Super Mario 64 DS feels more of a downgrade, rather than an upgrade.
Now to the game. The game has been modified a bit to use the DS's capabilities to the max. It has multiplayer (you only need one card, yay!), minigames so you can have fun with the new touch-screen, and the biggest one, 30 brand-new stars to look and hunt for. Not only that, you can play as Yoshi, Luigi, and Wario. Not just Mario. These updates bring a lot of replay to it, but it takes so much away from the original, it almost doesn't cout as a nostalgic ride.
Now the bad thing, it's the graphics. Nintendo claimed that the DS is more powerfull than the N64. It doesn't look like that here. The graphics have been heavily downgraded from it's original state. Mario has a lot less polygons than in the N64 version (you can't even seen Mario's "Piece" sign when he gets his star anymore) , the textures are much smaller and have a lot less detail than in the N64, and what's worse, the DS's lack of a texture filter makes the textures look heavily jagged and makes it look as bad as a PS1 game! Unbeliavle. It's a downgrade.
And the sound is also very modified. Remeber the sound that the camera makes when you turn the camera, how that made you go on a nostalgic ride thru time? Gone. Instead, it's replaced by a really ugly sound, that makes you want to resist turning the camera just so you don't hear it. And the Mario vocals have been compressed badly, lowering the quality badly. Another downgrade.
But enough about presentation, let's see the control. Now the first thing you have to do is switch the controls from standard to Touch. You cannot play this game with the D-pad. It was not meant to be. It makes the game unnecessarily hard. (especially the Bowser battles). Now the one I find best is the one that uses the stylus. It takes time to get used to, but it works great.
The 150 stars will make you go back to play this game, just to finish it. It's great having new stuff to do in this game. Too bad it's not on the N64. The minigames will make you want to play the game again, especially since much of them are very well done, and very fun too. It also has a brand-new multiplayer mode, but it feels like a missed oportunity. A 4-player co-op (Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Yoshi) cooperative mode would make this game a must-buy. But instead, it just has a battle mode. Fun, but short.
It's a decent start to the new Nintendo DS, but not the best it could had. The remakes of the past Mario titles were fantastic, but this game doesn't live up to it.