This collection of three of Mario’s earliest 3D platformers was Nintendo’s worst kept secret for a while back in 2020. In March of that year, [rumors abounded](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/super-mario-bros-35th-anniversary/) that Nintendo had plans to go all out for Mario’s 35th anniversary. These plans included announcing a new Paper Mario game, more information about Super Nintendo World and the Illumination Mario movie, and plans to remaster Mario’s platforming back catalogue for the Switch. However due to the state of the world at that time, those plans were unsurprisingly scuttled. Paper Mario would be revealed in a Twitter drop, and both Super Nintendo World and the Mario Movie wouldn’t be shown off in any major detail until much later.
But as for those Mario remasters. We hadn’t gotten 3D World on Switch yet, which seemed inevitable given how many Wii U ports made it to Switch over the years. But the real question was that platforming back catalogue. Could this mean 64? Sunshine? The Galaxy games? Maybe Nintendo could bundle them all together in a collection, like Super Mario All Stars on the SNES. As such nearly every single day up until the reveal, people were speculating about if and when these remasters were ever coming out.
Until the day finally arrived on September 3rd, 2020, where Nintendo announced Super Mario 3D All Stars to cap off their Mario 35th anniversary direct. However upon the official reveal, two things bugged me: 1) No Super Mario Galaxy 2, and 2) this collection would be a limited time offer. After March 31st, 2021, Nintendo would not only stop manufacturing physical copies but also delist the digital version from the eShop. Yep, Nintendo was pulling a “Disney Vault” with this highly-sought-after collection. I went digital at first but eventually double dipped and also went physical. In my opinion Nintendo probably had to pull these FOMO tactics because they knew they couldn’t compete with fanmade remasters that had been available for years at that point, so they forced a cutoff date so you wouldn’t have to think too hard about getting it.
I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting at least two of the games in the collection purely on their own merits, since I never played Sunshine until now. But as for my thoughts on the quality of the port jobs themselves, I definitely have issues. Mario 64 has delayed audio for voices and sound effects which was never fixed; once I heard it I couldn’t unhear it. And while I appreciate the added rumble in this version, it also took out some popular speedrunning tricks in the process. Mario Sunshine’s inverted camera controls were annoying as hell to get accustomed to, and it didn’t natively support the GameCube controller adapter initially. Finally I only play Galaxy with the Pro Controller because I don’t find the split Joy-Cons to be as satisfying to use as the Wiimote and Nunchuk, but at least it’s still serviceable. However I hate that the touchscreen is used for the pointer in handheld mode; it’s so awkward and kills the pace so hard for me that I don’t bother playing undocked unless I have a Pro Controller. Some of these issues were addressed in patches but it’s like, why even bother when you’re delisting the collection in a couple months?