is an enhanced remake of the 1996 platform game Super Mario 64, developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. As with the original title, the game's plot centers on rescuing Princess Peach from Bowser. Players start the game with Yoshi as the playable character and gain access to Mario, Luigi, and Wario as the story progresses.
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, who produced the original Nintendo 64 version of the game, first displayed the game as a multiplayer demonstration at the 2004 E3 titled Super Mario 64 ×4. In addition to updated graphics, the remake includes additional characters, a multiplayer mode, and minigames. Super Mario 64 DS was a launch title for the Nintendo DS, released in the United States and Japan in 2004; it was released in PAL regions the following year.
The game has won awards and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its single-player mode, graphics, and the changes from the original game. The multiplayer mode and lack of analog controls from the original were common areas of complaints among reviewers. The game is the tenth best-selling Nintendo DS game, with over 11.06 million copies sold by 2018. Super Mario 64 DS was re-released on the Wii U's Virtual Console service across 2015 and 2016.
Gameplay
thumb|left|alt=A composite image of two horizontal rectangular video game screenshots. The top screenshot is a digital representation of a snow-covered mountain with a green bipedal dinosaur breathing fire at the peak. The bottom screenshot depicts an overhead map of the mountain with icons scattered around the course: the dinosaur's face and three colored caps. Pairs of digital buttons with left and right arrows are at bottom corners of the lower screen.|Gameplay takes place in a 3D environment with the game's original view point displayed on the top screen while an overhead map indicating relevant locations is on the bottom screen. The Power Flower item augments the characters' abilities; shown is [[Yoshi breathing fire after collecting the item.]]
Super Mario 64 DS is a 3D platformer based on the original Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64 and features several changes from the source game, such as new characters, courses, Power Stars, and items. During the course of the game, the player controls four characters—Yoshi, Mario, Luigi, and Wario—navigating them through 3D courses. While the four characters have similar move sets, each character has special maneuvers unique to them. Power Stars are scattered throughout the courses; while there are 150 stars in the game, not all are required to complete the game. Each course is an enclosed world in which the player is free to wander and discover the environment without a time limit. The worlds are inhabited with hostile enemies, as well as friendly creatures that provide assistance or ask for help. The castle has been expanded to include new courses, like the Sunshine Isles; new enemies inhabit courses as well, like the Goomboss.
The game uses both the system's screens during gameplay. The top screen displays the main interactions, while the bottom touchscreen functions as an overhead map and allows touch controls. The overhead map displays the current course the player traverses and displays item locations. The touch controls include virtual buttons, which rotate the top screen's camera angle, and directional character controls, which can operate with either the DS stylus or the player's thumb using the DS wrist strap. In addition to the single-player adventure, the game includes 36 minigames and a multiplayer mode. Minigames are made accessible by catching rabbits in the main game. The minigames use the touchscreen to play and are based on different themes; for example, racing, card games, puzzles, and action.
Power-ups in Super Mario 64 DS take the form of special caps resembling those worn by Mario, Luigi, and Wario. Acquiring a cap will change the player's character into the corresponding character, allowing them to use that character's abilities. The hats fall off if the character is hit but can be reacquired. Yoshi is able to start a level wearing the hat of any of the other available characters. The "Power Flower" item provides the characters unique abilities: Mario inflates like a balloon and is able to float; Luigi becomes intangible and transparent, similar to the Vanish Cap in the Nintendo 64 version; Wario becomes coated by metal, which makes him temporarily invincible and sink underwater, similar to the Metal Cap in the original version; and Yoshi is able to breathe fire, which allows him to burn enemies and melt ice.
Plot
Super Mario 64 DS is set in Princess Peach's Castle. The game begins with Mario receiving a letter from Princess Peach inviting him to her castle for a cake she has baked for him. Mario arrives at Peach's castle, along with Luigi and Wario. The trio disappear after entering the castle, and Lakitu, the game's camera operator, wakes Yoshi up to inform them of their disappearance. Yoshi explores the castle to find Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Peach.
Scattered throughout the castle are paintings and secret walls, which act as portals to other worlds where Bowser and his minions guard the Power Stars. After recovering some power stars and defeating Bowser's minions, Yoshi unlocks other areas of the castle, where he finds Mario and his friends imprisoned in various rooms.
