Topic: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

@App You can get the Turbo Nozzle in Episode 6, which makes that one a lot easier. It's under the waterfall.

@Don Funny thing, I was obsessed with guidebooks when I was a kid and actually got 4 different guidebooks for Sunshine. Most of them sucked though. The Nintendo Power guide was so bad they didn't even tell you how to get the Secret Shines, they just listed them as the 9th and 10th shine as if they were extra episodes. Prima Games' guide was really good though, they went into a lot of detail and had some neat tips and tricks. I picked up a couple of neat sequence break tricks from them.

@RR529 How did you do it the first time?

If you walk around the goop (counter clockwise), you will find that the last hole to the underside leads you straight to the mayor. There's even a Pianta next to it hinting that it's the right hole.

@Octane, I tried a few of the underside holes to no avail, so I must have decided to move on before running into that one.

@Bolt_Strike
I was the same, I used to collect every single Nintendo Power player’s guide. I also purchased a lot of the Prima guides too. The guide books from the 1990s were the best. They had detailed maps, illustrations and even interviews with the development team.

I beat galaxy tonight which marks my completion of the collection. Loved all three games to pieces. But I gotta say. For all the crap 64 gets about the camera, galaxys is pretty rough at times too

I love the purple coin levels in Galaxy. It's like they finished development on the game and were sad that they'd largely abandoned the collectathon aspect of past games, so just decided to inject some at the last minute.

@Dezzy The only weird thing is that you need to fight Bowser to access them. So it's the only game you can't "complete" before the last fight. I think it would've helped with the pacing if they were accessible sooner.

@NintendoByNature it helps when you remember that game was made for playing with the Wiimote+Nunchuck.

So It does make sense for it to have restricted camera, like 64.

I think that's why I prefer to play it on the original hardware. There's no second control stick on the N64 controller or the Wiimote. On Switch I'm constantly fighting the camera because the presence of the right stick tricks you into thinking you have camera controls.

@Octane

Yeah, I hadn't actually remembered that about the game at all. I was expecting them to be part of the regular comet levels during the game. I don't really see why a mario game needs "end-game" content like that at all really. They should make them available from the start, but just keep the 60 star count for the final boss, that way casuals can feel like they finished it anyway.

@Dezzy Yeah, I like to do the final boss last, so it's a bit weird having to do it halfway through the game. Not a big deal, but an interesting choice. I wonder why!

@Eel yea I get that. I just thought it was funny how much 64s camera gets put thru the ringer when I had some trouble myself with galaxys camera. I still enjoyed galaxy though, maybe even more than 64.

I guess it's because Galaxy is better designed in that aspect. 64 tried to have it both ways by making open exploratory levels and giving the user limited control over the not-so-smart camera.

Galaxy level design was (in general) a bit more contained, kinda like in 3D World, and the camera is mostly pogramed to point where the developers wanted it. So limited camera control might be less of a problem for most users.

@Eel for sure. My real issues were usually the small "planets" that you could go upside on. Typically it was hard to judge if I was jumping over something or not and more often than not, I would jump too short and run into an enemy or one of the electric fences

The camera isn't that great in 64 or Galaxy. Sunshine was the only one for me that got it right. Since the switch has a separate joy-stick I was for sure they would change the camera to fit the style.

Just cleared Sunshine! I wasn't intending to already, but when I beat Pianta Village's 7th mission the Plaza was flooded so Corona Volcano was the only thing open to me, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

The Volcano itself wasn't bad at all, as I only died once there by getting spiked (I was careful during the boat and got through in one go), but that Bowser fight was irritating as I kept glitching through the tips you butt stomp (though Bowser & Jr knocked me off a few times on their own to their credit). Finally made it through with like 2 lives left, though.

I think I'll try collecting some more Shines before moving on to Galaxy since I wasn't intending to finish it yet, but I doubt I'm going for 100%.

@RR529 Great job! I actually died quite differently to you. I one-shot Bowser and Jr., but the spike and fire section took up about 5 or 6 lives. It was the boat section I kept dying on. I would get so close but hit the wall and die. I probably died 20 times. Thankfully, the 1-ups kept me from getting a game over.

I just beat the Bunny Mission on the Snow Cap Galaxy. This was probably the hardest one for me as a kid. I have 104 stars now, and I plan on fighting bowser.

I agree, Super Mario Sunshine has the best camera. I had problems with Super Mario Galaxy camera and controls (on Wii, I'm still playing Sunshine on Switch) even though the game is easy and linear.

I don't think Galaxy even has manual camera positioning, does it? The camera is always perfectly situated for the situation. Mario 64 is like the bizarro universe version: the game mostly handles the camera by itself, but positions it in the most uncomfortable possible angles.