Hello my groundbreaking yet frustrating friends! Arlo here, and today we’re reviewing--the
Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection. Millions of people have been screaming for
a chance to play these classic games on Switch and now they have it. The question is, is this a cavalcade of timeless
masterpieces, or is Mario starting to show his age? Let’s find out. Woosh! Quite a long time ago I had an idea to play
all of the 3D Mario games in a row and either make videos about each, or one long video
comparing them all with each other. Whether or not such a project will ever happen
remains to be seen, but playing Super Mario 3D All-Stars has given me an opportunity to
at least play the first three games together. This is also the first time I’ve ever played
these games specifically for review purposes, so I’ve been looking at them with a much
more critical eye than usual. All of this has led me to many new conclusions
about the games and about Nintendo’s own design philosophies when it comes to making
3D Marios. Unfortunately we don’t have time for a massive
deep-dive into each game, but I will be giving some thoughts on each one, followed by thoughts
on how they’ve been enhanced and the collection as a whole at the end. Naturally let’s start with Super Mario 64. For a very long time now I’ve maintained
that Super Mario 64 doesn’t hold up all that well. It’s extremely rough around the edges, especially
when it comes to movement physics and controls. Mario’s moveset was extremely impressive
back in the day, and it still feels fun to play around with, but I spend sooooo much
of my time struggling to make simple jumps, slipping and sliding around when I don’t
want to, cursing at the TV as I jank my way off some ledge or another. I mean this was one of the world’s first
3D platformers, so this is to be expected, but it does impact the moment-to-moment gameplay. Making matters worse is the level design. I’ve been hearing forever that this game
is a master class in level design and I do NOT see it. People say that Odyssey has too many moons
that you just kind of grab and you’re done? Well Mario 64 has much fewer overall stars,
yet still has LOADS of ones that don’t take much effort at all. If you know where it is, you just kind of
run and grab it. Then it’s got so many that involve these
long obstacle courses or climbing sequences, and one tiny slip up means redoing the whole
challenge if you’re lucky, and getting kicked out of the level entirely if you’re not. You’ll spend a ton of time collecting red
coins just to make one tiny mistake thanks to the janky controls and suddenly it’s
all over. When it comes to Mario games, one thing I’ve
been trying to pay closer attention to in recent years is, how many of the game’s
challenges are fun? I mean it’s a simple enough concept, but
I think when it comes to games that hit us right in the childhood it’s easy to form
an opinion based on the good stuff in a game without fully considering just how much of
the experience is unpleasant. How many of the game’s stars make you groan
when you see them on the star select screen? Because the older I get, the more I realize
just how sloggy these first few Marios can be. HOWEVER! That is not to say that Super Mario 64 is
a terrible game. In fact it’s got a lot going for it. First and most obviously, there’s the nostalgia
factor. This game is probably my number one nostalgia
fix. The songs, the sound effects, just running
around Bob-omb Battlefield, it all takes me back to when I was a kid and I was playing
this magical alien technology from the distant future. It was a mindblowing experience, and it’s
cemented itself so deeply into my psyche that I will always enjoy jumping in and having
some fun from time to time. And despite many frustrations, it is indeed
still fun overall. There are so few good 3D platformers out there
with sandbox-style levels that even Nintendo’s clumsy first attempt can be enjoyable. Especially if you haven’t memorized the
entire game by now, it’s still fun to explore these big levels. They come in many different styles and themes,
and you never know quite where you’ll find a star. One of the best parts about the game though
is Peach’s Castle. The game’s fifteen major areas and several
smaller bonus areas are found all throughout the castle, sometimes in unexpected places. Finding a weird wall that takes you to an
entire new level was pure magic when I was a kid. I mean talk about a sense of exploration. The satisfaction of exploring the castle was
so strong in fact, that even though I was only able to be truly surprised by it all
once, TWENTY FOUR YEARS AGO, that magic sticks with me to this day. Even if I know where everything is, it follows
me as I run around the castle. It doesn’t make much sense but I never stop
appreciating just how awesome it was, and hoping that we get another hub world like
it someday. Honestly, overall, I find it surprisingly
hard to recommend Super Mario 64 to most newcomers, beyond the simple fact that it’s a major
Mario game and it’s an interesting part of history. If you’re intensely interested in 3D platformers
and where they came from, or you’re the patient type and don’t mind doing some frustrating
challenges many times, or you just like the idea of exploring this magic castle and these
