Ranking Every Stage in Super Mario 64 DS

[Music] super mayo 64 ds aside from the controls this is a really awesome remake of the original game on top of new stars it even added brand new levels so i thought it'd be fun to try to rank them all this will be based off how fun the levels are to run around in how creative the stars are and also how the levels look so with that said let's get her a rank 29 rainbow ride i hope you get a kick out of riding carpets because that's the extent of what you do here for a stage that's supposed to be a big finale you spend a lot of time twiddling your thumbs waiting for the carpet to take you to the big house or the pirate ship and the tricky triangle star is just ridiculous you need near perfect movement to get through this or else you'll fall and probably die and then there's 100 coins it's absolutely miserable since the coins are all over this level and falling one time makes you restart and to top it all off the theme is just textureless blocks with a few rainbows here and there wow so exciting 28. dire dire ducks the only redeeming quality is the music otherwise this level is miserable you spend most of your time either slowly swimming through water and touching chests or going through rings or jumping from pole to pole so pick your poison i will admit that the star behind the cage is pretty creative and the one with mario riding the shell is kind of cool but i don't have any fun when i'm in diary dire dogs 27 question mark switch this is where you unlock the wing cap there is really not much of a level here at all you just collect the red coins at the start and then hit the switch if you miss the red coins at the top though you'll have to restart and try again which is pretty lousy and it doesn't help that the flying is even worse on the ds 26. secret aquarium you literally just grab eight red coins and that's it it's a novel idea for a secret stage but come on it doesn't even look like an aquarium and it's entirely water-based which isn't helping either but at least it goes by pretty quickly 25. jolly roger bay this is basically a more bearable version of dire dire docs you're mostly swimming again grabbing coins and chasing meals but there is this fun cave you can find under the water the constant swimming though really slows down the pace and kind of destroys the fun factor you really feel this when you're going for 100 coins the ds version does give you a shelter ride which is nice but it's almost like putting a band-aid on a flesh wound 24 secret under the mode for some reason you're forced to use wario to enter the mode why that is i have no clue and the red coins can definitely be a bit annoying to get too the first four are on these small platforms making it really easy to slip up and miss them then the last four are on these tilting platforms and really none of this is just that enjoyable it is better than being underwater though 23. princess peach's slide it's just a slide you can grab two stars here and that's it the slide is pretty slick to plow down but since we're comparing it to every level in the game it's pretty lackluster and content 22 big boo battle for our first new level big boo battle has decent level design and also a really annoying gimmick you have to roam through several different rooms each with their own twist and look but if you fall down a pit or take a wrong door you're sent back to the beginning so it's basically a game of memorization and that gets old pretty quickly 21. hazy maze cave there's a reason why most 3d games don't have built-in mazes that you have to run around in even to this day after playing thousands of hours of mario 64 i still get lost in the maze area because there's no markings indicating where the heck i am and there's poison gas that hurts and stuns you on top of that i will say that there is a lot of variety in the locations but most of them aren't that great to run through getting the red coins makes you stand on elevators then you have these giant unpredictable rocks that can be hard to avoid there's some good ideas here and there but it's nothing that really drives me to come back and play this 20. chief chili challenge this is of course where you'll unlock wario and most of this level is covered in ice there's some interesting elements like this air that raises you up for a red coin but moving around is really slippery i kind of wish just parts of this level had the ice because it's not the most fun to go through 19. goombas battle mario somehow got himself trapped in this poisonous forest and i gotta say the theme is really awesome the design is a lot like a miniaturized lethal lava land and you can explore them in any which way the only downside is that the red coins can be a painting about to grab but otherwise this is a solid addition 18. shifting sand land while this is a fair step up in difficulty this one feels like a slog at times you've got three types of sand the first you could walk on the second you sink but can jump out of and the third you just die when you touch it all this different sand makes it hard to tell which sand does what and the instant depth quicksand is put in the most obnoxious places like the outer rim of the pyramid but the pyramid itself is a really nice rom but there's really no way to leave once you go in and don't even get me started on how tedious the red coins are 17 over the rainbows for a secret stage that relies only on flying it pumps out about as much as it possibly can with the gimmick you'll fly from cloud to cloud nabbing eight red coins and the clouds are pretty well spaced out you also have to use the cannon to get to the highest cloud and it's nice that we have to put in some real effort to get around the biggest drawback of course is that if you fall at any point you fall back to outside the castle that is very annoying but if you take your time then that probably won't happen anyway 16 behind the waterfall by far the best cap stage grabbing the metal cap gives you some bang and music and the red coins are nice and quick this level is basically just a straight line and that's exactly what it should be for being such a nominal level 15. secret of the battle fort hidden in the courtyard we have what kind of looks like some sort of construction area what adds to this theme are several heave hoes and rolling boulders as well as a handful of boxes to break you simply collect the five silver stars and while this is a short stage it's a nice small satisfying treat it's just like grabbing a small decubed oreo blizzard after not having one for months you slurp that thing down quick but can't forget about how delicious it was 14. sunshine aisles here's a level that's really just super relaxing to be in you have to grab the five silver stars and while it's not terribly challenging it's a nice offset to the main levels and as a bonus you can even ride the koopa show because why not right 13. big boos hunt at face value this level is basically a big house and you all know how much i like big houses and it is really cool being able to go into all the different rooms and seeing what's inside you'll spot things like a haunted piano or tombstones that sometimes rise up or just a giant eyeball that wants to blast you with a blue sludge ball thingy the main issue with this stage though is the stars themselves you fight big boo three times which includes stars one two and five