The Nintendo DS may have been an enormous success in its era, but it didn’t start that way when the system launched in November 2004. The touchscreen handheld's launch was pretty atrocious, especially compared to the generation-defining titles released on PC and console. There were just seven games available when the DS launched (including the packed-in demo for Metroid Prime Hunters) and nearly all of them were average (like Sega’s bizarre mini-game anthology Feel the Magic XY/XX) or outright bad (Madden NFL 2005 and Spider-Man 2).
But one exception to the abysmal lineup was a clear winner for the DS’s earliest adopters. Super Mario 64 DS was a remake of the game that both invented and perfected the 3D platformer. And now this industry-changing Nintendo 64 launch title was now in the palm of our hands, an equally mind-blowing feat. This version would add a handful of fun gimmicks that took advantage of the console's most advanced (at least for 2004) features, some interesting changes to the game’s progression, and even new collectibles.
