Board 8 > How much better is Sunshine and Galaxy compared to 64?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I never really liked 64, and never gave any of the other 3D Marios a chance.(except for 3D World, but I don't think that one counts, since it's so different)

The 3D Mario collection on the Switch caught my eye, but I'm wondering if it's just going to be money down the drain.
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I liked Sunshine a lot more and thought Galaxy was trash but my opinions are not very widely held.
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Sunshine seems to be a great game for speedrunners and a pain in the ass for anyone who hasn't gitten gud at exploiting every element of the gameplay.

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I bought the collection because I haven't played 64 or Sunshine since I was a kid and I never played Galaxy.

64 was borderline unplayable in 2020 (expect a bunch of replies telling you otherwise from people who have replayed it 20 times in 20 years)

Sunshine was not much fun but I didn't play it for too long

Galaxy was great and I got 120 stars

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were you a ghost before or after galaxy came out

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Galaxy >>>>>>>> Sunshine > 64 imo. Played Sunshine for the first time recently and its decent enough aside from a few shines. Tried to replay 64 for the first time in like 15-20 years and it is nowhere near as good as my memory of it was. Its just so dated and awkward feeling. Galaxy is amazing and until Odyssey it was my favorite Mario game.

The general opinion is that Sunshine is the weakest of the three and there is no consensus on which is better between 64 and Galaxy.

I THINK.

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Galaxy is the best. Sunshine is not good.

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Sunshine is as good as I remember

Galaxy is worse than I remember (but still very good)

64 has aged very poorly

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Galaxy >> Sunshine >>>>>> 64

64's camera made the game almost unplayable. I absolutely hated it.

Sunshine was a little janky and had a lot of dumb mini games to get Shines, but was an overall improvement and pretty decent as long as you don't go for 100%.

Galaxy was great, loved pretty much everything about it.

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Just get Odyssey instead. It's the best of the 4.

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Casually beating the game

Galaxy >>>>> Sunshine > 64

Going for 100%

Galaxy >>>>>>>>>> 64 >>> Sunshine

I never finished Galaxy. Sunshine is just a better made game than 64, although it has elements people don't enjoy..

64 only tops lists due to nostalgia and stubbornness. Camera isn't great, controls have some lingering issues, jumping is harder to accomplish in this game than any other Mario.

I've heard Galaxy 2 is the best 3D Mario.

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HanOfTheNekos posted...

I never finished Galaxy. Sunshine is just a better made game than 64, although it has elements people don't enjoy..

64 only tops lists due to nostalgia and stubbornness. Camera isn't great, controls have some lingering issues, jumping is harder to accomplish in this game than any other Mario.

I've heard Galaxy 2 is the best 3D Mario.

Galaxy 2 isn't quite as magical as Galaxy 1 in terms of sheer imaginative ingenuity, but is a smoother play and it expands on the Galaxy 1 mechanics in the best possible way, so they are pretty much on equal footing in my book.

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If you care about straight up platforming mechanics and design, Galaxy 2 is where it's at. It's a Mario game with few frills. It doesn't try to recreate the atmosphere of the original or even really try to do anything other than be the best platformer ever.

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They improved with each game

Galaxy > Sunshine > 64

With Galaxy 2 being better than all 3

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64 > Galaxy >> Sunshine

in all regards
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If you have to get any Mario game on Switch get Odyssey. Way better than all the other Switch Mario games

swordz9 posted...

Galaxy >>>>>>>> Sunshine > 64 imo. Played Sunshine for the first time recently and its decent enough aside from a few shines. Tried to replay 64 for the first time in like 15-20 years and it is nowhere near as good as my memory of it was. Its just so dated and awkward feeling. Galaxy is amazing and until Odyssey it was my favorite Mario game.

Pretty much this. Sunshine is a marked improvement in retrospect, but Galaxy trounces both of them. It could have been made today and felt modern.

Also yeah, Odyssey is arguably my game of the generation so!

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Yes, I'll echo the sentiment here that Odyssey is fantastic. It was robbed of a GotY by coming out the same year as Breath of the Wild (I'll argue that it deserved it in spite of that).

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It depends entirely on what you're looking for.

Sunshine is a lot more focused than 64. Levels are a lot more limited in ways you can break them, missions tend to change the layout of levels, and everything revolves around Mario's jetpack. FLUDD generally lets you make more mistakes and course correct easier due to his hover feature. But there are also utterly baffling design decisions, mostly centered around certain missions that you don't have to do to beat the game, but are just strange, unfun, obtuse, and some near requiring a guide in order to get 100% ( "spray this unmarked empty doorway for a blue coin" comes to mind). There's a lot you can do with FLUDD, and if you're someone who likes just jumping around worlds for the feel of it, Sunshine's really good at that, but it's a very specialized game.

Galaxy strips even more away. Levels are often linear shots through interesting geometry with one or two deviations along the way. You'll rarely visit a specific environment or set piece more than twice for any reasonable amount of time. Most of Mario's mobility options other than the long jump and triple jump are stripped away completely. In their place are super tight levels filled with platforming, variety, and constantly trying to one-up its own concepts. Galaxy plays probably the most like a 2D Mario game out of all the 3D games outside of... well, 3D Land/World. That said, I'd pick it up for Wii if possible, as I don't think it's worth picking up the whole 3D Collection just for Galaxy. The game has some Wii-specific gimmicks that are... okay, I guess? And when translated to the Switch's gyro they're... slightly less okay but somewhat serviceable?

