Super Mario Sunshine/Noki Bay

"Steep cliffs and sea beds are what the Nokis call home. The huge waterfall and the three soaring towers resonate with mystic history."

Episode 1: Uncork the Waterfall

 * Objective: Defeat the cannon-dwelling mole at the top of the waterfall.

Climbing the cliff face
The only hard part of this episode is getting all the way up the cliff face to find the boss. From the start point, head to the giant spiral staircase ahead of you - and don't fall in the water, it's toxic. Go up the steps and you'll come to a basket hanging on a string. Jump onto the basket and then spray water in the cracked vase that's attached to it. This takes you up to a grassy ledge, so jump onto it and follow the arrow until you get to the end of the ledge.

You'll see two big pieces of pink and yellow graffiti on the cliff face - spray them both away to create two new ledges. Make your way across the next 2 ledges, spray the graffiti to make a new ledge and use it to climb up to the next level. Make your way along these ledges to the ledge with the huge puddle of paint on it. Spray the dolphin painted on the cliff face, just along from here, dodging the balls of paint that are being fired at you, then use another "basket and vase" device to get you up to the new ledge.

Go along these ledges and up the paint covered hill where the paint balls are coming from. At the top of this hill spray the octopus graffiti on the cliff to create a new ledge, then stand between the 2 ledges and wall jump up to the next level. Jump across these ledges and up to the next level.

Run left along this level until you see a Noki and a springboard. You can use this springboard to jump up to the ledge directly above but first you'll need spray the springboard to make it small, then pick it up with and move it back from the cliff a little way. Once you've made it up to the ledge, run along it, grabbing the 1-Up mushroom, then at the left edge of the ledge, you can look down on the boss you're about to fight. Spray the graffiti off the ledge directly in front of the boss before jumping down to battle him.

Defeating the mole
This is a pretty simple boss, you won't get hurt unless one of his bombs explodes right next to you and, as usual, he only takes 3 hits to kill. Spray the bombs the the mole throws at you to stop them running about, then pick one up, run over to the edge of the platform and throw one right at him. Then repeat this until you've hit him 3 times. Simple. Just spray and throw. The Shine will appear right next to you on the ledge.

Episode 2: The Boss of Tricky Ruins

 * Objective: Defeat Gooper Blooper. Yeah, him again!

Follow the floating white platforms across the water, to the old Noki follow on the shore. Talk to him then look up at the cliff face behind him. You'll see a brown square about halfway up. Spray it to reveal a little jumping challenge. Wall jump up to the highest level, the head to the right. There is a small ledge where you can go round the corner and if you look above here there is another shaft that you can wall jump up.

When you're up there, climb up to the ledge where there are 3 Bloopers and spray the brown square on the wall like before. A new jumping course is revealed, so wall-jump your way around it and run up the hill that follows it. This gets you to Tricky Ruins, where Gooper Blooper is waiting. Again.

You should be an expert at beating this guy by now, so take him out in your usual extravagant style. There are coins in the trees if you need energy. When you've beaten Gooper Blooper, jump down the hole where he was sitting and you'll be in the tomb that the Noki elder mentioned earlier and you can claim your Shine.

Episode 3: Red Coins in a Bottle

 * Objective: Hunt the red coins

When you start the episode, the old Noki man tells you why he's about to shrink you to a tiny size and put you into a bottle of water. Then he does it! Once you're in the bottle, it's a pretty standard coin hunt, but this time it's underwater, so it's quite tough to control Mario. Use the hover nozzle to gain height and push forward or backwards while doing this to stay under control.

Coin (1) is right by you when you start the level. (2), (3) and (4) are floating around about halfway down. (5) is on the floor near the edge of the bottle, and by a big upward arrow. Here you can see a tall column of gold coins and (6) is at the top of this column. It can be a real pig to get, because of the jet of water that push you up to it, so try just flying at it juts below the red coin, rather than starting from the bottom. (7) is in a little alcove in the middle of the sand-castle-thing and (8) is on a little block next to the sand-castle-thing.

Note: Watch out for the Bubbas in the bottle, too. If they see you, they will nibble on your head and you will have to shake them off before being digested.

Episode 4: Eely-Mouth's Dentist

 * Objective: Clean the eel's teeth.

The first thing to do is to climb up the climb up the cliff face to where the cannon-firing mole-boss was in episode 1, but thankfully the Nokis have put up a big tightrope to give you a shortcut. Just to the left of the ledge where the mole-boss was you'll see the old Noki man again and he'll tell you the story of the dirty-mouthed eel. Dive off the ledge, using and into the waterfall. If you miss, just swim into the hole where the waterfall meets the ocean.

Now that you're underwater, let yourself sink slowly down. Eely-Mouth is right at the bottom of the abyss and as you get close he'll spring into action. Don't worry about him eating you, if he does, he'll just spit you out again. The biggest danger in the battle is running out of air, so make sure you keep grabbing coins to top-up your air supply. You can also pop the purple bubbles to replenish your air supply. When Eely-Mouth is out of his hole he'll open his mouth and show you his gunk-covered gnashers. When he does this, get above him and spray his teeth with the hover nozzle. It takes quite a few attempts to clean all the teeth but when you finally do, he'll hand over a Shine, which lands at the bottom of the level.

