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There had been 3D games before, but none of them felt as fluid and alive as Mario 64. If you weren’t playing games when Super Mario 64 came out (maybe because you didn’t exist yet), it’s hard to describe what a revelation it was. Whether the collection is right for you really depends on how you feel about each individual game, and the Switch-specific enhancements that have been brought to them. Despite every entry being a 3D Mario game, the titles are vastly different from one another. Nintendo has now collected three of the most memorable 3D Mario entries into a single package for Nintendo Switch: Super Mario 3D All-Stars includes Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy.
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Sometimes it’s for better, and sometimes for worse. The 3D Marios have introduced new mechanics, while veering off in unexpected directions.
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While the 2D Mario games have been progressive, often building from the one that came before, the 3D entries tend to diverge pretty wildly from one another. It’s easy to divide the Super Mario franchise into two buckets: 2D games and 3D games.
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