Super Mario 64

Well, I do love being a contrarian online, so it somewhat gives me pleasure in saying this Nintendo masterpiece is overrated in this review even if I can acknowledge the achievements it’s made for 3d platformers over the years.

All my complaints here mainly come from it being outclassed by later 3d platformers as admittedly it was the first of these to transition from 2d games. As such, the camera angles and control scheme might’ve been revolutionary for the time but have since become passed due to games such as Spyro and banjo Kazooie perfecting the formula for both of these features, again this was the blueprint for those games and thus can't have its accomplishment taken away from it as a result. One thing that would've always annoyed me was how you were kicked out of a level whenever you collect a star, this would be like banjo Kazooie kicking you out of a level every time you collected a jiggy or f**k forbid Spyro kicking you out whenever you rescue a dragon or collect an orb. It breaks the flow of the gameplay heavily especially if you're in the middle of finding a bunch of items which of course you have to do so again as your progress is reset whenever you're booted out of a level. Another aspect of this game that was quickly outclassed was the graphics, I'm sure they blew everyone's minds back in the day but now, they just look like clunky polygons vaguely resembling the Mario characters and the mushroom kingdom. It's not too big of a deal considering what this game has to offer, however I'd stick with a remaster if you want to check out any version if this game. One final disappointment is the absence of Luigi, I get that his name isn't on the cover, however I think we can all agree that he really does complete the cast with his presence even if it's because he's in the shadow is his older brother.

So yeah, that's my thoughts on this revolutionary game, it's not terrible by any means and I can't take away what it's done for gaming, I just prefer so many other games over this.

Similar to the relationship between Yoshi's Island / Super Mario World, this game was superceded by Super Mario Sunshine in every way, but there's a dedicated, but neurotic fanbase around this game that has its blinders on when it comes to 3D platformers. It seems like the newer generation of gamers would rather spend endless hours deconstructing a simple platformer rather than playing the platformer and moving on with their lives.

Hard to believe this is one of the first major 3d platformers. The movement mechanics are just so refined. Later Mario releases watered them down a lot, which is good for beginners, but worsens things for advanced players. It's a lot of fun to build up momentum with side-flips, long jumps, belly flops, and wall kicks, and jump over some "impassible" wall to get some star in 5 seconds. It seems like over time, the developers at Nintendo started putting in more and more restrictions to stop you from "breaking" their game, which is a shame. After all, beginner players won't be able to do all these tricks anyway, so they'll still mostly have to run around the whole level as the designers intended.

I really want to love this game. I respect it highly for what it did and meant. But its just not that fun to play imo. I think design wise its genius. Short arcade-like bursts of gameplay (getting a star). Free to choose which level to enter. And the camera being an actual physical character object in the game is absolutely genius. (Making the third person perspective more understandable for newcomers to 3d games.) But just the levels are not that fun. And especially the controls are just so annoying. Slippery, floaty and very sensitive. And where I complimented the IDEA behind the camera, the camera actually just sucks. A lot of the time it clicks to rails, where its hard to see literally anything. Depth perception is bad, especially when the platform you want to jump to, is not in frame and its impossible to get it in frame, because the camera is doing its absolute best to nullify any of your camera inputs. I mostly had 2 main thoughts while playing this game. 1. "Design wise, this is genius, today, but especially for its time. 2. "Please let me just finish this game so im done with it."
I got the exact number of stars you needed to enter the final level. Finished it and was done with the game. To (probably) never touch it again.
That being said. I think this is a genius game. Just not to my liking. And I can completely understand people who adore this game.

it speaks to the quality of this game that it can have all of these flaws (level design could be better, camera being shitty etc, non existent story) and still be comfortably one of the best games of all time (if we're being real probably top 10-20).

the kicker here is just the sheer expression in movement. super mario 64 is almost immersive sim-like in its approach to design, in that it throws all of the tools you would ever need at you from the beginning and lets you loose in its 'sandbox', i.e. you are able to use all forms of movement (triple jump, backflips, high jumps, long jumps, running etc) from the beginning, and then just throws levels at you and tells you to master them by collecting stuff and solving puzzles. that's literally it. that's all it needs to do and the depth created is just immense. from the very beginning of the game it's almost overwhelming the number of different jumps you can pull off, and over time you're jumping all over the place like its second nature without even thinking about what buttons you need to press. this controller being an extension of yourself feeling is something very few games can say they achieve, and the subsequent flow state you find yourself in after mastering them.

i also love the more precision platforming approach compared to something like super mario odyssey. these worlds are goofy and treacherous and you're not running around huge sprawling levels here so much as you are slowly learning their tricks as you go. obviously the whole camera being incredibly clunky and borderline unusable criticism is fair enough considering this more precise style of platforming, but honestly this shit is so good i can look past any of this game's flaws.

i wasn't sure on the whole collect one star -> get kicked out of level -> go and find the next one game loop at first, but honestly it's one of the most unique and interesting parts of this game and is done as well here as it is in something like galaxy, in fact it's probably better here than in any other mario game. some stars are downright tricky to figure out how to get and i seriously don't understand how people would've found some of them back before the internet lol. but each star is like a little puzzle and getting kicked out almost forces you to reset, and meditate on every single one of the star titles before actually going into the level. it's as much an exploration/puzzle as it is a platforming game and it requires the player to be so comfortable in each of these worlds and so articulate with its controls. the devs of this really figured out how to squeeze out every ounce of goodness from this game as possible.

all in all this game was so ahead of its time and probably the only mario game that can hold up to the likes of odyssey (which is insane to say). there is no other game like this and nothing has ever, and maybe ever will come close to this.

I adore every second of this game (except for the gay rainbow carpet, I flipping hate that level!!! Will speak on this later on in the review) and wish to play forever but my little fingers will get tired by the 48th hour. The level designs are cooky and crazy and show what a true 3d game should be. Mario is a silly man collecting stars for a woman that hates him. Back to the levels, they’re really fun to explore and collecting stars can be a pain in the bottom such as the one on top of the roof in the ghost mansion. Bomb om battlefield is lovely with lovely music and it’s nice how THERE ARE WATER CANNONS THAT SHOOT AT YOU🤬🤬🤬🤬 music is stellar and the rainbow carpet world sucks, I kept falling off the damn carpet to avoid being burnt by the fire beams. I was listening to Björk (Volta) at the time of playing the world so it made me feel better since I was getting mad at how many times I kept falling off and getting burnt. Overall, this game was
ahead of it’s time showing game developers how NOT to make a 3d game (just kidding loool, I mean the opposite of not) and really got nice stuff.🙏