Super Mario 3D all stars

[Maf]

Started Sunshine today. About 24 Shines and 90+ Blue Coins. I had totally forgot about the blue coins. I think there’s 240 of them or something, maybe? Unfortunately the game doesn’t say how many are in each level so I’m definitely going to have to pull up a guide if I decide to 100% the game. It tells you how many you have in a level but it doesn’t say how many are there total which is annoying. 
 

I’m actually having a lot of fun with this. Firstly the positives. Really unique and fun atmosphere. Great art style, looks very good in 1080p. Most of the worlds are very distinct and cool, I especially love the colours they used in Noki Bay. Very much keeps up that flexibility I was talking about like Mario 64. Giving the player FLUDD, they want you to take advantage of it and outsmart the game sometimes and it’s fun to do.
 

I have a really big negative about the game as well, though, and the best way I can put it is that the game shouldn’t be this hard. The things the game is asking you to do. It’s generally very straight forward and not complicated. But getting Mario to do the things you want him too, even simple things, is a straight up fucker sometimes. Getting stuck on a game that has challenging missions is one thing. Getting stuck on a game because it’s literally hard to play is another. 
 

Basically I think this game’s big problem is depth perception. The game is very airborne and the camera makes it hard to understand where Mario is in the air because it’s usually too low. Then the lack of Mario’s shadow because usually there is nothing underneath Mario, or is at least very far away, makes it hard to tell where Mario will land. The most common mistake I make in this game is overshooting platforms because of this. I’m trying to approach a tiny platform but don’t know exactly where I am and then the brief moment Mario is over the platform his shadow is there and then gone and it’s super hard to adjust and be precise. Considering this is a Mario game and these games are all about control it feels like a huge misstep. 
 

That’s pretty much my only big negative with the game, but it’s such a fundamentally constant pain in the ass it makes this game difficult. I’m still super early and I’ve already had a few occasions where I’ve started to raise my voice at the TV. Poor TV, it didn’t do nothing wrong. 
 

I am actually having a huge amount of fun with this game, though. I think partly because I am enjoying it more than I thought I would but also it turns out I remember basically nothing about this game. So it’s all fresh. Definitely going to take me a long time to complete this one. I really barely know this game at all anymore.

 

Another second shout out to Noki Bay what a beautiful level. 
 

 

This is the GameCube version but you get it. A really nice mix of green, blue and purple. 

[DisturbedSwan]

I’m about 40 shines into Sunshine and still loving it so far.

 

I think I’ve maxed out all the regular shines in the first 3 worlds so far and have collected around 40 blue coins which has put me up to around 40 in total.

 

The most frustrating aspect of the game is related to the verticality, particularly in the Ricco Harbour world it seemed. Every time you’re climbing up the platforms and netting above the Harbour and fall down you have to make your way right up to the top again, using the same path you too before, it just gets a bit grating. Returning to this World later on and having to go through the palaver of getting a fruit out of some machine, feeding it to Yoshi and then having to navigate to a Shine way up above the Harbour on some platforms was just so annoying. Every time I fell down I had to climb up  from the water and then feed Yoshi just to attempt the challenge again. 
 

I’m not sure how far I got into it originally but I didn’t remember anything of the third and fourth worlds. What has been surprising to me is all the worlds so far have kept the Tropical Island theme, I do miss the usual Fire/Water/Ice/Desert/Earth type worlds though, it definitely affects the variety. But yeah, I still dig the watery holiday theme. 

[spatular]

3 hours ago, DisturbedSwan said:

palaver of getting a fruit out of some machine, feeding it to Yoshi and then having to navigate to a Shine way up above the Harbour on some platforms was just so annoying. Every time I fell down I had to climb up  from the water and then feed Yoshi just to attempt the challenge again. 

 

yeah i was on that bit earlier, it's super annoying, i gave up, thankfully that one 

Spoiler

and i think the last main star on every level is not mandatory

 

there was another one where the camera is terrible, watching a youtube guide on how to do it showed a different way which made it pretty easy though. there are a few really annoying bits like that in there.

