Sunday 14 Jun 2009

Super Mario 64 was a landmark in console gaming: it heralded in the new era of 3D and set the gold standard for all future 3D platformers. So when Nintendo needed a game to launch their new experimental handheld which had roughly the same computational power as the N64, they turned to the classic. The resulting game, Super Mario 64 DS, remains a fantastic game, but the lack of an analogue stick means the quality of the controls is not quite up to the standard of the original.

The Plot

Princess Peach has been captured by Bowser.

The gameplay

Having got the story out the way, (and please accept our apologies for the spoiler), we take control of Mario in his attempt to find Bowser and jump on his head or throw him off a big platform by the tail. To start with we get to run around in the gardens of Peach’s castle, a risk-free area in which to get used to the controls. The camera follows Mario around as we control him with the directional pad, jumping with A and running by holding down B. Once he runs into the castle, we discover that the various paintings on the walls are gateways to other worlds, worlds that inexplicably have a bunch of power stars which have the power to unlock doors in Peach’s castle. Each unlocked door leads to more worlds which have more stars which unlock more doors. It’s probably the world’s most advanced security system, and the amount of effort required to open each door would hardly be worth it if the prize weren’t the Princess herself. Bowser is behind some door deep in the castle, so if we’re going to jump on his head we’d best get star-collecting!

The worlds are highly varied: lava and volcanoes, ice floes, desert sands, grassy knolls, the inner workings of clocks, underwater caves, hilly hills, ghost houses and more. There are 15 worlds in total and several stars in each. Some stars are straightforward to collect with the game guiding you where to go, while others require a detailed exploration of everything with the only clue being the brief description given at the beginning of the stage. After playing Super Mario Galaxy with its superb guidance system I found Super Mario 64 DS a little lacking in help. The only way I could ever find all the stars (and there are stacks of them, with a whole bunch more than the original game) is to seek the help of a strategy guide, while in Galaxy no such help was required because the game offered clues and generally made things a little less obscure. Some might find this a bonus – less hand-holding you might say – but I find this kind of trial and error searching a little frustrating after a while.

There is a big variety of moves in the game: Mario can run, jump, triple-jump, butt-stomp, long-jump, and with the right power-ups he can float, or even fly. Then there are the other characters you can play as once you’ve found and rescued them: Luigi, who can become invisible and float on water, Wario who can become metal-Wario and walk underwater, and Yoshi who can breathe fire. To collect all the stars you will need to employ all these abilities at the right times, and some stars can only be collected by a particular character because of their special ability.

The action is all displayed on the top screen, while the touch screen is used to show an overhead map and basic camera controls. The original DS came with a DS Wrist Strap that could be used to control Mario via the touch screen, but I found this method both difficult and uncomfortable and after many attempts to master the “nub” I ended up sticking to the D-pad controls. Unfortunately the D-pad only allows for 8 directions of movement, while in 3-D games you often need to move in a slightly off-compass direction. This means sometimes you have to zig-zag a little by pressing forward, then forward and right, then forward, then forward and right. It also means that you fall off platforms more often than you would with an analogue stick, especially as the camera swings around, so it’s not nearly as satisfying a control scheme as the original game had. Nevertheless, it works well enough.

Mini-game fest

Every now and then in the castle, while you’re looking around for pictures to dive into, you come across a cute but annoyingly elusive rabbit. Catching one of these unlocks a mini-game that can be played outside of the main game. Some of these mini-games are remarkably addictive in their own right. They were in fact the most popular thing about the game around my group of friends as each person would pick up the game to see if they could beat the high score at Find Mario (a similar game to Find Mii in Wii Play). There is a good variety of mini-games, with puzzle games, casino card games and racing games included.

Super Mario 64 DS is a well-implemented update of the original classic – the graphics look a little crisper than before, and the content has been beefed up with more characters, more stars, and a great collection of mini-games. The original game was a true masterpiece in its time and the freshness of this portable version goes to show that some games age very well. The only downside is that it the DS game is, in essence, a port of a game that you may have already played on the N64 or on the Wii Virtual Console (albeit with new content those versions don’t have), and it is a port with a worse control system than the original.

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Contributor:	Peter

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