Super Mario 64 DS is a somewhat divisive re-release of Super Mario 64, that debuted on a Nintendo console with the same number. A few concessions had to be made to fit the 64 bit classic on a handheld, and in my opinion, Nintendo did a great job that I don’t think receives enough credit.
First, I want to talk about the technical side of this version, and why I consider it to be more impressive, than, say, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time 3D. While DS may seem weak in some aspects, it does actually have a few tricks up its sleeve. For more detailed technical match, I can recommend YouTube video “How Powerful is the Nintendo DS?” by Sharopolis. Nintendo DS has more texture memory than the poor ol’ Nintendo 64, which allows DS to have textures with greater fidelity/variety. This becomes pretty apparent in the first level, Bob-Omb Battlefield. It received a complete face lift, with a different color palette, although it’s more of an artistic decision than a technical one. Nonetheless, the terrain is more varied. The character models are also a good demonstration of Nintendo’s improved grasp on 3D modeling. I highly doubt you can deny that the models in this game are worse than N64 originals. The only aspect in which they’re “worse” is the amount of polygons… which, really, is actually more impressive. The fact that the made new models for Mario and co. that look quite good AND less resource intensive is a great display of improved skills. Of course, I doubt more polys would fly in this game, as Nintendo DS has a limit on how many polygons can be displayed at any given time. But then again, coins are now 3D models instead of 2D sprites and they’re pretty common, so… I think Nintendo went with a trick that doubles that limit at the cost of half the framerate, normally it would be 60 FPS (which explains those smooth-ass 3D games on Nintendo DS), but here it’s about 30. And y’know what? I think it’s fairly consistent, I never felt like the game lagged, which I think is even more impressive, I think the original did struggle in certain areas. Don’t forget that this is a LAUNCH TITLE GAME, and launch title games are usually not very technically impressive, but this game manages to be more impressive than most of the DS’s library, including the very game this is a remake of.
But, alright, let’s put aside technical mumbo jumbo behind us, after all, the game is meant to be played, and games like Half-Life prove that technical achievements aren’t everything. The game plays about the same as the original, but the most obvious and criticized element of Super Mario 64 DS is… the D-Pad. Of course the D-Pad isn’t as reliable as the stick, especially in a 3D game. All the issues of Super Mario 64 DS should be blamed on this one input type. Awkward physics? Turning which isn’t instant? Bad air maneuverability? Slippery surfaces which cause you to slide to your doom? D-Pad, duh! I’ll be honest, I think Super Mario 64 DS is only as bad as the original. Guess what, the instant turning wasn’t in the original! If you stand perfectly still, you’ll change your direction in an instant, otherwise you do an awkward rotation. And other issues where in the original too! Let’s be real, Super Mario 64 wasn’t that great a platforming experience to begin with, so most of the problems are just inherited from that. Of course I’m not saying that the D-Pad is better than the stick, but the controls in this version are more than adequate, there are no sticks on Nintendo DS, if you didn’t know. Actually… when playing Super Mario 64 DS, I felt more confident in controlling playable characters. I have a friend who likes this game and shares the same sentiment of feeling more in control of the game. Granted, it’s possible that I just got better at playing Super Mario 64 in general, but maybe, juuuuuuuuuuuust maybe, the complaints about the D-Pad are overblown. Some people would suggest using the Circle Pad on the Nintendo 3DS, but that doesn’t magically add analog control to the game, it’s still locked to the 8 directions. I prefer playing DS games with a D-Pad, because that’s what they were designed for, and I didn’t find my experience to be all that bad, and using Circle Pad in this game didn’t feel all that great when I tried it (of course, I could’ve sucked it up and get used to it, like how I did with Rune Factory 3 Special, but that’s a different story). Alternatively, you can try using the touch screen for analog controls, this is what the Wii U version’s hack uses to integrate analog with a stick, though you would have to commit to it, and I can’t imagine it feeling all that comfortable.
