Playing Super Mario Sunshine reminds me of a recent tragedy in my country

As a Mauritian who loved Super Mario Sunshine back in its 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.

Let’s Play Super Mario 3D All-Stars – IT’SA ME, NOSTALGIA! Watch on YouTube

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…?

In order to explain exactly how the two share some strange coincidences let me explain exactly what happened in Mauritius.

On July 25th last year, during the height of the pandemic, a large capesize bulk carrier, the MV Wakashio ship came too close to the shore of Mauritius on it’s way from China to Brazil. The ship was caught on top of a coral reef and broke in two, leaking an estimated 1000 tonnes of oil into the ocean off the south- eastern coast of Mauritius. This was devastating. It affected wildlife, plantlife, tourism, fishing industries and many other facets of Mauritian life.