Development
thumb|alt=A composite image of two square video game screenshots of the same scene: a man in blue overalls and a red cap stands on a giant stone platform facing a large horned anthropomorphic turtle with yellow skin and a green spiked shell. The left screen shot has smoother curves wheres the right one has more blocky characters with sharp edges.|Due to more polygons in the 3D models, Super Mario 64 DS (left) features more detailed character models than the Nintendo 64 version (right). Shown is Mario engaged in a boss battle against Bowser.
Super Mario 64 DS was published by Nintendo and developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD), the company's internal software development division, for the Nintendo DS.
Among the team was Motoi Okamoto, who oversaw the minigames. In designing touchscreen-based games, Okamoto played many Flash games as part of his research of point-and-click games. Through experimentation, Okamoto concluded that increasing the number of similar objects in some games tested the player's cognitive abilities; he developed the "Wanted", "Which Wiggler?", "Boom Box", and "Intense Coincentration" minigames based on this. To provide the player with a good variety, he aimed to balance the types of minigames, such as casino games, action games, puzzle games, and cognitive games. The next day, the company had a multiplayer demonstration, titled "Super Mario 64 ×4", on the showroom floor for E3 attendees to play. The short demo featured the four player characters competitively looking for power stars. A few months later, Nintendo announced an actual game—along with many others—was in development.
At the Nintendo DS conference on October 7, 2004, the game was on demonstration again and new information was revealed; the name was changed to Super Mario 64 DS and the four different characters would be used in the main, single-player adventure. The demonstration was a more complete version than the one on display at E3—the game's development was 90% complete at this time—and highlighted the multiple characters in the single-player mode and included minigames; the multiplayer mode, however, was not present. In November 2004, Nintendo held an event, Nintendo World Touch! DS, across five cities in Japan to promote the upcoming release of the handheld system and games. Stations with demonstrations of Super Mario 64 DS were available to play.
Prior to the October conference, the appearance of the box art on GameStop's product page caused speculation Super Mario 64 DS would be a launch game. Nintendo confirmed the rumor by announcing at the conference that the game would be a launch game of the Nintendo DS in North America and Japan. As the game's release approached, the release schedule of launch games altered; many games were delayed, while others were announced to be released a few days before the Nintendo DS. Super Mario 64 DS was the only game scheduled to be released with the system. At the beginning of 2005, Nintendo announced plans for the game to also be a launch title in Australia and the United Kingdom on February 24, 2005 and March 11, 2005, respectively.
thumb|alt=Photograph of a home entertainment center with a large flat-screen TV displaying a Wii U logo. Atop an oval table in front of the center is a small white device with joysticks, buttons and a a builtin panel displaying the same logo.|The game was re-released on the [[Wii U console, which has a GamePad that provides a second screen with touchscreen controls, similar to the Nintendo DS.]]
Nintendo announced plans to bundle the game with the handheld console in June 2005 only in the United States; after speculation of a similar plan in the United Kingdom, the company clarified that it had no such plans at the time. Despite this, retailers HMV and Game in the United Kingdom began offering the game in their own Nintendo DS bundles. On June 5, 2011, the game, along other Mario DS titles, was repackaged in a red-colored case in tandem with a price drop of $99 for the DS. Super Mario 64 DS was later re-released in Japan for the Wii U as a part of the Virtual Console line of games on January 6, 2016, and was later released in North America in August of that year.
Reception
Sales
Super Mario 64 DS has been commercially successful. After launching, the game debuted on NPD Group's best-selling console titles list for November 2004 at number ten. It remained at that spot by January 2005. A few months later, NPD Group reported that the game's sales ranked it the seventh top portable game during June 2005. Dengeki staff reported that Super Mario 64 DS was a popular title at several game stores in Tokyo, Japan during the first day of the console launch. Following its Japanese release, the game sold 241,000 copies by December 19, 2004, and was the fifth best-selling game on the weekly sales chart of that week. Sales continued to increase, and Super Mario 64 DS had sold 639,000 units by February 20, 2005. At the end of May 2005, Super Mario 64 DS was the second highest-selling DS game on the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association's United Kingdom chart tracking. The game reached the top spot on the chart in June before falling back to number two in July.
In the United States, it sold 1.4 million copies and earned $42 million by August 2006. During the period between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the seventh highest-selling game launched for a handheld console. By November 2006, the game had sold over one million units in Europe, and by the end of 2007, over two million copies in the United States. By May 31, 2011, the game had sold 4.34 million copies in the United States, As of March 31, 2018, Super Mario 64 DS has sold 11.06 million copies worldwide.