The very first game the public ever saw for the Nintendo DS was a port of Super Mario 64. The company had a habit of launching their new handhelds with remakes of their classic titles. This case was no different. Fortunately as the release date neared Nintendo showed that this was no mere port. They had added a lot of new content to the package including new areas and playable characters other than Mario. Not only were the graphics re-done, but this new content looked fantastic. It’s a good thing too because the Nintendo DS launched with almost no good games. Super Mario 64 DS looked to be its saving grace. With that launch now ancient history I decided to take a look back at this remake. Does Super Mario 64 DS hold up or was it propped up because everything else was so bad? Let’s take a look.
Super Mario 64 DS begins just as the Nintendo 64 version did. Princess Toadstool (or Peach as she transitions to) invites Mario to the castle because she has baked a cake. This time around he invites Luigi and Wario along for the chow. Yoshi (who was asleep atop the castle) is awakened when all goes quiet inside. He soon discovers that Bowser has kidnapped Peach as well as Mario and his friends, and the colorful dino is the only one that can save them. It’s up to the player, as Yoshi, to collect the super stars whose power lock the doors in the castle to open the way forward. Of course he’ll also need to rescue Mario, Luigi and Wario along the way so that the four can team up to take Bowser down. The change in scenario makes a bigger difference to the experience than you would expect.
This is a remake of the Nintendo 64 flagship title, and maintains most of the same gameplay. Super Mario 64 DS is a 3D platformer where you are thrown into various themed worlds to find super stars. Each of these require a specific number in order to access them, and each level has eight different ones to collect. Some of these are hidden really well and you’re given only a vague hint before you jump in on what kind of task you need to complete. Sometimes you’ll have to face off against a boss, collect eight red coins, complete a light puzzle, or simply find one that’s simply hidden away. Some of these are pretty obvious in placement while others will leave you scratching your head. Thanks to the excellent level design there’s never a dull moment when tracking them down.
True to the classic Mario design you have only a specific number of lives, and once these are spent it’s game over. Fortunately this comes with little consequence because of the save game system you can simply continue on. What’s interesting about Super Mario 64 DS when compared to older titles in the franchise is the fact that your characters have a health meter. This has eight slices to it, and you lose a specific number against different enemies. You can replenish your health by collecting coins and by remaining at surface level in water. It’s a pretty decent system and nothing has really changed since the game was first released on the Nintendo 64. Honestly the game is pretty easy and you’ll find it a rare occasion to lose a life from your health meter being drained.
That’s all well and good but let’s explore what’s different. As I mentioned earlier you have four different characters to play as instead of just Mario solo. You even begin the adventure as just Yoshi. He can eat enemies and spit them back out, and while jumping can hover slightly thus elongating his leaps. Mario has pretty much the same abilities he always did. He still attacks foes by punching them, and has very basic jumping skills. Luigi is functionally the same as Mario but has a higher (and floatier) jump as well as a special new backflip. Wario is the heavyweight of the bunch. He’s the hardest hitter, and fastest, but has the worst jump and struggles at swimming. The differences between the characters is pretty neat and I love the way they’ve been worked into the Super Mario 64 world.
Power-ups have also been reworked, and are now character specific. Mario has his fly cap which let’s him soar through the skies and reach new heights. Each of the four can also collect the Super Flower which grants them various abilities. Mario fills with air and can awkwardly float, Luigi turns invisible and can pass through specific passages, Yoshi can breathe fire, and Wario turns metal. Some of these abilities are new, but others are reworked from the special caps Mario could find in the original version. There’s also a rare super mushroom that causes each character to become huge for a brief amount of time. I love that they added new power-ups to the adventure, but I’m disappointed that the reworked ones are now exclusive to the different characters.
Super Mario 64 has always represented the pinnacle of level designs in the genre. Each stage was always a real treat to explore, and there’s so much variety it never gets old. Super Mario 64 DS avoids being a total retread by adding a lot of new elements in them. You’ll discover new obstacles and even brand new enemies make appearances as well. There’s enough new things added while keeping the spirit and dynamics of the stages intact. Even just playing as the different characters is enough to make things feel new. The only thing I don’t like is the fact that some NPCs will only interact with specific guys. Namely, you’ll have to transform into Mario to move forward. A lot. This forces you to return to the specific room in the castle in order to do so. I wish switching characters could be done in the menu.
Nintendo shoehorned in a few features of the DS hardware. This is a mixed bag in my opinion. The second screen is used to display an overhead map of the current area. While this seems lazy it is actually surprisingly useful. Touch controls are also present. You can move your character around as if the bottom screen was the joystick from the original. This works okay, but it’s less than ideal. In some cases I found myself resorting to using this input method because the directional pad was so imprecise. Super Mario 64 was designed with an analog stick in mind, and the d-pad simply doesn’t cut it sometimes. Additionally there are versus battle modes in multiplayer, and you only need one copy of the game to stream it to multiple systems. These are a fun diversion but far from the main event.
At first glance Super Mario 64 DS doesn’t look like anything special. It’s a 64-bit level 3D platformer with a wide open world, good draw distance, but low polygonal models and primitive textures. It’s when you compare it side by side with the original game that you can see how much has been improved. The character models and enemies themselves have significantly more polygons and better texture work. The environments have been altered but in my opinion not for the better. The Nintendo DS lacks the smooth rendering of the Nintendo 64. This means all the textures are pixelated and blocky, and they look like something you’d expect more from the Sony PlayStation. The graphics are improved, but lack the clean look of the Nintendo 64 release. The soundtrack has largely been unchanged. In some themes you’ll notice a lower sampling rate, but it’s not a big deal.
