Super Mario 64 DS is a game I grew up personally and picked up recently as the nostalgia bug urged me to jump back into it to complete the game. When thinking of this game, I had to ask myself two questions: how does this game expand upon the original, as well as how does this game function as a standalone experience. Some say this is the inferior version of the game which is an understandable point of view.
The controls are just as bad and arguably worse than they were in the original, as precise platforming becomes much more difficult to perform, your hand can get incredibly cramped while playing, and just the fact that Super Mario 64's level design was not made with a D-pad in mind. I do personally believe that the level design is the biggest flaw for this remake, as the precise platforming, especially in later levels, makes the game unnecessarily difficult. Platforming becomes a chore, whereas open-ended levels (or those with less bottomless pits) feel a lot more fun to play. Even levels like Tick Tock Clock, Snowman's Land, and Wet Dry World feel good to play because platforming is much freer. Compare this to Rainbow Ride, Tiny Huge Island, or Tall Tall Mountain and the difference is drastic, as it becomes a nightmare to navigate, and one slip-up where the character loops around instead of snapping to the desired direction means falling to your death. The point stands that controlling Mario is not as fun as it was on the Nintendo 64, even if there were design tweaks made. One of those design tweaks being the new characters which spread out Mario's moveset.
This setup is honestly not too bad as it gives you a specific way that you play the game, but it does get tiresome wanting to run through the whole game as one character and having to compromise that just to do a mission. While we are on the bad, I'll say that Wario seems like the most worthless addition to this game as if it weren't for the black bricks and the fact that only he can use the metal cap, he would be completely unnecessary to 100% complete the game. This is where I believe that splitting the moveset failed in some regards. However, on the brighter side, I do believe that this split was one that made each character feel distinct, aside from the aforementioned Wario. Yoshi has a significantly better grab and has the flutter kick which can leap across larger gaps, Mario has the wall kicking and much less floatier controls, while Luigi has a superior backflip and a slower descent when falling, allowing for better mid-air course correction. Each of these different movesets makes each character feel different and fun, even if you do just want to run through the whole game as Mario.
Finally, we come to the new content, which is really what's advertised as the big new features for the game and it varies in quality. The graphical overhaul is greatly appreciated and still holds up well today. Comparing this game to its Nintendo 64 original, the two look like they were created decades apart. Other than that, it's mostly all the same game you remember. Music is the same, with a few variations in the way themes sound, however the sound design, especially voices, sounds so bad, as though everything was recorded underwater. In terms of actual substance, there's one star removed from every level and two in its place, most of which are switch stars or silver star collecting and get old pretty fast. Six new areas were added but they are fairly small and only contain secret stars and linear platforming sections. Along with all of this in the main game, there's a collection of minigames and multiplayer mode included. The minigames give a lot of extra weight to the game and there are a few that are fun to play over and over, trying to get a new high score. The multiplayer is absolutely fun with friends as complete chaos will break out as everybody tries to beat each other for stars, even if the levels aren't original and the mode does lack depth. All of this is completely avoidable from the main game, aside from collecting all the bunnies required to unlock the minigames, so do not worry. Overall, it meets the requirement for new content without taking too much away from the original. Obviously, storage was a concern as all of the previous game, along with the new content had to fit onto a DS cartridge in 2004.
Now, for the questions I proposed at the beginning of this review: does the remake expand upon the original? Yes, and no. There was plenty of new content, however, most of it was monotonous and repetitive but it does give the player more to do. Does this game hold up well as it's own experience? Absolutely and if someone wants to give this version a shot and has no way to play the original, this is absolutely worth it. All of this extra content and the feel of the original given new life deserves to be held up next to the original as games that launched their new systems in a way that seemed technologically infeasible.
The controls are just as bad and arguably worse than they were in the original, as precise platforming becomes much more difficult to perform, your hand can get incredibly cramped while playing, and just the fact that Super Mario 64's level design was not made with a D-pad in mind. I do personally believe that the level design is the biggest flaw for this remake, as the precise platforming, especially in later levels, makes the game unnecessarily difficult. Platforming becomes a chore, whereas open-ended levels (or those with less bottomless pits) feel a lot more fun to play. Even levels like Tick Tock Clock, Snowman's Land, and Wet Dry World feel good to play because platforming is much freer. Compare this to Rainbow Ride, Tiny Huge Island, or Tall Tall Mountain and the difference is drastic, as it becomes a nightmare to navigate, and one slip-up where the character loops around instead of snapping to the desired direction means falling to your death. The point stands that controlling Mario is not as fun as it was on the Nintendo 64, even if there were design tweaks made. One of those design tweaks being the new characters which spread out Mario's moveset.
This setup is honestly not too bad as it gives you a specific way that you play the game, but it does get tiresome wanting to run through the whole game as one character and having to compromise that just to do a mission. While we are on the bad, I'll say that Wario seems like the most worthless addition to this game as if it weren't for the black bricks and the fact that only he can use the metal cap, he would be completely unnecessary to 100% complete the game. This is where I believe that splitting the moveset failed in some regards. However, on the brighter side, I do believe that this split was one that made each character feel distinct, aside from the aforementioned Wario. Yoshi has a significantly better grab and has the flutter kick which can leap across larger gaps, Mario has the wall kicking and much less floatier controls, while Luigi has a superior backflip and a slower descent when falling, allowing for better mid-air course correction. Each of these different movesets makes each character feel different and fun, even if you do just want to run through the whole game as Mario.
Finally, we come to the new content, which is really what's advertised as the big new features for the game and it varies in quality. The graphical overhaul is greatly appreciated and still holds up well today. Comparing this game to its Nintendo 64 original, the two look like they were created decades apart. Other than that, it's mostly all the same game you remember. Music is the same, with a few variations in the way themes sound, however the sound design, especially voices, sounds so bad, as though everything was recorded underwater. In terms of actual substance, there's one star removed from every level and two in its place, most of which are switch stars or silver star collecting and get old pretty fast. Six new areas were added but they are fairly small and only contain secret stars and linear platforming sections. Along with all of this in the main game, there's a collection of minigames and multiplayer mode included. The minigames give a lot of extra weight to the game and there are a few that are fun to play over and over, trying to get a new high score. The multiplayer is absolutely fun with friends as complete chaos will break out as everybody tries to beat each other for stars, even if the levels aren't original and the mode does lack depth. All of this is completely avoidable from the main game, aside from collecting all the bunnies required to unlock the minigames, so do not worry. Overall, it meets the requirement for new content without taking too much away from the original. Obviously, storage was a concern as all of the previous game, along with the new content had to fit onto a DS cartridge in 2004.
Now, for the questions I proposed at the beginning of this review: does the remake expand upon the original? Yes, and no. There was plenty of new content, however, most of it was monotonous and repetitive but it does give the player more to do. Does this game hold up well as it's own experience? Absolutely and if someone wants to give this version a shot and has no way to play the original, this is absolutely worth it. All of this extra content and the feel of the original given new life deserves to be held up next to the original as games that launched their new systems in a way that seemed technologically infeasible.