Back in the early 00s, Super Mario 64 DS was one of the most impressive handheld titles around. After all, portables from before the DS era were known for 2D games first and foremost, with technical specs more on par with the 8 and 16-bit era than modern Nintendo consoles.
So, to see a full 3D title running there was insanely impressive, and showed how far the medium had come tech wise.
But it seems like that might not have been the first portable technically able to run Mario’s first 3D adventure. Why?
Because a fan by the name of Joshua Barretto has been working on a project to remake the game on the GBA as well! Here’s a video showing the project in action:
As you can see, it’s definitely a bit… rougher than the normal game. The graphics are extremely blurry, the frame rate is questionable to say the least, and Mario himself looks more like a red triangle than a mustachioed plumber.
But it’s still super impressive nonetheless. After all, the GBA barely ran 3D games at the best of times, with only a few of its most ambitious games offering anything resembling a title from the PS1 or N64. So the fact this is actually running in 3D, and doesn’t look like a PowerPoint presentation is technologically insane in of itself.
And what’s weirder is that this isn’t the only attempt at the matter. No, a few years prior to Joshua’s remake, another fan by the name of Josh Tint also tried to make something very similar:
This one has Mario look like Mario, and technically looks closer to the N64 game than the more recent project does…
But again, it’s very clear the GBA is being strained to its utmost limits here. The frame rate is even lower than the more recent project, and the developer himself admits the project was canned due to technical limitations making it a chore to play.
Either way, there have officially been two attempts to remake Super Mario 64 for GBA, and one of them is ongoing right now. So what do you think about them?
Are you impressed that anyone has gotten a game like Mario 64 running on such limited hardware? How well do you think the game could be made to work on the console, given some more time in development?
And out of the two projects shown above, which would you be more excited to try out?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, on social media, or over on our Discord server today!
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