Food For Thought: Super Mario 3D All Stars (Super Mario 64) - Review

I'll be honest. I've never actually played Super Mario 64, nor have I had any interest to. I can understand and appreciate how revolutionary the game was at the time, but it's not something I'd have gone out of my way to play. When the Super Mario 3D All Stars collection was announced to have SM64 included, I knew this would finally be my time to play. We've compiled a few mindless mumblings about the game if you'd like to hear our thoughts on it, but they do contain minor spoilers if you're like me and haven't player before.

To get it out of the way, no widescreen support is disappointing. I'm not game developer, but from what I've seen online, adding widescreen support shouldn't have been too hard. That aside, the controls feel clunky, but that's probably due to me never having played the game before. I'm sure had I played this when it first came out they'd feel very natural. 

Being able to jump into a game that lets you get started without hitting you with thousands of tutorials was very welcoming. There are also many Power Stars that were obscure, and left me wondering how the hell would a kid back then have figured that out. I guess back in the day a tonne of people would've been playing this, and it would have spready by word-of-mouth. The non-linearity of the game is something that I also miss in the modern era of gaming. 

The music is good though, which makes the music player all the more enjoyable. Especially being the first time I've played this game, I've heard remixes of these songs through other means, like Smash, so it's very nice to hear a song and think to myself "oh yeah, I've heard this before". Plus, now I finally understand the origins of the green ! block turning you into metal in Super Smash Bros.

I've never been one to 100% games, and there really wasn't anything to pull me towards doing that here. I just went to each world, dabbled in them for the experience, grabbed myself a few stars, and moved on. I found myself often needing to take a break, and would often end up putting it down for longer than I was playing. Going back to playing an older game I've never experienced, whilst being used to modern controls certainly was a challenge, but the more I played, the more I managed to get a grip of the gameplay

Maybe what made this so hard to play and enjoy is my love for Sunshine and Galaxy. Both those games I have very fond memories, an distinctively remember playing and enjoying. It's very possible that since Super Mario 64 hasn't really clicked for me, it's hindered my enjoyment because I know the next two games are going to be much more enjoyable, if nostalgia isn't causing delusion. In saying that, it's very nice to finally see where it all started.

Did I enjoy it? Not as much as I'd like to. Did I appreciate it for what it was? Yes. I can understand back when this came out how revolutionary it would have been, but having never played it before, trying to play it with such janky and outdated controls wasn't a pleasant experience. I'm incredibly thankful that I've been able to play a game I've heard so many good things about, though, I just wish I could have experienced it during its heyday.

Tune in next time, where we'll discuss our thoughts on Super Mario Sunshine! As always, be sure to follow us over on Twitter and Tumblr, as well as considering supporting us on Patreon if you're able to, your help and support goes a long way! Feel free to join our discord server too!

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