Last month here on Nintendo Life we covered the story of a coder named Joshua Barretto who decided to remake Super Mario 64 for Nintendo’s 32-bit handheld, the Game Boy Advance. If you weren’t already impressed by this technical feat, this palm-sized project now has a new update.
In a new YouTube video, Barretto showed off a handful of improvements including a complete rework of Mario’s model – with some “improved proportions and better textures.” Mario’s limbs are also “wider” so they are easier to see at this low resolution.
Along with these improvements to the character models, the animations have also been updated – with “more keyframes” – specifically for the jumping animations. Mario, in this GBA version, can also now perform more of his moves from the N64 game, including ground and wall sliding.
On top of that, there have been updates to the game’s camera, stage transitions when moving between areas, and stars have also been implemented. So that’s the latest in this development of the SM64 project for the GBA. While there isn’t a public version of this build, Barretto seems open to sharing the game in some way or form when it’s in “better shape.”