The camera system is also a bit different. Super Mario 64 used quantized rotation for its camera, and it wasn’t that good of a system… in fact, the camera kind of sucked in that version. Super Mario 64 DS sorta retains the quantized rotation method, but maps it to the touch screen, in a somewhat easy-to reach area. But the most reliable way to rotate the camera is to use the camera center button, which is L button. I found it to be a perfectly fine system. I think camera center actually gives you more control on how you can position the camera, it’s smoother compared to quantized turning. Overall I found camera to be less janky in this version, not 100% free, but I didn’t find it as annoying. Speaking of the touch screen, it houses the game’s mini-map. It’s pretty helpful, as it shows where the star you’re going for is located, most of the time. It also solves one of the issues I had with Bowser fights – the fact that I couldn’t see where the bombs are because the game’s camera wasn’t helpful enough at relaying that important information. Now you can see bombs on the bottom screen, and your facing direction, so throwing bowser at them isn’t as much a pain.
Then there’s all the extra content. Remember that this is a Super Mario 64 remake? It’s not just some “tech demo”, because that would imply it’s simply showing the tech. No, it’s a game with content in it. I’m not implying that the original didn’t have content, but… ok, what I’m getting at is that the devs didn’t just port Super Mario 64 and call it a day. No, no, no! They actually added MORE! The game was originally titled Super Mario 64 x4 during its development, which I think is referring to the game’s new playable characters (rather than the game being 4 times bigger than the OG, try to count all of it’s new/changed content and see if it adds up). It’s also apparent from the box art, that yes! 4 Playable characters! You don’t even start as Mario in this game, as Yoshi takes the lead in rescuing him and then the rest which is Luigi and Wario, if you feel like it. All characters play distinctly from one another. Yoshi can flutter jump for better air control, use his tongue to eat baddies or store some fire to spit it back and turn enemies or other objects into eggs. Mario is Mario. Luigi is slower at running, but he can scuttlejump, which is also useful for better midair maneuverability and run on water for a short amount of time. Also, doing backwards somersault as him will make him spin slowly, again, aiding in air control. Lastly, there’s Wario, a power character. He’s easily the most situational – he’s slow and doesn’t jump very high, which makes him kind of pathetic at platforming. He is only really needed to break extra tough black brick blocks, and turn metal. One of the complaints towards this addition is that switching characters is a pain. Oh no! Well, anyway. Really? That’s what caps are for. Sure, you’ll find yourself changing characters in Peach’s Castle a few times, but I didn’t find myself doing that very often to find it bothersome. I do think it’s silly that only Mario can unlock bowser stages, I’m pretty sure Luigi and Wario are capable of whopping his ass, but it’s not that big a deal. You can play most stages as Mario and use caps when necessary, there are only a few stars that require Yoshi. But even then, you don’t necessarily need to switch from Yoshi after obtaining that one star that only he can obtain, Yoshi is special in that he has all three other characters’ caps available to him. In fact, you can START a stage with a specific cap as Yoshi, which makes going for a particular star even easier. There aren’t even that many stars specific to one character. Really, this entire system isn’t that bad, I didn’t find the addition of new playable characters to be a “downgrade” compared to the original or wish it wasn’t there. I find then neat and applaud the developers for ambition AND the execution is adequate.
Super Mario 64 DS feels sort of like a remix of the original. There are new stars to collect, of course, but a few of the old ones were modified as well. Like the one where you searched for hidden spots in Tiny Huge Island which is basically searching for invisible items has been replaced with a more straightforward condor-held one. The level design has been touched up as well. For example, Tick-Tock Clock, which was a platforming nightmare in the original, has been toned down by placing more platforms to land on if you fail jumping, turning one of the most frustrating ones into one of the more enjoyable experiences. These changes ensure that while there is some stuff retained, there will be surprises for those who have played the original. But, what about those new stars? Each stage now has 2 more stars, like collecting 5 silver stars to unlock one proper, or a timed switch that makes a star appear in a sphere that can be broken, acting as a timed challenge. There are also brand new levels, though these are smaller ones, mostly dedicated to rescuing each of the trapped characters, which have red coins for a bonus star, but there are a few other new ones that require you to collect silver stars. Bowser stages also received an extra star. The total amount of stars has been bumped from 120 to 150. As a result, to beat the game, the final star requirement is also boosted from 70 to 80, but it’s not that big a deal. If you liked Super Mario 64 and don’t hate this version, there’s plenty of new content to explore.
BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET! Mini-games! The one aspect that seems to be liked enough. The one Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages… I mean, MIPS from the original has been traded for a dozen of rabbit spawns, catching them usually yields a key for a mini-game. I tried a few, and they’re fun. Good for a quick bit of fun. There’s also a multiplayer versus mode, because why not? Though I can’t judge if it’s any good, because I didn’t play it. From what I’ve seen, it’s doesn’t seem all that great, but hey… it’s still cool that it’s there, right??
In conclusion, I want to say that Super Mario 64 DS is a fantastic remake of the old classic, it’s not just some emulation (Super Mario 3D All-Stars, cough, cough, sneeze) or a lazy port for cash money, or something that breaks the core game (Half-Life: Source, cough, cough… hack!), it actually went above and beyond. The graphics are improved – you may prefer old models for their charm, but the new models are more recognizable and technically better, the texture work in general is pretty good. There’s a lot of new content and I mean a LOT of new content, as well as some redesigned and reworked existing content to make the experience smoother. The controls aren’t amazing, but they’re good enough given the hardware, and it’s not like the original’s were flawless. While it’s not superior in all regards, I DO find Super Mario 64 DS to be superior overall. By the end of playing Super Mario 64 (via Super Mario 3D All-Stars), I just wanted the game to end and get it over with. However, when playing Super Mario 64 DS, I actually went back to collect a few more stars. That’s how much I enjoyed this version compared to the original (with an asterisk, because you could argue 3DAS version isn't quite the same). The experience transformed from a somewhat average one into a good one. I still don’t think it’s a masterpiece or great really, the controls and physics are still janky at times and the final boss battle is frustrating, but overall I had much more fun playing this classic. Super Mario 64 DS is a great re-release and a good game in its own right.
First, I want to talk about the technical side of this version, and why I consider it to be more impressive, than, say, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time 3D. While DS may seem weak in some aspects, it does actually have a few tricks up its sleeve. For more detailed technical match, I can recommend YouTube video “How Powerful is the Nintendo DS?” by Sharopolis. Nintendo DS has more texture memory than the poor ol’ Nintendo 64, which allows DS to have textures with greater fidelity/variety. This becomes pretty apparent in the first level, Bob-Omb Battlefield. It received a complete face lift, with a different color palette, although it’s more of an artistic decision than a technical one. Nonetheless, the terrain is more varied. The character models are also a good demonstration of Nintendo’s improved grasp on 3D modeling. I highly doubt you can deny that the models in this game are worse than N64 originals. The only aspect in which they’re “worse” is the amount of polygons… which, really, is actually more impressive. The fact that the made new models for Mario and co. that look quite good AND less resource intensive is a great display of improved skills. Of course, I doubt more polys would fly in this game, as Nintendo DS has a limit on how many polygons can be displayed at any given time. But then again, coins are now 3D models instead of 2D sprites and they’re pretty common, so… I think Nintendo went with a trick that doubles that limit at the cost of half the framerate, normally it would be 60 FPS (which explains those smooth-ass 3D games on Nintendo DS), but here it’s about 30. And y’know what? I think it’s fairly consistent, I never felt like the game lagged, which I think is even more impressive, I think the original did struggle in certain areas. Don’t forget that this is a LAUNCH TITLE GAME, and launch title games are usually not very technically impressive, but this game manages to be more impressive than most of the DS’s library, including the very game this is a remake of.
