It was the year 2005: let’s review the dinosaur’s 3D protagonist debut with a retro-review of Super Mario 64 DS in the Month of Yoshi
After the complete frenzy that was Yoshi’s Story, our pre-Easter initiative of the Mese di Yoshi takes us back to April 2005, when issue 38 of Nintendo Official Magazine hosted the review Of Super Mario 64 DS. Awarded at the time with a 9 by Roberto “Magiustra” Magistretti himself who today plays in the ranks of Ubisoft Milano, this remake still makes fans discuss. There are two main “factions” among fans of the Nintendo mascot: a clear majority for whom the original Nintendo 64 is superior in every respect, and the remaining few, which include yours truly.
Let’s be clear: the portability of the Nintendo Switch has made it possible for us to (ahem, more officially and legitimately) toss around the 1996 original, whether it’s via 3D All-Stars or via Nintendo Switch Online. However, the absence of an analog lever is still cited as the reason to torpedo the game by default. When this special is released, the Nintendo 3DS eShop (which happens to be backwards compatible and has an analog stick) will remain open for a few more hours. If you are looking for a title to be absolutely recovered in physical format, you have found it, because the best incarnation of the great classic is still this. Oh yeah, and there’s Yoshi. Here it is if there is.
Nintendo’s secret garden seeks a new green-thumbed caretaker – Month of Yoshi: Super Mario 64 DS retro review
Those who criticize Super Mario 64 DS solely on the basis of a “regressed” control style to the fusion of digital cross and run button will not find in this review the echo chamber they hoped for, starting from precisely what gives it a specific place in the pantheon of the Month of Yoshi. The remake, conceived in development as Super Mario 64×4 (in conjunction with the provisional shell of the first model), it was immediately proposed to expand the original game. Leaving aside the fact that it is “now” usable too in Italian for anyone who needs it, the news is not missing at all.
The expansion of the playable cast to Mario, Luigi, Wario and Yoshi was just the tip of the iceberg. Not for this, however, we find ourselves without an already excellent starting point: the quartet, in addition to sharing the powers of Mario’s caps in the original adventure with the newborn Fiore Potenza, boast different skills. However, while Luigi enjoys long and far jumps (plus a back flip with which to glide in a way not unlike Spyro’s little dragon) and Wario limits himself to little jumping and hard stomping, in Yoshi’s case things are much, much more interesting . There must be a reason why the fourth stop of the month happens with this game!
The whisker, the thin, the fat and the sorrel – Month of Yoshi: Super Mario 64 DS retro review
Forgive us if we put the plot aside for a second, although as in the original we are talking more about a mere narrative pretext. Again, Peach (signing his letter with the same ambivalence as between Dr. Robotnik and Dr. Eggman, in this case opting for the former official name Princess Toadstool) invites Mario to the castle for a piece of cake. However, Luigi and Wario also arrive, while Yoshi sleeps placidly on the roof. He is woken up by the cameraman, a benevolent Lakitu: the others have not yet returned. That’s right, for the first time in a platformer from the flagship series Mario is a character to unlock!
The first abundant hour of gameplay is lived with Yoshi, which for the occasion boasts of moves much more faithful to its original adventures than Wario can say. Stop us if you’ve heard it before: Yoshi can stretch his jumps, swallow enemies, and turn them into eggs to throw. The egg to take with you this time is only one, sure, and the game aims at the closest enemy rather than forcing a floating crosshair. All right. The non-negligible fact remains that, however, in its ingenuity the game is proposed as a spiritual sequel (and polygonal, as well as with a much more open level design) of Yoshi’s Island without the player’s knowledge. And sorry if it’s little, damn it!
I Can’t Remember This One – Yoshi Month: Super Mario 64 DS Retro Review
Getting familiar with Yoshi and, let’s face it, even with decidedly prettier 3D models than what we saw in 1996, the player finds something new even after the first Stars obtained. Like every collectathon respecting itself, the game plans to explore every nook and cranny of the levels and the hub from which to access each of them. And the original virtual “dollhouse”, Peach’s Castle, immediately shows its aces up its sleeve in what was once only the access tower for the secret slide. Now we have nothing less than a bedroom, including a wardrobe in which to switch places with the kidnapped characters and access to many new minigames.
