This seems like this is as bare-bones as it could possibly be, and is a limited run for some reason.

So initially a lot of the speculation was how far they would go with the remasters of these games since the rumors started floating around. Would they fix the 64 camera, how nice would the updated graphics look? will Sunshine get revamped to try to fix its numerous terrible issues? would the Galaxy games get a new control scheme? Let's see what happened.

• 64 and Sunshine run at 30 fps
• Both untouched outside of resolution bump, just ROM dumps
• 64 runs at 720p docked & handheld (what?)
• No extra features on any of these games
• Judging by the on-screen cursor, Galaxy still requires motion controls
• Galaxy 2 not included in package
• Full price (60$USD, 80$CND)
• Limited run physical and digital, only available til March 31st 2021

Is this the worst case scenario? I can't see this being done any more poorly. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that this thing is a thrown together, low effort cash grab.

The most imteresting thing about this is the concept of playing Mario Galaxy without fucking motion controls, but it seems like that's not a thing.

Why would this be a limited run thing, even digitally? Why does Nintendo seemingly hate the idea of leveraging their massive back catalog of near universally loved games?

I love how the entire direct pretended like Galaxy 2 doesn’t exist, even at the end when they were showing all the Mario games over the years.

Nintendo will largely give you what you want, but in the worst way possible.

Absolutely absurd

If they're not including Galaxy 2, you still have to emulate it. And if you're doing that, why not do it with all of them? Emulation is always the best shout.

It's another case of Nintendo being tone deaf to what their audience actually wants

This is honestly more baffling to me than the lack of features in the package.

Like, I don't own any of these 3 games anymore so I'm fine with just being able to play them, if not a little disappointed at no visual updates to AT LEAST 64.

But what did Galaxy 2 DO to you Nintendo?

wow digital limitations wtf

Worst case scenario? Hardly. It's a convenient way to play 3 great games, which is really all I expected or wanted.

The lack of Galaxy 2 is a real kick to the balls, though. Best 3D Mario game right there.

Wait, Nintendo are doing time limited digital sales too?

Holy shit that is fucked up. I like to point out that in a world without Nintendo we would never stop clowning on Sony's infrastructure but... I need some tinfoil because there has to be some collusion of "okay, you do this really stupid crap and then our kind of stupid crap will look fine"

Aside from that: I liked what I played of Galaxy. This release is of zero interest to me.

Seems like Nintendo is trying a Disney strategy. Offer classic games for a limited time to drive sales. People are more willing to splurge if the games are only available for a short time.

Disney used to get me to buy old movies this way. Oh no I better Buy Aladdin on DVD now before it gets locked in the vault for another 10 years.

Seriously flabbergasted that this is limited run

@briten: I think the "vault" model makes sense for a physical media world with changing formats, but today? Even Disney has moved away from that stuff w/ the advent of Disney+

This almost makes me wonder if Nintendo might have shelved this if they hadn't felt compelled to follow through after the earlier leaks? Personally I am a fan of doing less to a remake of a game in lieu of risking ruining some of its visual flair in the name of making it appear modern (looking at you, wind waker HD), but the lack of work done to any of these games is pretty uncharacteristic for the company. Like, maybe making it limited release is supposed to give the impression that this isn't on the same caliber as their other remakes/full titles? ...even though it is still a full $60?

I guess this also highlights the fact that nintendo has no ecosystem or mechanism for having classic titles available for anything past the snes. The mario 64 update honestly feels like it could have been included for some nintendo 64 classics launch but they are doing this instead... man this whole thing is a mess

Completely baffled at the limited-time nature of this.

the mario battle royale is also for a limited time :/

The on screen cursor from galaxy is for a 2 player co-op (not a fun way to play btw) so maybe there's still some hope that motion controls aren't a requirement.

And I guess they have that new jukebox feature which is......fine? I'm definitely a mark for this thing, but I totally get the frustration here.

Yeah it's not the ultimate HD remake everyone wanted, but ah well. I actually think that Mario 64 holds up a lot better than most games of that era due to the simplicity of the colors which are a lot easier on the eyes than the muddy, pixelly textures of more "realistic" games from that time.

And I guess with the limited-time idea Nintendo is taking their cue from the "Disney vault", wanting to maintain value for their properties with only limited releases, so that every time the games re-release it's a bigger deal. It's kind of a weird move.

