A demo for Super Mario Starshine, a project that aims to recreate Super Mario Sunshine with Super Mario Galaxy 2's engine, is available to download now.
As has been widely publicised ever since Super Mario Odyssey's announcement, Nintendo puts its 3D Mario games into two categories - one with games like Super Mario Galaxy that are more linear and level-based, and ones like Super Mario Sunshine that are more open and give the player a bit more choice in where they go and what they do. Considering how different those two types of game are, what would happen if you combined them?
That's exactly what Twitter user SPG642 has been trying to find out with Super Mario Starshine, a fanmade project that aims to recreate Super Mario Sunshine's levels in Super Mario Galaxy 2's engine. The project was announced late last year with a trailer showing off Mario exploring a recreated Bianco Hills, albeit with his control scheme and moves from Super Mario Galaxy instead of Super Mario Sunshine.
The biggest change to gameplay is that Mario no longer has FLUDD on his back, meaning that platforming is about to get a whole lot more difficult - hope you've got experience using that spin move. Beyond the removal of FLUDD, Super Mario Starshine is a clever merging of elements of the two games, using the controls and gameplay of Super Mario Galaxy with elements from Super Mario Sunshine like the amount of health and, of course, the levels themselves.
SPG642 shared this message alongside the release of the demo, "Super Mario Starshine is a modification of Super Mario Galaxy 2 that aims to mostly recreate Super Mario Sunshine in the Galaxy 2 engine. Today I am releasing a demo for this project which contains 20 Shine Sprites to collect! I hope you all enjoy it and I hope to see you all playing the full version when it's finished. Don't forget to have a good day/night and drink some water!"
Although the project was announced last year, Super Mario Starshine has come back to the limelight as it has a playable demo available for download through a link posted on SPG642's social media accounts.