Topic: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

@Dezzy everyone I have known with cancer have put on weight when they have had it. To balance out the chemo destroying the body they give out steroids which make them bloated.

Tbh if someone wants to over eat and not work out to cope with dealing it then let them.

@Blooper987 yeah agreed. But neither of them had that Mario Magic that can be clearly seen in Galaxy or Odyssey. Idk. Opinions?

@jump I had a friend a couple years back that died from cancer. Seeing him gradually get worse was one of the hardest things I’ve experienced.

But I can relate. He ate a lot not only because of all the medicine, but it just made him feel better. Nothing wrong with being big unless it becomes life-threatenly serious. And even then, it’s their life. 🤷‍♂️

@Apportal time to anger the internet in a single list
1. 3D World
2. Galaxy
3. Galaxy 2
4. Odyssey
5. 3D Land
6. 64
7. Sunshine

@Blooper987 yeah, that’s what I figured. Not too much different from mine, just swap Galaxy 2 and Odyssey, and 3D World and Galaxy 1.

@Blooper987 For me:

1) Galaxy
2) Sunshine
3) Odyssey
4) 3D World
5) 3D Land
6) Galaxy 2
7) 64

We'll see if I still feel that way after I play through the collection, although I've played them all recently enough that I don't expect my opinion to change much,

The Nintendo Minute video clarified that you can redownload the digital version of 3D All Stars if you delete it (it's not limited to just archiving, you can delete completely and redownload).

Maybe you shouldn't assume such things? 🤷‍♀️

Maybe someone like @Ralizah or anyone else can help me understand this opinion, because I've heard it a lot and can't really understand. People raise up Galaxy 1 as a masterpiece because of its innovation (and rightfully so), but bash Galaxy 2 because it's just more of the same and did not innovate. Fundamentally, though, Galaxy 2 is the better game because it is more of the same, but more (and Yoshi makes everything better). But those same people do not give 64 the same benefit as Galaxy, even though its level of innovation was far greater. I suppose if you just have the opinion that 64 and Galaxy 2 are not good that is up to you (even though I highly disagree, they are my 2 favorite Mario games), but that often is not the case and I don't understand. If you value innovation, you should like 64 better than Galaxy. If you value pure gameplay, you should like Galaxy 2 better than Galaxy. So why do so many like Galaxy but not the other two games?

Galaxy 2 is my second least favorite 3D Mario game, but I love Super Mario Galaxy. The major difference between the two for me is the presentation and story. The introduction of Rosalina, her storybook, and an observatory hub that needed to be restored are aspects of the original that made me more invested in the game's setting(s), more motivated to collect Power Stars and gave a more satisfying sense of progression throughout the game. Presentation-wise, Galaxy laid out its "galaxies" along orbit paths within their own cosmic systems, where as Galaxy 2 put in a simple world route and had different cosmic designs as the background for the route. It felt very low effort in comparison to the original and made 2 feel more thrown together than feel like a cohesive experience. The use of checkpoint flags too seemed out of place following Super Mario Galaxy and for me threw off Galaxy 2's identity a bit. In spite of my problems with the game as a Super Mario Galaxy sequel, it would still be a great surprise if Galaxy 2 happened to be an unlockable in this collection.

@Xyphon22 I wouldn't say it's a "lack of innovation" on Galaxy 2's part. It just gets wrong almost everything I loved about Galaxy.

The game is utterly lacking in the melancholy atmosphere of Galaxy. Along with that, the story presentation in general is just vastly downgraded. Anything similar to Rosalina's emotional backstory (which totally took me by surprise) is absent. Whereas Galaxy tries to balance obstacle course level design with some degree of openness to create a satisfying balance of the two schools of 3D Mario level design, Galaxy 2 leans hard in the direction of obstacle course design. The hub and level selection elements suck compared to the first Galaxy (the observatory is beautiful and personally ranks as my favorite hub in the series). Galaxy 2 is very... gimmicky, insofar as it throws in new elements like Yoshi (who is a pain to control) and new transformations that mostly didn't add to the game for me (well, OK... cloud mario is cool, but the other two new transformations sucked and felt very single-use).

Galaxy felt like it balanced various design elements and put them toward the creation of something beautiful and epic (if perhaps a tad too easy for seasoned platforming fans). Galaxy 2 felt like it was cobbled together from what was rightfully left on the cutting room floor when they were making the first game.

In general, if I want obstacle course-oriented 3D Mario, I found 3D World to be consistently more fun and creative than Galaxy 2. Although I still think it deserves a place in the 3D All-Stars collection.

@Grumblevolcano That's good to know, although I would expect nothing different. Even if a game is delisted, you can still generally redownload it if you bought it prior to the delisting.

My list is almost exactly the same as @Blooper987
1. 3D World
2. Galaxy
3. Galaxy 2
4. 3D Land
5. Odyssey
6. 64
7. Sunshine

I'm just not a fan of sandbox level designs when it comes to platformers. The two don't mix well. The little trailer we got for Bowser's Fury has me worried that it too will feature sandbox levels, which would go completely against 3D World's design philosophy. Hope I'm wrong.

Has anyone considered that maybe they left Galaxy 2 out because using Yoshi's tongue on the touchscreen is a complete nightmare?

@I-U @Ralizah Fair enough, although enjoying Mario for the story and presentation seems a bit like enjoying Tetris for its strong character development. I agree that the hub world and Rosalina's story were great and much better than Galaxy 2, but those are the least important aspects of a Mario game (and honestly, Rosalina's story isn't that great, it just seems so because you don't expect something like that in a Mario game). I still thoroughly enjoyed Galaxy, I just like 64 and Galaxy 2 better. But opinions differ, it's just good to hear a side that is not "Galaxy is better than 2 because it was innovative" which is what I usually hear and doesn't make any sense if you are going to pan the more innovative 64.

