Super Mario 64 Finally Gets Free Nintendo DS Co-Op After 22 Years Of Waiting

Up there with GoldenEye 007 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, many will die on the hill that the Nintendo 64 could be the greatest video game console of all time. The end of the '90s and start of the '00s were when home consoles really took off, and while the PlayStation 2 remains the best-selling console of all time, the N64 walked so it could run.

Nintendo has had continued success with the likes of the Wii and the Switch, while others like the GameCube (sorry, not you, Wii U) get a sometimes unfair reputation. Let's also remember the might of the Nintendo DS, which let us relive the glory days of the N64 in handheld form.

Super Mario 64 Gets The Nintendo DS Update We've Been Waiting For

Even though it's been a tough year for the DS as the Switch dethroned it as Nintendo's best-selling console, there's still plenty of love for that little slugger. Now, one fan has brought the OG Super Mario 64 experience to the DS for the first time. Before you go correcting us, we know Super Mario 64 DS was released in 2004, but it was a massive overhaul of the 1996 original. As well as putting Yoshi as the starting character and expanding the roster to include Mario, Luigi, and Wario, there were new abilities that let you cheese through levels.

More than this, there were more stars, new levels, and enhanced graphics. Perhaps the biggest difference is that the controls were remapped to the D-pad or a touchscreen thumb strap, meaning this was Super Mario 64 largely in name alone.

Over to Tobi Friedly, who has made a more classic Super Mario 64 available on GitHub. Including source code and build instructions, Friedly took Hydr8gon's existing Super Mario 64 port for the DSi and started tinkering. The problem is, the DS' minute four megabytes of RAM previously meant it couldn't hold the whole game at once.

Two's Company, Three's A Crowd

YouTube / Tobi Friedly

We've seen a lot of Super Mario 64 remakes before, and even a version that runs on PlayStation, but the big win here is the fact that Friedly has partially resurrected Nintendo's original idea for the game's multiplayer co-op. Back in the day, there were early plans for you and a buddy to suit up as Mario and Luigi to explore Peach's Castle together. Technical limitations nixed that, but now, we're back in action. Well, it only took 30 years. In terms of getting the pure Super Mario 64 experience on the DS, we've been waiting 22 years since the console first launched.

Whether actually trying to complete the game, racing each other, or playing hide-and-seek, the opportunities for two Marios are endless.

Things work a little differently here, with two DS consoles able to connect and each run their own version of the game while you team up together. Friedly admits there are still a few performance issues, although he vows to keep tinkering.

As for what's next, Friedly said he is 'irresponsibly' trying to get this version of Super Mario 64 up and running on a Game Boy Advance, so retro console fans rejoice.

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