Developer: Nintendo
Available on: Nintendo Switch
As part of Mario’s 35th anniversary, Nintendo released Super Mario 3D All Stars, which contains Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy and the soundtracks of each, for a limited time. Since the deadline to purchase it is the end of this month (March 31, 2021), I thought it’d be appropriate to talk about it. This isn’t a review, this is just a somewhat disorganized collection of thoughts I have pertaining to it and each of the games within.
Super Mario 64
Super Mario 64 was one of the first 3D platformers ever made, and the direction the developers took with it was significant and shaped many 3D platforms after it. It wasn’t a linear game where you navigated levels and made increasingly difficult jumps, it was a game where you roamed freely and explored small worlds searching for power stars.
A lot of other 3D platformers were coming out alongside Super Mario 64. What made Super Mario 64 stand out was the complexity behind Mario’s movement. In most 3D platformers, you simply move at a base speed. In Super Mario 64, there’s acceleration and momentum. Mario has a variety of different jumps and moves, most of which are impacted by, and have an impact on, his current speed. With greater speeds, Mario can jump farther and run up steeper slopes. With dynamic speed and a wide array of jumps, there are often multiple ways to do things. For example, in Womp’s Fortress, you could get the star next to the pillars the normal way, by shooting yourself to it with a cannon, or you can do it to the cool way, by triple jumping and wall kicking onto it.
Most games don’t allow you to do things in unintended ways. Super Mario 64 embraces the ability to do things in unintended ways. Even after beating the game, players can challenge themselves in ways that keeps the game fun even decades after playing it for the first time.
Ultimately though, Super Mario 64 was still Nintendo’s first 3D platformer, and as such it has its fair share of problems and lessons to be learned. While Mario maintaining his momentum is one of the games biggest assets, often it’s also a source of frustration. Super Mario 64 feels best in wide open areas. In tight spaces and small platforms, the need to build up speed before you jump becomes a huge pain. Mario often cannot turn without moving forward and he does so relatively slowly; there are instances in which the radius in which he needs to turn is enough to cause him to fall off ledges. There are also many instances in which you can step on extremely tiny slopes and cause Mario to enter a sliding state causing you to almost completely lose control of him. Many of the later courses in the game were not designed with these issues in mind, and I found myself often slipping off ledges to my death because of these finicky problems.
Another issue is its camera. The camera doesn’t simply rotate freely 360 degrees. Rather, by moving the right stick (or in the case of a Nintendo 64 controller, press one of the C-buttons), the camera rotates a set amount all at once. Often it’s impossible to get the camera at the precise angle you want without fiddling with it for some time.
The last issue I’ll talk about is the 100 coin stars. In every course, one of its stars is obtained by collecting 100 coins in the course without dying. The problem is the maps just don’t have enough coins in them to make this fun. Bob-omb Battlefield, the very first course in this game, only has 146 coins in it. Tick Tock Clock only has 128 coins in it. Jolly Rodger Bay only has 104 coins in it. Because of this scarcity, getting the 100 coin stars becomes a very tedious and frustrating process that at times can be instantly reset with one bad jump.
When porting the game for Super Mario 3D All Stars, Nintendo used the Shindou version. This version of the game was originally released in Japan a year after the original game was released. Its main purpose was to add rumble pack support, but they also fixed some of the few known glitches at the time.
One of the glitches patched was the famous backwards long jump, which allows players to build near limitless speed at stairs and certain slopes. Nintendo’s decision to use the Shindou version was most likely simply because it’s the latest release of Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64. However, many butthurt speedrunners who frequently made use of the backwards long jump complained for weeks after its release. To the rest of us though, this matters none.
Super Mario Sunshine
I’ve seen full run-throughs of Super Mario Sunshine on the Internet before, but I’d never played it for myself until now. In Super Mario Sunshine, Mario is tasked with cleaning all of Isle Delfino and recovering all of the Shine Sprites after being falsely convicted of doing the damage himself. In this game he has F.L.U.D.D., a water pump that allows him to spray water and hover in the air for a short time.
