A rom hack for Super Mario 64 has recreated part of Super Mario Sunshine within the game's engine. There have been countless rom hacks for SM64 in the past, many of which have involved elements of later (or earlier) Mario games.
Super Mario 64 is one of the most tremendously influential video games of all time, and many people are still experimenting with it today. The game's modding and speedrun communities have been going strong for years, greatly extending the appeal and replay value of SM64 by breaking it in various ways. A new world record speedrun for Super Mario 64 was just set by speedrunner Cheese this month, who collected all 120 stars in 1:38:54. Rom hackers are constantly tinkering with the game as well, and one of its most prominent modders goes by the name of Kaze Emanuar, whose previous work includes porting Super Mario Odyssey's Sand Kingdom into SM64. Of course, he has many other projects under his belt - and another one has just been made available.
Kaze Emanuar has released a Super Mario 64 rom hack that recreates an early part of Super Mario Sunshine in SM64's engine. The modder showed off the rom hack in a gameplay trailer posted to his YouTube channel, set to a mashup of Sunshine's main theme and I Want You Back by The Jackson 5. It's a near-identical reconstruction of Delfino Plaza and Bianco Hills, but featuring the assets and physics of Super Mario 64. Anyone wanting to play it for themselves can get the necessary downloads from the links in the video's description.
Kaze Emanuar also uploaded a developer commentary video on the project, which you can watch above. As he plays through the hack and collects all the available Shine Sprites, he explains how the project started - and why it had to be cancelled before the entire game was recreated. Apparently, Kaze Emanuar was working with a group of other modders on Super Mario Sunshine 64, but the work was still taking far too long. "I originally intended to remake the entire game, and then it would have had 132 stars," he said. "But you know how it is with group work. Sometimes when you do group work and you're a group of five people, four people don't really do anything." He added that they were only able to get three levels done in a year and a half, which was "pathetic" and the project had to be killed.
It's unfortunate that such a promising rom hack will never be fully completed, but it's still a nostalgic and fascinating trip to play through Super Mario Sunshine's first few levels in SM64. There are a number of Nintendo games that deserve modern renditions, and Super Mario Sunshine is one of the most demanded titles on that list. After all, the game could certainly use some work.
Source: Kaze Emanuar