Odyssey is a really fun time. Does a good mix of the concepts of 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy - huge worlds with tons of stuff to discover, but each one both having an overarching mission that opens up new content as you go along and with side areas for more condensed challenges. Mario controls fantastically with potentially his widest range of movement options, and presentation is top-notch from start to finish. However, it does run the risk of devaluing accomplishments by having so many little moons. It tends to have the least "staying power" of all the Mario games, I've found - fantastic and fun in the moment, but you do so many little things that only a few big accomplishments stand out per world. Not necessarily a problem for everyone, but something to note, especially if you go completionist with it.

tl;dr, A Hat In Time's cheaper than all of these and within the same conversation, so get that.

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I finally got around to Odyssey a few months ago... and it may be one of the most "flawless" games I can ever remember playing. I got every single moon and left with literally zero complaints. Nintendo bowled a 300 with that one.

Of the three games in question, though... I'd say Galaxy is my favorite, with 64 inching close behind due to an inexhaustable well of nostalgia. I'm sure it's aged poorly, but I can't imagine liking it less than Sunshine, which I've never liked.

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64 has always been the most overrated Mario game and aged pretty badly and should have been remade for 3D All Stars.

Sunshine has always been and still is the worst 3D Mario game

Galaxy is one of the best 3D platformers but surpassed by its sequel whose exclusion completely killed the 3D All stars Compilation.

One of Nintendo's laziest cash grab efforts ever.

Odyssey > Galaxy 2 > Galaxy > 64 > Sunshine

If you're not playing for completion and just want to do the bare minimum to finish the game, Sunshine jumps above 64 but the rest of the list stays the same.

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While 64 has not aged amazingly, it's a game I've rarely tired of watching speedran. Seems like every year new strats are found. It also has some love with the randomizer that's not bad to watch either. The other options are probably more polished experiences on the whole, but SM64 will never not have a bit of nostalgic love from me.

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Seriously just get Odyssey. It's a top 10 game and I've never been a Mario fan. I loved Sunshine when I was younger but I had trouble getting into it again recently... because I figured it'd be better to just play more Odyssey instead

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64 is the best 3d platformer of all time and if you don't like it just give up on the genre

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100%'d Sunshine for the first time in 3D All-Stars, and yeah there were some annoying shines and blue coins, but if you remain vigilant for blue coins most of them aren't that bad. Though the bad shines are really bad, like watermelon festival and toxic river lily pad.

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64 has aged very poorly and is easily the worst 3D Mario game

Sunshine is fine, has some issues for sure but at least the movement and camera feel better than 64

Galaxy is a masterpiece

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Figured this might be a good place to plug Game of the Month, which features Galaxy 2 this month (it was my nom).

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i agree that every mainline 3D Mario has been better than the last

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ViolentAbacus posted...

Sunshine was a little janky and had a lot of dumb mini games to get Shines, but was an overall improvement and pretty decent as long as you don't go for 100%.

This is key. Sunshine is a good game as long as you are just trying to beat the story.

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Yeah, SMS is a bit tedious to get all the shines which is weird because I like collecting stuff.

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Sunshine is tedious because there isn't a clear sense of direction for some of the blue coins and Shines unless you're listening extremely carefully for that distinctive sound.

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Steiner posted...

64 is the best 3d platformer of all time and if you don't like it just give up on the genre

Lmao so glad I'm not drunk on SM64 nostalgia.

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I mean the 64 camera isn't great but people overexaggerate its impact. It's supposed to be for people that have never played a 3D game ever before by devs who weren't sure of how people would take to controlling a camera. As such it really does a lot of the work for you at times, but because people actually got pretty good at controlling cameras themselves they flip out the moment they can't put it in the exact spot they want.

That's not to say there aren't some pretty bad spots here and there, though.
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Waluigi1 posted...

Lmao so glad I'm not drunk on SM64 nostalgia.

I'm glad I don't think the only reason to like SM64 is nostalgia.

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hi lihlih

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NBIceman posted...

I'm glad I don't think the only reason to like SM64 is nostalgia.

Good thing I didn't say or even imply that! It's...fine, but literally every single Mario since has been better.

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Mario 64 is my personal favorite game of all time, but I absolutely stress that that's a personal opinion. I fully admit that, objectively, it has a shit ton of flaws. I just don't care about them.

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what brought you back to this board, ghost

did potd turn on you too

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Nostalgia isn't the only reason to like SM64. It's just the reason to rank it higher than others.

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I don't think anybody ever claimed Sunshine was a greatest in the world but it was really fascinating to watch this entire Place take a gradual month-long shit on Sunshine when that collection came out. It's like everyone forgot they hated it

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Waluigi1 posted...

Lmao so glad I'm not drunk on SM64 nostalgia.

i don't really have childhood memories of sm64, banjo kazooie was my n64 platformer. i got into sm64 from watching speedruns, and while a lot of that is predicated on glitches and whatnot so you can absolutely call it flawed, it's just so much more fun than any other 3d platformer with the way mario controls and all the stuff you can do

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