Review: Super Mario 64 DS (NDS)
Everybody reading this will know the classic Nintendo 64 title Super Mario 64 like the back of their hands, or at least, will be familiar enough to recognise the DS version. If you're not, where have you been for the last decade? Without a brand new Mario title to call its own, Nintendo chose to port its genre-defining platformer to its new dual-screened baby, amid both fanfare and confusion. How would the game control without an analog stick? Would the graphics suffer? Would there be more than just the N64 game for those that have already completed it?
Well, control first, and a little bit of time spent with the game is all it takes for everything becomes much clearer than it's initially made out to be. Many sites have marked down the game for not offering a precise, analog-like control system, and it's true that an analog stick on the DS would have solved a great many problems across the board; but the truth is that after extended play the touch screen actually offers an even better, more accurate control interface than the N64's revolutionary 3D stick.
Negotiating tricky collapsing bridges, circling boos and jumping from block to block all becomes second nature before you realise. It's actually a similar learning curve to when we all first sat down with the game the first time around on the N64; the stylus method works just as well as the 3D stick did after roughly the same amount of time. Of course, Nintendo being Nintendo also offer a couple of other control ideas, one with purely digital controls (with a 'shift' button offering a quicker run) and another which is best suited to playing the game on a table top as you really need all your fingers free. Whichever you choose, the control isn't a big deal.
As for how it looks, aside from the fact that the DS doesn't 'do' texture filtering (which means that some textures, particularly walls and floors, can look a bit rough close up) the game looks wonderful. Everything is modelled with a much higher polygon count so that the playable characters look solid and believable and the animation looks as fresh as it ever did. The lower resolution and sharper screen means that the whole game looks bright, vivid and alive - the colours are strong and there's no bleed like you'd get on a television set. For the most part, the game runs smoothly at 30 fps, only dropping the odd frame on one of the newer levels created especially for the DS version, which seems odd in itself, but there you go.
Super Mario 64 DS is divided into 3 distinct areas. The first one, and one with no other connections to the other two areas, is the multiplayer mode. With only a few areas to play around in, this mode is actually quite limited and, despite being the game's first bullet point in the initial press release and screenshots when announced, isn't the strongest facet to the cartridge. The rules are basic: get more stars than your (up to three) opponents do in the time limit. Only fun for a little blast now and again.
The main game, then, is adventure mode. This is grounded on an exact copy of the N64 game, but with a number of novel twists and extra rooms. The first such change is the principle character: you start by controlling Yoshi and can change temporarily into Mario, Luigi and Wario by finding their caps in the levels. Once you've progressed enough through the game, you'll get the chance to actually change character for real, which is great because some areas are more easily accomplished with different characters. This is primarily because each character can activate different switches: Mario for example can find his flying cap but can also inflate himself and act much like a balloon. He can't change into Metal Mario or make himself transparent anymore - those are skills now given to the other characters.
Much of the castle remains the same, except for a batch of new rooms and secrets. We won't spoil the game here, but it's safe to say that exploring is the best way to go about finding the hidden areas - often rewarded with one of the castle's extra secret stars. Exploring is also a requirement for finding the rabbits; each character can find seven rabbits individual to them - grabbing (or swallowing) a rabbit yields a key that unlocks one of the multiplayer games in the Rec Room, which brings us onto the third section of the game.
The Rec Room is a wonderful addition: each of the four principle characters starts with two minigames unlocked and finding all the rabbits leads to an eventual total of 36 minigames. These are all controlled exclusively with the touch screen and really show off the power of the DS - the speed at which the machine converts your hastily scribbled lines into powerful trampolines or paths for Mario's head to follow is consistently impressive, and some of the games (particularly Luigi's) offer some real head-scratching enjoyment. Were some of the poorer minigames (Yoshi's She Loves Me petal picking being a good example) replaced with better, more thoughtful versions, the Rec Room would easily be a full price game by itself.
Mario 64 DS is one we absolutely recommend for anyone even remotely interested in Mario and Co. It's the game we all fell in love with when the N64 launched, and with this new twist, it shows it is just as playable as it ever was.
Rating: 9 / 10
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