To celebrate the launch of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo has recreated Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo DS, as the flagship title for the DS's launch. PALGN has had the opportunity to go "hands-on" with the adventure mode in Super Mario 64 DS - and it rocks.
Those of you looking for an original Mario title are going to have to wait until Nintendo releases their new Mario platformer in late 2005, but Super Mario 64 DS is just as fun as it was back in 1996. It is hard to believe that Super Mario 64 is nine years old already - while playing the game it still feels just as fresh as it did all those years ago.
For those of you who are uninformed, Mario 64 DS centres around the character Yoshi, as he tries to save Mario, Wario and Luigi who have been trapped in the different levels. Each level contains objectives and by completing the objective players earn themselves a star. Thus, the overall objective of the game is complete all the objectives, unlock all the levels and defeat Bowser once and for all (snigger).
This is a pretty straight forward formula. If we had to criticise it, it would be that the game can be a little repetitive, and it can often be difficult working out how to capture that next elusive star. However, Super Mario 64 DS is still one of the best platformers ever and this version includes extra additions which make it better than the Nintendo 64 version.
New levels have been added to the game which means there are now more stars to unlock which ensures that this game takes one hell of a challenge to completely finish. Some of the levels have also been enhanced to take advantage of the Nintendo DS's touch-screen capabilities.
There is one huge drawback of the Nintendo DS version that plagues the entire game. Super Mario 64 had ideal controls because it used an analog stick. Using a directional pad to control Mario just isn't as good as using an analog pad. From the very beginning of the development of the DS hardware it should have been obvious to Nintendo to include an analog stick.
However, the game looks great, and at times it actually looks better than its Nintendo 64 counterpart. Stay tuned to PALGN for a review of Super Mario 64 DS on February 24th.
Also the strap gets in my way 
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