Review additron_ 5/5 · Sep 13, 2020
A monumental game for the industry and a little nine year old boy.. (What was your Mario 64?)
A trip to Toys R' Us, 1996. The entrance was so familiar to me. I knew exactly what aisle might harbor some cool new video games. My burgeoning collection of SNES games was at a healthy count of 21 games. They were gifts or bought cheap with some money saved and scrounged from an allowance of five dollars a week …
A trip to Toys R' Us, 1996. The entrance was so familiar to me. I knew exactly what aisle might harbor some cool new video games. My burgeoning collection of SNES games was at a healthy count of 21 games. They were gifts or bought cheap with some money saved and scrounged from an allowance of five dollars a week supplemented by small jobs around the neighborhood. This one particular visit sometime in 1996 was different. I turn the corner and on the lane to where I'd normally go a crowd is growing around a kiosk. As I approach I can make out what looked to be a three-dimensional version of a familiar character bouncing around a a green and yellow vibrant background. A 3D version of Super Mario seemed utterly impossible. Blaring from the speakers was music so energetic and confident. I didn't know much then, but I knew this -- I needed to play this game.
When I got home, that SNES and collection of games started smelling of rotten meat. I saw the future and this thing had to go. I needed to make preparations to sell the only thing I had in my possession worth anything to make sure I could play Mario.
I drafted an advert for the local newspaper listing my Super Nintendo and my curated collection of brawlers, platformers and RPGs for a solid $220. This would be a solid start towards securing the system that played this wild new Mario.
Memories of this game are tightly wound with memories of owning the first console I ever bought. I remember cherishing the experience. I knew Mario 64 was something special and I didn't want the experience to end. For the first few weeks of play, I followed a ritual of collecting only a handful of stars in any single sitting, before I would shut the console down, warm with it's new system smell and pack it away in the colorful box it came.
Now years later I've returned to the game to play through it again. I've forgotten how most of the secret stars are obtained or even where they are for that matter. I built a new set of memories with my wife, taking turns guiding a Mario to his doom, a star often just out of his jumping grasp.
Mario 64 was such a revelation for me, and it's the first time I can say I was truly hooked on a game. There are people who are coming up now who don't know what Mario 64 is. They might even see some playthroughs online and wonder what all the fuss is about I hope others hear of this game, go back and try it out. I hope they're wonderfully surprised at what they find beneath the rudimentary polygons and garbage camera controls. If after all that, they realize it's ultimately not for them, that's perfectly okay. They undoubtedly have their own Mario 64 tied up along with it, an early vivid experience.
If this story reminded you of a certain game, I would love to hear what your Mario 64 was.
