In the transition from Nintendo 64 to Nintendo DS, Nintendo have added a few extra elements to keep the game fresh and entertaining. One of the largest inclusions for the game is the recreation room.
The recreation room features a bundle of mini games that are played entirely using the stylus. Most of the time these mini games act as a show pony for exactly what the Nintendo DS is capable of. The only feature that the recreation room doesn't take advantage of is the microphone.
At times we find ourselves having more fun in the recreation room than in the adventure mode, so we thought we'd give our readers a run-down of the initial games which can be found upon booting up Mario 64 DS.
More mini games can be unlocked by finding rabbits which are scattered and hidden throughout the adventure mode. This is more of an incentive to breeze through adventure mode than you would think.
Each character has a set of mini games which relate to them.
Yoshi:
Wanted:
Wanted is a sort of 'Where's Wally' mini game where players are shown a picture of who they have to track down. Once the player has tracked down the character (it is either Yoshi, Mario, Luigi or Wario) they tap the screen to unveil the player. As the game progresses it becomes harder to see the wanted character, until eventually it just feels impossible.
Loves Me...?
This mini "game" is definitely one of the worst of the selection. We'll let the description inform you of how to play it: "Play this mini-game for advice on your love life! Pluck the petals to find out how your crush feels about you." After playing this, we'd much rather go outside and pick a real flower.
Mario:
Mario's Slides:
The object of this game is to guide Mario down the slides to the star. This is done by drawing lines in between the pipes to guide him to the star. It becomes progressively harder as a lot of lines cover the screen until the next level.
Bounce and Pounce:
Three Marios are in free fall as they transition from screen to screen. The object of this mini game is to tap the Marios to keep them floating, however the goal is also to make the Marios hit the Shy Guys. There are three Shy Guys on each level and three Marios on each level. This is a pretty good mini game but it becomes repetitive quite quickly.
Luigi:
Memory Match:
Who doesn't remember Memory? Pick the two matching cards to make them disappear. Clearing all the cards wins the game. This is just as exciting as Memory was all those years ago, that is to say that it isn't that exciting.
Pair-A-Gone:
This is a bit more of a complicated mini-game. The object is to touch two identical cards that are connected vertically, horizontally or diagonally. This game takes a bit of getting used to but is actually quite clever.
Wario:
Bob-omb Squard
Considering Wario has a mini game collection coming out next month, it would be fair to assume that he will have the best mini games. This is a fair assumption as it is clear that Wario in fact does have the best mini-games. Bob-omb square is a great mini-game where you use a slingshot and the stylus to know the bob-ombs out of the air. It's very simple and very addictive.
Snowball Slalom:
This has got to be the hardest mini game out of the initial lot. Players guide the snowball down a mountain avoiding rocks and things which slow the snowball down. They are limited by the time, and this is a very difficult game but very cleverly done.
So this wraps up the mini-games that are accessible in Super Mario 64 DS from the beginning. There are plenty more to be unlocked which help to detract from the Adventure mode. Stay tuned to PALGN for more information on Super Mario 64 DS and the Nintendo DS in the coming weeks.
All of our preview scores are out of 5. This is a score based on what we've seen or played of the title and should be taken only as an indication as to how the title is coming along. Please bear in mind the score could change when the title is reviewed.
Damn Nintendo and their GBA Mario rereleases...
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