Super Mario 64 DS

"Q: "How do you unlock Luigi in SM64?" A: "Wait 8 years for a port.""

Intro:
The DS is perhaps the most controversial system in history. It makes a seemingly-desperate reach for trying something new, while still striving to pump out quality handheld titles. Following the route of the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo once again plays it safe by testing out its new baby with something they know will be a success no matter what. In case you were still squirming inside your mother's womb or sleeping behind cold steel bars in the mid 90's, Super Mario 64 was the game that set a new standard for platform gaming, as well as a new standard for the 3-D world. Nintendo has recreated this no-classic title to show off the capabilities of its newest handheld, while giving fans of the original reason to play through the hit classic again by adding new areas and characters and utilizing the DS's second screen. This makes it different from Nintendo's previous lazy porting efforts. In the long run, however, the second screen turns into its own worst enemy…

Story:
The game is retold in a slightly different fashion than the N64 version. Mario's still invited for the cake, but so are Luigi and Wario. (Maybe Peach finally felt sorry for Luigi. And Wario…well, maybe he invited himself. It's a giant castle. It's gotta be full of gold!) As the three emerge from their pipes, they head immediately through the castle's front door. Hours later, no one emerges, and no sounds of partying are heard inside the castle. Meanwhile, Yoshi's asleep on the roof of the castle, when a Lakitu informs him of the eerie silence. Yoshi goes to investigate the castle, only to discover that everyone's been kidnapped, including Mario, Luigi, and Wario! Yoshi then faces a difficult choice. A) Throw a party since he's the only one around and the chips and punch are just sitting there. B) Go save his friends. The game does not let you choose Option A, sadly, so you're forced to play along with Yoshi, navigating the castle walls just like you did with Mario in Super Mario 64.

Gameplay:
For those who were not fortunate enough to experience this title the first time around, Peach's Castle basically serves as the game's main hub. Navigating the castle walls becomes your primary means of traveling from stage to stage. Portals to stages take the form of paintings. At first, only one stage will be open to you behind an unsealed door, and the sealed doors in the castle are broken through a certain number of Power Stars, which are available in the assorted stages by completing certain tasks. Each star has a mission name, which serves as a hint on how to achieve it. There are actually 7 star missions in a stage compared to 6 in the original. Consequently, Super Mario 64 DS contains a total of 150 Power Stars, 30 more than in the original version. Most of the new missions are simply collect-athons of “Silver Stars” located in select locations throughout a stage (just when you thought Red Coin collecting was enough), but fortunately, they aren't the primary additions that make this classic playable again. There are also a few new mini-stages for rescuing characters, and while these aren't full blown-out regular stages, they're reason enough for veterans to give this game a whirl.

As you progress through the game, you'll eventually rescue all of your friends, and Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Yoshi, will all be playable. The unique aspect about these additions is not necessarily that you get some variety, but each character brings something new and unique to the table. Mario has all his moves from the original, minus the metal and vanish abilities. You see, the caps have been replaced by Power Flowers, which have a different effect on each character. For Mario, a Power Flower will give him the floating balloon ability (from Super Mario World), enabling him to hover over gaps or to higher locations. He's also the only character with the flying ability. Mario's enemy-stomping and coin-bashing abilities are all still there. His stats are fairly well-rounded, making him perfect for most situations.

Luigi's always been one to be overshadowed, but his skills prove to be very useful. His Power Flower ability enables him to become invisible, allowing him to pass through both enemies and mesh walls. He's also a lofty jumper, hence a reference to Super Mario Bros. 2. Wario is your typical powerhouse: Lots of girth, lots of strength, and little balance. He can break through giant boulders and bricks otherwise impenetrable by other characters, but his hefty body makes him a clumsy waddler and a heavy jumper. His body will turn to metal with contact with the Power Flower, giving him both invincibility and weight underwater. Lastly, Yoshi's moves are signature to his species. Yoshi can swallow smaller enemies and turn them into an egg, which can be used as a homing missile against other enemies. Yoshi also gains the ability to breathe fire with the Power Flower. His hover makes his jump the most versatile of all, but he's relatively low on power.

