? I mean, the whole reason there's darkness over Isle Delfino is because the Shine Sprites fled when the pollution started and they're basically needed in order to restore the Island to what it once was. How come the two racoons/tanuki are allowed to withhold something that is that vital to the island and sell them without anyone ever questioning them or taking actions against what they're doing, especially since Isle Delfino is in danger?
  • The Piantas themselves aren't that better, holding Shine Sprites for themselves unless Mario wins a contest. This is easily explained as that they didn't care too much about the story, they just wanted a reason for Mario to run around and collect things. From an in-universe standpoint, it could be suggested that perhaps some islanders were 'living under a rock' so to speak and didn't notice anything wrong, and the ones that were aware thought the problem to be so obvious that it shouldn't need to be explained. Or maybe the Shine Sprites only respond to someone heroic like Mario, and the Piantas couldn't get them back to the gate no matter how hard they tried.
    • The prosecutor for Mario's "trial" pretty much states flat-out that the situation is so obvious it would be nearly impossible for anyone to not be aware of it.
    • Though it's hardly out of the question that he's exaggerating the crisis to make Mario look worse, which isn't uncommon in courtroom proceedings, from what I understand. You try to make the crime sound as bad as possible so people will more easily think the defendant is guilty. Saying it's so huge that everyone is aware of it sounds a lot worse than if he left it at, "Many of the Shine Sprites have fled due to the pollution, but it's not such a big deal. Most of the people on our island don't even notice it."
  • That explains why the people would hold onto them, but not why the authorities don't do anything about it. I mean, Mario pretty much had to face a Kangaroo Court at the start of the game, yet the government doesn't respond with the same heavy-handedness to the people who are hoarding Shines. And the police would presumably know about their importance, since the prosecutor did, and D.E.B.S. does, and one would think the police would have access to D.E.B.S....
  • It’s suggested below that the Shine Sprites being sold by the Tanooki have all chosen to go incognito by passing themselves off as souvenirs until some heroic person like Mario comes and retrieves them...Again, there may be something in-game that specifically refutes this...Do the Tanookis ever concretely say that the shines they're given away are the same ones that are used to power the island, or could they just be [what they think are] replicas...?
  • The tanooki never explicitly refer to the shines by name. They just say: "So you're here for that?"
  • Consider the fact that there a lot of things people do that are illegal and should be punished for. That alone doesn't do anything if the government can't find/doesn't know about them. It's not like the Tanookis are parading through the streets advertising a sale on Shine Sprites - odds are, they just don't mention them if any of the authorities come a-searchin', and I'll bet you dollars to Star Bits that Mario is their only customer who could conceivably tattle on them. And, what, you think the police are going to believe that criminal chump?

Is that their language?

• In the intro, the Pianta mumbles something twice: Once at the beginning (after saying, "Welcome to the sun-drenched paradise of Isle Delfino!") and again at the very end of the video. What is he saying, and why is he mumbling it?
  • I've heard it too, and it seems to be just some kind of chant. Maybe it's akin to saying "Aloha" if it were an ad for Hawaii.

• The Delfino Plaza flooding makes absolutely no sense. Even if all that water was indeed inside Corona Mountain (which already raises several questions, being a volcano and all), once being released, it would have immediately fallen into the sea, thus making it impossible to flood anything. To flood a city surrounded by mountains, in a low area, you only need to pour enough water over it, since the geography will hold the water in place. To flood a whole island, you need to raise the sea level several metres, so it covers the island. And since the sea level is the same everywhere, you need to release enough water to cover the entire world- or else the water will immediately spread through the sea all over the globe, making the rise unnoticeable. Can Corona Mountain hold that much water? Really? And then, after defeating Bowser, the flood disappears in a matter of seconds...
  • Either the island is much bigger canonically than it is depicted in game which would make it so the flood would take some time to escape the city and go out to sea, or Magic.
    • Maybe the water is held in place by the ridiculous magical barriers that prevent you from swimming too far away from the island.
  • Also, wasn't the goop Bowser Jr. was spreading capable of terraforming parts of the island? Maybe the water was sort of goop-enhanced, so much so that it caused the entirety of Delfino Plaza to sink below sea level.
• So Shine Sprites are the guardians of Isle Delfino's light. If the Pianta are aware of the Shine Sprite's importance to the island, why are they holding contests with the prize being Shine Sprites (a good example being the watermelon-growing contest)? Shouldn't they be more considerate - giving up the Shine Sprite so light can be restored? Shouldn't there be some government officials sent to retrieve them for that matter? Remember, Mario was only tasked with cleaning the island, not retrieving the Shine Sprites.
