All Super Mario games are a must get for the Nintendo GameCube, it comes with the territory. If you are fan of the old Super Mario games, then you will love this.

This game took me a week to complete, you need at least 49 shines to complete the game. There are 7 different stages, all accessible form the main island, isle Delfino. The trick is to go to each stage, complete the stages until you have to take down shadow Mario, once you have done that, leave the stage and go to the next. Shadow Mario should be on the 7th out of 8 events on each stage, so you are not missing much.

Overall, I found this game fun and worth the time to play however, there are just a few things that got on my nerves. The storyline is almost non-existent, it is a typical “rescue princes peach (again) situation”. However, the storyline is only really pushed halfway though the game. At the beginning, it becomes apparent to you that there is some kind of Mario impostor that is painting everything. The people of the island charge you with having to tidy up the mess because they think it was the real Mario that caused the problem. The full story line is told about half way though the game when you realise that the shadow Mario is baby Bowser and the reason that he has kidnapped princess peach is because Bowser has told you that she is his mother and that Mario is the bad guy for kidnapping her.

I found the challenges to be very enervative, they are all different, this is one thing however I have never liked about the Mario games, all it seems to be is a load of random tasks.

Other bad things about his game include Mario’s lives, you can do a single stage over and over and over again, however each time you die, the game reloads the isle Delfino (the main area) then you have to jump back though the portal to go back to the challenge, this is pointless in itself as it is annoying waiting for it to load up and for you to get back to the challenge. Even worse than this is that when you run out of your seemingly pointless lives, you restart and the main spawn point and have to walk back to the portal then go to the challenge. If you are anything like me (inpatient (not a sniper in shoot em ups)) then this game is not for you.

Finally, I would have never completed this game without a walk though, some tasks seem obvious but others, I just don’t see anyway of being able to work out the puzzle, its very irritating with the lack of hints. I you are like me and didn’t play much on Super Marion 64 then how are you supposed to figure out that you are supposed to stand in the light and look into the sun?? The residents of the island give extremely subtle hints.

I found my final disappointment to be the final boss, big Bowser, not only is he the easiest boss ever, you don’t actually physically touch him, I preferred the old Super Mario 64 swing into bombs method. All you have to do on this Bowser is destroy the stage, this will take about 3 minutes, all you have to do is rocket jump the butt stomp the five parts of the platform the makes it look like a shine. When Bower breaths fire one way, run round the other, he wont keep up with you. EASIEST BOSS EVER.

For the walkthrough I must thank IGN, who I think are well worth mentioning.

Cheat Codes Chump rating = 7/10

For the reasons mentioned above.

To get cheat codes for Pickmin, click here.