The movement instantly felt better in this game than in 64. Mario doesn’t need to build up speed to walk anymore, momentum doesn’t carry on the ground like it did in Super Mario 64 and Mario turns much more responsively in this game.
Wall jumps also feel better in this game. Now, instead of having to hit the jump button with correct timing, Mario automatically clings to the wall and allows you to jump when you please. There’s still a problem in this regard though. When moving towards a wall in the air, the game doesn’t check if you’re moving downward before you enter the wall jump state. This means approaching a wall in midair effectively kills all the upward momentum you have, and it becomes quite annoying. Also, when wall jumping, you jump off the wall at the reflected angle at which you approached it, which makes no sense and feels horrible.
Speaking of jumping, holy shit can you jump in this game. Mario’s backwards somersaults and triple jumps are twice, possibly three times as high in Sunshine as they are in other 3D Mario games. Additionally, backward somersaults are extremely easy to do in this game; you can even do them from a standstill. Super Mario Sunshine also introduced the spin jump, one of my personal go-to’s. Unfortunately, there is no long jump in this game, and I never realized how much I’d miss it until I didn’t have it.
The main gimmick in this game is F.L.U.D.D. Throughout the worlds, you encounter “goop”, which you need to clean off by spraying water on it. Early on, the goop merely causes you to slip and lose control, but in later levels it begins to deal damage. F.L.U.D.D. also allows you to hover in the air for a short time, something that you quickly become reliant on. Water sprayed downwards from hovering has all of the same capabilities as water sprayed forward.
One of the most impressive aspects of this game from a technical standpoint is its water graphics and physics. For the limited hardware of the GameCube, the water looks beautiful. It has waves and ripple effects, and its color is made to match the background of the course, giving it a more translucent look. Water droplets generated from Mario splashing around in it even have all the same capabilities as water sprayed from F.L.U.D.D..
Ironically though, the controls for swimming in said water feel awful. Instead of following the same system as 64, where you control Mario’s pitch and do breaststrokes by pressing A, in Sunshine, you press A to swim upward and forward and B to swim downward and forward. So to actually swim forward you have to alternate between pressing A and B, zigzagging your way forward. It does not feel good.
On the GameCube, the speed and distance at which water sprays out of F.L.U.D.D. varies based on how much you press down on the R trigger. When only partially pressing down on the trigger, the water simply sprays in front of you and you can move around while spraying. Fully pressing down on the trigger causes Mario to stand still, allowing you to aim where you’re spraying. Unlike GameCube controllers though, Switch controllers are unable to detect how much you’re pressing down on the triggers; it only knows if you’re pressing them or not. The developers’ solution to this when porting Sunshine to the Switch is to make ZR function as if you’re pressing the R trigger about 75% of the way down and R function as if you’re pressing the R trigger all the way down. Veterans of Sunshine have found it frustrating to be unable to make minute adjustments to the water’s pressure, but I, a newcomer, didn’t find this to be an issue.
The game contains 120 Shine Sprites. 24 of these Shines come from collecting blue coins that are hidden throughout the world and trading them for Shine Sprites. I’ll just tell you right now, don’t even bother trying to find them on your own. Use a walkthrough. Different blue coins only appear in certain episodes of each of the courses, and some of them are so well hidden I don’t know how anyone could be expected to find them on their own.
Most of the other Shines are fun though. Some of my favorites are the F.L.U.D.D.-less levels where they take away F.L.U.D.D. and put you in a platform challenge area of sorts. However, some Shines are just poorly designed. Two examples that come to mind are the infamous pachinko machine level where you must collect all 8 red coins in a giant pachinko machine in which you have limited control and missing at any point causes you to fall to your death, and the infamous chuckster level in which you must talk to piantas that proceed to throw you at the angle in which you talk to them in order to move between platforms.
If you can forgive these issues though, Super Mario Sunshine is a fun game.
Super Mario Galaxy
I spent many an hour on this game as a kid. Loading it up for the first time as an adult, the first couple of hours of this game were pure nostalgia. The game hits you hard with the atmosphere as you launch between planets and get familiar with the controls and the dynamic gravity.