sandbox levels, then sure. But I ain’t ever gonna tell you it’s a
phenomenal masterpiece in the context of the modern day. I LOVE Super Mario Sunshine. I made a whole video defending it some years
ago, back when it seemed like we would never get another sandbox Mario. But even then I knew that the game was far
from perfect, and every single time I’ve played it over the last several years I’ve
come to appreciate more and more just how far from perfect it is. And I gotta tell ya, this time, playing it
again in this collection with two other Marios to directly compare it to, it’s never been
more clear. Super Mario Sunshine is THE WORST 3D Mario
game. It can be extremely janky and even straight
up glitchy. Many victories will be stolen from you because
Mario acted in a way you didn’t want, or he glitched out completely and just fell off
the world. It lacks the usual Nintendo polish, making
it feel very rushed. Even without jank though, the game feels like
it’s DESIGNED to frustrate you. As with 64, there are just SO many sequences
where one mistake means starting all over, which of course is all the more terrible when
you feel like the controls or the physics failed you. I mean it’s almost like the game’s THEME. Long, tedious platforming sequences and having
to start the most horrible challenges all over again is like it’s very IDENTITY. And I talked about measuring how many of the
game’s challenges are fun in 64? Do that here and you’ve got a STAGGERING
number of challenges that range from “aggravating” to “stupidly, impossibly, controller-throwingly
hard.” As a result I always find myself jumping around
levels, looking for a shine sprite that I actually want to get. But then the game isn’t as open-ended as
64, because you’ve got to get to a specific mission in every main level before the final
area opens up, meaning there’s a large list of shines you absolutely HAVE to get. You can’t skip any major missions. Ah man, and you want to talk about feeling
rushed? A significant number of the game’s shines
come from collecting blue coins, which are just kind of all over the place. I mean I like collectibles like this, but
replacing so many shines with them instead of actually creating challenges for all those
shines feels kind of lame. The entire game feels like it was hastily
thrown together, without polishing it up or thinking about how frustrating its challenges
were or anything. It’s like they had an idea and a hard deadline
and just had to get on with it until it was done. And gosh darn it, I still love this game to
pieces. When you look at it overall with a critical
eye it’s flawed enough that I’m almost surprised Nintendo was willing to re-release
it without fixing at least a few things, and I’m like a little scared that people are
playing the game now and feeling like they were tricked by fans like me. It’s really got that much stuff wrong with
it. And yet some of its core concepts are SO GOOD,
that I find myself returning to the game again and again. The central theme is incredibly strong. You’re on this island getaway, so you visit
a resort and a theme park and a big beach and all sorts of tropical places. The island has its own unique races, and there
are always NPC’s around to talk to. And of course a big part of the game is cleaning
up all the mess made by Shadow Mario using the FLUDD. All of this combines to make a Mario game
that is truly unique, one of a kind, something that will probably never happen again. Out of all the mainline Mario games, I’d
say only Galaxy 1 and 2 come close to having such strong theming. The FLUDD comes with some issues, but the
ability to hover is very empowering, and cleaning up gunk never stops feeling good. Most importantly though, while the controls
can be janky and the game can be glitchy, Mario feels AWESOME to control. Especially when compared to 64, here Mario
is just so snappy and quick. Side jumps and wall jumps in particular are
so fun to do, and supplementing your movement with the FLUDD allows you to pull off some
pretty cool tricks if you practice enough. None of this would be worth much without some
place to do it in, so the game provides a hub world in the style of 64. Instead of a castle though, now it’s a wide
open town. You can use all your tricks to jump up onto
buildings, bounce from canopies, play with different nozzle types, sproing around on
ropes, hover all over the place, throw fruit at people, and of course look for secrets
and new areas to open up. It’s a sandbox in the purest sense of the
word, and somehow even if you strip away all the actual levels and shine sprites and all
that, just the ability to mess around in Delfino Plaza is just about worth the price of admission
alone. I can’t even calculate how much of my total
time with the game over the years has been spent just jumpin’ around. As with 64 I’ll never tell you Super Mario
Sunshine is a masterpiece. And I’m sure once again there’s a pretty
heavy nostalgia factor here. But man, despite how embarrassingly rough
it is, I can’t stop myself from loving Super Mario Sunshine, nor can I stop myself from
booting it up once a year or so. Super Mario Galaxy marked a turning point
in many ways. For me, this was the first new Mario game