 

i finished it earlier with just under 70 stars, and despite the annoyances above, and there are more annoyances! still mostly enjoyed it, there's some great stuff in there too, it's a really colourful and fun game at times, theme park is great, riding round on squids is great. i though it controlled pretty well too, really like hovering and sliding around. the boost jet pack is cool, although yeah occasionally the controls can be annoying. it looks and sounds really nice too, except i didn't really like the heat haze effect. it is a pretty mixed bag for a mario game though, there's lots of old school game design that is a bit annoying these days, like being put back to the start constantly if you mess up. some of it is really hard too, some of it in a bad way like the annoying stuff above, and some of it in a good way - the bits where your jetpack is taken away are like super meat boy style challenges and i didn't mind replaying them to get better as there's usually an easy to find 1up near the start. so yeah overall i liked it but can see why it gets a bad rep as a 3d mario game, it's not as good as the others.

 

just started galaxy and it looks (could pass as a native switch game) and plays great still, so far anyway.

[Maf]

@DisturbedSwan I just did that Shine you was talking about with Yoshi in Rico Harbour. Oh, yeah. That sucks some serious shit. 
 

It’s not too bad except for the first two jumps. First one is annoying because if you get too close to the wall it seems to still count as hitting it which knocks Mario in the water. And that second jump is an almost blind jump because the camera angle is so bad. Once past those bits it’s not so bad. But yeah every time falling in the water have to get back up, hit the switches until the right fruit comes out. It’s such a procedure. 
 

Also, I can’t believe it. I got to the top, used Yoshi to puke away the whatever that is blocking the cage. Thought well I’ll finish this with Yoshi since we finally got here. Done a spin jump and went flying off the platform ?

 

After I was like fuck that and just went and got the rocket nozzle and done it in a minute. That was both funny and annoying, 

 

The thing about Yoshi is he jumps incredibly high and really far but at the cost of basically zero air control. Which is why the first two jumps are so hard because if you get close to the wall you have to do it again and then you need to line up a jump you can’t really see which is also some bullshit. Oi vey. 
 

I will say, though, and this is a pleasant surprise. I’m having an absolute BLAST with this game. It’s still the weakest of the 3 games for sure, and there are parts to the controls and camera which are not the best, but I would be lying if I didn’t say how much fun I was having. It’s just so good. 

[DisturbedSwan]

12 hours ago, Maf said:

@DisturbedSwan I just did that Shine you was talking about with Yoshi in Rico Harbour. Oh, yeah. That sucks some serious shit. 
 

It’s not too bad except for the first two jumps. First one is annoying because if you get too close to the wall it seems to still count as hitting it which knocks Mario in the water. And that second jump is an almost blind jump because the camera angle is so bad. Once past those bits it’s not so bad. But yeah every time falling in the water have to get back up, hit the switches until the right fruit comes out. It’s such a procedure. 
 

Also, I can’t believe it. I got to the top, used Yoshi to puke away the whatever that is blocking the cage. Thought well I’ll finish this with Yoshi since we finally got here. Done a spin jump and went flying off the platform ?

 

After I was like fuck that and just went and got the rocket nozzle and done it in a minute. That was both funny and annoying, 

 

The thing about Yoshi is he jumps incredibly high and really far but at the cost of basically zero air control. Which is why the first two jumps are so hard because if you get close to the wall you have to do it again and then you need to line up a jump you can’t really see which is also some bullshit. Oi vey. 
 

I will say, though, and this is a pleasant surprise. I’m having an absolute BLAST with this game. It’s still the weakest of the 3 games for sure, and there are parts to the controls and camera which are not the best, but I would be lying if I didn’t say how much fun I was having. It’s just so good. 

 

 

Yup. Haha, it is indeed bloody annoying. I didn't even know on my first few attempts that you had to eat a fruit off the tree to change the platform trajectory either so I was wondering why I couldn't get up to the higher platforms on the course ?

 

I made a similar mistake at the top. Got the yellow goo off the cage, hopped off Yoshi and was climbing the cage, pressed the wrong button and went jumping into the water, I was fucking pissed lol. 

