Super Mario 3D All-Stars – Nintendo Switch

I don’t care about extras or remaking the game, I bought this because I’m an old person who likes old things and I want to play my crappy old games. That being said, I can’t even play Mario 64 and Galaxy took a hit as well.TLDR: If you’re buying this for anything beyond just playing Galaxy and you still have your Wii, don’t bother.THE GOOD:The updated graphics are exactly what we needed. Old school systems, especially on modern TVs, often presented illegible text and contrast/shading problems that might make you mistake a shadow for a wall, or the wall for the floor. That’s been adjusted greatly. Mario 64 benefits the most from this while Galaxy just looks more pretty.THE BAD:Mario 64 is the worst. The camera, which used to be adjusted by the yellow C buttons on the 64, are now toggled with the right joystick. Unfortunately, it did not translate and it’s frequent malfunction is maddening. You can tap it all day and it will just blurt annoying “error” noises at you until finally, randomly, doing what you ask. I find myself having to just leave Mario in a safe place for a moment while I rearrange the camera, or stop to rearrange the camera almost every 10 seconds. It’s just not playable. Horrifying quality control.I never play Sunshine so I can’t tell what I’m missing here but the Switch pro controller is very similar to Gamecube so I doubt there will be much issue in controller translation.Galaxy is better. It’s more intuitive to play with detached joycons as you would a wii remote, though the star-pointer constantly becomes un-calibrated due to the joycon’s inferior motion-sensing tracking. It’s still fun gameplay, but you’ll find yourself hitting R every couple of minutes to re-calibrate.

It’s kind of fun and cool to have these games on the SWITCH for portable play, but the set feels super meh.Overall it feels like you are playing the games on a bare bones emulator set to about mid-quality, nothing nearly as good as the ones they are using for their online classic service. Overall wouldn’t buy again, nor recommend. I bought it out of pure super Mario fanboy excitement. All my friends waited to play my copy before buying and they all said the same thing, “They cheeped out so much on this I don’t even want to support this kind of thing. This is worth $15 at most, not $50+” .

Sorely disappointed in this… usually Nintendo is pretty good about their titles… and particularly the ones that are reissued.   This one,  however, is a pretty obvious cash grab with very little effort put into it.   It started by creating a frenzy by stating its a “limited run in physical copies”… something not entirely new to those familiar with switch titles.  That served as a fine distraction from what is really going on…. the fact that Nintendo didn’t put any effort into this.   First… the major complaints I had with Mario64 in its original release were the controls and the camera system.  I thought perhaps I could look past that for upgrade graphics… but honestly we don’t even get that. We get what they say is increased resolution… but honestly doesn’t look much better.  And they slapped us square in the face (square…pun intended)  with the fact that it’s STILL 4:3 aspect ratio. A friend said “that’s really difficult to convert to HD 16:9”.  Okay… for you and me.. sure… but this is Nintendo…. the often-proven kings of that game… and for sixty bucks…. do SOMETHING with it…. please?  Add to that the fact that it’s a straight port…. the camera controls are (still) garbage…. and the controls themselves are (still)  in the can with the camera…. and what you’ve got is a slightly improved resolution on a nearly 25 year old game.  My advice? If you’re playing 64 on this platform,  set your TV to “stretch”.  With the upped resolution…its “almost” bearable.  Mario Galaxy was the one title of the three of never played.  It looks pretty decent,  graphics wise,  but be forewarned…if you’re a pro controller die-hard like me… you’re in for a rude awakening.  Multiple news sources stated that WOULD be an option to play without motion controls..And it ALMOST is true. Motion controls are not required…in handheld mode.   In TV mode… no option…. even with a pro controller you have to use motion controls… and that’s just clunky as hell… The better option is to play with joy-cons…. but i absolutely, morbidly despise Joy Cons. They are the bane of my existence.   And I don’t play in handheld mode.  So, if you’re like me… docked and a pro- controller user…There’s no way to play without motion controls.  Not acceptable to me… especially given the horribly misleading news prior to release stating the contrary.  If someone figures out that I’m wrong… and can tell me how to do that… I’ll listen. But it’s not obvious if it’s, indeed,  available as an option.The standout here is Sunshine.   It’s flawless.  It’s pro-controller compatible,  looks great in upped resolution,  and plays great as well.   So,  basically I paid 60  dollars for a straight port of Sunshine… and soundtracks I could find on YouTube.  If you’re good with a misleading release campaign,  an underwhelming effort by Nintendo to make any of these much better than the originals… and soundtracks… jump on and have fun.  Me?  I stand firmly in the “shame on you Nintendo” crowd.  

This is a great compilation of games but it is very bare bones. It’s just the three games and their respective soundtracks, but that’s enough. These are some of the greatest video games ever made with some of the best soundtracks ever. I love playing Galaxy again and in docked mode with two joycons it works great. Mario sunshine very quickly I noticed that they didn’t fix the camera bug. Kinda disappointing but still the game looks great and controls pretty good. Mario 64 is pretty underwhelming but to able to play the original game in portable is cool. At least it’s better than the DS port. Overall I think it’s worth the price if you like these games. Probably a good gift idea for someone who loves Mario oddesey. I should mention that I preordered this and amazon didn’t deliver it until 3 days after release.

As a huge fan of Nintendo and Mario games, I was really looking forward to this collection. I had previously played all three of these titles on their original consoles, so I was curious to see how they upgraded the camera and controls. I soon discovered the answer: they didn’t. All three games are straight ports of the originals with a resolution upgrade and little else. They did add a music player so you can listen to the music from all three games, and while that’s kind of cool, in practice who actually uses this feature?The resolution on Super Mario 64 is sharper but the textures are still from 1996 which results in some sharp UGLY textures. And man is the camera ever horrible. I can understand that this was Mario’s first 3D adventure, so I forgave the original for having a camera that’s difficult to control and at times unresponsive. But in a collection such as this, I think it’s pure laziness on Nintendo’s part that the camera controls were not at least modernized to eliminate some of the original’s issues. It is mapped to the R stick but the responsiveness is the same as when it was mapped to the N64’s “C” buttons. It will swing wildly behind Mario at inopportune times and obscure what’s in front of you. It’s hard to position to see far enough out during the platform sections, so you often will miss a jump. And when you do try to reign it in, it will often get stuck on the landscape and not move at all. Mario himself still controls like his clunky ’96 self, so he tends to slide quite a bit when trying to stop and making precise movements with him over a narrow platform is often a lesson in patience.Super Mario Sunshine benefits more from the resolution bump and looks beautiful in the new expanded aspect ratio. It appears they did not upgrade the in game movie parts however and it’s pretty obvious from their blurry appearance. This is a bit of nit picking however. Unfortunately, the game again suffers from lazy control ports. While the F.L.U.D.D. was easy to control with the original Gamecube controller, the button mapping is now awkward and has a steep learning curve before you truly feel even a little bit comfortable with it. One button lets you fire in place and control the up and down with the L controller. Another button lets you fire and strafe, and yet another lets you fire straight ahead while running. I often times was completely frustrated by the lack of control I had over the stream in boss fights and during platforming sections (Hotel Lobby…!!) and can’t help to think there could have a been a better option for the controls. It’s hard to remember what button does what and often results in moving Mario when I meant to leave him in place or vice versa in the heat of the moment. The camera is the same as the original, and while it’s a marked improvement over Mario 64’s, it still is a product of it’s time and is often difficult to line it up precisely in the platforming sections or while using the hover attachment. So be prepared to fall often.Super Mario Galaxy suffers the least in this collection and what is already one of Mario’s most gorgeous looking adventures is even better looking with the resolution upgrade. There are motion controls in the game, which I’m not sure could be changed given the original Wii’s remote, but they are implemented about as well as you can expect. The camera in this one won’t give you many issues, because it’s excellent compared to the previous two games. It moves with the action and is always about where you need it to be. Corrections that are needed are usually only small adjustments one way or the other. And while all three games have a great soundtrack, this one really shines and is one of my favorites of all Mario games.There is a certain nostalgia factor that is included with these games for people such as myself, so regardless of the lazy collection, I will still play it. And that’s what Nintendo seems to bank on. While the original Super Mario All Stars featured upgraded graphics and small control tweaks, Nintendo seems to think this is no longer necessary even though one only needs to look to the internet to know how good Mario 64 could look given a little extra TLC. Also, the absence of Galaxy 2 is puzzling and a little disappointing. If these Mario collections are supposed to truly be “a collection”, then why leave parts out? I fully suspect they are planning a re-release like they are doing with Super Mario 3D World in order to milk a little more money out of diehards like myself.So for those that have fond memories and an affinity for all things Mario, you’re probably going to buy this anyway. But for those looking to experience these games for the first time, I’m not sure this is the right experience. You would be better off playing them on their original consoles so you can use the original control scheme mapped to each consoles unique controllers. It’s kind of a shame really.