I played as a grownup. I was distracted with work and college and
friends, and I was losing my ability to become so engrossed in a game that it embeds itself
in my heart and becomes a nostalgic soft spot. Then for Mario, this was his return to a more
linear structure. In Galaxy, gone are the sprawling sandboxes,
and while it does have something of a hub world, it’s extremely basic. So honestly, I didn’t connect with Galaxy
like I did with 64 or Sunshine. And you know what, I don’t think it’s
JUST nostalgia, because I did end up connecting with Odyssey a whole lot. I think I just need those big areas. However over the years I have come to better
appreciate Galaxy, and indeed all of the more linear 3D Marios. And whereas every time I boot up Sunshine
I find something else about it that totally stinks, the opposite happens with Galaxy. My own nostalgia and sandbox style preference
aside, Super Mario Galaxy is when 3D Mario games started being GOOD. Really, seriously, genuinely good. And not like, JUST good, but ONLY GOOD. With both 64 and Sunshine I talked about how
a substantial number of stars and shines were just not fun to get, but that concept just
doesn’t exist in Galaxy. Like the concept of finding a challenge that’s
nothing but aggravating and unfair and wanting to skip it, but you can’t because you’ve
already skipped twenty other challenges and you have to do SOME of them EVENTUALLY… Yeah, that doesn’t happen. There are some tricky challenges, sure. Ones where I find myself frustrated, even. But it’s never because of jankiness or glitchiness
or sadistic, time-wasting level design. When I lose, I know exactly why. And that right there is a pillar of good 3D
platformers. Actual, honest to goodness, genuine FAIRNESS. Nintendo made sure to focus on the basics,
like running and jumping and landing on platforms and hitting enemies, and they removed wild
variables that can lead to aggravating situations, like ropes to bounce on and finicky slopes
to slide on and propulsion systems and all that. They also streamlined levels, so there are
no giant obstacle courses to climb where one mistake sends you all the way back to the
beginning. And then of course they just went NUTS designing
levels based on the game’s theme. The central mechanic is gravity, which changes
constantly. This is of course because it takes place in
space, and this has Mario hopping between galaxies and planets. And the designers RAN with these ideas. They made all these interesting twisty turny
planets and came up with all these different ways to use gravity. They created a WEALTH of mechanics to play
with. And like I said, it’s all FUN. It’s all just so fun and clever and digestible. The whole thing goes down smooth, so you can
just sit down, have fun the entire time, then be done and you’re like, “Gee, what a
good time I just had!” I mean play Sunshine then play Galaxy, it’s
night and day! The game isn’t absolutely perfect. It looks like they did as good a job as they
could with the controls. I mean it’s surprising how intuitive it
is to control Mario at all these weird angles. But there are plenty of times when the twistiness
is just a little TOO twisty, and it’s hard to do what you want. And more often than I would like, the controls
get confused and Mario runs around in a circle when I’m holding the stick in one direction,
which can obviously mess me up pretty good. But the controls work often enough that it’s
hard for those little hiccups to dramatically impact the fun factor. I wish I could say more about the game, but
unless we want to turn this into a Big Fat Review of Super Mario Galaxy, I’ve got to
just stop and say...it’s super good! This game was when Nintendo really found their
stride with 3D Mario. It’s when they fully realized what makes
it good and what makes it frustrating. And there was once a time when I thought that
meant Mario BELONGED in more linear games, and that the sandbox element was what hurt
the first two games. But now that Odyssey brings back sandboxes
but still manages to be consistently fun (in my opinion), I can see more clearly than ever
that it’s Nintendo’s own design philosophies that changed. And instead of taking years and years and
games and games to change, for some reason they all changed at once with Super Mario
Galaxy. All at once it just sort of clicked and they
knew how to make 3D Mario awesome. And it might not have a big place in my nostalgic
little heart, and over the years it hasn’t been one of those games I return to again
and again...but now that it’s on Switch and more convenient to play than ever? I think I’ll probably find myself booting
it up a lot more often. So that’s what I think about these games
in this, the modern day, but how do they run on the Switch, specifically? Well Sunshine and Galaxy are rendered at 1080p,
which looks incredibly nice. Visually they’re marvelously designed games,
so a crisper image makes them look substantially younger than they are--Galaxy especially. I mean looking at these boss animations, it’s
hard to tell if you’re looking at footage from Galaxy or Odyssey. Unfortunately 64 only renders at 720p and
is in its native 4:3 aspect ratio, which is kind of disappointing. And no, the resolution isn’t BECAUSE of
the aspect ratio; a 4:3 image can still display 1080 vertical pixels. The lower resolution makes for a jaggier image