 

See! I told you Sunshine was the ?! I'm not sure how far I got into it when I was a kid - as I believe I played it in Japanese and eventually got stuck somewhere - but I've been having a blast with it as well. There's a challenge to it that I don't think I've ever properly experienced in a 3D Mario game before, sure Galaxy/Galaxy 2 and Odyssey have challenging levels and special sections but they're mostly reserved for the late/post-game. Sunshine seems to demand more of you as a player than those games do in general, it throws in super tough special sections on a whim and is just like 'deal with it'. I think the challenge is largely why I've been enjoying it so much, it feels like you've got stabilisers on in a lot of 3D Mario games right up until the end whereas here it feels they're off from the start and you either ride or crash.

 

64 may provide the same challenge but I can't really remember much of that game aside from the hub and the opening few levels. 

[Maf]

Finished the game this morning. This is where I’m at.

 

This is breakdown of the levels. 

 

 

 

So I didn’t realise this until late in the game but each level has 2 secret Shines. The thing that gave it away is I clearly found one by accident in Noki Bay and in Pianta Village on top of the tallest tree there is a tiny platform with a picture of a Shine on it. And when looking up in the sky I can see a Shine flying through the air but I don’t know how to get it. Probably going to have to use a guide for those because I just don’t know. I played around in some of the levels trying different things but it isn’t obvious enough for me so I dunno.

 

Even still, just doing the math I’m still missing some 

Shines in the levels 70

+ 100 coins in each level 7

+ From the hub is 15

+ airport 1

+ 240 blue coins is 24

= 117 (I think)

 

So even after all that there are still 3 left. 

 

Guide time, I think.

 

Have to say though I enjoyed this game a tonne. Apart from a very small handful of missions it really wasn’t as frustrating as I remember it being. And I forgot just how fun the atmosphere and the music is. I really enjoyed just playing around in this game. 
 

It still has problems. I think the camera is troublesome. I think some of mechanics in the game are too fiddly and don’t make a lot of sense (Sailing boats or lily pads for example). I also think there’s a general lack of variety in the objectives and how to do them. The levels are “breakable” if you master Mario’s movements but almost this entire game is just trying to jet pack to something. I think that’s why the special levels where the jet pack is taken away is so fun because you actually have to use all the other things Mario can do to win. It challenges different skills instead of spin jump + hover which solves a lot of this game. 

 

I really, really enjoyed this, though. I literally haven’t touched it since the GameCube so it was both fresh because of how much I’ve forgotten but also at times had a rush of nostalgia to it. I don’t think it is better than the games in this package but I would definitely put it above Odyssey now. I generally don’t do scores but if I had to score this game it would be a really strong 8/10 

[Maf]

Yay 100%

 

 

I needed to use a guide so much to get 100%. That was very shameful. Now I know how @bellow must feel when he plays games. I almost don’t want to talk about it. 
 

But I will. So if I remembered how to get secret shines that would of been less embarrassing. There were still 2 or 3 I would of needed help with but once you know the one thing to find most of them that’s really simple. 
 

Blue coins on the other hand I never would of found without a guide. I did find 191 on my own out of 240 and the calculator tells me that is just 79.5% so, ahh, not terrible but certainly not great. A lot of them were really, incredibly well hidden, though. It’s one of those things where you question how anybody found them all on their own at all. 
 

Also ther was a fairly large handful of cases where I did the right thing to solve something but obviously not right enough. Like before I was talking about Pianta Village and the platform on top of the tree. Yeah the thing you have to do to unlock that shine, I tried that. But I guess I just missed it or something. There were blue coins with the same story, too. Quite unfortunate. 
 

Some of them are crazy, though. Like, oh, on this random wall, spray it, boom, coin. I would never have got that.

 

But done is done. One more time I absolutely had a real good time with this game. Like that was fucking awesome. 

[DisturbedSwan]

Coming to the end of my time with Sunshine as well now, up to about 70 Shines.

 

Finished up Noki Bay last night. Until I found the 1UP the Secret Shell special stage was a right pain in the arse as I had to make my way back up there again and again when I inevitably ran out of lives. Once I found it though it was no trouble at all. 

 

I really liked the underwater boss battle in this stage as well, it was a little fiddly I guess but it was something different and felt unique amongst everything else the game has thrown at me so far.

 

Then moved onto the final(?) proper stage in Pianta Village. Did a couple of the Shines here and will pick up where I left off tonight. 

