Nintendo Could Be Building Toward a Super Mario 64 Remake

Nintendo has been reaching further back into its older catalog to fill the gaps between major new releases, and that trend could continue with even more remakes and remasters. With long waits becoming increasingly common for some of its biggest franchises, bringing back older games gives Nintendo a way to keep those series active. At the same time, players wait for something genuinely new.

The recent focus on Nintendo 64 classics is particularly interesting. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is getting another remake after its Nintendo 3DS remake, while Star Fox 64 has also returned despite fans spending years waiting for a completely new Star Fox adventure instead of another trip through the Lylat Wars.

That makes it hard not to look at what other N64 games Nintendo could revisit next. Ocarina of Time and Star Fox 64 have both already received modern treatments, and Majora's Mask seems like an obvious next step if Nintendo wants to keep going down this road.

A Majora's Mask remake could also make practical sense because of the work already being done for Ocarina of Time. Nintendo has created new assets, redesigned the world, and built a new engine specifically for that remake. Reusing that foundation for Majora's Mask could allow the game to receive a similar visual treatment without starting completely from scratch.

With Zelda and Star Fox both returning to the N64 era, Super Mario 64 naturally becomes another game worth considering.

Super Mario 64 remains one of the most important 3D platformers ever made and established many of the ideas that would define the genre. There has already been plenty of discussion about Nintendo remaking it, though a remake wouldn't necessarily make it the next mainline 3D Mario game.

After such a long wait for a new 3D Mario, it would make more sense for a Super Mario 64 remake to arrive separately and give you something to play while Nintendo works toward the next major installment. If that new game arrives next year, for example, there is still no guarantee the next 3D Mario will come quickly.

A modern remake could also give Nintendo plenty of opportunities to improve the original without completely losing what made it special. The textures could be cleaned up, levels could be expanded, new collectibles could be added, and Mario's movement and some of the boss encounters could be refined. The camera, one of the original's more noticeable rough edges, could obviously receive a major overhaul as well.

Super Mario 64 is a different situation than Star Fox 64, though.

Star Fox 64's core gameplay has aged particularly well because of its relatively focused structure. Most missions either place you in a small free-roam section or put you into an on-rails sequence where the aircraft largely handles its own movement while you focus on dodging and shooting.

Because the basic gameplay still works so well, a remake of Star Fox 64 doesn't necessarily need to change much. Ocarina of Time is also built around an established world, story, characters, dungeons, and locations that remain recognizable and effective today. Its remake can focus on cleaning up older elements while preserving the foundation.

Mario 64 presents a bigger challenge because many of its levels were designed around the limitations and style of early 3D games. Some worlds are essentially floating platforms over water, lava, or space rather than fully connected environments.

Levels such as the paths leading to Bowser, Lethal Lava Land, and Rainbow Ride often feel more like elaborate obstacle courses than believable places. A modern remake could make some of these areas feel more connected to the world around them, like Bob-omb Battlefield and Jolly Roger Bay, where the environment has more of an actual physical structure.

That would require Nintendo to go far beyond simply updating the graphics. A proper remake could make Bob-omb Battlefield much larger, introduce new enemies and locations, and add additional collectibles to the worlds. Some of the bosses could also use significant changes.

After all, one of the original game's bosses essentially involves picking up King Bob-omb and throwing him onto the ground three times. A modern remake could add considerably more depth to those encounters.

Nintendo has already expanded Super Mario 64 before. The Nintendo DS version added Yoshi, Wario and Luigi alongside Mario, giving players four playable characters. It also introduced new worlds, bosses and areas, including the unusual section featuring King Goomba.

That DS version showed how much further Nintendo could take the original concept, even though there was still room to expand on those ideas. A modern remake could keep the four playable characters while giving each of them more distinctive abilities and move sets.

Wario in particular could benefit from a redesign. His role in the DS version largely revolved around punching large blocks, while his movement felt slow and bulky compared with the other characters. A new version could give him abilities that make him more useful throughout the game's different worlds.

It could also borrow some ideas from Donkey Kong 64, but not necessarily copy its structure. Instead of separate characters for different types of bananas, some stars or collectibles could require a specific character's abilities. This could open up new paths through familiar levels and give each character more reason to be there.

That could make the remake feel familiar while still offering something truly new. You could keep the original missions, but add more objectives and routes to make the worlds worth re-exploring.

Nintendo might also include the minigames from the DS version, and maybe even expand on them with online multiplayer. Multiplayer and minigames from the DS version could also inform features that give the remake another reason to keep players around after they finish the main adventure.

Another area Nintendo could make a noticeable difference is in music. Keep the original compositions, but orchestrated versions of the original soundtrack could work well in a new remake.

There could also be a huge speedrunning element to this. Super Mario 64 is one of the most popular games in the speedrunning community, and a remake could keep techniques like the backward long jump while adding official time trials.

Instead of leaving speedrunners to rely on external leaderboards, Nintendo could build time trials directly into the game. Every mission in every world could have its own recorded time, letting players compete against others worldwide; showing the top 300 players for each mission could make the remake much more competitive without changing the core platforming experience.

The idea would also allow Nintendo to do something it has rarely done with 3D Mario: properly revisit an older mainline game through a modern remake.

Mario has received plenty of ports, collections and enhanced versions over the years, but ambitious remakes of its mainline games have been rare. Super Mario 3D World was brought to the Switch with additional content through Bowser's Fury, while other older Mario games have returned through collections or updated releases.

Mario Sunshine, the Galaxy games, 3D Land, 3D World, and the New Super Mario Bros. titles haven't received the kind of full modern remakes other Nintendo franchises have enjoyed. Outside of Super Mario 64 DS, Nintendo has generally preferred to bring these games back in their original form or add new content around them.

Exceptions include projects such as New Super Luigi U and Bowser's Fury, but the original games largely remain intact. Nintendo has also remade spin-offs and other Mario-related titles, including Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Mario vs. Donkey Kong, without giving the mainline 2D or 3D games the same treatment.

That makes Super Mario 64 an especially interesting candidate if Nintendo continues looking through its older catalog. The game already has a history of expansion beyond its original release, and a modern remake could take those ideas much further.

With Nintendo continuing to revisit older games while players wait for its next major releases, another Super Mario 64 remake would fit the pattern. It could preserve the original's identity while expanding its worlds, characters, bosses, collectibles, music, and competitive features, giving Nintendo plenty of room to make the classic feel new again.