In Super Mario Galaxy, you traverse through space. Many of the platforms and tiny planets have a gravitational pull toward its center. You could be on one planet, jump toward a different planet right next to it and feel the direction of gravity changing as you exit the field of one and enter the field of another.
Super Mario Galaxy is a more restricted and linear experience than 64 and Sunshine. Instead of dropping you off at small worlds to explore, the game sends you to levels filled to the brim with fresh ideas and mechanics. One moment, you’re flying around as Bee Mario, the next you’re using the cursor to slingshot yourself between platforms, the next you’re in a giant container running in 2D, the next you’re using the motion controls to surf around a race track on a mantis ray. It sounds overwhelming and difficult to pick up, but it isn’t at all. Through visual cues and well thought-out game design, you’re able to quickly pick up on almost everything without needing tutorials or explanations.
The game glides through a wide and constantly changing array of settings and atmospheres. You might start out in a calm and peaceful place and end up in an eerie and mystical place 10 minutes later. Then another 10 minutes later, you’re hopping around in a happy toy factory. The experience is crystalized by the game’s great soundtrack that perfectly captures the mood of whatever area you’re in.
The camera goes back to being fixed much of the time, but it’s much more thought out in this game. The developers programmed hundreds of different camera angles at different places all designed to make the camera as helpful as possible at all times (or in some cases just look cool). Galaxy also does away with much of the acceleration and momentum in its movement. In most cases, this makes the game’s mechanics much more reliable and consistent, but in some of the levels with classic 3D platformer layouts, I begin to miss it.
The water levels in Galaxy are my favorite of any Mario game. The controls return to the system in Super Mario 64 where you control your pitch and move with breaststrokes, but the underwater areas in galaxy feel much more wide, calm and fun to explore. Mario still has a finite lung capacity, but air bubbles are much more abundant in this game, taking away most of the stress of running out of air. Add to that the game’s ability to create a great atmosphere and the water levels become satisfying adventures. I wish I could jump into the game and swim around in the areas myself.
Of all three games, Galaxy was the hardest to port to the Switch as much of the controls relied heavily on the Wii remote’s hardware. In the original game, the player controlled the cursor using the Wii sensor bar, something the Switch doesn’t have. The developers’ solution to this is to have the cursor be controlled by the motion controls in the joy con or the touchscreen while the Switch is in handheld mode. I was nervous about the cursor being controlled with motion controls as they had done this in Skyward Sword with poor results. However, the hardware is much better in the Switch and moving the cursor in the Switch feels almost identical to the Wii. I still had to occasionally re-calibrate it by pointing towards the center of the screen and pressing R, but not often.
Another technical issue when porting Galaxy to the Switch is the controls for the spin. To spin in the original game, you shook the Wii remote. In the Switch, you can still shake the joy con to spin but you can also press Y to spin. Personally, I still shake the joy con though because that’s what I’m used to.
Overall
As a whole, Super Mario 3D All Stars is a good remake. It keeps the games as close to the original as possible while also making them fit for the Switch. Additionally, while I don’t see myself loading it up often, it still feels nice owning official copies of the soundtracks.
Super Mario 3D All Stars was released in September 2020 and as mentioned before, it’s only available until the end of March 2021. People who’ve purchased and downloaded a digital copy can still play it after the date, but it’ll be taken off the store. It’s a shame that the game won’t be available forever. As old games and hardware become more and more rare, it’s become increasingly difficult for new generations to (legally) enjoy classic Nintendo games.
The decision by Nintendo to make the game limited time only has unsurprisingly been quite unpopular. If you ask Nintendo, they’ll tell you Super Mario 3D All Stars is meant to be a celebration of Mario’s 35th anniversary and nothing more, hence the reason it’s only available for a year. However, it doesn’t take a genius to see that their real motive is likely to give consumers a sense of urgency and garner more sales. Doug Bowser, the President of Nintendo of America, has said in an interview that this tactic won’t become a regular practice by Nintendo. Let’s hope he’s telling the truth.