Super Mario 64

The Good
Sony’s Playstation and the now-infamous “Tomb Raider” franchise made 1996 the year that 3D gaming came of age. Well, maybe or maybe not, but that’s how gaming history is usually written, at least. Nintendo jumped back into the fray with its Nintendo 64 system in the fall of that year, and it surprised no one that the marvelous Mario was to appear in the new system’s flagship title. The hype and the hope were both there. But did Nintendo actually come through with a great game?

There is no question, the 3D graphics of Super Mario 64 (SM64) are good, especially considering the technological limitations of the time. They are still very polygonal-looking, suggesting that 3D art wasn’t (isn’t?) yet ready for primetime. While not as smooth or charming as the sprites of the 8- and 16-bit Mario titles, the 3D characters are impressive. The environments, however, are a little less impressive. Sometimes you feel like you are walking on a bunch of colored, inclined planes slapped together at somewhat random angles, rather than on earth covered with grass, snow, sand, etc. Oh well, I guess 3D terrain had to start somewhere. The music/sound is good overall, although it’s curious that it doesn’t sound much different in quality from what the Super Nintendo would put out.

I give the endlessly resourceful designers at Nintendo credit for squeezing some new gimmicks in to complement the standard Mario conventions of running, jumping, coin-collecting, yadda-yadda. Shooting yourself out of a cannon takes a little practice, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a real blast (so to speak). I imagine some gamers will fault the designers of SM64 for not innovating enough, “settling” for the human cannonball and other tricks like that. I respectfully disagree. Mario is an established character from an established milieu. The real danger was that they would try to change too much – a danger that they did not entirely escape, as it happens.

The Bad
I’ll admit to being a child of the 80s who grew up on 2D side-scrollers. Perhaps this colors my judgment a bit. Nevertheless, I don’t think anyone can plausibly deny that the 3D camera system in SM64 is aggravating almost to the point of being broken. You are severely limited in terms of the different angles you can use, and the camera has the very annoying habit of shifting back to the angle of its choice when the action resumes. There may be some kind of underlying logic to it, but I sure haven’t figured it out yet.

Mario’s movement repertoire has been expanded considerably, but somehow it doesn’t add up to much. The design of the game doesn’t lend itself to the kind of fun that previous Mario titles did. One problem is that there just isn’t much combat (if that’s the right word to use in discussing a Mario game). It’s actually easier for Mario to punch or kick – yeah, you heard me right, Mario actually does some kung-fu fighting in this title! – his enemies than it is for him to run-jump-stomp on them. Call me a traditionalist, but that just doesn’t seem right. The classic enemy-stomping action seems to have been replaced by Tomb Raider-style platform-jumping-for-its-own-sake, making this the most puzzle-ish Mario game to date. As for the ramp-sliding sequences, they are simply not that much fun, and there are too many of them.

Overall, the game world feels surprisingly sterile and empty. Previous Mario titles crammed so much stuff into those 2D levels, you never had time to get lost or bored. It’s not too hard to get lost and bored in SM64. The game tries to help the player out, since there is a lot of in-game advice about how to play and where to go, and the countdown timer has also been eliminated to further decrease the pressure. This, of course, is a double-edged sword. By encouraging a slower, easier, more exploration-oriented game style, Nintendo has further distanced this Mario title from the beloved SMBs of the past. Which leads to my final complaint: SM64 takes advantage of the gamer goodwill built up from previous Super Mario titles. I don’t care how many of the people who made SM64 also worked on Super Mario Bros. 1-3 and Super Mario World. SM64 is in many ways inferior to its predecessors, but Nintendo knew we would buy it anyway simply because it was a Mario game. You can certainly argue that Nintendo earned that capital with its earlier titles, fair and square, and was entitled to spend it later. Still, I can’t help feeling a little bit…exploited.

The Bottom Line
SM64 was by most accounts innovative, attractive, and well-designed. But if that’s the case, then why does playing it make me want to cry? SM64 took platforming where it had never gone before. Maybe I’m just a nostalgic old man, but I’m not sure Mario really needed to make the move to 3D. It made for good marketing, but it failed to deliver the same level of classic gaming experience that the NES and SNES Mario games did.

