Quote:October 07, 2004 - One of the very first titles Nintendo revealed for the Nintendo DS platform back at the Electronic Entertainment Expo was Super Mario 64 x4, a multiplayer conversion of one of the most successful 3D platformers ever made.

The game has officially received a namechange to Super Mario 64 DS, dropping the x4 from the title that represented the four player mode. But that doesn't mean the game won't have multiplayer connectivity...in fact, that's one of the game's main focus.
But the big deal is the enhancement of the single player adventure. Yes, it's a conversion of the original Nintendo 64 game. But there have been some modifications to the gameplay to incorporate all four different characters into the single player mode. Not only is Mario playable here, but so is Luigi, Yoshi, and Wario...and each character has his own strengths, weaknesses, and abilities. Yoshi, for example, can eat enemies and turn them into throwable eggs. Wario can break objects that no other character can. And Luigi can jump the highest out of the quartet, which will come in handy to reach those hard-to-leap areas. It will be important to switch between the characters to collect all 150 stars.

That's right, the game now has 30 more stars to earn than the original Nintendo 64 game. The Nintendo DS version will also feature several minigame challenges that utilize the touch sensitive screen.

Of course, the big addition is the four player battle mode, and just as it was announced back at E3, this battle mode will only require one copy of the game for all four players.

We'll have more on the game later today at Nintendo's Gamers Summit.

-- Craig Harris

Quote:Most people who've played it said that the controls aren't too bad, especially since the camera is so much better than it was in M64.