TL;DR: I don’t think that Super Mario 3D All-Stars is horrible. I just think it’s poorly priced.
Super Mario 64 (Gameplay)
This is likely where you’ll start in the collection. It’s the game that’s the oldest, so it’d be fun to see what they do, right?
The answer is, not much. It still plays in its original aspect ratio. It still has the same (read: short) draw distance for coins and other pickups. And it still has a camera that works fine in open spaces, but will wrestle with you in tight spots. The differences are limited to shinier polygons and sharper edges.
Is it still fun? Yes! Super Mario 64 in its original form is still a fun game. Silly things like messing with Mario’s face in the intro are still there. And who doesn’t love messing with a low-poly Mario and seeing what strange things you can do?
You’ve played this on the DS before, right? No, not the 3DS, the original DS. The one released in 2004. This doesn’t look as good as the DS version in my opinion. Even switching the ground textures to the DS version might have added some extra detail without needing to make completely new assets. Maybe it’s Nintendo keeping faithful to the original, but that could’ve been a great way to freshen it up a bit.
The controls are better on this version thanks to the magic of analog controls instead of using a stylus on the DS. Even with the need to fight the camera, at least controlling it is easier. Even though Super Mario 64 doesn’t look as good as I think it could, at least it doesn’t feel completely ancient.
Super Mario Sunshine – Shiny!
Widescreen! Colours! Modern-feeling controls! Welcome to the GameCube era everybody! This is the first of two games I’ve never played, and it’s the only game in the collection I’ve never seen. I guess that gives me a bit of a different perspective.
The game’s shading and colours look a little bit like a poster. Rather than having smooth gradients, shading tends to be in blocks of colours and shades. I quite like it – it makes it look a little bit toy-like in the best way possible. Controls feel good too. They overcome getting around the original analog trigger controls by setting the rear trigger to be a 3/4 press of the trigger, and the right bumper gives you full power and locks you in place so you can aim. It works well enough, and everything else feels like it should. Right stick does camera, left does motion, and buttons are for jumping and stuff.
GameCube Controller Support?
Here’s something bad – Sunshine doesn’t work with the GameCube controller. At least, not in the same way as the original. From my research, the original game let you control pressure with the analog triggers on the GameCube controller. In this game, that’s not an option. That’s another shame. Games like GRID: Autosport are able to tell if you’re using a GameCube controller or not, and actively changes the control scheme to let you take advantage of it. Even Super Smash Bros. Ultimate does this. I don’t see why something similar isn’t available here. Except…maybe…time constraints.
Super Mario Galaxy – Shinier!
Out of the three, Super Mario Galaxy is the best looking. Being the most recent game on the list, it would be disappointing if it was just a stretched out original (read: Super Mario 64). Sure, if you were to put this side-by-side with something like Super Mario Maker 2 or Super Mario Odyssey it would be lacking, but it doesn’t look like it’s weird to be playing this in 2020. Except with the FMV cutscenes.
I watched the Eye play this one and it was a bit hard to look at. Not because it didn’t look good, but I did get a bit queasy when Mario was upside-down. It might be because I wasn’t actually playing the game and using the controls. Maybe if I was actually playing it would feel different.
How does it control?
The functionality of the Wii Remote is mapped to the right Joy-Con. It doesn’t need line of sight – the game figures out where the middle is and uses the Joy-Con’s motion sensors to move the pointer on screen. The best bit of this? Not having to figure out where to put a sensor bar, and not needing to make large movements to move the pointer. Sensitivity and tracking feel way better, likely from the use of a better motion controller.
I can’t really think of anything negative about this game. Shaking to spin feels pretty natural – almost exactly like shaking to throw the hat in Odyssey feels. It looks really good, even with that weird Wii clear coat over the in-game models. And, much like the others, it performs well on the Switch. The Switch is more capable than the Wii, GameCube, and N64 so you would expect it, but it’s still something to note.
Soundtracks? Don’t bother.
The collection also includes the three soundtracks in the menu! Hands up if you load up a game on your console just to listen to its soundtrack? That’s what I thought.
This is about as old-fashioned as it gets. You can kind-of get away with this in Smash simply because there are unique remixes of the in-game tracks. But nobody loads up GTA V to listen to the radio stations.
You know what would have been cooler? A download code for the soundtracks in game. Or maybe even a USB stick with the game (if you got it physical) that has the soundtrack on it, like I got with Fire Emblem: Three Houses. In this form it adds no value – taking a gaming console around for music was outdated in 2008 with the PSP-3000. It’s 2020.
Summary
Super Mario 64 is the most disappointing of the three. There are lots of things that could have been tweaked that weren’t. On that note however, I still enjoy Final Fantasy IX on the PS4 even though it still has the Thunder Slash glitch. Sunshine and Galaxy both look fair – better portable, slightly above average on the TV.
Something this collection does is make these games accessible to play. Other than some methods, the only other way to get access to these games would be to have a Wii, a DS, a GameCube controller, and a copy of all three games. I haven’t played Sunshine or Galaxy before, so maybe my stance on this is based off of that.
I would disagree with reviewers who go to the extreme about it not being a remaster. Spyro Reignited and the N.Sane Trilogy are both incredible games, but that’s because they went way beyond what people expected with them. I would still have been happy with upscaled versions of the originals.
Super Mario 3D All-Stars’ price is the real problem. At £50 (from the Nintendo UK Store) you’re looking at about £17 per game. That just so happens to be the same price as each Final Fantasy PS1 game on either Switch or PS4. As much as FF IX might not look as good as Sunshine or Galaxy, they are filled with deeper gameplay. If this was at £30/$40, I would imagine that there would be less complaints.
