Another Nintendo classic title from the past makes it into virtual reality courtesy of Gamecube emulator Dolphin VR. This time it’s the turn of Super Mario Sunshine, returning here complete with high resolution texture hacks and running at 60 FPS.
Super Mario Sunshine, released alongside the Gamecube console in 2002 may not be the most beloved outing for Nintendo’s most famous mascot, but SMS still managed to pack in much of that inimitable Mario magic to place it at the top of its generation’s 3D platformers – and it’s still a classic in my eyes. So, the prospect of re-discovering the title, this time in virtual reality, is pretty tantalising.
We’ve written before about Dolphin VR, a fork of the excellent Nintendo Gamecube emulator that adds in VR specific hacks to decouple in-game cameras and effectively re-render the original game for VR use. Metroid Prime is an excellent example of what can be achieved with the software and an accompanying game profile. What’s more, recent releases of Dolphin VR have now added support for the latest consumer VR headsets, Oculus Rift CV1 and HTC Vive.
This video (embedded at the top of this page) shows a particular version of Super Mario Sunshine called “Painted Edition” running with a fan-made HD texture pack applied along with a hack which forces the game (which originally ran at 30FPS) to run at 60FPS and up, much more comfortable for virtual reality. Yes, it’s a little glitchy right now, and purists may not feel the texture mod does the game many favours, and running the title requires you apply ‘cheat’ codes and disable some visual features, but it is already playable and shows enormous promise. To be clear too, the texture pack is entirely optional.
Before you embark on this immersive journey of nostalgia however, check out this Reddit thread for some important tips on how to get the most out of Super Mario Sunshine in VR and of course make sure you’ve grabbed the latest stable version of Dolphin VR by checking out the project developers blog here.