Episode 5: Il Piantissimo's Surf Swim

 * Objective: Beat Il Piantissimo to the flag.

Climb the tightrope shortcut left over from the previous episode, and you'll find Il Piantissimo on the upper ledge. He'll challenge you to another race, and this one is even easier than the first.

Jump straight off the ledge and aim for the round with platforms in the water. Hover across the water using these platforms, and you'll get to the flag on the far side. You should beat him quite easily as he seems to take a longer route and he swims in zig-zags.

Note that if you go back and race Il Piantissimo again, after winning the Shine, he'll be about 10 seconds quicker. But don't beat yourself up over it, as he doesn't give you another Shine for beating him twice.

Episode 6: The Shell's Secret

 * Objective: Complete a pretty tough secret level.

This is probably the hardest episode in this area. The first part involves just getting to the secret obstacle course level. It's in a shell in one of the highest place in the bay. Thankfully there is a slight shortcut up to it.

Follow the round white platforms to the west, toward where the race ended in the previous episode. On the way there is a bouncy platform - stand on it and face the huge tall pillar nearby. Use the springboard to jump up high, then hover to the platform in front of you. Do a back-flip jump on to the tightrope above and follow it to the other end. When you get there, use the bounciness of the rope to spring up to the next platform. Follow the next rope across, and at the end of it, bounce up to another rope. Again, follow the rope to the far end and then bounce up to another rope. This rope leads to the shell where the secret level is, so run inside it.

Okay, that's the easy part over. Now for the obstacle course. Wall-jump out of the glass box that you start in (try not to over-jump and end up in space!) then run along to the revolving green plank. Use this and the spinning platform next to it, to get across to solid ground. Now use the wall to wall-jump on to the platform that is sliding in and out. Make your way across the 3 of these platforms and on to the other side. Next, climb to the top of the wooden pole and jump off onto the ledge.

It's time for a very tricky wall jump now, between the narrow wooden beam and the red wall. You need to get right up to the edge of this ledge, before starting the jump and make sure you've got the camera at a good angle. About 5 or 6 jumps should be enough to get onto the red platform. Now jump over to the big wooden steps then back-flip onto the upper one. From here, do a two-stage wall-jump up the wooden platform, using the angles of the corner. Now walk along the narrow part of this platform (about halfway along) and then wall-jump at an angle, up to the next level - you should be able to make it with a single wall-jump if you start off with a back-flip.

Next up is a pair of spinning wooden beams, which you will have encountered before; they just spin a bit quicker than normal. You now come to a revolving platform with 3 planks above it. From the platform, do back-flip jumps up to each plank - but take the spinning into account and back-flip at an angle. From the top plank, jump over to the stationary platform and you then come to one final spinning beam. It's a quick one, so run carefully across it and make your final jump to Shine waiting for you on the platform.

Episode 7: Hold It, Shadow Mario!

 * Objective: Catch Shadow Mario.

It's another easy Shadow Mario chase. The only tricky thing about this one is the terrain he uses to get away from you. He'll basically run around at ground level for a bit, then he'll climb the cliff-face ledges, almost to the top and dive off back down to the water. He just repeats this circuit until he's been sprayed enough and the gives up a Shine. Certainly one of the easier episodes.

Episode 8: The Red Coin Fish

 * Objective: Red coin hunt

The first thing to do here is climb up to the ledge, where you dived into the waterfall in episode 4. Use the good old tightrope shortcut to get up there, then dive into the depths of the ocean.

You'll notice from the intro that the red coins are not scattered about like usual. They are bunched together, along with several regular coins, in the shape of a fish, which swims around the level. Let yourself sink down to near the top of the sunken city and you'll see the coin fish. Just use your FLUDD to follow it and keep passing through it when you can. Grabbing the first few coins will be easy, but when there are only 1 or 2 left it can be very tricky to get them. To make it even harder, the coin fish will disperse every few seconds and the coins are all spread out (the red coins seem to disappear!). But just follow the fish and when it bunches back together, quickly swim into it and soon you'll be getting your Shine Sprite!

Make sure you keep your energy meter topped up, and when you eventually get that final coin a Shine will appear at the very bottom of the abyss.

100-coin Shine
This can definitely be done during episode 6, and possibly in others as well. Firstly, there are 50 coins in a trail, leading from the platform where you start the episode, all the way to the shore. There are also coins hidden in a wall-jumping course near where the trail ends. Spray the brown block to open the wall challenge. There are a few coins in the tomb where collect the Shine from at the end of episode 2. And if you climb to the ledge where the boss was in episode 1, there is a big yellow button, which you can ground-pound to reveal a lot more coins. These coins appear on the water near where the waterfall lands. The Shine is quite tricky to get as it appears on top of the tallest tower. You can get to it using the springy tightropes and some hovering.