Mario 64 kicked off the 3D generation. It introduced the world to the analog thumbstick. It was the first game to have a controllable camera. Almost every game released in the past 15 years likely has elements that can be traced back to Mario 64. It is a revolutionary game. It also sucks an arguably stupid amount of balls. How can a revolutionary game suck this many balls? Let's-a go and find out in the review.
Design
In addition to revolutionary controls, Mario 64 also started a new design structure. Princess Peach's castle serves as the "hub world" from which you can access any of the 15 areas in the game. Each area contains seven stars to collect, and they can be collected in one of a few ways: They can be hidden somewhere begging to be found, achieved by beating a boss, or will appear upon completing a specific goal like nabbing 8 red coins or flipping some sort of switch.
The game never gives you explicit instructions as to what to do to get the star, but at the start of each level, you're given a clue about where each star is or how to get it. This gives the player a genuine sense of discovery and creates the feeling of being young and exploring the nature of the world. This is the best thing Mario 64 has going for it. The fact that anyone who plays it - whether for the first time or hundredth time - will get an instant feeling of nostalgia because it instantly transforms your brain into thinking like a kid.
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| *GASP* Yay! |
The other benefit of this design is that you can play levels out of sequence. If you get bored or frustrated with a particular star you can just hop over to a different level and try something else. There's a sign in the game at the beginning that even suggests you do this and "come back after your more experienced" to collect the tougher ones. After you've collected a certain number of stars, Bowser's dungeons open up, allowing you to fight him for keys that open other sections of the castle.
It's a rock-solid structure that has been copied and pasted over to the modern 3D Mario titles and seems to get better with every release. The controls got better with every release too, because, honestly, they had nowhere to go but up.
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| Sweet Movie Moves. |
This is the first time Mario was moving in 3D, and considering that, the controls are extremely impressive. Mario has half a dozen different jumps which allow for creative movement through the levels - providing players the opportunity to create their own shortcuts if they had the skills to pull it off. Skills being the key word there - the jumps actually require practice and skill, so when you finally figure out a shortcut or get a star that can only be attained by pulling off a tricky series of jumps, you feel like a platforming hero.
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| Hardest level in the game, Tick Tock Clock |
The problem is that moving in 3D makes things much more imprecise. This would be fine if the majority of the levels didn't require you to pull off exact movements over bottomless-instant-death pits. Leading to hundreds of do-overs and thousands of F bombs. A lot of these levels take a good 10-15 minutes to beat. When you get right to the end and then slip off a ledge because of slippery controls it makes for a rage fueled, couch punching festival.
What this game takes is patience. If you try to turn a 180 before coming to anything other than a full stop, Mario will do this funky U-turn. So picture you've just stopped short of falling off a ledge. Your instinct is to immediately turn the other direction. Well if Mario is still slowing down from running, he will pull a U-ey and end up falling off the ledge anyway. Once you get used to this strange mechanic, along with the wonky camera and other anomalies buried in this game, you will absolutely enjoy it. Just don't walk in thinking you're playing Mario Galaxy. Because you're not.
Presentation
Everything in this section needs to be tempered with the fact that:
A) Mario 64 was released in 1996 and
B) This was the first game of it's kind
To call this game beautiful would be a misnomer. Looking at stills, Mario 64, while extremely colorful, is very blocky and simple. But in motion, it's absolutely everything it should be. It's whimsical, imaginative, and just simply fun.
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| Let's-a Go! |
This was also the first time Mario ever had a voice - aside from
this. The story of how Nintendo ended up with the high-pitched, playful voice of Charles Martinet. During his audition for the role...
"[t]he directors let him audition and told him,"You're an Italian plumber from Brooklyn". At first Martinet planned to talk like a stereotypical Italian American with a deep, raspy voice. He then thought to himself that it would be too harsh for children to hear, so he made it more soft-hearted and friendly, resulting in what Mario's voice is today. Martinet has also stated that he kept on talking with his Mario voice until the audition tape ran out." (From Wikipedia)
How awful this game would be if Mario talked like a gruff "New Yawkah".
"EH! LET'S GO!" instead of "Let's-a go!" would ruin the game entirely. They made the right choice. Mario doesn't talk much, but his little quips and grunts give him an enormous amount of character and likability. Cementing Mario in his place as king of games.
The other element that must be mentioned is the music. The melodies of Mario have always been an important part of the series - I mean who do you know who can't "doo doo doo" the music from the first Mario Bros? Nobody. I mentioned how the music changed my opinion on the game in an earlier post, but it really makes the experience. Relaxing and cool music for the water levels, frantic and exciting music for the aerial levels. Just fantastic. Here's some of the fantastic tunes:
Stuff I Liked:
- Perfect level design in almost every level
- Exploration/discovery heavy experience
- Music is beautifully composed
- Fantastic foundation for future controls
Stuff I Hated:
- The camera was really difficult to work with at times
- As revolutionary as the controls were, they were still in need of refinement. They got better with every release but there were hundreds of "mistakes" made because of the control issues.
- Bottomless pits. They're awful in every game and this is no exception. One slip up and it's start over-ville
There's a saying among Christians that goes, "If you want to know the father, look at the son." Or "If you want to know God, look at Jesus."
I feel like the same is true with the N64 and Mario 64. If you want to know what the N64 is like, play Mario 64. And now I feel as though not only I know what the Nintendo 64 is about, but I love every polygon it ever produced.
Review in Ten Words or Less:
Revolutionary. Nostalgic. Frustrating. Beautiful.
