Playing three games spanning more than a decade is a strange experience. Playing them all a full 13 years after the last one released makes it a little stranger. It’s also decidedly the way Nintendo likes to do things. They’ve doubled and tripled down on re-releasing their first-party content in recent years. However, even though I hadn’t previously completed any of these games, it felt like there was a missed opportunity in not remaking (or at least solidly remastering) some of them. Yet, even in their original state, the games in Super Mario 3D All-Stars hold up as well as any game could.
Super Mario 64
The originator of the 3D Mario path is undeniably one of the roughest to play. The visuals are only a small part of the problem though. Despite being hamstrung by very limited draw distance, low resolution all around, pop-in issues, and the general