Digital Foundry - Super Mario 3D All-Stars analysis

A celebration of three excellent Mario games, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy have all arrived for Nintendo Switch in a single time-limited release package. But just how good are the remasters - and are they actually emulated?

General

– All three games rely on emulation
– Any changes/enhancements injected into the emulator
– Relies on the Vulcan API

Super Mario 64

– 720p resolution
– Both docked and handheld resolutions
– All fonts and HUD artwork redrawn at higher resolution
– Input latency kept to a minimum, a big improvement over the Wii U Virtual Console release
– Some updated textures
– Switch port uses 4-point texture filtering, which impacts filter pattern across textures
– No anti-aliasing
– 30 frames per second
– Mild frame pacing issues
– Slight audio latency
– Slightly muffled sound

Super Mario Sunshine

– 1080p docked
– 16×9 aspect ratio
– UI recreated on Switch in higher resolution
– Sharper textures
– Improved quality of cutscenes
– Reflections appear sharper
– 30 frames per second

Super Mario Galaxy

– Aims for 1080p docked
– Resolution scaling based on what’s happening on screen
– 60 frames per second
– Higher resolution assets for menus, HUD elements
– Video sequences re-rendered at higher resolution
– Certain effects have significant color banding
– Mainly 60 frames per second, but a rare bit of slight slowdown