But, alright, let’s put aside technical mumbo jumbo behind us, after all, the game is meant to be played, and games like Half-Life prove that technical achievements aren’t everything. The game plays about the same as the original, but the most obvious and criticized element of Super Mario 64 DS is… the D-Pad. Of course the D-Pad isn’t as reliable as the stick, especially in a 3D game. All the issues of Super Mario 64 DS should be blamed on this one input type. Awkward physics? Turning which isn’t instant? Bad air maneuverability? Slippery surfaces which cause you to slide to your doom? D-Pad, duh! I’ll be honest, I think Super Mario 64 DS is only as bad as the original. Guess what, the instant turning wasn’t in the original! If you stand perfectly still, you’ll change your direction in an instant, otherwise you do an awkward rotation. And other issues where in the original too! Let’s be real, Super Mario 64 wasn’t that great a platforming experience to begin with, so most of the problems are just inherited from that. Of course I’m not saying that the D-Pad is better than the stick, but the controls in this version are more than adequate, there are no sticks on Nintendo DS, if you didn’t know. Actually… when playing Super Mario 64 DS, I felt more confident in controlling playable characters. I have a friend who likes this game and shares the same sentiment of feeling more in control of the game. Granted, it’s possible that I just got better at playing Super Mario 64 in general, but maybe, juuuuuuuuuuuust maybe, the complaints about the D-Pad are overblown. Some people would suggest using the Circle Pad on the Nintendo 3DS, but that doesn’t magically add analog control to the game, it’s still locked to the 8 directions. I prefer playing DS games with a D-Pad, because that’s what they were designed for, and I didn’t find my experience to be all that bad, and using Circle Pad in this game didn’t feel all that great when I tried it (of course, I could’ve sucked it up and get used to it, like how I did with Rune Factory 3 Special, but that’s a different story). Alternatively, you can try using the touch screen for analog controls, this is what the Wii U version’s hack uses to integrate analog with a stick, though you would have to commit to it, and I can’t imagine it feeling all that comfortable.
The camera system is also a bit different. Super Mario 64 used quantized rotation for its camera, and it wasn’t that good of a system… in fact, the camera kind of sucked in that version. Super Mario 64 DS sorta retains the quantized rotation method, but maps it to the touch screen, in a somewhat easy-to reach area. But the most reliable way to rotate the camera is to use the camera center button, which is L button. I found it to be a perfectly fine system. I think camera center actually gives you more control on how you can position the camera, it’s smoother compared to quantized turning. Overall I found camera to be less janky in this version, not 100% free, but I didn’t find it as annoying. Speaking of the touch screen, it houses the game’s mini-map. It’s pretty helpful, as it shows where the star you’re going for is located, most of the time. It also solves one of the issues I had with Bowser fights – the fact that I couldn’t see where the bombs are because the game’s camera wasn’t helpful enough at relaying that important information. Now you can see bombs on the bottom screen, and your facing direction, so throwing bowser at them isn’t as much a pain.
Then there’s all the extra content. Remember that this is a Super Mario 64 remake? It’s not just some “tech demo”, because that would imply it’s simply showing the tech. No, it’s a game with content in it. I’m not implying that the original didn’t have content, but… ok, what I’m getting at is that the devs didn’t just port Super Mario 64 and call it a day. No, no, no! They actually added MORE! The game was originally titled Super Mario 64 x4 during its development, which I think is referring to the game’s new playable characters (rather than the game being 4 times bigger than the OG, try to count all of it’s new/changed content and see if it adds up). It’s also apparent from the box art, that yes! 4 Playable characters! You don’t even start as Mario in this game, as Yoshi takes the lead in rescuing him and then the rest which is Luigi and Wario, if you feel like it. All characters play distinctly from one another. Yoshi can flutter jump for better air control, use his tongue to eat baddies or store some fire to spit it back and turn enemies or other objects into eggs. Mario is Mario. Luigi is slower at running, but he can scuttlejump, which is also useful for better midair maneuverability and run on water for a short amount of time. Also, doing backwards somersault as him will make him spin slowly, again, aiding in air control. Lastly, there’s Wario, a power character. He’s easily the most situational – he’s slow and doesn’t jump very high, which makes him kind of pathetic at platforming. He is only really needed to break extra tough black brick blocks, and turn metal. One of the complaints towards this addition is that switching characters is a pain. Oh no! Well, anyway. Really? That’s what caps are for. Sure, you’ll find yourself changing characters in Peach’s Castle a few times, but I didn’t find myself doing that very often to find it bothersome. I do think it’s silly that only Mario can unlock bowser stages, I’m pretty sure Luigi and Wario are capable of whopping his ass, but it’s not that big a deal. You can play most stages as Mario and use caps when necessary, there are only a few stars that require Yoshi. But even then, you don’t necessarily need to switch from Yoshi after obtaining that one star that only he can obtain, Yoshi is special in that he has all three other characters’ caps available to him. In fact, you can START a stage with a specific cap as Yoshi, which makes going for a particular star even easier. There aren’t even that many stars specific to one character. Really, this entire system isn’t that bad, I didn’t find the addition of new playable characters to be a “downgrade” compared to the original or wish it wasn’t there. I find then neat and applaud the developers for ambition AND the execution is adequate.
