Super Mario 3D All Stars Part 1: Super Mario 64

Can you believe its Mario's 35th anniversary? I wasn't born until 1992 so I wasn't really around during the beginning of Mario's career but he's still played a large part in my gaming life. From playing Super Mario Advance 2 on my Gameboy Advance before school, to playing Mario Tennis on GameCube with my cousin to my favourite game of all time Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, Mario is an important part of my own personal gaming history just as he is important to the history of gaming as a whole.

So to celebrate this huge milestone Nintendo has released Super Mario 3D All Stars, a collection of Mario's first 3D adventures remastered for the Nintendo Switch. And like what I did for Collection of Mana and the N Sane Trilogy I am going to be going through each game to see whether or not each of them hold up. If you're the impatient type however and want to know if the collection is worth it then the answer is yes. I mean it's only available for a limited time so you might as well get it while you can. I'll go into more detail on the collection at the end of the Mario Galaxy review but let's not get ahead of our selves. We got to start at the beginning with this.

Super Mario 64. To understand the significance of this title I need to take you back to the year of it's release, 1996. At the time 3D was becoming more and more prevalent in gaming. Virtua Racer and Virtua Fighter had both shown what the technology could do and many saw it as the future of the industry. It seemed like the next logical step forward. So when the fifth generation of consoles came around they went all in on 3D, except the Sega Saturn which was dragged into 3D kicking and screaming but that's a tale for another day. The thing is though, no one was sure how exactly to do 3D. It was still a new frontier and developers had a lot to learn about how to do 3D properly especially when it came to the camera. Most early 3D games relied on fixed camera angles and tank controls for their games since it was easier to do.

This was an era where many franchises would make the jump to 3D and it wasn't always pretty. Just look at what happened to poor Contra for example and then there's the utter train wreck that is Bubsy 3D. Some series didn't even fully commit to 3D, Mega Man and Castlevania had 3D games but still kept doing their traditional 2D styled adventures as well. Making the jump to 3D wasn't an easy process for some, Mario being one of the few exceptions.

Super Mario 64 pioneered the use of a third person camera. This not only allowed players the ability to control the camera but gave Mario more freedom in his movement options. It was a revelation. It not only moved the industry forward in how to do 3D properly but also created the framework 3D platformers would use going forward at the same time. It's not uncommon to see many 3D platformers from that time being directly compared to Super Mario 64. But if Steven Universe has taught us anything it's that being influential doesn't always mean you are good. So let's take a look at Super Mario 64 and see how it holds up.

So what's the premise? Bowser kidnaps Peach. Yeah that's exactly what I thought it would be. Mario games aren't exactly known for their stories after all. The game takes place within Princess Peach's Castle. Bowser has stolen the castles Power Stars within the castles paintings and Mario has to jump into the paintings to get them back. I'll give the game credit in that the plot, what little of it the game has, does at least contextualise what you do in the game. That's all I ask for in a game like this.

Now we move on to presentation. While Super Mario 64 has certainly aged visually I do think it has a certain charm to how it looks. Sure everything looks blocky as hell but it does possess it's own unique appeal. I even love the way Bowser looks despite him being the chunkiest of chunks. I'll give the game credit for trying to do multiple types of environments from grassy fields to dark caves and actually pulling it off for the most part. Sure some levels feel more dated than others but given how old the game is I think it holds up pretty well visually.

Now in terms of how it's been remastered, it's ok. It is hard to tell how it's been remastered unless looking at the two versions side by side but it does look a little better. The textures have been improved slightly though it doesn't change the overall aesthetic at all for the most part. I would have liked to see more substantial upgrades to this versions visuals but that would then make it a remake and Nintendo clearly didn't want to do that. At the very least the game runs well in both docked and handheld modes keeping a consistent 30fps at 720p resolution in both. For some reason though the game keeps it's 4:3 aspect ratio. I don't know why they didn't make it wide screen, they could have at least given the game some borders to cover up all the black.

The sound hasn't been touched in the remaster but that's not too bad since the music is still pretty good. Granted it does get somewhat repetitive since every track is reused depending on what stage your in, both water levels use the same theme for example, but that was true for previous Mario games too. It was just the style at the time. It's a good thing then that the music itself is great. The underwater theme might be the best of the entire series and the slide them is so catchy I dare you to hear it and not hum it's tune long after hearing it. But while the games music can be catchy it also knows how to be atmospheric as well. The opening field area is indicative of this as there's no music, just the calming sounds of nature. Then there's Big Boo's Haunt which sounds fittingly spooky. It's a good soundtrack overall.

The goal of Mario 64 is simple. Within Peach's castle are 15 levels, each level has a number of Power Stars to collect, 7 in all, and you use the Power Stars to unlock more area's of the castle to eventually take on Bowser. You fight Bowser three times and the first two times you are rewarded with a key that unlocks more of the castle which has more levels to visit and more Stars to collect. You can also find Stars in secret areas within the castle itself if you look for them. It's a standard 3D collectathon but it was also the first to attempt such a structure. There are 120 Power Stars in total but you only need 70 of them to finish the game so you have a lot of wiggle room in what Stars you go for.

You have a lot of freedom in what Stars you can prioritise. While each mission is given to you when entering a level there's nothing stopping you from doing a different star if you so wish. There are a few Stars that require you to select a specific mission to get them but these are the exception to the rule. This sense of freedom gives Super Mario 64 a ton of replay value since you can go for different Stars on different runs, unless you're going for 100% like me in which case you might as well just do every Star in order anyway. Mind you it's not just which Stars you get that adds to the replayability but how you get them.

Sure you could get the Star in the way Nintendo intended you to but Mario has such a robust move set that it's possible to get most of these stars in ways the designers never thought about. From long jumping, somersaulting, triple jumping, backflipping, wall kicking and a basic punch kick combo, Mario's repertoire of moves has been greatly expanded upon from his 2D days. Learning these moves will happen naturally as you play through the game though there are signs throughout the castle that will teach you how to do these moves if you can't quite figure it out.

That being said the controls aren't as smooth as they once were. While the analogue movement was a brilliant innovation for it's time it is starting to show it's age. Whenever Mario turns around he will sometimes turn around by turning in a wide circle and sometime snap back to face the opposite direction and I can't figure out when he does which. Some of the move aren't as intuitive as they once were either, particularly the wall kicking and the backwards somersault. The somersault wasn't too bad to get used too though I had problems with it in tighter areas but the wall kicking took me ages to get to grips with. I think it's due to Mario's weight. In more modern games Mario hugs the wall and slides down them but in Mario 64 he bounces off any wall when he jumps into them making the timing for the wall jump very strict. Mario is way more acrobatic in this game but he's never felt heavier which is a weird contradiction. I get it, it was the early days of 3D they needed to make the game feel more, “realistic” for lack of a better word but it does make it harder to go back to if you're used to those later games.

You know what else is hard to go back to? The camera. I know it was innovative for it's time and to it's credit the idea of framing the camera as a controllable Lakitu holding the camera was an inspired decision to get people used to the idea but, man it hasn't aged well. You don't have full 360 degree rotation of the camera, instead you swap between certain angles and often times it will get stuck for no reason. The levels leading up to Bowser allow you to turn the camera around but in every other level it wil stop rotating when you get to a certain point. It's not necessarily the worst camera and it was the first to try this so it's expected it wouldn't be perfect but it's still a pain in the ass. It's especially bad in some of the tighter areas of the game where it gets stuck on everything.

To Mario 64's credit though, despite how aged certain parts of the game are it's still really fun to play. Most of the Stars feel good to get with some exceptions. Though I can only point to two Star missions that I found annoying, or rather two types of missions. Those being the red coin and 100 coin missions. Both are as they sound, collect a certain number of coins and get a Star. To be fair the red coin missions aren't always that bad, it's only when they get spread about that they become irritating but the 100 coin missions? Fuck these things. It's not always a pain but 90% of the time it is. They're time consuming and some levels are very stingy when it comes to coins meaning you have to basically collect every coin in the level and if you die you get booted out of the level and have to do it all over again.

