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Review
Super Mario 64 DS Review
Posted: January 17, 2008 - 9:05 am by Scott
Ah, Super Mario 64, I remember playing the hell out of this game back on the 64, having actually found all the stars and hidden stars without the aid of a guide. Oh the memories, heh.
So naturally I had to pick this game up when I saw it was out for the DS, that and the fact that is was one of like, 5 games that launched with the system. So I snatched this baby up. Once I got home, I opened the packaging, popped the DS card out of the case, and loaded up SM64DS. I was fully ready to restart my 3D adventure ofPeach's castle… The game loads up and there is a new cut scene at the beginning, the camera shifts to 3 pipes, and out of each pops, Mario, Luigi, and…. Wario? They enter the castle while Yoshi sleeps in the distance. Ok, the cut scene ends and I'm in control of Yoshi. Wtf? Whelp, I decide to keep playing. SM64DS recreates the atmosphere of the original SM64 by faithfully reproducing the original graphics only with a high polygon count, thus making the game more vibrant and smoother, while still retaining the feel of the original game. And being a man who's first handheld system was an original Gameboy, I was extremely impressed by the graphical update and recreation of a N64 title on a handheld, although there are a few times I have noticed a pixilated image or two, but its not anything to really cry about. My biggest gripe isn't with the graphics per say, it is more with the camera control, and this is mostly because of the way that it is set up. I know that you can't control the camera the same way as you would on a home console on a handheld, but the buttons on the bottom of the touch screen get in the way sometimes when you are trying to move. Either way, I love the graphical presentation of SM64DS, mostly because I can't get enough of retro games, and it has me geeked to see what is on the way! The game can either be controlled with the d-pad, which if you have ever tried to play a 3-d game that was meant to be played with an analog stick with a d-pad, you'll find that it is a pain in the hind end. Or, you can control the character w/ the touch screen which isn't all that bad, except for the times you accidentally touch the camera rotate buttons that are "conveniently" placed at the bottom of the touch screen (mostly if you are using the thumb pad from the wrist strap). Now I know that the touch screen control seems like a good idea, and there are two ways to control the character w/ the touch screen. You can either use your thumb w/ the thumb pad which actually is closer to the feel of an analog stick. Or, you can use the stylus and may I say from experience that using the stylus to control the action would be next to impossible for a righty, and for this lefty it is just as hard. So in all reality using the thumb pad on the DS's wrist strap is probably the better of the two control systems for the touch screen. Overall the control for the main game is good, but its not really as tight as if you were actually using a N64 controller, the touch screen's control set up has the ability to make or break the game for most players. I actually have seen it happen. And thus I believe that it is by far the game's weakest point. -Mini Games The controls for the mini-games in SM64DS are all for the most part stylus-based touch screen games (I don't know about all of them, I have yet to unlock all of them). But from the mini-games I have played each character (Mario, Luigi, Wario, Yoshi) all have their own set of mini-games. Which each seem to fit the personalities of the character. Wario for example has a mini game where you have to defend a castle from parachuting Bob-ombs w/ a giant sling shot, and the longer you last the more frantic the action gets. So all in all the control set up for the entire mini-game section of the game is very tight. The overall sound for SM64DS seems, in my opinion to be true to the original source. With the added SFX for grunts and such for the new characters added to the game. There really isn't all that much to explain about the music and SFX for SM64DS other than that. I mean what can you really say about the music for a game that is a port of a game that everyone (and any gamer that has never played the original, can't really call themselves a gamer, Mario 64 is a staple of any hardcore gamer's resume). So on that note, I'm going to leave this section at that. Although you can play any level in the game after you have completed it, I believe this version of SM64's replay value lies in the multitude of mini-games, there are so many of them that anyone can find something that they can get addicted to, at least for a little while. 
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August 19th, 2008
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