which isn’t as pleasant and clean as it is in Sunshine and Galaxy. (And anyone who thinks a higher resolution
image can’t work on an old N64 game, go look at Banjo Kazooie in the Rare Replay collection
and get back to me.) Even more disappointing though, all games
run at their original framerates, meaning Galaxy is at a very nice 60, but 64 and Sunshine
are capped at 30. None of this is a deal breaker or anything,
but considering how easy it is to mod these games, and how full HD, 60fps is like the
absolute BAREST MINIMUM for any kind of modding, yeah it’s a bummer. I mean people have made the games look amazing,
they’ve brought in all sorts of quality of life features, they’ve even tweaked the
levels to make some stuff less frustrating, and this is just people in their SPARE TIME. Nintendo, with their billions and billions
of dollars, selling the collection for sixty bucks can’t even be bothered to hit widescreen,
1080p, 60fps with these super old games? That’s not to say they didn’t alter the
games at all. Sunshine has been given some new control functions
to make up for the lack of analogue R and L buttons, and they un-inverted the camera
to make it fit with industry standard, which is very much appreciated. A little clumsier are the new controls in
Galaxy, though this is because of the move from Wii remote and nunchuck to more traditional
controllers. Mapping the spin to a button instead of making
us shake our controllers and Switches? Best new feature out of any of these games. Tying a major function to waggle is a DRAG,
so this makes Galaxy that much easier to play. The real problem is with the cursor. You use gyro to aim this thing to pick up
star bits and stuff, which isn’t SO bad, but it’s a lot more awkward when you need
to use the cursor to pull Mario around and stuff. It’s not terrible, but the thing does drift
like CRAZY, so I’m constantly recalibrating it. Then for some silly reason you’re FORCED
to use the touch screen when playing handheld. There’s no arguing that it’s more intuitive
in its own way, but I hate constantly taking my hand off the Switch, so it feels really
absurd that we’re not given the option to use either. In either case the cursor is just something
you’ve got to deal with when you’re trying to do some runnin’ and jumpin’, which
does stop Super Mario Galaxy from being the most perfect, straightforward, streamlined
experience it could be. And that’s another reason I’m always skeptical
of Nintendo’s insistence on weird control schemes. People are gonna want to play these games
for a long, long time, and requiring anything more than basic control inputs is going to
complicate a game’s playability forever. But hey, that’s a discussion for another
day I guess. Ultimately, whether or not the Super Mario
3D All-Stars collection is a good deal is entirely a matter of perspective. For Nintendo, this is a great deal. I mean not only are they finally giving us
some of the classic titles we’ve been SCREAMING for, but they’re even slightly upgraded? Twenty bucks each for these remasters? These beloved classics that have captured
the hearts of millions? It’s a no-brainer! However if you consider how much modders have
improved these games in their spare time, and how much more work other publishers are
doing with their remakes and remasters and how little they’re selling them for? The 3D All-Stars collection is a HORRIBLE
deal! I won’t go into tons of examples because
this is actually a subject I’d like to cover fully in an upcoming video, but it doesn’t
take a lot of observation to realize that Nintendo is being extremely stingy here. I mean even by their own standards, their
previous collections have had way more in the way of celebratory content. This has got the soundtracks, and...that’s
it. Nothing else. No art, no behind-the-scenes stuff, nothing. It’s just three games, enhanced an extremely
minimal amount, and the music, for sixty bucks. But it’s Super Mario 64, Sunshine and Galaxy
though, so who can complain??? At the end of the day the only person who
can tell you if it’s worth the price is you. And I know for a fact that you’re not ACTUALLY
watching this review to find out if you want the game, because it’s already sold millions
of copies and everyone on Earth is already playing it, because we’re all just that
desperate to play classic games on our Switches, we’re not gonna look a gift horse in the
mouth, are we? And good golly, the whole issue of fun versus
value and this company versus that company and what makes a good remaster and how much
SHOULD they alter the games… Just makes me sooooo happy I’m not scoring
games anymore. Because wow, this one would be a doozy. In case this is news to you, I recently released
a video about my scoring system and why it went away, so go check it out. But that’s it! Are you miffed about how scant this collection
is? Or are you too busy reliving your childhood
to notice? And if this is your first time with these
games, do they live up to the hype? Or are you mad at me and all the other nostalgiatubers
for even suggesting that Super Mario Sunshine is anything but pure garbage? Let me know down in the comments. And if you’ve managed to get to the poison
river yet…...I’m so sorry.