that just comes off as really lazy but i do like the new star where you have to race around in the basement to get the star in the cage 12. tall tall mountain the title does not lie this is a tall tall mountain and that sadly is one of its downfalls it can take quite a while to climb up to the top thankfully the ds remake remedies that since you can easily fly to the top and honestly the level design is compact and clean making for a solid level to just run around in without him and the slide in this level is the hardest and most throwing the go down 11. bowser in the dark world the best aspect of the stage is the vibe the haunting music the gloomy background the textureless platforms bowser is letting you know that his thick bod is ready to rock while i prefer the open world stages the linear bowser ones can be really exhilarating to run through my only real issue with this stage is the first two red coins as they could be obnoxious to get you have to hit this exclamation switch and get the red coins off these boxes but in the remake you could at least use balloon mario if you're feeling fancy 10. bowser in the sky this one is pretty similar to the dark world seeing as two of the red coins are cryptic to find but i find this level to be more fun to play through the ferris wheel obstacles and steep staircases feel like the final step of the game and the background has this eerie purple and pink sky like some crazy hurricane's about to roll through but seriously that last red coin is put in the dumbest spot ever 9. snowman's land this level's highs are really high and the lows are extremely low i can say that running around the mainland is a lot of fun and some of the stars here are rather interesting you've got the one where you use yoshi to melt ice or fighting the chill bully or even going inside the igloo but then there's the freaking snowball monster guy for some reason he does not like us being up here and will blow us off if we don't hide behind the penguin that in the freezing water actually makes you take damage but overall this is actually a pretty good time 8. womp's fortress while it isn't the prettiest place this second stage really ups the ante with lots of new enemies like thwomps and womps and trickier jumps while the soft difficulty spike is nice there isn't much flow when running around due to its more linear nature lots of areas are really narrow and a couple of stars are pretty cryptic of course there's the infamous blast away the wall where you shoot at this random corner to find a star because that's totally obvious seven bowser in the fire seat by far the best linear level the design is made in a way that's really thrilling to simply run through you're constantly being thrown different types of moving parts and obstacles and the red coins are on the way so they don't feel like a chore to grab either the ending with the rising and falling lava can be tricky but if you're careful it's really not that bad bowser in the fire c is just pure fun my only complaint is the title makes no sense a c means a pool of water right so just call it bowser in the boiling hot lava okay okay six tick tock clock this is known as one of the hardest and most frustrating levels in mario 64. but is it really that bad i mean just look at the theme it's entirely clock based and you can even control how the stage moves depending on when you jump in the clock the biggest issue has been fixed in the ds remake and that's adding more flooring to the bottom the stars are not only innovative but they go by really quickly this actually reminds me of tall tall mountain but it's faster paced and a bit harder completing these more challenging stars is all the more rewarding after all the time you've put in playing at this point 5. lethal lava land i know a lot of people don't like this stage but this is one of my all-time favorites the lava really makes this place more tense but in a good way there's loads of areas to explore and it's all open-ended so you can move around at your own pace which is surprising considering the floor is lava and let's be real there's nothing more gratifying than riding a koopa shell over some lava and the puzzle star yeah it's really easy but it's also really freaking cool and you can go into a volcano that alone is freaking awesome 4. tiny huge island seeing the best theme from mario bros 3 be brought into the 3d landscape was and still is such a treat you can easily switch from the tiny or huge island by just jumping into a pipe and the stars are even better you'll go from whacking up a gang of plants the ground pounding water and tiny islands so you can switch to huge island to fight wiggler and even the red coins have their own destined area my only real gripe is that it's really easy to die in a tiny island but otherwise this course is fantastic three cool cool mountain this is one of the more creative snow levels nintendo's come up with i mean you can go into a chimney and race a giant penguin down a slide and the slide even has a nifty little shortcut for extra variety and speaking of variety the stars are so creative in this stage you'll find a baby penguin and return it to a mama guide a snowball into another snowball and even find this hidden area under the level for a star the only drawback is that it's so vertically built it's not super easy to travel anywhere at any time but there is a teleport that will easily take you to the top or bottom as well as this owl in this tree 2. wet dry world this is such an interesting stage because it lets you control the water now i've made it very clear that i don't like the water levels but since you have the power to raise and lower it that changes the whole ballpark most of the stars can be completed without using the water at all and the only time you have to go through it is in this small tube section to reach the town and that's it and my god the town section is a breath of fresh air you're encouraged to hop around all the buildings and grab the red coins and it's satisfying running on the roofs like some parkour mad lad the only issue i have is that you really can't go back and forth from the main area or the town but the town is used so sparingly that it hardly matters 1. bob home battlefield this is no surprise considering this is the most memorable 3d mario level of all time bobbum battlefield personifies what makes mario 64 so special you know you have a winner when you have fun doing literally nothing but running around you've of course got the giant chain chomp the water balls that crash onto the field the koopa shell you can ride around in in the king bo bomb himself every star is a ton of fun to collect except maybe getting 100 coins but at least that is a great way to learn how to use the wing cap it was really nice going back and playing through all these levels and really piecing together what makes them so great or so crappy so let me know down below what you think the best and worst levels are and why thank you guys so much for watching and i hope you have a great day until next time [Music]

Channel: Nathaniel Bandy

Views: 541,992

Keywords: Super Mario 64 DS, Super Mario 64, Ranking Mario games, Super Mario 64 DS without mario, Ranked Mario, Super Mario, sm64, sm64 ds, nathaniel bandy, nintendo, nintendo ds, nintendo switch

Id: skfiFGhqcHQ

Length: 13min 26sec (806 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 10 2019