Super Mario 3D All-Stars

The collection as a whole might not bring much to the table beyond the games it transfers to a newer console in better shape than before, but when the games are this good that is enough.

It goes without saying that these classic Mario titles hold up extremely well. Each one is still fantastic and even Mario 64 manages to remain fun without feeling outdated aside from its slightly wonky camera. Neither Sunshine or Galaxy have seen official re-releases since their debut in most countries and Super Mario 64 only had a mediocre virtual console port that was generally hated due to severe input lag. It's fantastic to have all three of these now available on Switch and they absolutely hold up. It's a huge disappointment that at the time of this review Nintendo has said that this coll...

The release of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy on Nintendo Switch is a great way to bring the cult and genre-defining platformers to the generation of players who haven't even been born 25 years ago.

After replaying these classic 3D Mario entries, there is little doubt that Nintendo knows how to make 3D platformers, and that Mario is and always will be fun. It is disappointing that Nintendo chose not to update the titles in Super Mario 3D All-Stars for 2020, as some of the blemishes in the design of the three games are made more obvious so many years after their initial releases. That being said, the games are still excellent, with Super Mario Galaxy feeling like a perfect game. Additionally, the nostalgia of childhood gaming will likely allow players to look right past any small hiccup, a...

All three of these games are representative of why Super Mario is such a great series. Though the ports for 64 and Sunshine have a few flaws, Galaxy feels absolutely perfect on the Switch.

Despite its minimal trimmings, Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a worthwhile collection of some of the plumber's most memorable adventures.

The three games it encompasses are fantastic, so Mario 3D All Stars is still worth buying. However, Nintendo is, ultimately, coasting off of the back of some amazing work it did more than a decade ago to sell what is ultimately a disappointingly barebones, facile celebration of gaming’s most important icon who truly deserves better.

As someone who had never played Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, or Super Mario Galaxy, I couldn’t have been more excited when Nintendo announced Super Mario 3D All-Stars, a collection of the three titles for Nintendo Switch. Finally playing them, I understood how someone could revere a game like Super Mario 64 in 1996 as something revolutionary.

On the whole, Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a decent collection. It doesn’t try to impress with extra features or fancy padding; it simply puts three games from the past in a simple collection for old fans to enjoy. But without even the slightest of tweaks aside from a resolution boost, Super Mario 64 is painful to play. Sunshine and Galaxy, on the other hand, are a joy to revisit, but they’re still a pretty hard sell when the superior-in-every-way Super Mario Odyssey is much more readily available.

With almost no extras and very little tweaking of the games for the Switch this just isn’t quite what I’d hoped for.

As a collection, I would be remiss if I didn't note that Nintendo could do better. Outside of the music player, this feels like a bare bones package that doesn't really go in-depth into the history behind these games or offer any other fun extras for fans. On top of that, the optimizations don't go as far as one would hope they would. Super Mario 64 not being upped to a full 16x9 widescreen presentation is disappointing. Sunshine's visuals look rough and it even has some performance hitches in places. Both Mario 64 and Sunshine don't have an option to invert analog stick controls, which is jus...

Much like an actual 35th birthday party (I assume), Super Mario 3D All-Stars just feels a little halfhearted. It bundles together three great platformers, all of which benefit from the bump up to HD resolutions, and Nintendo have done well to adapt the varying controls to suit the Nintendo Switch, but there's a squandered opportunity to enhance and go beyond this in a meaningful way. Maybe Nintendo are saving themselves for the big five-oh in 2035?