 

Still absolutely lapping it up, don't think I'm going to go for 100% though as that'll become too much of a chore with the blue coins I feel. But yeah, amazing game.

[bellow]

Toy time galaxy is definitely some of the best design I've seen in a platformer. It's such a springy joy.

21 hours ago, Maf said:

 

I needed to use a guide so much to get 100%. That was very shameful. Now I know how @bellow must feel when he plays games.

How very dare you. The only guide I've ever needed was written by Alex Comfort. And I haven't even been using that one much lately, I can tell ya.

[Maf]

Got the first 10 stars in Mario Galaxy. Yup. Still amazing. Every time he flies through space and the music hits it’s just like ahhh. It’s such a grand, sweeping and big but gentle atmosphere they created in this game. So much fun.

 

It’s funny how much easier it is to play than Sunshine. As much as I had a good time with that game I really did find Mario difficult to operate. Whether it was jet packing through the air or even trying to make jumps there’s something about the depth perception in that game that, as fun as it is, is just a bit too hard. 
 

In Mario Galaxy the camera can be upside down, Mario is running to the bottom of a planetoid, and Goombas are moving targets and it’s still so easy to hop, skip and jump on everything I want to with almost perfect precision. I don’t know how they do it but it just works. 
 

The only control thing that’s fine but not great is the pointer. I carried on playing with the pro controller because I just don’t want to use Joy Cons and they do it smartly. The pointer can re-centred any time by tapping R and pointing at Star Bits and picking them up works easy enough. But it just doesn’t feel as natural or accurate as the Wiimote. I know the Wiimote and nunchuck was not everyone’s favourite controller but I really liked it for certain games and this being one of them. 

Still a brilliant game, though. I look forward to going through this twice. 

 

[Maryokutai]

The wiggle to attack and the pointer to collect and shoot stars have always felt like they were forced into the game instead of naturally coming about as an idea when prototyping for the Wiimote. Mario Galaxy always felt like a standard pad game to me and seeing how detached the entire pointer thing is from the overall gameplay when playing the 3D collection sort of cements this in my opinion. Yes, it worked better with the Wiimote, but it was hardly a necessary showcase for it. Metroid Prime 3 and Skyward Sword did that a lot better.

[DisturbedSwan]

Finished it up last night. Crackin’ little game but the final proper world got a bit annoying so dropped a point or so for me.

 

Still great though. Will go back and get the last Shine in Pianta Village tonight and that’s me done.

 

 

[Maf]

2 hours ago, Maryokutai said:

The wiggle to attack and the pointer to collect and shoot stars have always felt like they were forced into the game instead of naturally coming about as an idea when prototyping for the Wiimote. Mario Galaxy always felt like a standard pad game to me and seeing how detached the entire pointer thing is from the overall gameplay when playing the 3D collection sort of cements this in my opinion. Yes, it worked better with the Wiimote, but it was hardly a necessary showcase for it. Metroid Prime 3 and Skyward Sword did that a lot better.

The pointer in Galaxy is not the best case for the Wiimote but it’s the one part of the controls in this collection that is not as good. It works fine and any time it loses centre just tap R and it finds it. But it’s not as good as the Wiimote.

 

The waggle for the spin attacks easily replaced by a button press but I don’t know. I liked the waggle.

 

I’m sure this is all solved using the Joy Cons but I’m not going to do that. It’s good enough. 

[Maf]

Got 50 stars in Galaxy. I really did have a great time playing Sunshine. But saying that was an 8 and then saying this is a 10 does not communicate the leap in everything from one game to the next. After playing 3 Mario games back to back this game starts a little soft but even then just the visuals and fun of the game makes it so easy to enjoy. After about an hour and a bit it starts to get really fun with the camera and orientation of everything and I love it so much. I know some people don’t like it because it makes them feel disoriented and queasy but I’ve always been in love with how upside down and all around the game takes Mario. The madder the better. 
 

The motion controls are tough on a controller and not a pointer. I find my self having to reset the cursor literally every time I want to use it. There are also some challenges in this game that are just really awkward and doesn’t feel right using a controller. 
 

3D platformers aren’t exactly the most crowded or competitive market so maybe that’s why but this is still the second best platformer ever and it came out 13 years ago. And the only one better than it is it’s sequel.

