Revisiting Super Mario 64 DS made me realise how fundamentally flawed its controls are. I mean if you want to look at a game that has issues in its design directly in the core of its existence, this is the game. Super Mario 64 was Nintendo's demonstration of the N64 and by extension its new controller, and by extra extension of the analogue joystick controls. The movement is one of the most defining factors that made Super Mario 64 so fantastic, perhaps the camera controls have aged, but the movement itself is pretty timeless. So fast forward to the Nintendo DS, Nintendo now want to make a launch title to demonstrate the capabilities of this console, and in order to demonstrate its graphical capabilities why not take a beloved N64 game and improve it and show it running on a HANDHELD, pretty impressive, and yes, Super Mario 64 DS looks pretty fantastic for a DS game, in fact, I dare say it is one of the very best looking DS games from a technical standpoint, which is impressive for a launch title. Now that's all well and good but what about those innovative analogue controls? What? Analog controls? No, no, the DS has a D-pad you see, so now rather than smooth movement we have a grid-based movement system and a run button. It's total crap and feels awful, you lack all precision and constantly overshoot every movement, jumping through a simple platforming segment becomes a gauntlet as you fight with the controls to get into position. Even if you play the game on 3DS with a circle pad, it's not simply the inputs the entire game is designed with 8 directional movements, which is odd since you can also control the game with the touch screen, not sure why you ever would but still, which could have had 360 movements and if that existed then playing the game on later hardware would mitigate the issues, but no, that's 8 direction based too. The camera isn't even improved, if anything it's worse, only being able to place it behind you, or move it by using the touch screen. Just a total balls up completely, and was doomed from the start due to the game's reliance on the analogue stick and its absence on the DS.

Games I Dislike That Everybody Else Likes

An outstanding, colorful, creative retooling of one of the greatest video games ever made.. rendered fully unplayable by maybe the worst control scheme in video game history - they give you three options for them but they all suck so hard. Getting the first star on the Chain Chomp's stake in Bob-omb Battlefield should not be such an impenetrable affair. It seems like you are constantly fighting against the game, trying to break/glitch it just to do basic movement. This feels like QWOP. Anyway, I'm sure this is terrific if you could actually do anything in it and moving your character didn't feel like swinging around a heavy rock on a dental floss string with your teeth.

This is literally the first video game I ever played, but sadly, it is really inferior to the original

The biggest problem are the controls, using a D-pad to control in 3D doesn’t feel good, and it’s a slog to go through using the run button. And don’t even get me started on the Bowser fights, how the fuck am I supposed to spin him using a D-pad?!

The new content is kind of repetitive, most of the new stars are just time trials where you to use a gimmick from a specific character, making the character selection more of an obligation than a option. And speaking of the new characters, they are really unbalanced. Mario is fine, Luigi is OP, Wario is unfun, and Yoshi is meh.

There are some good things though. The minigames are really good, and it was probably the part I played the most in my childhood, considering I was 4 the first time I played it. Some of the new levels are also kind of neat, because they were actually designed for this game. And let’s not forget, it still is Mario 64.

Overall, a decent experience, but the original is better in almost every way. Play it if you want a new experience, but I would prioritize the original first.

It was an interesting take on Super Mario 64. It was cool to see new mechanics and locations to help add a little variety to a game that many have an intimate familiarity with. Luigi's special backflip does tend to break the game and make many stars piss-easy to acquire, but it is still enjoyable. The only real problem that I have is that playing it on a DS and not through 3DS backwards compatibility forces the player to navigate a full 3D platformer with directional buttons, which is not great. As if the N64 control stick didn't make controlling the original already an annoyance. You do have the option to control the game with the touchscreen Phantom Hourglass style, which works for Phantom Hourglass, y'know, being designed around it and all. However, it is not really a control scheme you would want with a 3D platformer. The camera is still problematic as well.