Super Mario 3D All-Stars represents the first official re-release of Super Mario Sunshine, likely the most oft debated title in the 3D Mario lineage. It’s almost impossible to separate the game from the importance and legacy, but whether you look at Mario’s 3D debut as a historical relic or a timeless masterpiece, it’s still a game worth revisiting today and Nintendo has never released a better version of it until Super Mario 3D All-Stars. Through it all, Super Mario 64 is still a great game, even in 2020. It’s not all bad: a lot of the levels with dynamic changes like Tick Tock Clock and Tiny-Huge Island are still wildly enjoyable, but the farther the game went, the more frustrations I had. Rainbow Ride is still whimsical and novel, but the structure of the level can get repetitive and punishing. Tall Tall Mountain is basically just several stars requiring you go up the mountain in almost the same fashion several times. Tall Tall Mountain and Rainbow Ride are some of the worst offenders to me. Mostly, a number of late-game stages are rough. However, replaying it today leaves me with a few sour notes. Exploring the castle still has a charm to it, especially with the fantastic soundtrack. A lot of the star challenges are clever and fun. The variety on display through the ice, fire, and water worlds early on is great. Bob-omb Battlefield and Whomp’s Fortress are incredible starting points. The first handful of levels are still incredible. In a perfect world, seeing Super Mario 64 be more intricately upgraded would be awesome, but, like I said to start this: It ain’t broke, so it didn’t need fixing. Sure, it’s not in widescreen, but it runs beautifully and looks as sharp as a Nintendo 64 game can look without more wholesale and widespread changes. Text retains the charming font but looks cleaner and crisper. It’s not an overwhelmingly different upgrade, but it’s effective at nailing the ideal of looking not like it was, but how you remember it. After playing through it on the Switch in Super Mario 3D All-Stars, some of the shine has worn off, but dollars to doughnuts Super Mario 64 is still an immensely enjoyable game, almost as much so now as it was more than 20 years ago.įirst off, Mario 64 might have the best glow-up in this collection. For a long time, I always thought it was sublime perfection. I was there back for Super Mario 64 DS, and I’ve picked it up on every Virtual Console it came to. I’ve spent a lot of time since the original release in 1996 playing and thinking about this landmark achievement in video games. The phrase “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” comes to mind often when playing Super Mario 64. The question is, are these upgrades enough, and do these games still hold up all these years later? This isn’t to say it is without its upgrades however, not the least of which is portability for two of these games for the first time. While its naming convention follows in the footsteps of its SNES predecessor, Super Mario All-Stars, it lacks the obvious visual overhaul that made that collection stand out. Super Mario 3D All-Stars is the first time Nintendo has released a collection of 3D Mario titles.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |