Corona Mountain

Corona Mountain is the eighth and final level in Super Mario Sunshine. Corona Mountain is a volcano on Isle Delfino, located directly behind Delfino Plaza. As Isle Delfino is shaped like a dolphin, Corona Mountain is placed where the dolphin's blowhole would be. The entrance to the volcano is located behind the Shine Gate, over a couple of ledges and behind a hot spring. To enter Corona Mountain, the player has to have had completed each of the other levels' seventh episode, which are the Shadow Mario episodes. Upon doing so, the gate blocking the entrance to the volcano will break and Delfino Plaza will become flooded. Simply entering and leaving Corona Mountain will return Delfino Plaza to normal.

Layout
The interior of Corona Mountain is a large pool of lava with several scattered platforms. Several of the platforms appear to be part of a broken walkway that used to lead to the back of the volcano. The first half of the volcano has large, square platforms Mario has to jump between. The platforms contain either spikes that move in and out of the platform or fire that Mario has to spray with F.L.U.D.D. to dowse. Several flaming Cheep Cheeps will also be jumping out of the lava in the first half of the stage. In the center of the stage, there is a sprinkler players can use to refill F.L.U.D.D. and a crate with a 1-Up Mushroom in it.

The second half of the stage has many spires coming out of the lava and the player needs to use a boat to move through them to the platform in the back. To propel the boat, players have to spray water in the opposite direction of where they want the boat to move, though the propulsion also takes into account where Mario is standing on the boat. If the boat crashes into something, it will sick and Mario could fall into the lava. In the center of the spires is a sprinkler that will refill F.L.U.D.D. if Mario travels underneath it.

At the end of Corona Mountain is a large, circular platform with a Rocket Nozzle power-up. Using the Rocket Nozzle, Mario can shoot up to the clouds above, some of which are moving. At the end of the clouds is a red cloud that will send Mario to the final boss fight when he shoots through it.

Father and Son Shine!
Rocketing through the red cloud will take Mario to the final boss fight between with Bowser and Bowser Jr. The arena is a large circle with five platforms protruding from it with flame marks on them and hot slime in the center. During the battle, Bowser will use his Fire Breath and turns to have it cover the stage while Bowser Jr. fires Bullet Bills from the sub he is sitting on. Spraying Bowser will stun him for a short time and spraying the Bullet Bills will destroy them. To defeat Bowser, the player has to use the Rocket Nozzle when standing on the flame markings and use a Ground Pound at the peak of the jump. Mario will shatter the platform causing the arena to tilt, sending the hot slime in Mario's direction. While dodging the slime, Mario needs to jump back onto the main platform and repeat the process with the other four platforms. By shattering the fifth platform, the arena will flip over entirely, sending everyone falling down into Delfino Plaza and ultimately completing the game.

Blue Coin Locations
Ten Blue Coins are found around Corona Mountain. One is found on the stone platform in the first half of the stage, and the other nine are found above the lava in the second half.

Appearance in Mario Sports Mix
In Mario Sports Mix, the Smash Skate arena Fire Mountain is based on Corona Mountain, and is called "Corona Mountain" in the Japanese releases. Despite this, an unused banner has Corona Mountain's name written in English.

Appearance in Minecraft: Wii U Edition
Corona Mountain appears in the premade world for the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack in Minecraft: Wii U Edition.

Official Description
The hot spring at the foot of Isle Delfino's mountain is relaxing, but the lava caves, which open on the plaza, are forbidden for public safety.

Name
"Corona" means "crown" in Italian, Spanish and Latin, and can also refer to the superhot plasma atmosphere that surrounds the sun. Because the rest of the locations of Isle Delfino have Italian names, the lava-filled volcano's allusion to the sun's heat may have merely been an afterthought or coincidence when "corona" was chosen for the mountain that crowned the "head" of the dolphin-shaped island.

Trivia

 * The entrance to the mountain was once covered in grass in pre-release versions of the Plaza.
 * This is the only place that can be seen from everywhere in Isle Delfino.
 * There is an unused episode select screen banner for Corona Mountain, suggesting that it was originally going to feature more than one episode.
 * Though the player cannot see a sky in this course, it actually recycles the same sky dome for some secret courses. This also goes for the Blooper surfing course in Episode 2 of Ricco Harbor.