 

It’s really not on the cards, I know, but I would love for Nintendo to make a Mario Galaxy 3. Just round it out and finish it off. 

[Maf]

Got 120 stars in Mario Galaxy. I didn’t plan to sit here all the day and play through this game, but the game is just so playable I couldn’t pull myself away. I haven’t even eaten since this morning I just kept playing and playing and playing for the past 9 or 10 hours or so. It’s just so amazing.

 

The only thing about it which is kind of eh is how it finishes with all the purple comets. I forgot about those. Definitely not as good as how Mario Galaxy 2 handles it. It doesn’t have a extra hard bonus level for getting all the stars either. I forgot Nintendo hadn’t come to that realisation yet.

 

Other than that, though, the game is a wonder. Now I just want to play Mario Galaxy 2. I hope Nintendo put that out soon. 

 

I took screenshots and funny videos of things that happened that I will post tomorrow probably. I need to not do any more video game stuff today I’m wiped out.

 

It’s absolutely brilliant, though. 
 

Overall thoughts on this package? I still think they should of put in the work. Especially on Mario 64. I listened to the Beastcast today and they talkEd about how Mario 64 is super important but not a game that you need to play anymore. And I can’t disagree with that at all and that’s what I was saying before. People who don’t have the love for it already are going to miss out. I said this already but to quote Jeff it’s a decent compilation but they didn’t do right by Mario. I think all of them could have had the remake treatment but especially 64. 
 

Having said that I loved playing all of these games again. The original, the underdog and the champion. This package definitely deserved more love but there’s still 3 excellent games there. Unless you never played Mario 64 before then you might be in for a struggle. But I play that game easy it’s one of my favourite games ever.

[merman1974]

Started playing Galaxy with my stepdaughter over the weekend, we're using the Co-Star mode so she can pick up the Star Bits.

 

But oh boy, Sweet Sweet Galaxy is so frustrating! Those electric beams where you have to push forwards to make progress, I kept falling off or getting electrocuted.

[DisturbedSwan]

Started Galaxy over the weekend. Up to about 32 stars so far.

Really digging it so far but definitely far less of a challenge than Sunshine so far. I seem to be breezing through almost every level with ease and have accumulated about 30 lives already! The only ones that up the difficulty are the speedrun challenges and some of the special stages but even then they're nothing compared to some of the things Sunshine asked you to do. 

 

But yeah, I'm still loving it so far, it's just a delightful place to be. I forgot how unique the feeling of being in Space is in this game with the planets and the way you play with gravity, there's still nothing else quite like it. It's just so charming, so jolly and has such a cool vibe to it. It's great to see all the Mario staples like Goombas etc. return here as well as they were lacking in Sunshine. It's also nice to get the variety in the worlds again as Sunshine was centred solely on its tropical beach island aesthetic.

 

My only criticism would be some of the motion-controlled special stages. They're cool and a nice distraction from the 'normal' stages for sure but something about the way they control (either using the touchscreen or shaking the Switch about) just doesn't sit right when compared to the rest of the game which controls superbly. I will note that Mario is much weightier in this when compared to Sunshine, I seemed to skid about with him in Sunshine and sometimes fall to my doom when I applied a little too much pressure on the JoyCon analog stick but here it's much harder to fuck things up. 

[spatular]

Yeah I’ve been playing more galaxy too, agree it’s much easier than sunshine at the start anyway. Lot better regards stuff like checkpoints in the levels too. The motion controls work fine with the pro controller, although I guess detached joycons would be better for that. Forgot how crazy it is too there’s all sorts of stuff going on, ice skating, being a bee, flying through space, gravity changing direction, etc. It’s ace.

[bellow]

I've got 74 stars up to now on Galaxy. Just opened the green Star galaxies, which I'm sure I never did on the Wii.

 

Plus I kept dying on that sand dune tower stage where the sand fills the tower behind you, until I realized that if you just hold the stick to the left Mario does the hard work automatically. Lost a couple of lives on those daredevil comet bosses too, but came thru in the end. That rock throwing boss is a case when you've only got one life.

[Maf]

@bellowplay Sunshine and report back how you got on with it I had a bad day and I need a good laugh to cheer me up