Super Mario 64

The Good
Running, jumping, flying, all went through buttery smooth. Fun worlds, clever puzzles, and killer bosses make up this game. amazingly clever sequences like the mirror had me in awe. And for some reason I just couldn't stop playing.

The Bad
The graphics were decidedly first-generation. Sometimes, due to unusual draw-distance routines, secrets are revealed before you should know about them. Aside from bosse enemies are mostly complete morons and more often than not inconsequential. occasionally the clipping does some wonky things that'll leave you wondering what just happened. And the camera is not always very responsive to player control.

The Bottom Line
Mario took the next logical step. It's like the other Mario games before, only better, and in 3D, and withmore to do than just get to the end. this time you also get to solve puzzles and do things like foot-races. fit all of that into 15 worlds and a handful of mini-worlds and you have super mario 64.

The Good
The N64 was the last console to join the fray in the previous “Console War”. As it had a lot of ground to gain it came out and hit the market hard. And with great games like Super Mario 64, is it a wonder that they quickly caught up with the Playstation? The first 3D game in the series, it is also one of the best.

In Mario 64, the diabolical Bowser, King Of The Koopas, has once more abducted Princess Toadstool, or Peach whatever the hell her name is now. This time to free her Mario must collect 100 stars. Only then will he be able to face Bowser in final combat.

This means that you will have to play a level repeatedly, in order to collect all of the stars. Which can be tedious. Yet it is not too bad as most of the levels are well designed, and fun to play. Furthermore, the objectives of each return to the level is different. From fighting a boss, to collecting red coins.

Mario basics, remain the same. Collect coins, 100 gain a 1-up. Grab power ups. There is new stuff as well. All power ups are new, from Wing Caps, to Metal Mario. There is also the addition of red and blue coins. And of course the new 3D.

New Graphics add new challenges. From precise game controls, to camera views. Thankfully these work quite well. You occasionally get a bad view. But the controls are tight and responsive. You would think that this was not the first 3D Mario game.

The Graphics are good. A little dated now. But amazing for the time. It blew the Playstation’s graphic prowess away.

Another first for the franchise, now Mario talks! The sounds are classic Mario, and Mario’s voice is good. The music is also classic Mario, so no complaints here.

The Bad
As I mentioned above the gameplay can get tedious. More so when the level is one that you dislike.

The game does not pose a challenge until, about the tenth level or so. It could have been a more gradual change.

The occasional bad camera view. Can put a damper of the gameplay.

The Bottom Line
This is a solid game. As well as the basis for all other 3D Mario games, as well as all 3D platformers in general. If you missed it the first time you can try it now on the Nintendo DS.

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.