SUPER MARIO 3D ALL-STARS

GAME

| Switch

or its mascot’s 35th anniversary, Nintendo has assembled Mario’s first three 3D adventures in glorious HD. True, 3D All-Stars has few new features beyond the chance to listen to each game’s soundtrack from the main menu. But it’s hard to argue with the quality of the games.

Super Mario 64 (1996) brought Mario into 3D and instantly defined a genre, establishing rules for movement and structure that are still followed to this day. The N64 favourite may be showing its age, but its sandbox worlds are still

richly satisfying to explore, and laden with secrets and surprises. Super Mario Sunshine (2002), by contrast, is a glorious anomaly, expanding Mario’s moveset with a water-spraying gizmo while transplanting the action to a tropicalisland setting. The black sheep of the series, Sunshine is uneven but full of personality, its massive sun-kissed plaza hub holding more delights than most other 3D platformers in their entirety.

The standout, however, is Super Mario Galaxy (2007). This intergalactic journey starts slow but unfolds into one of the plumber’s greatest adventures, deploying gravitational tricks, a wide range of fantastical settings, and a strident orchestral score to rival its spectacular scope. True, the motion controls are awkwardly adapted to touchscreen inputs in handheld mode. But on the big(ger) screen, Mario’s planet-hopping odyssey feels as vibrant and ambitious as it did 13 years ago – and worth the cost of entry alone. Chris Schilling