Super Mario Sunshine is a weird game. Honestly, it’s the black sheep of the 3D Mario family for a lot of reasons—the janky physics, the tropical setting, and the fact that Mario spent half his vacation being a janitor. But nothing, and I mean nothing, gets people riled up quite like the blue coins in Mario Sunshine. Mention them to a speedrunner or a completionist and you'll probably see them twitch.
Most people think they were just filler content. They weren't. They were actually a fundamental shift in how Nintendo thought about exploration, even if the execution was, well, a little messy.
The Blue Coins Mario Sunshine Problem: Quantity Over Clarity
There are 240 of these things. Let that sink in for a second. In a game where you only need 60 Shines to finish the story, having 240 blue coins scattered across Isle Delfino feels like overkill. Every 10 coins you find can be traded in at the Boathouse in Delfino Plaza for a Shine Sprite. That’s 24 extra Shines hidden behind a massive scavenger hunt.
The real issue isn't the number. It's the logic. Or the lack of it.
You've probably spent hours spraying every single wall in Ricco Harbor just to see if a blue bird or a hidden "M" graffiti pops out. Sometimes, the game rewards curiosity. Other times, it punishes you for not knowing that a specific blue coin only appears during Episode 4 of a specific level and nowhere else. It's inconsistent.
It feels like the developers at Nintendo EAD were experimenting with "micro-objectives." Instead of one big mission, they gave you dozens of tiny ones. If you spray a burning Pianta, you get a coin. If you spray a blue butterfly, you get a coin. If you ground pound a random jar in a house you didn't know you could enter? Coin.
It’s chaotic. It’s frustrating. Yet, it’s exactly why the game has such a dedicated cult following.
Tracking the Untrackable
Here is a fact that still boggles my mind: there is no in-game checklist for blue coins in Mario Sunshine.
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None.
If you are playing the original GameCube version or even the Super Mario 3D All-Stars port on Switch, the game tells you how many coins you have in total for a level, but it doesn't tell you which ones you've found. This is where most players hit a brick wall. You end up with 29/30 coins in Noki Bay, staring at a guide, retracing your steps for three hours because you can't remember if you already sprayed that one specific pillar underwater.
It’s a nightmare for completionists.
But there’s a nuance here. The blue coins were designed to be found naturally over time, not all at once. Nintendo likely expected players to just "stumble" upon them. But gamers don't work like that. We want the 100%. We want the ending screen that shows Mario and Peach finally relaxing. By making the coins so numerous and the tracking so poor, Nintendo accidentally created one of the most stressful "casual" gaming experiences of the 2000s.
The Levels That Break People
Noki Bay is usually the one that breaks people. The verticality is insane. You’re wall-jumping, spraying secret symbols on cliffs, and trying to navigate that weirdly physics-defying internal ruin section. It’s beautiful, sure, but hunting blue coins there feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack—if the haystack was also trying to kill you with poison water.
Then there’s Pianta Village. Some coins only appear at night. Some require you to throw a specific fruit at a specific bird. It’s a lot to keep track of.
The Economy of Isle Delfino
Why do these coins even exist? From a game design perspective, they are a safety net.
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If you’re struggling with the harder Shines—like the infamous "Pachinko" level or the "Lily Pad Ride" that makes everyone want to throw their controller—you can skip them. You can just go find 20 blue coins and buy two Shines instead. It’s an alternative currency.
It’s actually a very smart way to handle difficulty spikes. Don't like the boss fight? Go explore and clean some graffiti.
But because the game hides the "best" ending behind a total Shine count, those blue coins stop being an "alternative" and start being a "requirement." That's where the tension lies. You aren't collecting them because you want to; you're collecting them because the game won't let you see the credits (or at least the 100% completion screen) without them.
The Secret Technique: Spraying Everything
If you’re actually trying to hunt these down today, you need to change how you play. Stop thinking like a platformer fan and start thinking like a digital detective.
- Look for Pairs: Many blue coins are linked. You spray a triangle over here, and a coin appears way over there. You have to race to get it before it vanishes.
- The M Graffiti: This is the most common source. If you see a red M, it’s a Shine. If you see a blue M, it’s a coin. Simple, right? Except when the M is hidden behind a crate or under water.
- NPC Interaction: Talk to everyone. Spray everyone. Sometimes a blue coin is literally just stuck to a person’s back.
- The "Yoshi" Factor: Some coins are trapped in yellow goop that only Yoshi can dissolve. This means you have to manage the "Yoshi hunger meter" while platforming, which adds a whole other layer of stress.
Is the Reward Even Worth It?
Honestly? Probably not.
If you get all 240 blue coins and reach 120 Shines, your reward is a slightly different postcard at the end of the credits. That’s it. No secret levels. No new power-ups. Just the internal satisfaction of knowing you did it.
Yet, we still do it. There is something incredibly satisfying about the "ding" sound the game makes when you collect one. It’s a pavlovian response. Sunshine’s movement system—thanks to FLUDD—is so fluid and fun that just "being" in the world feels good. The blue coins give you an excuse to stay in that world longer, even if they drive you crazy.
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Navigating the Modern Meta
If you're playing in 2026, you likely have access to way better resources than we did in 2002. Back then, we had Prima Games guides that were sometimes just flat-out wrong. Now, we have interactive maps where you can toggle coins on and off.
My advice? Use them. Don't try to "hero" your way through 240 blue coins without a map. You will miss one. You will lose your mind.
A Note on Speedrunning
In the speedrunning community, the "120 Shine" category is a marathon. Watching a pro collect blue coins is like watching a choreographed dance. They know exactly which episode has the most efficient coin route. They know that in Ricco Harbor, you can grab ten coins in about sixty seconds if you use the blooper racer correctly. It turns a tedious scavenger hunt into a high-speed optimization problem.
Actionable Steps for Completionists
If you are staring at a save file with 90 Shines and a lot of empty space, here is how you actually finish this without quitting.
- Level by Level: Do not jump between worlds. Finish every single blue coin in Bianco Hills before you even think about Gelato Beach.
- Use an Interactive Map: Websites like Mario Wiki or dedicated fan maps allow you to check off coins as you find them. Since the game doesn't track individual coins, you have to do it yourself.
- Check Every Episode: Some coins are universal, appearing in every episode of a level. Others are "Episode Specific." If you can't find a coin, change the episode. It changes the state of the world (water levels, NPC locations, etc.).
- Spray the Birds: If you see a blue bird, spray it until it turns into a coin. It’s weird, but it works.
- Don't Forget the Boats: In Delfino Plaza, there are coins hidden in the water and on the little boats circling the island. People always forget those.
The blue coins in Mario Sunshine are a relic of a time when Nintendo was trying to figure out how to fill massive 3D spaces. They aren't perfect. They are often annoying. But they are also the reason why people are still talking about this game decades later. They represent the "vacation" aspect of the game—the idea that you should slow down, look around, and maybe spray a little water on everything just to see what happens.
Next time you see a blue spark in the distance, don't groan. Just aim FLUDD and enjoy the hunt. It’s the soul of Isle Delfino.