Everything is good except for the controls...
Not Recommend---People who hated the original because this is even worse, and people who hate portable remakes because the switch to a handheld created some problems
Super Mario 64 DS is a remake of the original Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64. Almost everyone in the world has played the original game, and for a good reason too. It is widely accepted as a classic and one of the greatest games ever created. There are many differences between this version, though, and the original. First of all, obviously, are the graphics. Even though it was turned over onto a handheld system, the graphics look much better. Sometimes they can look a little pixelated, but overall they're much better than some of the blobby messes you saw on the Nintendo 64. Secondly, there are 4 playable characters instead of 1: Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Yoshi. You start off the game as Yoshi, and you unlock the other characters from there. Each character has different advantages/disadvantages that gives you more of an option when choosing a character to use before a stage. For instance, Yoshi can eat enemies, spit them out, do that triple jump thing, and turn into any of the 3 characters. Mario is plain old Mario, Luigi can jump higher and do this new floating/twirling thing when you do a backwards push-jump, and Wario can punch heavy objects such as the black bricks. Another addition into the game are 30 more stars. The original only had 120 stars, which almost every Mario game has, but this one has 150! The new stars are obtainable by completing new challenges exclusive to the DS version (I played a level where you can fight King Goomba in a newly designed stage, for example) and catching normal/shiny bunnies scattered across the castle and it's courtyard. Also, when you catch these bunnies you get a key that you can bring to Toad to unlock new mini-games, also exclusive to the DS version. The mini-games are the only time you really get to use your stylus, and it makes good use of it, too. By the time you're done the game, you'll have so many mini-games that it could have been released as it's own standalone game on shelves. One more unique feature to the DS version is multi-player. Not that it's very good, but if you want you can connect with other DS systems, whether they actually own the game or not, and compete to see who can obtain the most stars. It's not that fun and very repetitive, but still a nice addition. So with all this stuff, it's obviously better than the N64 version, right? Not exactly. You see, the N64 version was a launch title for that system and was made to utilize the functions of the Analog stick on the N64 controller. It's a huge 3D world to explore, and the analog stick was essential to wandering these locations. On the DS, however, there isn't an analog stick (which, although irrelevant to this review lol, is why the PSP has an advantage here). All you have is a d-pad and a touch screen. The d-pad is the only way most people will play the game with, which still isn't that great, because using the touch screen is just impossible and not even worth trying. There's also a hybrid mode where you mix the d-pad with the stylus, but that's even harder to use. So, you're basically stuck with using the d-pad. That means that when you're in tight situations that rely on precise movement, you're going to have some trouble and get extremely frustrated. This is even more frustrating when mixed with the half -of-the-time horrible camera angles. Without a doubt you'll get over this problem, but you'll never stop thinking of how much better it would be to just have an analog stick. This game is, nonetheless, still great.
Conclusion---An unforgettable classic remade for the Nintendo DS that's better in every way, shape, and form than the original except for the sloppy controls.