The controls are awful whether you're playing with buttons or stylus, so you have to really tolerate that to get to the genuinely creative core of a marketing ploy that should've been boring but was not. The DS take on 'Super Mario 64' goes so out of its way to justify its existence, with new playable characters (you don't even start as Mario – you begin as Yoshi! Ain't that a shocker), new bosses, levels, stars and secrets (and those secrets, by the way, were a big contributor of the original's excellence). I imagine that it would be difficult to plant surprises in a game that has left a legacy so iconic that every twist and turn has long since ceased to be a surprise anymore, but god, SM64 DS really does do it at points (that 'behind the mirror' star and the way the music stops? Gives me perfect creeps). The appeal of this is almost separate from the original, especially since it's definitely not as fluid or flexible a game experience either.

The best Mario platformer, and I'm convinced it will never be close. As smug as that sounds, I never really believed it until recently. It's so familiar, so needless and replayable (I've 100%'d this, like, what, fifty odd times?) that for the longest time I underestimated the detail that really pops here. It's such a comfort game, that it's long since become more like a fleeting state of mind that I can relax back into. But then I played it again, and I really thought about everything - god, how well-crafted is this, really?

Yes, the bosses are piss easy (except for the final Bowser, which is still a pretty simplistic variation on the previous two fights which involve rotating the control stick and having good, perhaps lucky, timing). You can forgive the obviousness of the fights with King Bob-omb and Whomp, but that minuscule effort you even have to exert in the Wiggler fight, so late in the game, is ridiculous! 'Snowman's Land' is largely pointless, with the exception of that one cool puzzle where you must use the waddling penguin as a shield against strong winds. The coin star in 'Hazy Maze Cave' suuuucks. The levels that rely upon random objects spread airborne across an overworld are more of a chore, an excuse for 'ideas' instead of bothering to render a beautiful level ('Rainbow Ride', 'Lethal Lava Land' - compare those to the incredible creativity in 'Jolly Roger Bay' or 'Tick Tock Clock', which feel like places you could genuinely come across in the Mushroom Kingdom instead of baseplate exercises). Even if 'Dire Dire Docks' has a wonderful name, music, and a cool trick up its sleeve (the submarine exit that leads out to the castle grounds is strange and eerie), I've always felt as if swimming through the entire opening of that level was such a tedious chore.

But then – and I mean seriously – think about how fun this game is to really play anyways. Those levels like 'Lethal Lava Land' are still run crazy with amazing ideas (the tile puzzle, the rolling log, the volcano!). And I don't want to inadvertently overcredit this to the game, but the way that a lot of the stars that you must collect are often hanging in the open (the "Wall Kicks Can Work" star from 'Cool Cool Mountain', or the slide star from 'Tall Tall Mountain') mean that the adventure isn't only limited to one way of completing each mission, and that the ultimate journey is not linear. As much as I love the later Mario platformers and their respective journeys, I fear they've become overcalculated over the years, with paths you must go down, with methods you must use in order to complete the game. Whether by genuine intention or not, 'Super Mario 64' gives you freedom to rock the game however you want, and that's wonderful, and it leads to the endless amount of times I have (and will) complete it, beginning to end, often over the course of a single day. The many moves Mario can pull off, from wall kicks to side flips, and even the stuff you never think you'll need, like those Z+B crouch slides, actually add to the many ways you can navigate and perform tricks around the crevasses and cliffsides of levels. You can get creative with it.

I'd like to think this game balances the collectathon gimmick with perfection, also – I love the widespread variables of something like 'Banjo-Tooie' but ain't it also a damn pain to get through all of that? At some point you must feel like giving up and carrying on – and the completionist in me doesn't feel right. This compared to the red coins across the levels in 'Super Mario 64' feel so much more in reach, placed in spots where you must keep your eye out, of course, but not to the point where you must overexert yourself and therefore your patience (boo, 'Donkey Kong 64'!). There's a simplicity and conciseness here, which also helps with the brisk pace at which you can clock in and out of each level.

Though that simplicity may be perceived – some of those tricks seems insane for the time, and I admit that over the years of being desensitised to those surprises numbed me to how clever they really are. The distance illusion at the start of 'Tiny Huge Island' really freaked me out as a kid. So did the Peach portrait which fades into Bowser's face the closer you get to it – eergh! Or the piano in the mansion. Or the infinite stars – Jesus Christ! Not just scary things, though – really clever design tricks, like the ship in 'Jolly Roger Bay' (insanely underrated level, by the way – probably one of the best in this game by a long shot) which you un-sink and then use to reach red coins in later acts. The painting entrances have always been so cool, and even moreso the way the game toys with this to hide the entrances to later levels ('Shifting Sand Land', 'Snowman's Land'). There's that merry-go-round music which fades in the closer you get to it in 'Big Boo's Haunt', and then there's also the fact that you need to kill a specific Boo holding a cage containing that level to shrink yourself into it (huh? Creepy). The underwater city in 'Wet Dry World'? Incredible stuff. And these nonchalant details develop a world that feels like it exists regardless of whether or not Mario is there in the adventure – they feel like stories running alongside our main adventure, though this storytelling is implicit. Some ROM hacks of the game – specifically by Kaze Emanuar – actually take advantage of this exciting possibility where levels can tell stories without being the story, or through the way that said world develops with further acts.

Then, still, there's that Bowser finale. That might be the one real surprise in any Mario platformer (most which – with the noted exception of the rather unique and beautiful, though clunky 'Super Mario Sunshine', really only ever exist as the headline for console sales, are calculated with only aesthetic warmth and none in the gameplay itself, and thus are devoid of any surprises). That church organ music is a serious 'holy shit' moment, and the move when Bowser stomps the arena into a star-shape is even nuttier. The sky is bright purple and dark blue like the signs of a poisonous hell taking over, and even Bowser has the light of that reflecting off his model. It's apocalyptic without the cartoonishness you'd expect from family-friendly mascot Mario, and instead feels like the real end of something. It is, of course, foreshadowed by the sinisterness of those infinite stairs, giving you the real sense that something different, convention-defying is afoot.

(Side note: The DS game is fine and actually quite fun and inventive, at least, once you get your sore fingers around those nutty controls.)

Let's be real, Luigi never needed to be in this one.

pleasantly surprised this is on here. i remember being there when this came out and learning how to patch ROMs just to be able to play this, and while the level designs are spare and clunky in relation to what can come from SM64 ROM hacking now (each object had to be moved via manual inputs instead of the software/GUI readily available now), it's still a lot of fun as a short game - a game that sparks excitement in every corner, wondering what other possibilities might be explored in the years to come. and then you hear that cold, spaghetti western-esque rendition of the malo mart theme, and you can't help but smile :)