  • Maybe some of them were uneducated and don't realize their importance, or even what it is for that matter.
  • What about the introduction court scene, where the prosecutor says "Indeed, how can one not be aware of what is going on?"
  • Maybe Isle Delfino has some sort of Shine Sprite replicas that they sell as souvenirs, or as prizes in games and contests...only unbeknownst to them, the Shine Sprites in this case are actually real. If the sprites are to be viewed as sentient - I'm guessing they are since they have eyes - then perhaps they are remaining incognito as a means of refuge from Bowser Jr. and the graffiti he keeps spreading, waiting for someone heroic like Mario to come rescue them.
  • My theory is that the Shines are treated as some kind of treasure among the Pianta's, they probably hold the contests so that other Pianta's can win them. Providing the Shines are still on the Island and not being restrained in any way, they probably still work.
  • Or the shines that are being given away or sold aren't the same ones that used to gather near the Shine Gate - rather, they're "extra" Shines that were found by people before the grafiti ever came up. Think of it like a country whose economy is based around exporting lumber. If they were to run short on trees, the government could outsource logging work to a private company, but they wouldn't be able to simply confiscate that company's own wood just because they have it. Same basic principle here.
• I have a question about Sirena Beach's hotel. First, why would a 4-star hotel like this have secret passages, like the one that takes you from the men's room to a woman's bathtub? I know it's standard platformer game physics, but what are those passages doing there in the first place?
  • Maybe all the ghosts made them. At least a few of them, like the Boo painting, are ghost intervention.
  • King Boo basically made Hotel Defino like Luigi's Mansion, but with living inhabitants.
• What are the purpose of those caged platforms around the pirate ships at Pinna Park? They serve no apparent purpose, visual or mechanical. Why are they there?
  • Maintenance. they are there in case workers need to make repairs to the ride.
• Why, after being revealed, does Bowser Jr. still use his Shadow Mario disguise at all? I can understand that it'd be a definite spoiler if someone say, got to the levels where FLUDD is stolen or they have to chase Shadow Mario in the 7th episodes of one of the earlier levels before getting the 10 shine sprites required to get to Pinna Park, then yeah he should still wear the disguise as the cutscene hasn't played yet showing who he really is. But why bother after Pinna Park? Mario has been framed as much as he could manage by then, he has been seen by various people being chased by Mario before then in his disguise thus nullifying its use for further framing of Mario. But he still uses the disguise for seemingly no reason. When he is running around with parts for FLUDD he is still disguised. In the chase missions after the reveal he is still in disguise. Even when he is being chased for the Yoshi egg which only happens after clearing the first four missions of the level his disguise is removed in, he is still posing as Shadow Mario. And even for the people who have yet to see Mario chase after him before, during the chases after he tried to get Peach the first time, he doesn't even bother drawing his graffiti M's on the ground when he stops. So what's the point?
  • Maybe Bowser Jr. just wants to make sure that nobody knows who he is (except Mario, but nobody on the island listens to him anyway), so that people won't notice a pair of Koopas running around the island causing trouble. The residents already have difficulty telling Mario apart from Shadow Mario, but they'd probably notice Jr. in his regular form. If he got caught, he'd call attention to himself and it would put a damper on the vacation his dad planned. I know that Bowser could just do what he wanted anyway, given that he's Bowser, but maybe he was willing to (sorta) play by the rules to have a good time. Aside from kidnapping Peach, all really he does is go hot tubbing in Corona Mountain, so he was probably just personally aiming to kidnap Peach and piss off Mario, while letting Jr. do whatever he saw fit to get in Mario's way as long as he didn't get framed for it (ex. gooping up the island).
  • It could be that the Shadow Mario disguise is what lets him use Mario's moves. Without them, it wouldn't be hard for Mario to catch Junior.
    • Not necessarily. As we've seen through out the series, Mario chasing Bowser Jr. is a recurring trope, so Junior can stay out of Mario's reach just fine without his disguise.
    • This game was Bowser Jr.'s very first appearance in the series, so those examples of Mario chasing him in other games hadn't happened yet.
  • It was almost certainly just an attempt to keep up the ruse. Sure, the Delfino police force may not be smart enough to tell Mario and Shadow Mario apart, but if they saw a young Koopa child running around spreading goop across the island, in the exact manner that Mario/Peach/Toadsworth would have tried describing to them, it would've been a lot harder for them to scrub off.