With the unveiling of the DS, Nintendo seemed content with keeping their D-Pad control set-up. Unfortunately, it creates a major detriment on free-range games such as Super Mario 64. The lack of an analog is perhaps the game's greatest downfall. In order to control your character in a certain direction, the game requires you to hold more than one direction on the D-Pad at once, slowly pressing and letting go of a certain direction to steer your character's tilt. What makes things even more difficult is that even a small thumb will cover the entire control pad. It's usable, but it takes a lot of practice to get it down right, and even then, there will be times when your finger will unintentionally slip and send your character in reverse. Also, your character no longer runs automatically, as the Y button must be held to send him in full-tilt. This makes moves like the long jump much more difficult to master, even more so than before. The game also gives you the option of controlling with the stylus on the lower screen, but this method is needlessly frustrating to master and a virtually complete waste of effort. Same rule applies for using the thumb strap.

Speaking of the second screen, it serves its uses throughout the game, but they are fairly minor and just barely useful. The touch screen displays an overhead map of the area your in. It will pinpoint both your position and your destination. Red Coin and Silver Star locations will also appear, making the job a bit easier on you, but it sort of takes the excitement out of searching and investigating. Your pause options will also appear on the touch screen, which if you ask me, isn't all that necessary, but the thing that irks me is the touch control of the camera. Fun fact – You now have total free-range control of the camera. It can be adjusted from any position easily and very rarely gets itself caught behind a wall. Not-so-fun fact – Switching the camera with the stylus is annoying. You have to completely switch your attention to the bottom screen to change the camera, meaning it's difficult to be playing and adjusting the camera at the same time. This is especially irritable in the Bowser battles, when just a slight break in concentration could cost you a life. There's no reason why they couldn't have used the L and R buttons for the camera, as ‘R' is only used for pounding the ground, and ‘L' has absolutely no use at all. It sort of seems as though the second screen has been “forced” upon us.

Extras:
Luckily, the touch screen has some benefits to go along with it. The Rec Room is quite easily the most worthwhile addition to this port. Each character has his own series of minigames, which can be played once that character catches a particular rabbit in the castle. Remember MIPS the golden rabbit in the original that scampered around the castle basement? Well, his family has multiplied…immensely. Now, each of them holds a special key to a particular minigame in the Rec Room. These fun little bonuses take excellent advantage of the system's stylus features. One game has you using the stylus to fire Spiny Shells out of a slingshot at a barrage of raining Bob-ombs on the upper screen. Another has you creating trampolines with the stylus to catch raining Mario clones from a freefall, while sending them through rainbow hoops. Luigi has even opened up his very own casino and has you play various card games by selecting with the stylus. On the less fortunate side, many of these games are exact clones of each other, only with higher difficulties. Still, it gives the game a relatively large boost in terms of value and replayability.

Graphics:
People will insist to you that the DS is more graphically capable than the Nintendo 64 using this very game as the prime example. Let me assure you, there's a very logical explanation to why people think this and why it truly isn't. You see, the character models from the N64 classic have been replaced by their modern day Gamecube models. Characters look sharper because newer models are introduced in comparison. These are basically just how Gamecube-modeled characters would look on the Nintendo 64. The edges are rather rough, though that's partially due to a compressed screen and a lesser number of maximum colors. Thus, over-pixilation is noticeable on certain objects, but overall, it's a fairly good example of what the DS is capable of, and the upgraded character models do makes things more appeasing to the eye. Plus, it looks much better than the recently-popular Mode 7 crap on the GBA (I'm talking about games like Banjo Pilot and Mario vs. Donkey Kong).

Sound:
It's by popular opinion that Super Mario 64 has one of the most well-composed soundtracks of any game. The DS's surround capabilities only make things better. The Jolly Roger Bay theme has an enchanting feel to it. Let me assure you that there is absolutely no shame in carrying around your DS next to your ear jammin' to these tunes (Okay, people may think you're a total dork, but they just wish they had one themselves. Keep telling yourself that.). Mario's often-humorous voice samples sound just as entertaining and crisp now as they did back then, though no new samples have really been added. Even the new characters have an excellent variety of speech. For some reason, though, Wario sounds rather fuzzy. His menacing cackle seems to get mixed in with some static.

Verdict:
Despite all these changes, for better or worse, this is still essentially the same game you played eight years ago. I'd like to commend Nintendo on actually putting some quality effort into re-creating this title, by not only making it a portable experience, but a still-fresh one. The game doesn't really make fantastic use of the touch screen, though that may be for the better, as I don't really give a damn about “innovation”. I just want to play my games. The game isn't necessarily worth buying a DS alone for, but you can't hide the fact that this is a solid re-creation both loyal to its roots and a fresh experience for both newcomers and veterans alike.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/05/06