But hell, I know I'll buy this. I have all these games in some form, but they're all on less convenient consoles in another state. Honestly all three of these games are gems that I can't play too many times. I haven't played Mario 64 except on the original N64 release, and there I remember the analog stick controls being a bit fiddly compared to modern Mario, so I hope they smooth that out. Even with the original graphics, if SM64 has the smooth controls of latter-day Mario it will be worth it just for that.

Is this collection worthy of the All-Stars tag?

The original revamped the NES games and in the case of SMB2 Japan fixed some of the gameplay issues.

An unmodified Super Mario Sunshine is not an enticing experience. Even if they just cut out some of the red coin levels and blue coin shines it would be a more appealing prospect.

Galaxy without accounting for motion controls is still mostly playable I reckon, again not great. But the same low effort approach wouldn't work for Galaxy 2. Motion controls are integral to how Yoshi works, to make the game playable on the switch would require a complete overhaul which clearly is way more effort than has gone into this port.

Still I'm definitely getting this, god damn Nintendo nostalgia

Also I think this means we won't be seeing N64, GameCube or Wii games for the Nintendo "On-line Service"

The limited run of this is bizarre, as well as the Galaxy 2 erasure.

I could see that being a DLC add-on at some point, but probably not if they are pulling it from sale in March.

Nintendo gonna Nintendo

Putting the All Stars name on this and doing the absolute bare minimum effort is kind of missing what made that SNES game so cool. Its whole gimmick was playing the original Super Mario Bros but it looking like a SNES game. This idea of showing the leap these consoles have made.

Well that's a bummer. But hey at least I saved $60-ish.

A little shocking, but also kind of a welcome surprise. I haven't owned a Nintendo console since getting burned by the Gamecube, and I'd been saying to myself for most of the year that if this Mario collection were legit then a whole backlog of Mario games plus Breath of the Wild would finally be a good enough excuse to own a second console for the first time in 20 years. Now I can keep on missing out in relative peace.

Why won't Nintendo release Super Mario 64 DS for Switch? It's Super Mario 64 the way it was meant to be played: on a d-pad with Yoshi as the main character.

I doubt that this will remain limited, but in any case I have no interest in picking this up; I already own those games - in fact, I own multiple copies of 64 and have the DS remake as well. My library is not hurting for what's being offered here.

It's a shame that Sunshine is getting sold like this. Maybe I'm assuming too much, but this puts a damper on me entertaining the idea of a Super Mario Sunshine HD (an enhanced remaster along the lines of Wind Waker HD) hitting in the forseeable future. It stands to gain a lot; it's one of the few 3D Mario titles that has clear, isolated flaws that could be addressed by such an effort.

As someone who missed all these games (before the Switch, my last Nintendo device was the SNES) I'm still looking forward to this.

This is a huge bummer but also just extremely confusing? I guess Nintendo was about due for another extremely Nintendo decision, hadn't had one in a while.

Lets put things into perspective quickly.

Activision release THPS 1+2 tomorrow - remade from the ground up with modern visuals, gameplay enhancments, options, online multiplayer. The game is coming out for £40 and will get cheaper over time if you'd like to wait

In 2 weeks time Nintendo release a collection of 3 ports for £50 which will be upscaled by the hardware with minimal tweaks, tweaks so minor that one of the games may not even function at all on the Lite or with a Pro Controller, on a limited digital run where each individual game is likely to GO UP in price once the collections is removed.

Imagine the reaction if Activision did that with Tony Hawk or EA did that with Mass Effect

This is a very Nintendo-like solution.

Seriously, if the entire release is 3 mostly unchanged ROMs where the newest release is from 13 years ago, in what universe is it reasonable to charge more than $30 for this?

I’ll reserve judgment on Super Mario Galaxy 2 until we have more definitive info on just how much the motion controls are still in Galaxy 1 and whether it was possible to include Galaxy 2 for controls reasons or not. Still a real bummer it’s not in there, as Galaxy 2 is probably the 2nd best 3D Mario after Odyssey, but maybe Nintendo had their reasons. Yes, Galaxy 2 is better than Mario 64. Some of those 64 level layouts are terrible (looking at you, shitty cave level where you become Metal Mario).

What a bummer. I have never played either Galaxy game and would love to see them got a real treatment like some other games have gotten recently. I have a Switch Lite also.

While maybe this was said somewhere that i missed.. i believe the limited release is just the physical version of this 3 pack, and that might be because covid is kinda decimating manufacturing. I highly doubt that they would remove a digital sale of this game post march unless they wanted to sell them as individual $20 games.

