I went to a wedding this past week in Portland (then I drove to Seattle, because Seattle is awesome). During the long drive from Montana, I got to spend some quality time (or, at least, all the time that I wasn’t reading Harry Potter) with my Nintendo DS. It was nice to sit down and dig into some of the games I’ve bought but have only played topically thusfar.

The game I found myself playing most during the trip was Super Mario 64 DS. I loved the original game (if you’ve read the blog at all, you’ve probably been able to guess that), and spent way too much time playing it when I bought my Nintendo 64 way back when. Well, all of this talk lately about Super Mario Galaxy has gotten me pretty pumped for Mario games in general, and this one seemed like a good diversion for a long car ride. It definitely is.

The game itself is absolutely great on DS. It has all of the original graphics and levels (including some additional ones), and most of the textures have been updated to make a castle which is absolutely stunning on the small screen of the DS. The major change from the N64 version is that players start the game as Yoshi, and must get 8 stars in the castle in order to unlock Mario (who’s been tricked and kidnapped by Bowser). After unlocking Mario, players can switch between the two characters, and eventually unlock Luigi and Wario as well. Each has their own “specialty” moves, but the entire game could probably be beaten by Mario, as in the original.

The thing that really gets me about this game, though, is the fact that you’re playing a game specifically designed for the Nintendo 64’s 3-D control stick on the DS, which only has a four-directional control pad. Sure, you can whip out your DS wand and wiggle it around on the touch screen for sub-part, completely inaccurate (i’m not bitter) movement, but then you spend most of your time looking at the touchscreen instead of watching the gameplay. Even though the control pad is infuriating, it’s, in my opinion, the best control scheme available.

For the most part, the control pad is accurate, but for those who remember the way the camera works (or doesn’t), you can begin to see why the control scheme is infuriating. The camera will swivel to match the terrain of the level, switching the control subtly as it does, leaving the player a difficult task when negotiating turns with thin landings. Another downfall of this control scheme is that there’s barely any precision-adjustment; you press the up and right keys, and mario won’t nudge one direction, he’ll turn almost 90 degrees.

All in all, Super Mario 64 DS is still a great game, and it’s definitely possible to have fun with on the DS once you become acclimated to the controls. The fun that is taken away by controlling a 3-D entity with 2-D controls is not nearly enough to make this game “bad” by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a constant reminder that just because you can put a great game on a new, smaller console doesn’t mean you should.

So my girlfriend bought me Super Paper Mario yesterday, after listening to me talk about it for the past 2 months. Her first attempt to silence me, arsenic, didn’t work, so the option buying this for me must have been a close second. Of course, I was ecstatic: girls, video games, girls giving me video games. What could be better, right? I didn’t actually know that Super Paper Mario (SPM before my fingers go numb from typing it out again) was an RPG, but that’s simply icing on the cake. You play as Mario, you level up, you gain experience (points). This game is incredible. I’ve seen that it’s gotten great reviews from most of the game sites out there, but I didn’t really know what to expect; this game has the kind of stuff that you can’t really explain in words.

The basic premise of the game is that you’re Mario, living in a boring, quiet world with your butt buddy best friend Luigi. One day, the two of you decide that it’s boring, decide to visit Princess Peach in her castle only to find out that she’s been kidnapped. Comedy ensues. Much later, after the comedy has ensued, you find out that Count Bleck (and not Bowser) has kidnapped PP (Princess Peach, or Poon, whichever the reader prefers) for his evils ends. Being the great guy he is and having the bold moustache he has, Mario decides it’s his job to get “shit” back on track.

It’s actually very complicated plot considering the audience, but it’s engaging and it gives you at least 10 minutes worth of excitement to thrive on until you’re given the ability to warp between 2- and 3-D. This is really the selling point of the game (well, for anything besides a Mario game, this would be the selling point), and it’s introduced with uncomfortable amounts of subtle humour and sweltering irony.

From here, the point of the game is to collect 8 pure hearts, which can be recombined into 1 massive, throbbing purity heart, allowing the legendary hero to defeat Bleck and close the dark portal that’s consuming all worlds. You’re given one heart for free, just to get the game going, and after about 1 hour of play, the second can be retreived. It’ll be interesting to see how long a game this one actually is.

Between her and me, we’ve gotten to the second chapter (of 8, I presume: 7 to collect the hearts and 1 for Bleck’s temple) and it’s looking to be a roaring ride to the finish. I’ll probably write a review on it after I’m done playing, even though the game isn’t new at all.