It’s always fun to see classic games get a new coat of paint, from Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES to Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land on the Game Boy Advance to the Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii. This time, however, one particularly passionate Mario fan has done something a bit more substantial.
Computer science student Erik Roystan Ross has performed quite an impressive feat by taking the first stage in Super Mario 64, Bob-Omb Battlefield, and recreated it with beautiful HD graphics through the magic of the Unity engine. Check out the game in all its glory below:
As you can see, the game looks just fantastic, and it seems to be quite the faithful recreation of the original 1996 game. Enemies like Goombas and Bob-Ombs chase Mario around as he traverses the stage, and giant bubble cannons try to pelt him in appropriate sections. While some of the more prominent set pieces of the stage, like the giant Chain Chomp and Big Bob-Omb at the top of the mountain are noticeably absent, and I’m not even sure if it’s something you can “beat,” but I’m not going to complain. Ross has created a beautiful retro playground for fans of the game to frolic in.
If you want to try out the game for yourself, head on over to Ross’s personal blog where you can download it for PC, Mac or Linux. Just bear in mind that you will need the Unity plug-in to be able to run it.
