Super Mario 64 DS

The remake of the classic Nintendo 64 launch title Super Mario 64 has been critically lauded and panned by Mario fans, due to the huge differences from the original. What is this writer’s opinion on the remake of the
game?

Story:

An interesting twist on the original SM64 tale. What if Mario DIDN’T finish the castle, and Yoshi was left waiting for him on the roof? Son now Yoshi has to get the stars by himself, then rescue all 4 of the plumbers.
Besides Waluigi, of course. He is never included. Ever.

Gameplay(8/10):

This retains the same type of gameplay as the original, but now with 4 characters. Their different abilities, except for Yoshi’s tounge, rarely matter more than the other. The only reason you usually will pick anybody other than Yoshi is for their caps. Instead of multiple caps liek in the original, different characters give different hats. Because of that, several new stars are given out (30 of them), but only by using character-specific stuff. Besides that, the new MIPs guys running around everywhere, and some of the worlds’ layouts, this is nearly the same game, remake-wise. Luckily, the original was god enough already, and this makes it even better.

There are two actual problems that I have with the gameplay. One is that it is hard to control the characters at first with the touch screen, and the control pad hurts after a while. That does not subtract points because of the fact that the 3DS will have an analog stick, and I’m assuming it’s fully backwards compatible. what gets 2 points off immeadiately is the level design itself. Both this game and the original suffer from several dud worlds that fail to innovate or even entertain, compared to the rest. Dry Wet world and Big Tiny World, I’m looking at you. The game is now 14 years old, but that still doesn’t mean I can be partial towards bland design.

+30 new stars
+New MIPS to track down
-The 4 characters’ non-cap abilities are not implemented as well as they could
-The same lame worldsin SM64 are still lame here

Graphics(9/10):

This was a launch title, keep in mind. Okay, I’m still impartial, so I will not keep that in mind when saying that the graphics in this game are really good. Each enemy, character, and NPC looks very sharp and crisp, DS-Wise, and most objects are as well. Only Problem: Aggh the floor textures look so stretched out. Too bad most 3D DS games also suffer from this, as well.

+Great Character Models
+Good object models
-Bad floor textures

Sound(7.5/10):

The music in SM64 is hit-or-miss, mostly. You have some great and memorable tracks like Devastation Road and Bob-Omb Battlefield, but many of them are completely forgettable. Especially the 2nd floor ones. Man, did they rush the original game out and forget about the last few worlds or something? Whatever. The voice clips are all original, well mostly, and they’re really good.

+Good Voices/SFX
-Not enough memorable tracks

Challenge(7/10):

Moderately. Like all other 3D Mario platformers, some of the worlds have easy objectives and then one hard one, some have all easy, and some have all hard except the red coin star. You never know, just like Russian Roulette =P

Frustration(6/10):

The touch-screen controls are really hard to get in the beginning. I have really bad experience with it, as you can tell =P

(Frustration scores do not count after 4)

Replayability(8/10):

The minigames take a while to finally unlock, and you’ll realize that you’ll be spending way too much time on them. Combine that with the 150-star quest, and you’ve got a winner in time-wasting. Too bad the only multiplayer is a bunch of lame “race”-type mission modes. In the original Super Mario 64×4, shown at 3 2004, the entire game was supposed to be able to be played in 4-player co-op, and obviously it was dropped, just like the co-op on New SMB. Everyone makes a big deal about the multiplayer in New SMB Wii, but they don’t realize how many previous times Nintendo has let us down before finally making Mario co-op.

+150 Stars
+Lots of minigames to unlock…
+And tons you’ll play
-Bad multiplayer
? Why’d they remove the co-op?

Value(8.5/10):

Worth at least 30 dollars. Used you can find it for about….20 dollars. Nice to see those DS games’ prices finally frop after 5 years.

(Value not counted)

Overall:
8/10, also 80.6% or 43.5/54.

Get this if you love SM64. Get this if you love Platforming. Get this if you love pick-up-and-play minigames. Get this if you love Mario. If not, then this game is not for you, all 6 of you who I have left out.

Thanks for reading my review. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the next reviews I do, PM me at nintendo City, or comment on an article
at http://ncbblog.wordpress.com/ . It’s off for me to do… something else. Oh yeah, read my comic The Mushroom Kingdom at http://tmk.smackjeeves.com/ , it
is what inspired me to write so many of these dang Mario reviews. =P
Ciao!