As for the contents related to the hard and pure gameplay, the remake has added thirty more Stars to add to the original 120. And with them, new levels also find their place, such as the Sunny Islands with which to reproduce the background music of Delfinia. Not to mention a scenario entirely dedicated to Goomboss, or the platformer debut of the Goomba King already seen in Paper Mario. There are plenty of ideas like this, and between the Super Mushroom that precedes 3D Land and 3D World outside of side-scrolling and Luigi’s croupier minigames at the Red Sands casino, the game seems more an encyclopedic celebration of the mustache than a “simple” port.
One more time and then I stop – Month of Yoshi: Super Mario 64 DS retro review
There were three games that the Big N accompanied to “school” in its first year of life. The first was what we’re talking about today; the second was Yoshi Touch & Go, a failed tech demo that we’ll probably talk about next Sunday. The third, though, was WarioWare: Touched!, whose definition of “Trojan Horse” by Nintendo The Official Magazine we decided to borrow it for Get it Together!. And it is with Touched! that we would like to make a comparison. The potential of the touch screen and microphone was better explored in a game designed specifically for this, but there is a “but”.
By capturing the various rabbits, whose color coding tells us which character is predestined to catch them, it is possible to obtain keys corresponding to as many minigames. Usually, the diaspora also concerns the themes of the mini-games: Yoshi has the task of indulging in relaxing activities such as “he loves me, he loves me not” with what last week was his health bar, for example. And while Luigi is busy with the cards, Mario is left with the more basic uses of the touch screen. Wario, for his part, was more than happy to steal the show with the best gameplay ideas, as a promotional nod to his series. Two games in oneat least!
Like before, better than before – Yoshi Month: Super Mario 64 DS retro review
Leaving aside the game design delusions that sometimes exasperate the revolutionary sense of wonder that came out of the original game at the time (the red coins and the detestable challenges of the 100 coins in primis), in general physics and inertia of the Nintendo 64 classic have aged poorly. Just for pioneering three-dimensional platformers, of course, the good Super Mario 64 still deserves its throne in lists of the best video games of all time. However, if you give us a layman’s consideration, the remake for Nintendo DS completely outperforms the predecessor in its smoothing out every possible corner.
The use that the player makes of Yoshi sadly leaves the time he finds. By unlocking the other three playable characters, theirs also begin to appear caps, for temporary transformations in them. Resuming the character’s use, save for the occasional Stella requiring his powers (in his case, the Power Flower allows him to breathe fire similar to Island’s red watermelon), is entirely up to the player. A pity for our celebratory intent this month, but one thing must be said outside the pre-Easter context: however challenging it is to become familiar with Mario’s wall jumps, the game manages its learning curve much better than the original.
The portable revolution
Forget for a moment the technical prowess of some Game Boy Advance games like V-Rally 3 and pretend that your first purely polygonal experience on a portable console was on the Nintendo DS. There were two alternatives during the launch period: to demonstrate the potential of new types of input such as touch screens and microphones, or to put gaming experiences unequivocally on par with what was seen on fixed consoles in the pockets of millions of players. And if this was the purpose set by the Kyoto Colossus, the developers have once again hit the mark as they are now accustomed to do.
The first screenshot of the game published on page 36 of that fateful issue of Nintendo Official Magazine for the two-screen console read: “Yoshi, nervous, looks at the castle; Will he be able to live up to his jockey?” And for guiding an entire generation of (non-analogue, but who cares?) upstarts in their first moments with the most successful purely portable console ever, we’d say yes, “the sorrel” did it great. But on the other hand, what we can dedicate to the game are only words, words, words. And titles of this caliber are, and remain, always the same masterpieces.
- Easter Egg: String three “loves me” in a row in the special minigame to hear a jingle familiar to those who know Super Mario Bros. 3 by heart. Wario and Luigi are the only playable cast members not actually featured in the original. Where did we say Yoshi was at the start of the game? Or should we say in the end, if we’re talking about the Nintendo 64 version… if you feel like aiming for 100%, that means…
Now it’s up to you to tell us yours: have you ever tried this phenomenal “new” version? Let us know below, and as always, don’t forget to stay on tuttotek for all the most important news for gamers and more. For your purely gaming needs, you can instead find the best discounts in digital format on Kinguin.