• It always bothered me that during the court scene, the judge just overrules Peach's objection without even hearing it. We're talking about a Princess here. Royalty. If Delfino is part of the Mushroom Kingdom, then he's basically telling the ruler to shut her trap. If Delfino is not part of the Mushroom Kingdom, then that attitude is just asking for a diplomatic disaster.
  • Except telling people who speak out to shut their trap is well within a judge’s rights, and Peach being a foreign head of state means absolutely nothing unless she’s also a lawyer and was asked to represent Mario. Courtroom objections aren’t something that just anyone is permitted to raise.
• When you are in Corona Mountain, there are chunks of what appears to be man-made bricks and tiles inside. What is up with those, and how on earth did they get there?
  • Maybe Bowser had the place spiced up.
  • I believe it was mentioned, or at least speculated, that there used to be some sort of palace or something built inside the volcano in ancient times, and it eventually fell into ruin before Bowser's forces took it over.
  • The place is likely a part of the Corona Mountain Hot Springs which are mentioned in the travel guide which explains the tiles, water pipes, and the Cheep Cheep hopping around on fire. It was simply flooded with lava to create the flood that happened right before the level was unlocked.
• Why does everyone keep saying that Bowser Jr. knew "all along" that Peach isn't really his mother? It's pretty clear from the ending that Bowser didn't know that Jr. already knew, so who's to say Jr. didn't figure out the truth somewhere after kidnapping Peach? If we assume that he did know from the beginning, but Bowser didn't know he knew, then what do we assume was Jr.'s real motive for playing along with the whole thing anyway?
  • Because he's a "Well Done, Son" Guy who wants to fight alongside his father and for Bowser to be proud of him no matter what Bowser's plans or reasons for those plans are.
• Shadow Mario (A.K.A. Bowser Jr.) could've just stopped Mario from saving Isle Delfino by breaking FLUDD after he steals it from him. But the fact that the thought never crosses his mind means he's either too stupid or too honorable.
  • Considering the amount of plans Bowser has laid that enable Mario to stand against him and fight, it seems likely that Jr. is just following in his dad’s footsteps. They both want to see Mario beaten, but they’re also testing him to see how he measures up.
• The pre-fight cutscene for Mecha Bowser raises an interesting question. The opening has Shadow Mario leap over the pool of water in the park, which splits open and allows the absolutely gigantic Mecha Bowser to come out. The circumstances of this cutscene make it look like Shadow Mario's got a workshop/lab/storage facility/whatever down there, which has to be HUGE in order to fit a machine of that scale inside of it. So, here's the question... how did Shadow Mario have that kind of space constructed, in an amusement park, at a popular tourist location, without anybody noticing?
  • Well, the park director seems to think the whole shebang between Mario and Mecha-Bowser was just some expensive gimmick being hosted to draw in new customers. Wouldn't surprise me if Bowser Jr. was just storing the robot beneath the pool while citing this excuse to the director so it wouldn't raise suspicions.
• Why would the police let Mario keep FLUDD inside his cell with him? With the many uses Mario has for FLUDD in this game, isn't that the equivalent of locking someone inside a prison cell with a machine gun? And, yes, I know that the police force on the island is supposed to be inefficient and idiotic, but they usually manage to do so by being as unhelpful to Mario as possible.
  • Because it would be annoying to have to find FLUDD right after you just got him/her/it?.
  • Maybe they thought FLUDD was just a normal water gun, and Mario wouldn't be able to do any harm with it?
  • What damage does FLUDD do to solid objects and structures like a jail cell? Nothing. The Pianta police might not keep an eye on Mario in the cell overnight, but even if they did check up on him, keep in mind that a splash from FLUDD at worst annoys the Piantas (They are large and might have thick skin or something).
• Why is Mario able to lose health from losing his cap?
  • I believe it's stated somewhere that him losing health is due to sunburn. (Which is weird, considering he's supposed to be Italian, and therefore should have better resistance to sunburn than normal.)
  • Might be a call-back to Mario 64, where if you lose your hat you take double damage.
• From a writing stand-point, why bother with the whole frame-up plot in the first place. And before anyone says 'well they needed to give Mario a reason to go on help Delfino', this is Mario we're talking about, a guy who goes out of his way to help an entire kingdom every hour on the hour. I'm sure he wouldn't need anything more than a 'pretty please' (if even that) to help these shmucks, let alone a tarnished reputation.
  • Jr. says Bowser initially told him Mario was a "bad man" who had kidnapped his mother, and his dialogue implies he came up with the frame-up mostly or entirely on his own, thinking Mario would be locked up and kept out of the way...Obviously, he hasn't heard of community service.
