This was only the 2nd 3d Mario game to ever be produced and I was extremely hopeful since Super Mario 64 was such an incredible game. I am aware that that a vast majority of people (and critics) loved this game but I don't know what is wrong with me because I did not like it near as much as they did.

The graphics were great, the music was good (for the genre) and all the usual characters were there in a beautiful world. So why you ask, why did i not like it? Well mostly because they introduced new game mechanics with this water backpack and while many people praised the innovation associated with its addition, I wanted to be dealing with the traditional mechanics of Super Mario 64 with improved graphics.

A major part of the gameplay involves using your water backpack in order to glide over certain terrain or to land on distant platforms which sounds like fun but for me anyway it became annoying because you were always dealing with a limited amount of water. Therefore, if you performed the jumps wrong, you would run out and then you would be stuck.

The waterpack was also used as a weapon against certain enemies but again, we are dealing with the limited ammo situation should your unit (Which is a robot named F.L.U.D.D. by the way) run out of water.

Now don't get me wrong, this was still an entertaining game and I tend to hold certain titles such as Mario, Zelda, and Metroid to totally different standard than any other game, that is why I tend to be harsher on them if they do something I don't like.

While receiving almost perfect marks by the magazines at the time (magazines.... remember those?) I didn't even finish the game because i found the need-to-return-to-a-water-source-to-refill-your-tank portion of the game too annoying. It's worth playing but i don't think many people have a GameCube anymore. I recently gave mine away to a new home. We'll see if he ends up liking it.