I also think it is a limited release of the physical versions. That only makes sense. This looks like a solid package, though I wouldn't mind buying just Galaxy. But it would be fun to revisit Mario 64 withouth having to drag another system.

You'd think, but nope.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars will be available as a limited-run retail edition and a digital edition that is available for a limited time until the end of March 2021

Nintendo's monkey paw bullshit this generation is really starting to irk me.

Odds are...the pack with all three games will be limited, and at some point Nintendo will just release the three games separately.

"The packaged version software is a limited-time only production, and the digital version will be a limited-time only release until the end of March 2021."

Lol what?

I've played Mario Sunshine and unless they give me modern twin stick camera control I'll never touch it again.

Limited time release until March 31st because on April 1st they announce the version with Galaxy 2 in it. Then Reggie comes back and punches everyone who bought it in the face and yells "Suck it, nerd!".

hahaha xD

Ooh, golly gee! I've been looking forward to playing updated versions of past 3D Mario games because I don't have a working N64, GameCube or Wii anymore!

*looks through details*

This isn't true. The UK store page and the eShop listing say that Joy-Cons are only needed for multiplayer.

Since Mario 64 DS had multiplayer, I was really hoping this version was going to have local multiplayer. I guess that was a fantasy. I was really excited at the idea of playing Mario 64 with my wife. I've never played Sunshine, so that will be interesting. My wife hasn't played any of these 3, so it will all be new for her.

Man, I was super excited for this and I'm not sure how I could be any more disappointed. I read the limited run as a lack of confidence in the product and a way to create artificial scarcity and a false sense of value.

If this thing wasn't a full $60 I wouldn't be as disgusted; I don't think I would pay any more than $30 for this.

I agree it's a bummer that they aren't doing more to upres/frame rate if they're going to release this for $60. But isn't this exactly what leaked however long ago?

And the limited run stuff really makes me just think you'll be able to buy these piece meal come March. Not that they're getting locked away.

But I'm a sucker who will be buying this day one so take my opinions with a grain of salt.

This is an opportunity for me to finally play 64 and Galaxy. Pity this will 'sell out' within the first day.

I think this reaction has unrealistic expectations. This is a collection, there's absolutely no way they would ever do full on remakes or super extensive remasters of all three of these games and still sell them in one package for $60. At that point, each game probably gets it's own $60 box. Other collections like Spyro and Crash have included full remakes, but this Mario and Nintendo we're talking about. If they were going to put that much effort and money into remaking these games, they would never sell them in a collection for essentially $20 apiece.

The limited run thing is totally bizarre though.

What's in it doesn't bother me. It's three full games, three classics for full whack. Classics that don't need work to them to be playable. I'd still call that a deal on content alone.

I just want the opportunity, as a consumer, to purchase and play these games in a legal fashion (and give literal money where it's due) without the rug being pulled.

Limited run on a digital game is the dumbest thing i have ever heard. Also being that its going to last months i dont understand how this will increase sales as most games make the bulk of their profits upon release. How often are they going to pull this back out of the digital vault and ask new people to buy it?

This is what I mostly play on (my wife has a regular Switch but she plays it handheld 99% of the time unless we are playing co-op with) and I am also wondering if the motion controls are still in Galaxy, how this will work on the Lite? Are we just boned? I mean, the package is so disappointing I doubt I will purchase it anyway, but it seems like an incredibly bizarre move on Nintendo's part.

EDIT- Although maybe, just maybe they don't have them? It would be the only logical choice...but it's Nintendo so I'm never sure.

I am on the disappointment train with this package. The worst part for me though is something I think everyone has forgotten; this is actually the second time Nintendo has done this exact weird thing.

For the 25th anniversary, they rereleased the SNES ROM on the Wii in a limited run. It came with a booklet and a CD, but there was nothing else but a SNES game. And they didn’t even include Super Mario World for some reason. I don’t think it was full price, but it was at least thirty dollars.

The thing sold a lot of copies though (in the millions I believe) and they will probably make millions again with this, as barebones as it is.

This got me to mess with the PC port of 64 which I can play at 4k 60 fps with an analog camera and the ability to turn off distant object clipping.

When I played Galaxy for the first time I did it with a PS4 controller at a high resolution and mapped some of the motion controls to buttons.

If they did some more work to these then I'd be excited but if they really are just straight ports then I'm not interested, I've played these already.