How good is this gem?

I like it a lot and possibly my favorite mario game but not one of my favorite games

its still my favoritest mario game and theres so many really great mario games. probably in my top 10 or even top 5 video games. this post is not a shit post, i love mario 64.

its still my favoritest mario game and theres so many really great mario games. probably in my top 10 or even top 5 video games. this post is not a shit post, i love mario 64.

basically this. i love a ton of mario games and regard them incredibly highly but mario 64 is still at the top of all mario titles and i fucking adore it to the point of it being one of my favorite games period, especially as far as the objective side of that goes.

i dont like it

I think Mario Odyssey tried to capture the magic of SuperMario 64 while also doing its own thing and it does a pretty good job of it, but side by side I gotta say Super Mario 64 has more charm. I think part of it is the lack of polish- its the first major 3d platformer so a LOT of it is experimenting and they came up with some really cool ideas that it just rules to see. Plus, idk, I think blue-skidooing into paintings is by far the coolest world selection I've seen yet.

I think Mario Odyssey tried to capture the magic of SuperMario 64 while also doing its own thing and it does a pretty good job of it, but side by side I gotta say Super Mario 64 has more charm. I think part of it is the lack of polish- its the first major 3d platformer so a LOT of it is experimenting and they came up with some really cool ideas that it just rules to see. Plus, idk, I think blue-skidooing into paintings is by far the coolest world selection I've seen yet.

Mario Odyssey's endless amount of moons hurt it by comparison. Odyssey's movement is also a lot more stiff. I like Odyssey a lot and it did many things right and got the basic idea of what made 64 good down, and the worlds are huge and fun to explore for the most part. But they also did a lot of things to try to make the game overly big and difficult to truly learn like the back of your hand, whereas I know basically all of the ins and outs of 64's levels and Star placements and thus can have a blast at any time by turning the game on and doing a 120 star run on a whim, and the game is so innately fun to move around in compared to Odyssey's fairly finnicky movement tech.

I like the moons overall. I really like how they consolidated tons of different categories of collectables into just one thing you gotta worry about. They definitely overstuffed the game with them a bit, but I feel like their hand was forced w/ that- people want a Lot of stuff and would probably reject the game outright if it didn't have a Lot. now that there is a game with too much shit to collect people might be more willing to pick up to something that's calmed the fuck down on that front.

imo the biggest thing that hurts odyssey is the worlds. there's some decent sized ones but others just feel too tiny to the point where it kinda takes me out of the whole 'world tour' feel they're going for. I get what they were going for w/ all these areas having mainly new enemies and the like but it just felt kinda bizarre not having a lot of classic mario enemies and npcs youd expect. Feel like if you're exploring the world there's a lot of excuses to bring back some old favourites here and there. I mean I guess it's so they could really balance the capture mechanic? but eh.

I'm in a weird boat because the first Mario game I played was Sunshine. And I didn't finish it back then, either. I borrowed a friend's Gamecube and only ever got to the fucking hotel and the fucking manta ray and I fucking hated that manta ray it took me two days.

In fact, I haven't even played Mario 64, so to speak. I've played 64 DS when the DS came out, which isn't quite close, I guess. I enjoyed it, at the time, although a lot of it was novelty of having a 3D game like that out-and-about as opposed to tied to a TV screen.

I think I still somewhat prefer Sunshine to 64/DS, but it's more for little things, like the music, and the way Delfino Plaza worked as a hub over the castle. The general atmosphere of the game as opposed to 64/DS's very disconnected levels.

I think in the longer run though, I think I like 64/DS more than Galaxy 1, atleast. Galaxy 1 felt strangely... soul-less? I'll write more words about this another day I guess.

SM64 is my favorite game. It's just so fun to run around in it even if you're not doing anything. That's not to say it doesn't have any flaws, but pretty much all of them are a result of it being the first game of its kind so I can give it a pass there.

Odyssey's movement is really fun too. I went to do a second run through of the game a few months ago and ended up just playing around in the Cap Kingdom instead. What brings Odyssey down for me personally is the capture mechanic. They went and gave Mario such a great and agile move set, then somebody went and said, "Hey, what if instead of Mario you played as a goomba instead?" And then they ran with it. I'm not saying I dislike the mechanic, but just too much of the game is spent on stuff that isn't platforming as Mario. There's a huge number of moons in the game where all you do is capture an enemy and then spend two seconds using their unique ability.

