Right from the start you’ll acquire FLUDD, the multi-purpose waterpack that is heavily featured in all of the game’s advertisements, and not coincidentally, the game’s main attraction. You see, with FLUDD, you’ll be able to do all sorts of cool tricks that really help take this game into another dimension. In addition to spraying water from the standard nozzle, you’ll be able to acquire other nozzles that will allow you to hover over obstacles, rocket yourself up into the air and turbo boost your way across the game’s various landscapes. All of them serve a real meaningful purpose in the game and don’t come across as minor last minute additions. Perhaps most importantly, not only are they fun to use, but quite easy as well.
Mario’s waterpack functions may seem overwhelming at first, but become second nature once you get the hang of it. By suppressing the R trigger, you’ll be able to utilize the waterpack and spray water upon your foes. Pressing the X button will allow you to switch between the four available nozzles, however, you’ll only be able to carry two at a time so you won’t be able to utilize all the functions all the time. Spraying water is a blast and quite frankly, never gets old. The jets of water that are expelled from Mario’s pack are nicely rendered, featuring water effects that accurately parallel those of the real world. The water physics are accurately modeled, so you’ll see the water fly in an arc-like motion as you release it in spurts. Furthermore, the water you see isn’t just some solid and opaque substance, it’s transparent so that the area it travels through is refracted and accurately warped, just like in real life. It’s quite amazing to see the water in action, and you’ll be hard pressed to find another game that does such an amazing job of rendering and modeling it.
Of course there are tons of other signature moves that will prove to be vital in your quest. The slide maneuver returns and is better than ever. When Mario slides on water, the friction beneath him is reduced so that he can propel himself further. Now with the addition of the water pack, you’ll actually be able to soak the ground ahead of you so that you can create a surface with less resistance. This means you’ll actually be able to travel faster thanks to the water pack. It’s not just some cheap novelty either, you’ll probably find yourself using it quite often, especially during the game’s faster paced situations.
The other moves make a comeback, the wall jump, the side somersault, the spin move and the Mario butt stomp of doom®, all of which will need to be mastered if you hope to be successful in this game. There are problems though, due to the 3D nature of the game, you’ll often find yourself making minor mistakes when trying to perform these moves. For example, let’s say you’re on a small ledge in one of the game’s numerous jumping puzzles, you need to side somersault to an adjacent platform so you press left, right then A on your controller. As your character hits the air, you realize that your side-to-side motion was just a bit off, sending your character off his line and plummeting to his death. I can’t really fault the game for this, it’s more of an issue with the GameCube analog stick itself, if you’re having problems using the stick in other games, you’ll probably want to stay away from this one.
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