Super Mario 64 (1996)

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.

So it's time I give my final thoughts on Mario 64, now that I've saved Da Princess™. It's good. It sure ain't a 5-star game though, at least not for me.

Here's the thing. If you just play it for a bit every now and then, like I did at a friend's house back in the day, it's a great fun time -- and back then especially, the bright and colorful 3D world to prance around in was a fresh new experience. You do a few stars in the first level, race the turtle and defeat the barking chain ball etc. You do the slide down the secret window bonus stage with that country jamboree music going on in the background. And you drop the crying baby penguin off an icy cliff. GREAT FUN TIME!

But if you go for the 70 stars needed -- and especially if you go for all 120 -- hooooooo-eee. You're gonna get frustrated. The camera has not aged well, and the controls have definitely not aged well. Mario does not turn on a dime -- he turns on a monster truck wheel. The levels themselves are also hit and miss, leaning much more toward miss in the second half of the game. I also never liked swimming or flying (or any climbing/hanging-based challenges). Complaints aside though, I still overall found the game a solid romp. I appreciated the variety in the star missions, and especially liked the slide challenges. The collect-a-thon aspect of the game was also at just the right level IMO. (Banjo-Kazooie cranks that up to... not 11, but more like 17 or something, hot damn. It'll be a while before I finish that one.)

It's fun to play this again via mario 74 on retroarch. The game is actually quite hard and challenging with some really finnicky jumps (and i'm not really that far into it) but so far very manageable with save states.

Grinding for that last star in orig mario 64 on actual hardware and dying in hot hot desert over and over again wasnt really fun (but i did it way back when). but playing a more challenging version of the game with save state functionality is a very different experience that i find suprisingly quite fun.

The first time I played SM64, I couldn't even believe what I was playing. I was a 90s kid, playing NES and SNES games here and there when out of nowhere you could actually play 3D games. Super Mario 64 set the standard on how 3D games should be played.

What surprised me the most (even today) is that Mario is so easy to move around and control. The gameplay feels so natural and button combinations so simple, yet fun. Nintendo opted for a new gameplay style. Instead of reaching the end of a stage, you must search for a Star in the world you are on.

The sheer size of the game is surprising, even today. The music and ambience is so amazing and memorable. Gaming would never be the same. It's funny because 3D platforming isn't as popular as it was back then, but this game just fills me with so much joy when I play it. It really changed the way I view games as I grew up.

Super Mario 64 is all done, with all 120 stars. Still holds up, I think. The camera is terrible in contrast to most games nowadays, and Mario has certainly seen his controls evolve to be much closer in line with 2D Marios (3D World in particular was fantastic). I'd say that 12 of the 15 worlds are still pleasurable to hunt down stars in; the 3 that fail are Tall Tall Mountain, Tick Tock Clock and Rainbow Ride. The first two have real issues with the camera positioning that make the platforming far trickier than it needs to be, and to be honest the controls are not quite up to the task of conquering those challenges without some memorization and patience. Rainbow Ride is monotonous and boring. SO much of that map consists of riding carpets to get places, and that is just dull dull dull.

I still think my five star rating holds despite those complaints. Mario 64 pioneered 3D platforming, and it's natural that its nearly 20 years of age will be showing at this point. And on the whole, it was a lot of fun revisiting it again. I guess we'll see how I feel in another 10 years...

Progress:
Super Mario 64: 63 stars, currently at Shifting Sands Land with 2 more stars to go there. I'm going in level order. Still impressed with how fun this game is. The camera is a little rough, and the game's 3D visuals aren't aging too well, but it's a joy to hunt down all these Stars again.

Sorry for the double status; I didn't know how this worked. XD