Super Mario 64 DS feels sort of like a remix of the original. There are new stars to collect, of course, but a few of the old ones were modified as well. Like the one where you searched for hidden spots in Tiny Huge Island which is basically searching for invisible items has been replaced with a more straightforward condor-held one. The level design has been touched up as well. For example, Tick-Tock Clock, which was a platforming nightmare in the original, has been toned down by placing more platforms to land on if you fail jumping, turning one of the most frustrating ones into one of the more enjoyable experiences. These changes ensure that while there is some stuff retained, there will be surprises for those who have played the original. But, what about those new stars? Each stage now has 2 more stars, like collecting 5 silver stars to unlock one proper, or a timed switch that makes a star appear in a sphere that can be broken, acting as a timed challenge. There are also brand new levels, though these are smaller ones, mostly dedicated to rescuing each of the trapped characters, which have red coins for a bonus star, but there are a few other new ones that require you to collect silver stars. Bowser stages also received an extra star. The total amount of stars has been bumped from 120 to 150. As a result, to beat the game, the final star requirement is also boosted from 70 to 80, but it’s not that big a deal. If you liked Super Mario 64 and don’t hate this version, there’s plenty of new content to explore.
BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET! Mini-games! The one aspect that seems to be liked enough. The one Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages… I mean, MIPS from the original has been traded for a dozen of rabbit spawns, catching them usually yields a key for a mini-game. I tried a few, and they’re fun. Good for a quick bit of fun. There’s also a multiplayer versus mode, because why not? Though I can’t judge if it’s any good, because I didn’t play it. From what I’ve seen, it’s doesn’t seem all that great, but hey… it’s still cool that it’s there, right??
In conclusion, I want to say that Super Mario 64 DS is a fantastic remake of the old classic, it’s not just some emulation (Super Mario 3D All-Stars, cough, cough, sneeze) or a lazy port for cash money, or something that breaks the core game (Half-Life: Source, cough, cough… hack!), it actually went above and beyond. The graphics are improved – you may prefer old models for their charm, but the new models are more recognizable and technically better, the texture work in general is pretty good. There’s a lot of new content and I mean a LOT of new content, as well as some redesigned and reworked existing content to make the experience smoother. The controls aren’t amazing, but they’re good enough given the hardware, and it’s not like the original’s were flawless. While it’s not superior in all regards, I DO find Super Mario 64 DS to be superior overall. By the end of playing Super Mario 64 (via Super Mario 3D All-Stars), I just wanted the game to end and get it over with. However, when playing Super Mario 64 DS, I actually went back to collect a few more stars. That’s how much I enjoyed this version compared to the original (with an asterisk, because you could argue 3DAS version isn't quite the same). The experience transformed from a somewhat average one into a good one. I still don’t think it’s a masterpiece or great really, the controls and physics are still janky at times and the final boss battle is frustrating, but overall I had much more fun playing this classic. Super Mario 64 DS is a great re-release and a good game in its own right.