Super Mario 3D All-Stars | Nintendo Switch | Out Now | Only Available for Purchase until 31/03/21

I never played more than 30 odd stars on a borrowed wii of galaxy, and am sure it would still be a treat to play. But I did find the spin attack default a bit of a momentum killer compared to the belly dive of 64 and Sunshine. Though I do appreciate galaxy's bite sized planet puzzles lend themselves more to up-and-land platforming instead of the forward propulsion and momentum of careening around worlds like in the other games.

That's all my contribution, sorry. But that hang-time curl-up from belly to running again is one of the coolest things in 64! Perhaps even better than the elastic bounce forward of sunshine and the hat boing and bounce and roll of odyssey. I still miss it!

OrangeRKN wrote:
Jenuall wrote:I get what you are saying but at the same time the only other time Nintendo have released a compendium of older Mario titles, the only other time they invoked the "All Stars" name we got ... graphically remastered versions of all the games it contained!

Yeah, and they looked worse

Wrong YET AGAIN

Menu system 7:33

Galaxy 2 chat after too saying about the song in the clip is from G2 not 1

Got the “your order has reached our warehouse” email from ShopTo.

Mafro wrote:Got the “your order has reached our warehouse” email from ShopTo.

Same, I wonder if it could arrive Thursday?

Anyone had a dispatch email yet?

ITSMILNER wrote:
Mafro wrote:Got the “your order has reached our warehouse” email from ShopTo.

Same, I wonder if it could arrive Thursday?

Me too

Karl_ wrote:
OrangeRKN wrote:
Jenuall wrote:I get what you are saying but at the same time the only other time Nintendo have released a compendium of older Mario titles, the only other time they invoked the "All Stars" name we got ... graphically remastered versions of all the games it contained!

Yeah, and they looked worse

Wrong YET AGAIN

There's almost no contest. The NES version is cleaner, bolder, more readable and more consistent, while the SNES version appears overly busy, overly shaded and loses the cartoon theatre aesthetic. SMB3 is one of the best looking NES games and still looks great today, which is testament to its visuals. The all-stars version however looks like Super Mario World of all things

I refuse to believe there’s any way the original Super Mario Bros. can be made to look worse that it did. (Less sure about SMB3.) Yes it’s iconic. Yes I still have a warm fuzzy feel when that Mario sprite turns up in later games. Yes it looks bobbins in this day and age.

(On Nintendo hardware, anyway. Don’t show me the Amiga version or whatever.)

Anyway the game in question here was early-days N64 (shonky polygons < clean sprites) and therefore definitely could and should look better today, unless we’re considering this solely as a history piece in which case it shouldn’t be going for £50 IMVHO.

ITSMILNER wrote:
Mafro wrote:Got the “your order has reached our warehouse” email from ShopTo.

Same, I wonder if it could arrive Thursday?

Controversial opinion time:

I don't like the early Mario games :shifty:

Never got on or finished smb, smb 2 I finished on the gameboy advance and it's probably my favourite of those. I've tried and failed to get through smb3 many times, but I just don't rate it really. The music is great, but I don't find the game amazing like I'm supposed to. Smw is where I start to think they're great. I'd put yoshis island on the snes as my favourite of the Mario platformers.

Then there's the nsmb series :dread:

I’d agree with all of that! I think there’s one properly good game on current standards out of the non-SNES 2D Marios (NSMBU - maybe Mario Land 2?). Granted I never got far enough in SMB3 to form an opinion.

The art for the NSMB series isn't great, but the games themselves are really good platformers.

They’re solid, I’d say. Apart from NSMBWii which is the only one I never finished. The balancing towards multiplayer meant the levels felt deeply unsatisfying for me on my tod.

OrangeRKN wrote:
Karl_ wrote:
OrangeRKN wrote:
Jenuall wrote:I get what you are saying but at the same time the only other time Nintendo have released a compendium of older Mario titles, the only other time they invoked the "All Stars" name we got ... graphically remastered versions of all the games it contained!

Yeah, and they looked worse

Wrong YET AGAIN

There's almost no contest. The NES version is cleaner, bolder, more readable and more consistent, while the SNES version appears overly busy, overly shaded and loses the cartoon theatre aesthetic. SMB3 is one of the best looking NES games and still looks great today, which is testament to its visuals. The all-stars version however looks like Super Mario World of all things

The SNES version is cuter! It looks soft and fluffy.

Balladeer wrote:I refuse to believe there’s any way the original Super Mario Bros. can be made to look worse that it did. (Less sure about SMB3.) Yes it’s iconic. Yes I still have a warm fuzzy feel when that Mario sprite turns up in later games. Yes it looks bobbins in this day and age.

You're right that SMB is more iconic than it is actually good looking from a pure aesthetic standpoint, especially with the almost proto-pixel art character and enemy sprites, but SMB's great visual strength is in it's simplicity. The odd cloud and bush aside (and it's the same sprite anyway!), there are no non-course elements causing any visual distraction in the game. The game is one obstacle course after another, and that's exactly what it looks like it is. You can see a screen of SMB and know within milliseconds exactly where to go and what to do which makes it superbly reactable and playable as a platformer. Every element is well defined and recognisable. I could find you examples of games with busy screens and background elements that obscure the playable and distract the player, and all of these I would probably say look worse because the visuals end up detracting from the gameplay. Of course there are many games that are well designed and do complex visuals well so they don't suffer that problem (or even use visual "confusion" to their advantage!) but that's not what SMB does - SMB doesn't run into those problems by virtue of avoiding them almost entirely. The all-stars version I think compromises itself for introducing a business to the screens with no discernible advantage to doing so, and that's partly why the original still remains as iconic as it. You can put that opening 1-1 block layout in any game with any variety of art style and superfluous background elements and it will still recognisably be 1-1, because the visuals and the level design of SMB are one and the same.

Balladeer wrote:Anyway the game in question here was early-days N64 (shonky polygons < clean sprites) and therefore definitely could and should look better today, unless we’re considering this solely as a history piece in which case it shouldn’t be going for £50 IMVHO.

I think the 35 year anniversary does lend itself to seeing this as a history piece, and I think the high price is a fair criticism!

Balladeer wrote:I’d agree with all of that! I think there’s one properly good game on current standards out of the non-SNES 2D Marios (NSMBU - maybe Mario Land 2?). Granted I never got far enough in SMB3 to form an opinion.

I think 3 still stands up well today, though I do tend to find that most 8-bit games really struggle by modern standards. It blows my mind that they managed to extract SMB3 from the NES, in all honesty.

Warioland on the gameboy was amazing too.

Mario Maker 2 actually has an excellent single player campaign if you count that :shifty:

Just had a shipping confirmation from Shopto. Told my kids I was considering putting this away until Christmas but there is no way I've got that level of self control.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars | Nintendo Switch | Out Now | Only Available for Purchase until 31/03/21

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