  • The residents of Isle Delfino may not have even been familiar with Mario and his legacy of saving others in need before all this happened. For example, the owner of Hotel Delfino didn't even know who Mario was until they met, just that he looked like a capable person who could help save the hotel. Had the residents known who Mario was and all the good that he has done, their reaction would have been more along the lines of, "Oh, thank goodness! Mario is here to help us!" instead of, "Hey, you! You're under arrest!" Perhaps living on a tropical island makes you less aware of the troubles of the outside world.
  • Considering they don't even think twice about arresting him, and didn't give the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom any special treatment, I'd guess that the residents of the island are isolationists. That's the only explanation of how Mario could become so famous even outside his home kingdom without them recognizing him once he shows up at the airstrip.
• How come when sprayed by F.L.U.D.D., Shadow Mario gets hurt, but when swimming in actual water, he's fine?
  • It's the pressure. The same reason a fire hose is strong enough to knock you off your feet, even though you can take a dive in your swimming pool and be just fine.
• Here's one I'm shocked I've yet to see here: F.L.U.D.D. How in the world did E. Gadd's water pump device end up randomly stranded on the airfield? It (a device that happens to be used for cleaning up dirty stuff) being there, Mario finding it and picking it up was literally the only reason why he was able to accomplish the entire game, E. Gadd is never seen in the game and it's never explained or questioned how it ended up there, or why he was able to just use it. I can kinda understand them not having enough time to make a realistic explanation seeing as the game was rushed, but still.
  • Perhaps E. Gadd took a visit to Isle Delfino and his device was accidentally left behind? There's no real explanation as to why F.L.U.D.D is left there, but Bowser Jr. explains how he had "gotten" the magic paintbrush from E. Gadd (although it's highly unlikely that E. Gadd would lend over such a powerful tool to a child with mischievous plans, but if he did give the paintbrush to him maybe he didn't know of Jr's intentions. It's more likely that Bowser Jr stolen the paintbrush) and maybe Bowser Jr had also "gotten" F.L.U.D.D from him too? Both Jr. and his dad seemed to know that Mario and his friends were coming on the island, and chances are Bowser Jr decided to set the whole thing up even leaving F.L.U.D.D for Mario so that when he was accused and had to clean up the island of the goop, he'd be using the device he found to keep him busy, and maybe Bowser Jr didn't assume Mario would thwart his plans.
  • Maybe the Piantas ordered the pump from E. Gadd, and had planned on using it to clean up the island, only to find that it didn't fit any of them, which led to it being tossed aside and discarded — hence where you find it. As I recall, one of the Piantas at the airstrip tells you to stop standing around and use F.L.U.D.D. to help his friends, so at least some of them knew that's what it could be used for.
  • Prima's official strategy guide includes E. Gadd in its character section and says "That scatterbrain let it fall into the wrong hands!" I took it that Jr. already had the Shadow Mario bandana and used it to trick E. Gadd into giving Jr. the Magic Paintbrush.
• Why are Piantas and Nokis renting rooms in Hotel Delfino? The island inhabitants wouldn't need lodging in an environment almost exclusively for tourists.
  • Considering Super Mario Galaxy 2 shows Piantas in a different "galaxy", it's possible that the species aren't entirely Delfino-exclusive, and that we just assumed they were because that was where they were first shown, it makes the most sense, and it was never contradicted. Even ignoring that, maybe some Piantas and Nokis moved off of the island and/or were born or live elsewhere, and they're just visiting their childhood home or going on vacation like the rest of the tourists. Additionally, Pianta Village and Noki Bay are shown to be some of the most geographically isolated levels of the game (see: both levels can barely be seen from other levels, if at all, and only have glimpses of the other levels themselves) and don't seem to have in-universe ways to reach them outside of how Mario gets to them, so it's possible the Piantas and Nokis in the hotels are residents from those areas who are on vacation to be "closer to where the action is", so to speak.
• Why wasn't Luigi invited on the vacation?
  • He probably was invited. Maybe he just turned it down and used the time to settle into the mansion E. Gadd built for him in Luigi's Mansion.
  • Why did they need to invite him, anyway? Just because Luigi is Mario’s brother and Peach’s friend doesn’t mean they’re obligated to invite him along for all their vacations. It’s possible the Delfino trip was meant to be a more intimate one just between Mario and Peach. (Obviously excluding the Toads, who are Peach’s attendants.)

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