I don't mind the design decision of booting you out of the level when you collect a Star most levels are open and it doesn't take long to get to where you need to be but in some of the more linear levels like Tall Tall Mountain and Tick Tock Clock it's pretty annoying. Luckily these levels are the exception but there were still a few levels I didn't care for, the worst being Tiny Huge Island which is so jank whenever you're on the tiny island it hurts. I also didn't care much for Hazy Maze Cave or Lethal Lava Land, actually most of the basement levels I didn't like that much, it was a bit of a low point of the game for me. There were more level I did like than didn't though. Bob-omb Battlefield and Thwomps Fortress were good starting levels, Snowman's Land was fun and I surprisingly loved Rainbow Ride. I went in expecting to hate that level and it ended up being one of my favourites.

As for the hub world, Peach's Castle, I like it. It's not too hard to get to the levels, the layout is easy to figure out and there are plenty of secrets to find. Though a lot of the more interesting secrets are in the first half of the game like the three Cap levels. Speaking of which let's talk about the Caps. Some of the Stars will require the use of one of three Caps that act as this games Power-ups. The best of which is the Wing Cap that allows Mario to glide through the air with a triple jump or by being launched out of a cannon. It can be tricky to get used to but it can be a lot of fun when you do. The other Caps, the Invisibility and Metal Caps, aren't quite as good. The Invisibility Cap let's Mario go through certain obstacles but it's barely used and the Metal Cap looks cool and allows you to walk underwater but it's used about as sparingly.

I don't think the Caps are bad I just wish they were used more often. I will say this about them, they do add a little variety. Well the Wing Cap more so than the others but the point still stands that they do add some variety into the game. That's actually something Mario 64 is good at, variety. And unlike a lot of other platformers that add variety through alternate playable characters or shoe horned in vehicle sections, Mario 64 instead gets it's varieties through more natural means like the level design. I already said earlier that I'm not a fan of all the levels but one thing I cannot say is that the levels are too similar, every level is different. Sure you have some themes are reused like the snow and water levels but even within those themes the levels have something that makes them stand out.

Super Mario 64 is also really good at not reusing missions. Some missions do get reused but not that many of them. Granted every level does have a Red Coin mission but even they are different depending on the level. Hazy Maze Cave involves collecting the Red Coins on a floating platform you can control, Dire Dire Dock has you get them by jumping between moving polls, Bob-omb Battlefield has them scattered throughout the entire level and so on and so on. Variety is important in a game like this and I'm happy to see that Super Mario 64 excelling at it despite it being the first of it's kind.

That being said there is some repetition when it comes to the boss fights. Not the bosses within the levels as they are all different aside from the two Bully fights. No I'm talking about the three Bowser fights. The goal of each fight is the same, grab Bowsers tail, swing him right round baby and toss him into the bombs surrounding the arena. I will give the fights this, there is an attempt to shake things up a little bit in each fight. The second fight has Bowser tilt the arena and the third introduces new attacks and has you having to injure Bowser 3 times as opposed to once. But even then every fight is pretty much the same and I would have liked to see them shake things up a little bit more.

And that's Super Mario 64. So what did I think of it? Well it's certainly aged in a lot of different ways like the controls and camera which might take some getting used to if you are used to more modern games. Despite this though I really enjoyed my time with Super Mario 64 despite it's rough edges. And before you accuse me of nostalgia bias, I didn't grow up with Super Mario 64. I was a PlayStation boy and nobody I knew owned a Nintendo 64 so I never got to play Super Mario 64 growing up. The closest thing I had was the DS remake and I didn't play that version too much and it's been well over a decade since I last played that version. What I'm trying to say is, I don't have any nostalgic memories of Super Mario 64 and I still got sucked in to it's magic. If you can overcome the more aged aspects of it's design what you'll find is a solid 3D platformer that's still as fun to play now as it was back then. It's aged but it's still got it where it counts.

One down, two to go. Next time we'll be talking about Mario's next big 3D adventure with Super Mario Sunshine. This is a game I actually do have nostalgic memories of so it'll be interesting to go back and see how it holds up. Though given what I remember this may not exactly be as bright an experience the games theme makes it out to be. Until next time, remember to stay safe and have fun.