Is Mario’s 35th anniversary collection worth the price?
Play three of Mario’s greatest 3D platform adventures—all in one package. Play three classic games at home or on the go—all in one package on the Nintendo Switch system! Jump into paintings in Super Mario 64™, clean up paint-like goop in Super Mario Sunshine, and fly from planet to planet in Super Mario Galaxy.
The rumour that Mario’s 3D adventures were coming to Switch started quite early this year and while we got Mario 64, Sunshine and Galaxy…fans were expecting another game to be part of the mix, Galaxy 2. Now why that isn’t included is a bit of a mystery but that’s for another day. Today, let’s take a look at the Italian Plumber’s 35th anniversary collection…
Super Mario 64 has been given higher resolutions but isn’t full-screen, despite this it still looks and runs great. Mario 64 was always the most frustrating of the 3 games for me, but I still managed to nab all 120 stars in a few days. It’s definitely the most historic of the 3 since it was Mario’s first 3D adventure and while I would have liked to see a full on remake using the engine from Odyssey, I was still pleased to go through Mario’s 3D debut once again.
Super Mario Sunshine is one of my GameCube highlights, though I never actually managed to gather all the Shine Sprites before. A task that I undertook for this review and eventually gathered all 120, alongside all 240 blue coins to get them. This was no small task, I even printed off a comprehensive checklist for everything so I didn’t miss a thing. Sunshine got a HD update, better textures and widescreen support. It still runs at 30FPS and it did slow down a few times during chases with Shadow Mario, but it’s still a decent effort overall.
Super Mario Galaxy is in my top 5 games of all time and I have completed it in the past and am currently working my way though getting the remaining stars with Luigi. This got the same HD treatment as Sunshine and is definitely the better looking and performing of the 3 games. Control schemes for this vary depending on how you play…the pointer will be moved through the gyro if you are docked with either the Joy-con or Pro Controller.
Handheld users will have to use the touch-screen to use the pointer to shoot/collect star bits and to grab on to things like the blue stars, while gyro controls work for the specific twist/tilt stages that used the Wii Remote more. It can be a bit of a hassle but it’s still playable and definitely worth the effort.
3D All Stars also comes with hundreds of Mario songs to play in the menu, which is a nice touch. I’m not entirely sure why the game is limited till the end of March and I doubt we’ll get answers anytime soon though, but I would love to see Galaxy 2 get added as DLC or even standalone. You know Nintendo fans will pay anything for that, I know I will.
The Verdict
So, Super Mario 3D All-Stars isn’t quite the full on remakes that some were hoping for, but I tell you that it’s still a steal at the price. I’ve had so much fun going through these that I’ve lost track of time over the past few weeks…what’s today? Like I said, it’s superb value and while they might have been able to add more or do more to the existing versions, it’s still worthy of being part of your Switch library. Happy Birthday Mario, here’s to 35 more!