Execution: The Second Super Mario 3D All-Stars Discussion
Super Mario 3D All-Stars: The Use of Emulation and Tainting the Reputation of Beloved Games
12/5/20
DISCLAIMER: This is the second of a couple of essays I'm doing about this game and the morality behind it and games like it.
When "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" was first announced at a full retail price f 60 dollars, it's completely fair that people would have expected nothing but the best. These three wondrous games have a nearly impossible legacy to fulfill, which leaves so much to be desired in a remaster right from the get-go. However, when people actually discovered what these games were set to be, they were absolutely shocked. This all started on September 12th with the Nintendo of America series it feels like only I watch: "Nintendo Minute with Kit and Krysta". At 57 seconds into the YouTube video, we get our first look at the menu. Naturally, fans probably expected something grand and huge as a true celebration for Mario's big anniversary. Though, we received a small blurb about each games, their release dates, and their soundtracks (image pictured above, and for it without text, visit the first "Image sources" link). I've seen many hardcore Nintendo fans compare this to 20th anniversary collection for the Wii, which is a pretty cool example. It came packed with some of the best Kirby games out there, and even though all of these games could likely be emulated for free at the time, it still felt worth it. You also received an expansive menu screen filled with unique and some never-before-seen franchise memorabilia and behind the scenes content. All of this was great, and it had fans antsy for "3D All-Stars". Though, even after the horribly boring and poor menu screen was revealed, all that really mattered were the quality of the games themselves.
The execution of "Super Mario 64" was subpar at absolute best. They left the aspect ratio at its original 4:3 ratio, and could only upscale the game to 720p for the Switch in docked mode, running in its native frame rate of 30fps. This is truly remorseful, but it's understandable that it might have been really difficult to upscale a game from 240p to HD and put it into widescreen. Even with the billions of dollars Nintendo has, it would have still been a bit too hard for them. It still wasn't hard for fans, however, seeing as people with virtually zero resources, no budget to work with perhaps over a few hundred dollars, and teams generally consisting of only one person could get the game running at unbelievable specs. There are multiple ports being sold for completely free where "Super Mario 64" is running in widescreen and 4k at 60fps on PC (this footage can be found in the second "Image sources" link). People like these diehard fans realized the legacy of this beloved title that shaped gaming history like its franchise predecessors before it. They want a younger audience of teenagers with gaming PCs to be able to experience their childhood magic in specs that appealed to them on hardware they owned. This should have been Nintendo's mindset going into "Super Mario 3D All-Stars", but they just wanted to rip you off. Nintendo has their new and well-selling platform to port older experiences onto, and the least they could do to pay tribute to these old classic games through their anniversary. They could have truly aimed to celebrate the legacy of these beloved titles, but then they go on to pull bullshit like the "Super Mario 64" release.
As many people up-to-date with recent gaming news may know, many fans are completely outraged about the recent remake of "XIII". This was a cult classic game released in 2003, and the remake was put out just about a month ago. While the recent adaptation of "Super Mario Sunshine" was not nearly as much of a total shit show, I compare these two because they are both cult classics in their own respects. "Super Mario Sunshine" was released on a pretty niche system with a very dedicated fanbase. It's specific and strange "F.L.U.D.D." gimmick and its strange story and setting while still taking place in the Mario universe was probably something to behold at the time. Alas, the game was always looked down on for being a barrage of technical glitches and frustrations, so an HD remaster may have been the most anticipated of the bunch to many. This version did remove a lot of those technical glitches, and, despite capping at 30fps, was still scaled to a widescreen with a crisp 1080p resolution. Sadly enough, what got screwed up in this port were the controls. Many fans speculated and wondered about how the GameCube's analog triggers would translate over to the Switch which lacked this feature. In other ports, it may not have been nearly as much of a problem, but these triggers were how the main movement operated with your water-blasting jetpack. Across the internet, it was clear that this was probably the most hyped out of all the games due to its cult classic reputation and its uniqueness in the mainline Mario series. Though, such poor execution drove potential newcomers like myself completely away from this pack. These old fans must be itching to introduce their favorite unique games to a new generation, just like "64", but for different reasons. I could have been one of those people, and if these controls were not so messed up, I would have been there right away to pick up this game at its full retail price. Sadly, though, I guess I'll have to wait until the dumb-asses and Nintendo can get their shit together and show their IPs some respect.
Finally, we come to "Super Mario Galaxy"; considered to be one of the greatest games of all time, like the others yet not to the same extent. This was a game designed around a much more linear approach to its level design to compensate for the Wii's sub-par hardware. Like the "Sunshine" release, the controls were also screwed up greatly. Of course, with any Wii game, Nintendo used to like to shove the console's gimmick in your face constantly, and the same is true for "Galaxy". Throughout the game, you collect these small things called Star Bits exclusively with the Wii remote's pointer controls. This is utilized through the separated joy-cons' pointed controls in that respective mode, but apparently this is a nightmare with the Pro Controller. In handheld mode, you are also forced to take your fingers off the buttons and out of the action this game offers to swipe to collect the Star Bits. However, despite this large hiccup, the game runs at a crisp 1080p and 60fps throughout, and the experience looks absolutely wonderful. If these controls were somehow fixed, the "Galaxy" port here would have been a shining example to set for the other two games in the collection and all 6th and 7th generation game ports to come.
It should not need to be stated again that "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" was an undoubtably half-assed effort. Fans of Kirby received some amazing games when they were blessed so much with their 20th anniversary collection. Though, no Kirby game has probably ever lived up to the sheer amount of hype and love that these three Mario games carry. I'll save more of these points for my next discussion which focuses more on the game's release, but for now I'll just call this whole pack a scam and a rip-off. No shame to you if you are having a lot of fun with this pack, I'm just here to channel my very personal outrage. In conclusion, us fans were never justified with an answer to where "Super Mario Galaxy 2" was in this collection. However, some speculate it didn't show up here because it was set to be another full-priced 60 dollar game treated as a Wii U port. It would be upscaled just like "Galaxy", but hopefully with better control mapping. There are just over 20 buttons on the Switch controller, so I still don't understand how a team of professionals couldn't squeeze the god damned stupid-ass Wii remote button placement into this system. Nonetheless, if more content is added with fixed controls and the quality of the "Galaxy" remaster, we could be looking at something great that will spit in the puny little eyes of "3D All-Stars". For now though, we wait in vein. Gobbling up shit fed to us by corporate pigs that continues to go bad in our brains. Spending each day knowing that we will inevitably scrap it for the absolute trash that it is when we become able and allowed to shop for something better at the grocery store of the future.
Image sources (in order):
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