The Good
The graphics really shone out for the N64, and although choppy and uncertain at times, it was still enjoying. The color use is excellent, and new worlds look amazing. The characters are back, from your Koopas to plain old Bowser. Another great aspect of this game was the sound, the sfx and music were excellent. The camera angle also always seemed to be where you wanted.

The Bad
SM64 did something I hate. It made you go back to levels to get different stars. This bored me easily, as I hated having to go back to the same old levels, over and over.

The Bottom Line
Still, SM64 was a well designed and almost flawless game, which deserves a ( 4 / 5 )

The Good
This game was a release title for the N64. One of the most anticipated games of all time, the game boasted graphics ahead of its time, along with superb gameplay.

Honestly, I can say that it lives up to its name. The game features Mario, in his first 3D adventure, facing Bowser, who has trapped everyone in the castle and stolen all of the castle's star power. He has hid them in worlds behind secret paintings. Its up to Mario to take back the stars Bowser stole and free the Princess and the rest of the castle.

The game leaves you off in front of Peach's castle. After you venture in, Bowser explains what he has done, and the game gets going. Mario must find 7 stars in each of the 15 levels (6 objectives, 1 for collecting 100 coins), as well as 15 other "secret" stars (for a total of 120).

The game style is platforming, but most of the game varies in challenge and type. One level you will be racing a Koopa to the top of the mountain, and another time you will be helping a snowman find his body. Its stuff like this that make the game interesting.

Mario now has health, instead of his traditional one hit kill. Mario will take damage by getting attacked by enemies, touching them, falling from tall heights, touching lava, etc. There are also a number of one hit kills in the game such as drowning or falling in an endless pit.

One problem of the game is its lack of twists in the story. Its pretty much the same throughout the game: "Collect enough stars to rescue Princess Peach". However, the game makes up for this hugely by added sub-quests and side-stories to each individual world. Other than that, the game is very straight-forward.

Bosses and enemies, are, different. They pretty much don't stray much from "Kill Mario regardless of personal safety" theory. However, bosses vary nicely, each with different weaknesses. While enemies are mindless, it would have been nice if they put some thought into their actions.

The game is very open. If you do not feel like getting one star on a certain level, you can leave the world, go to another painting in the castle, and get stars there. This leaves a very open-ended gameplay feel to the game, because you do not have to get all of the stars to face Bowser (only about half is needed), however a reward is given to those who collect all of them. Levels are no-longer straightforward. Levels are literally massive, expansive areas, where all of the stars can be acquired. Even though you usually choose the star you are aiming for before the level starts on a select screen, this rule can, and is usually, broken.

Controls are done exceptionally well. They can be mastered fairly easy. All of Mario's moves are given from the start, so there is no backtracking to get stars you missed. The exception is the caps, which are generally gained less than a quarter length through the game. Besides that, they are not used in levels before they were discovered.

Sound is one of the best features of the game. Mario does not talk much, however this is the first time in history where he yells "Ouch!" or "Woah!" when damaged. The sound effects are nice, but pretty basic. The main feature is the brilliantly composed music, ranging from fast paced to slow and sober. They become part of the game itself.

The Bad
The story line did not stray much from the typical "rescue princess peach" storyline. However, varying challenge types and sub-quests help to break the monotony.

Another annoying feature was jumping. This really got on your nerves when you had to time the jump JUST RIGHT, or else you would fall back down to restart, or worse, die.

Finally, the enemy AI is mediocre. The AI is perfect for an adventure, but you will find that the enemies are more annoying....than challenging. However, variety and numbers make up for this.

The Bottom Line
Super Mario 64 is a classic platformer, adventure game that will never die out. In my opinion, this is one of the best games ever made because it is innovative in so many ways. I think it is worth buying an N64 over, especially since they are so cheap. An updated version has recently come out for the DS, however, This will always be the game that kicked off the 3D platformer series.