"Super Mario 3D All Stars" If Only Nintendo Cared

 

    If only Nintendo cared, and I do mean this with the most sincere tone possible because gods was this bundle good. I only wish that Nintendo bothered to put anything other than the minimal amount of effort into this. I mean look at what they did with Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver or even Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen. Its clear that when they really clear, Nintendo can make remakes that are absolute bundles of passion that are unmatched by any other company. Sadly, what fans got was basically three Mario games emulated on the switch, even if they still aged relatively well.

    Ok so maybe that was a bit of a lie, because looking back at it, god Super Mario 64 has not aged gracefully at all. I mean in its defense basically all games in this bundle suffer from one major issue, which is that the viewing angles are absolutely atrocious. I mean who the hell decided to make it locked, its so ridiculous and 90% of the time when you can't actually see Mario it refuses to let you change the angle at all. Surely, there could have been some fix, that preserved the authenticity of the original games, while actually improving on what made them so janky in the first place. I mean this is the worst with Super Mario Galaxy because of the inherent 3D nature of the game and so when you're trying to turn and move the angles are absolutely atrocious.

    The controls are even worse at times, and I'm not sure why they couldn't even be bothered to fix them in the slightest. I mean when everything is reversed and you have such time-sensitive levels, it can become absolutely frustrating. I mean you can just feel the evolution in movement of Mario games as you move across game to game. Super Mario 64 has some of the worst, and I mean abhorrent movement I've ever seen in a game, and the fact that they left it untouched is easily, an affront to God in my eyes. I mean the flying alone makes you want to quit the game, I don't know who thought it was a good idea, and I only thank my lucky stars that I only had to play the game on joycons and not whatever the N64 controller was. Personally, I thought Super Mario Sunshine actually had the most fluid gameplay, especially since I was coming off of playing Super Mario Odyssey, and I felt that Super Mario Galaxy's movement was actually a bit off at times. Take for example the backwards flip, or the long jump, sometimes these moves would not be as responsive as they were in Sunshine, and it was such an odd difference that I was actually put off multiple times on actually starting Galaxy.

    Now, if you haven't noticed yet, I have a large, and I mean astronomically huge, bias towards Super Mario Sunshine, which I have to acknowledge and respect because it was such a huge part of my childhood, so to pretend like it wasn't would be a disservice to both my fond memories and the other games. I mean I say without a doubt that it was probably one of the more frustrating games I've ever played, and between 64, Galaxy, and Sunshine, I have most definitely died the most playing Sunshine, but part of that is just how difficult the level design is, and the implementation of FLUUD. In terms of difficulty, I'd say Galaxy is the easiest, but by then I was also a seasoned Mario veteran, so nothing seemed quite too daunting, and the worlds are small enough that its easy to be engrossed and quickly complete a whole galaxy without realizing. 64 was easily the most jank out of all the games, and I think the old mechanics also frustrated me, but I was more willing to forgive it due to its age, compared to Galaxy which made me groan oftentimes.

    However, I do have to preface this by saying I played 90% of all 3 games in handheld modes, without ever detatching my joycons, or using a pro controller and a TV. I mean I remember telling my friend that Super Mario Galaxy pissed me off to no avail, because I had to have one hand on my joycon, and another frantically tapping my switches touch screen. I mean, it was an option provided to players, and the reality is its two very different control schemes, so perhaps I have been a bit too harsh on Super Mario Galaxy, and should turn my ire to Super Mario 64 which has aged gracefully in every department except for graphics, controls, and general quality of life features gamers come to expect from their games today.

    I mean I have to admit, for as much flak that I give Super Mario Galaxy, it easily has the most variety in terms of setting and level design, and while I do love the the tropical island theme of Super Mario Sunshine, it was cool to see all the different worlds and settings that Galaxy had to offer. I really did enjoy all of the games though, and I think Sunshine is easily a game that would be a 90/100 game for me. While I really do want to say I loved 64, it was so jank that its hard for me to give it anything higher than an 80/100, while I would say that Galaxy remains a strong 85/100, that would probably be boosted if I played it the way it was meant to be, or it had viewing angles that didn't give me aneurysms.

Final Score: 70/100 for Mario 64, 85/100 for Mario Sunshine, 77/100 for Super Mario Galaxy

    Overall, these games were fantastic, and they were a great value too, unlike most switch games, at a solid 85 dollars for 3 games which you could easily sink hours into. I mean I would have loved for all of these to be proper remakes, but there's only so much you could ask for, and at the very least I could appreciate these games in the state they were released.