As a Mauritian who loved Super Mario Sunshine back in it's day, I could already see the many similarities Super Mario Sunshine has to Mauritius.
Sunshine is a game that sold relatively well but remains divisive amongst Super Mario fans. The game starts with Mario, Peach and Toadsworth arriving on Isle Delfino where they aim to enjoy a nice relaxing holiday. This of course is not what happens, and Mario is soon framed and wrongly imprisoned for spreading a goop-like substance and attendant monsters across the island. Mario the polluter! It's then Mario's task, and yours, to clean up the island with his new mechanical water shooting weapon, F.L.U.D.D.
The tropical island setting, the happy inhabitants, the holiday destination feel. How could I not think of Mauritius? I return to my very own Delfino Island of a home country every other year – apart from last year for the obvious reasons. And this is where it gets spooky. It may be a stretch to say that a decades old Mario game predicted exactly what happened in Mauritius last year, but the more I look into it…?
