Super Mario 3D All-Stars is quite the complicated case, with a multitude of issues and controversies but I am going to preface this review with this: I will be reviewing the collection in itself based on how good it is as a collection and less so the games inside said collection. If I were to base this game on how good it is as 3 of the greatest games of all time, it would walk away with an easy 5 stars.
That being said, this is a pretty awful collection, especially when it's being marketed as the big event for Mario's 35th anniversary. Nothing here is all that different from how you would play these games on the Nintendo 64, GameCube and Wii and there is no included extras outside of the soundtrack, and in an era where you can listen to videogame music for free online, it basically just means that you are paying that 60$ for the games. There's no artbook, no exclusive developer interviews, no betas, no unused content, nothing but some soundtracks and some decent emulation.
Let's talk about that emulation, shall we? It's actually really good. I played through all of Mario Galaxy with no problems in framerate or quality and even in handheld mode this thing can take a beating. Some of the quality of life improvements are nice, I like being able to use my JoyCon for picking up starbits and the way they handled the lack of pressure sensitive triggers in Sunshine is really good in my opinion. I always had a hard time trying to get the water pressure just right so Mario would actually stand in place while I was aiming. But then there's the things they really messed up on. As anyone who has played Super Mario 64 will tell you, the camera is inverted automatically, with no way to change it, and it feels awkward. I often have to swivel my camera all the way around because I mess up one button press and then I just mess up the jump because Mario 64's camera controls are still mapped like they are buttons, which was my biggest problem with that game and something I was really hoping they would fix in this collection.
However, having all three of these games in the same place, upscaled and put on a console that you can take anywhere makes this a good buy if you can pick it up in the limited time that it is out. If you just want to play one of these games, then I would just get a Wii and play Sunshine or Galaxy, or wait for Mario 64 to inevitably get released on Switch as a standalone title, but if you want to play at least two of them, it's worth your money.
That being said, this is a pretty awful collection, especially when it's being marketed as the big event for Mario's 35th anniversary. Nothing here is all that different from how you would play these games on the Nintendo 64, GameCube and Wii and there is no included extras outside of the soundtrack, and in an era where you can listen to videogame music for free online, it basically just means that you are paying that 60$ for the games. There's no artbook, no exclusive developer interviews, no betas, no unused content, nothing but some soundtracks and some decent emulation.
Let's talk about that emulation, shall we? It's actually really good. I played through all of Mario Galaxy with no problems in framerate or quality and even in handheld mode this thing can take a beating. Some of the quality of life improvements are nice, I like being able to use my JoyCon for picking up starbits and the way they handled the lack of pressure sensitive triggers in Sunshine is really good in my opinion. I always had a hard time trying to get the water pressure just right so Mario would actually stand in place while I was aiming. But then there's the things they really messed up on. As anyone who has played Super Mario 64 will tell you, the camera is inverted automatically, with no way to change it, and it feels awkward. I often have to swivel my camera all the way around because I mess up one button press and then I just mess up the jump because Mario 64's camera controls are still mapped like they are buttons, which was my biggest problem with that game and something I was really hoping they would fix in this collection.
However, having all three of these games in the same place, upscaled and put on a console that you can take anywhere makes this a good buy if you can pick it up in the limited time that it is out. If you just want to play one of these games, then I would just get a Wii and play Sunshine or Galaxy, or wait for Mario 64 to inevitably get released on Switch as a standalone title, but if you want to play at least two of them, it's worth your money.