Since i'm trapped in the drive thru I'll make a list too:

1. Odyssey
2. Galaxy
3. Sunshine
4. 64
5. 3d World
6. Galaxy 2

I think they're all great, I tend to have more fun if there's some atmosphere. I think the only reason I don't like Galaxy 2 as much it lacks the emotional core of the first game. Seeing Bowser crying out at his failure as everything collapses around him is powerful (well...for Mario at least). Galaxy 2 doesn't have that, and it's just more of the same ostensibly.

This...basically covers why I hold the first SMG over the second. Bravo!

Honestly, I found the Yoshi segments in Galaxy 2 gimmicky and annoying. It's rare that a Mario game makes me use expletives.

Speaking from experience, the overeating is something that can't really be helped, particularly if the doses of the steroids are high...which if you're ill enough to warrant them, they are. I got fatter than I had ever been in my life when on chemo and roids...and so called friends insulted me for it, probably because they didn't understand. I hope those people never have to go through that, but if they did, they'd quickly come to understand. Horrible drugs which can transform a person both physically and mentally, and overeating is an unavoidable side effect rather than a coping mechanism.

Nah, as good as it is, it's been flogged to death and had its re-release(s). It's good in its own right and has its time and place as one of the great collections.

@Dezzy I've been hearing about the Yoshi tongue theory too, but I don't know if it still warrants SMG2's complete absence from the Direct. As of now I'm just hoping the game is included as DLC later down the line at this point. It would suck paying more for what should've been in the collection day one, but Galaxy 2 is such a masterpiece anyway. Wouldn't paying a couple tens of dollars for it... maybe.

In terms of my favorite games.. well, as a massive Mario fan I think all of them are fantastic obviously, but there are some games I think are clearly better than others. My list would be:
1. Galaxy 2
2. Galaxy
3. Odyssey
4. 3D World
5. Sunshine
6. 3D Land
7. 64*

*If including 64 DS, I would insert that below Sunshine but above 3D Land.

Galaxy 2 really is my masterpiece of all time... only because I see it as more Galaxy, and there's vastly a lot of refinement of the core Galaxy gameplay mechanics as well as cool new designs and tricks and just a whole lot of surprises everywhere in the game. What exactly does the word "gimmick" even mean today, anyway? The word is so overused at this point it's just another word for one to say they don't like something. Galaxy 2 doesn't have gimmicks (lol the Yoshi segments were much better implemented in Galaxy 2 than in Sunshine for them to be simply labelled "gimmicks," that's for sure). Instead, it has tons of fantastically-implemented ideas that are even more memorable than Galaxy 1's levels. Now Galaxy 1 was slightly more open-ended, and it clearly had a better story - Rosalina's backstory definitely comes to mind, and even without Rosalina's backstory the overall plot presentation is miles better than what we got in Galaxy 2. Bowser was an actual, scary threat as a result - but other than that, I feel Galaxy 2's simplicity gave its gameplay and levels more of a whimsical charm that kept a huge smile on my face the entire time I played it. That same charm and sharp focus on tight level design is why I also think 3D World is a masterpiece as well. 3D World also had so many tiny ideas that were well-executed and were such a joy to play as a result, either by myself or with my brother. In terms of sheer gameplay "grunt," I believe Galaxy 2 takes the cake over its prequel. Almost easily even, but that would make it sound like Galaxy was only decent in comparison which is definitely not the case. Galaxy too is a masterpiece and that is the first game I'll be playing in the 3D collection.

Some of you might be wondering why 64 is ranked so low. Again, I think all 7 (8 with 64DS) games are fantastic, but the truth is... clearly its sequels are just better to play haha. I definitely acknowledge that 64 was the great forerunner of a new era at the time, and it clearly has a huge presence in the Mario community that I couldn't respect any more, but 64 to me is just a very good Mario game. Nothing more. At this point, there's just other games that have built so much more onto 64's legacy that, for me, makes me not care for a remake or remaster or whatever of that game. I don't think I'm gonna touch 64 in the 3D collection, too. I currently have my copy of 64DS and that's how I'm gonna play the game if I reaaaaally want to.

Wow this is base Mario 64 PC mod with just higher res textures and new character models. Looks so much better with such a tiny amount of work. They really missed a trick by not doing this for 3D All-Stars:

Yoshi is used a hell of a lot in Galaxy 2. And the tongue thing would be really hard to do in handheld because you'd struggle to hold the console with 2 hands whilst carefully aiming the tongue. I dunno if that's actually the reason, but I think it's genuinely plausible. Think of all the Switch Lite owners who would struggle to play it at all. I think they'd need to come up with some automated version of it. Like a button press that uses the tongue pointing forwards or something.

Not going to read all the posts from the last few days. Is there any info and/or thoughts on Sunshine supporting Gamecube controllers? Seems like an obvious thing for them to do I'd have thought.

On the game itself. I never had a Gamecube and never picked up Sunshine during the Wii era. I did pick up the last Wavebird on the shelf at one of my local shops for the Wii VC but never got the required Memory cards for GC. If I had done so though, it would have been for Wind Waker and Sunshine. So definitely picking up this bundle just for Sunshine..... and an excuse to revisit Galaxy

@skywake You can use a GameCube controller, but unlike Smash Ultimate it will just be recognized as a Pro Controller. GameXplain commented on that in the video below at 1:11.