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Your childhood is back with the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, but it is worth choosing the ports on the Switch. Check out our thoughts on the Nintendo relaunch!
After nearly a year of rumors, Nintendo has brought more classic Mario titles to the Nintendo Switch. Players have been clamoring for these, and now 3D stars has brought together three of Mario’s most beloved (3D) adventures in one collection. Obviously he had to get his hands on her.
I’m a huge fan of video game remasters / remakes. There was once a period of time where I collected game footage and had all the old consoles set up and ready to play. Retrogaming is a huge passion for me, but it got too much to keep up with and I finally sold it all to free up space in the house.
However, my love for retro gaming remains and as my children grow I welcome any opportunity to be able to share my favorite titles with them in a modern way. In this way, Super Mario 3D All-Stars is absolutely successful. Present the three included games (Mario 64, Super Mario SunshineY Super mario galaxy) in a playable way that almost feels like you’re taking the controller and playing it in its original form. I am very happy about it, but this also brings some disadvantages.
To be honest, my memories of Super mario 64 they are confusing at best. I got my Nintendo 64 after it had already been available for a couple of years, so I mostly played games released at the time. It was Mario though, so I know I played it from time to time, but I can’t say it was high in my “rotation” of games. Of course, this is where I decided to start.
Things … didn’t work out.
I can’t decide if I’ve always been terrible at this game or it just hasn’t aged well. I understand its impact on 3D games in general, but playing it today has been difficult. I remember dabbling in the DS remake of the game, and from what I recall, it looked a lot more like a “modern” platformer than this current version.
This is where the problem with 3D stars being so precise with the originals comes into play. There have been no (notable) improvements to the quality of life for games. Instead, we’re left with shaky camera controls and a decidedly “floating” in-game feel. 64. It has turned the fun platforming into a frustrating mess.
That certainly won’t be the case for other players, especially those who grew up with the game initially. For a gamer like me, though, whose memories of the game have long since faded (or wasn’t played long before) it feels less like a blast from the past.
After dying and going back to the beginning of sections many more times than I am comfortable with, I decided to turn on Super Mario Sunshine. This is a game that I completely missed even though it had a GameCube when it launched. I remember seeing my best friend play it a few times, but nothing caught my eye and I skipped it. This is one that fans have been clamoring for, for a while, as it couldn’t be played in the last two generations.
Fortunately, this collection has given me the opportunity to rectify that, and I have found myself LOVING this game. Seriously, I’m kicking myself for losing myself earlier, but I’m really glad to dive into it now.
The setting of the story is so different from the typical Mario games, with a darker hook (Mario is thrown in jail) than I expected. Between the new people / creatures we meet and the addition of the squirt gun mechanics, it feels unique and unlike any other Mario game, while still managing to hit all the right notes in the franchise.
However, it’s funny to me that the parts of the game where I struggle the most come from the pure platform moments. There are levels where the evil Mario steals your water pack, leaving you to complete everything using your normal jumping skills. It’s pure Mario action, and I’m somehow sucking them off!
This is not a complaint, as the challenge in these is conveniently fun (rather than frustrating with the 64 game). It’s more of a testament to how well Sunshine manages to implement the new game mechanics. Without them, I am suddenly lost and struggling. While it takes a bit of getting used to juggling the new control scheme (and reversed controls), Sunshine is a lot of fun and looks great in this collection.
Lastly, I tried Super mario galaxy and I’m happy to confirm that he still whips an unholy amount of ass. This game blew my mind when it released for Wii and instantly became one of my favorite Mario titles of all time. This is the first time I’ve really felt with him since initially getting over him in the past, and I was impressed with how well he holds up.
The ability to use the Joy-Con controllers and play almost exactly the same way we did on the Wii is great, although I’m definitely glad I had the touchscreen options in place. Galaxy it still feels like a polished and elegant game and I’m trying to avoid it long enough to finish Sunshine.
Here’s the thing, the games included in this pack really only capture how well they’ve aged over the years. They look impressive, with anti-aliased sprites and enough resolution to make them shine on your modern TVs, but other than that … nothing has really changed.
It is difficult to complain. After all, many of us have been waiting for a long time for these games to be playable again in a modern (official) format. Also, we get a nice extra with the inclusion of a music player mode that comes with 175 tunes from the games.
However, the lack of real improvements in quality of life makes it seem like a minor improvement than many of us expected. At least it would have been to have some options to adapt. Considering these all come from drastically different controller schematics, the ability to manually snap the buttons to your Switch’s controls would have been excellent.
