It's-a Mario World: Coin Heaven

How dare you compare that dirty hedgehog to anything Mario? Huh? The sound of Sonic's rings is like the sound of an alarm clock to me--it calls up pain and terror.

Wrong.
You could play as Tails in Sonic 2.
You just had to choose him under the Options Menu.

Where all vines lead. Coins and endless clouds.

Ah yes, the disappointed "half-empty" guy. We missed you. Even I was upset that a 12-year-old item created by a third party isn't featured here.

Sunshine is rarely seen on "best Mario games" lists, and in the the Mario-centric context of this feature I would argue it is underrated. Besides, is referencing an abstractly-weighted aggregate number on a corporate website the way we should be qualifying the games we play? I think Metacritic is a helpful tool, but we should be careful about how we approach averaged rankings, and numbered rankings in general. The individual reviewers whose opinions determine them are not necessarily offering sound criticisms, nor are they exempt from trends in the burgeoning genre of videogame reviews.

So, you only include 12-year old third party creations after "innumerable requests and a handful of death threats"?
http://nintendo.joystiq.com/2008/11/14/its-a-mario-world-super-educational/
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I am by no means arguing that Metacritic or the paid press/media in general is an effective way to judge the quality of the games we play, but it is certainly a nice aggregate of sources to counter claims of a video game being underrated. It is a very useful tool, considering it is impossible to dig up what I can only assume is a thousand sources that have underrated Super Mario Sunshine.

Personally, I would be careful of how I approach labeling something as being underrated and then turning around and questioning the value of numbered rankings/ratings in general. If you so devalue the practice of assigning numerical scores and rankings than you so abandon the idea of considering something underrated.

If you are so focussed on the opinion of the independent and the general consumer populous' opinion on where a game of significant quality stands, I'd say the more appropriate term would be "Underappreciated."

I must also clarify that I'm in total agreement though, that SMS is indeed an underappreciated game, and since it's release has become somewhat of an unfortunately positioned (Between to nearly perfect games, one that practically invented the genre and the other that perfected) game. It's certainly become somewhat of a laughing stock or an easy target. I'm also in agreement that numerical values undermine the value of a game (at least that's what I was picking up from your statement, sorry if I misread it), I just think that if you are going to take one town in a rebellion you may as well go for the entire country (nothing could be more artificial or insincere than a vegetarian that eats seafood).

Cheers though, fun list as usual. Sorry my nit-pickings stirred you the wrong direction, contrary to popular belief, I don't always like to be that "guy." :D

Is this a quibble about semantics? Metacritic thinks so.