I think it has a lot of replay value to it still, like the whole experience doesnt become significantly more repetitive each time (speaking from 70 star perspective, not as well-acquainted with 120 speedgaming). You can finish 70 star in under 2 hours pretty easily which helps a lot

I find it pretty impossible to judge SM64 by modern-day standards, so the best I can do is judge it by 1996 standards, in which case it rocks the house

Mario controls pretty nicely even today, the camera is not nearly as bad as it could be, and the graphics (though bad) have plenty of color and contrast. I'm never confused about what I'm looking at or where I can go. A lot of early 3D platformers have weird hitboxes and a bunch of other shit that just make them a chore to play, but SM64 mostly circumvents this with simple geometry and good level design.

I don't think it could be called the "best game ever" because it was so experimental. If you look at something like Super Mario Bros 3, it still has a certain level of polish and stylistic coherency that SM64 never reached even on its first day. NES and SNES games were way better at disguising technical limitations than N64 games were.

Yeah; so I actually just got to THAT place in odyssey and man does it take me back. All the while it got me thinking "I dont think I've really felt the way I felt playing mario 64 about any other mario game".

Every world was unique; everything was so damn weird. The music was and still is iconic. The mini-games were actually fun to play. If I think of video games my mind goes either to mario 64 or sonic 2.

I think the closest thing that's come to it is Galaxy and that's a very unpopular opinion but mine.

Idk man. It's part nostalgia, part critical thinking. But if there'such a thing as a 10/10 game mario 64 is probably it

This post was last modified: Mar 11, 2019 at 11:25 PM by Draku.

I find it pretty impossible to judge SM64 by modern-day standards, so the best I can do is judge it by 1996 standards, in which case it rocks the house

Mario controls pretty nicely even today, the camera is not nearly as bad as it could be, and the graphics (though bad) have plenty of color and contrast. I'm never confused about what I'm looking at or where I can go. A lot of early 3D platformers have weird hitboxes and a bunch of other shit that just make them a chore to play, but SM64 mostly circumvents this with simple geometry and good level design.

I don't think it could be called the "best game ever" because it was so experimental. If you look at something like Super Mario Bros 3, it still has a certain level of polish and stylistic coherency that SM64 never reached even on its first day. NES and SNES games were way better at disguising technical limitations than N64 games were.

The majority of modern 3D games wish they had Mario 64's controls. Hell modern 3D Mario wishes it had Mario 64's controls instead of the weird compromise that's meant to feel like 2D Mario but just ends up as kind of restricted.

Mario 64's aesthetic is a little weird at points to be sure and that's definitely a product of the time but I can't call such an incredible game bad simply because it doesn't have amazing graphics due to being released on, y'know, the fucking N64. Mario was still rapidly shifting between aesthetic presentations back in the day, especially if you were in the west and thought SMB2 was, well, SMB2. It didn't register as odd at all for Mario 64 to be presented the way it was, especially with the framing of the levels being in paintings. The majority of areas are presented extremely well for the time and are cohesive, Tick Tock Clock for example has yet to be matched by any modern re-interpretation Nintendo has tried to go for. Wet-Dry World looks weird as fuck and people shit on it in particular like it represents the entire game but it's an outlier and not the rule. Big Boo's Haunt, as a second example, managed to capture all the magic of the 2D Mario ghost houses and then some, and looks fantastic.

I fucking LOVE Super Mario 64! It's one of my favorite 3D games period! While the camera wasn't the best I feel like the controls have no business being as good as they are for one of the first 3D platformers in history! It's amazing how well the game looked and played for that era.

Super Mario 64 will always hold a special place in my heart.

Update: I've been playing SM64 on a real N64 recently, and I actually think 100% of my problems with this game's controls come from the camera, lack of wall-sliding, and horrifyingly uncomfortable controller

This post was last modified: Mar 18, 2019 at 3:55 PM by Draku.

Update: I've been playing SM64 on a real N64 recently, and I actually think 100% of my problems with this game's controls come from the camera, lack of wall-sliding, and horrifyingly uncomfortable controller

I never had a single issue with the camera in SM64 growing up, but any time I go back to it in the present day it presents a lot of problems that I didn't know were gradually fixed over time by the passage of time with game development experience. But at the same time the rest of the control setup fucking astounds me with how goddamn good it is and blows the vast majority of modern titles away completely, so there's kind of a balance. Still causes some unnecessary frustration though, it's definitely a mark against the game.

I have no problem with wallkicking in SM64 even without wallsliding so I'm not too sure what the issue is there though it's admittedly odd with all the Marios that came out later having it. What's your beef with the controller? Everyone memes up the N64 controller's design but it's not like SM64 requires d-pad access so your hands should be fine.

Update: I've been playing SM64 on a real N64 recently, and I actually think 100% of my problems with this game's controls come from the camera, lack of wall-sliding, and horrifyingly uncomfortable controller

I never had a single issue with the camera in SM64 growing up, but any time I go back to it in the present day it presents a lot of problems that I didn't know were gradually fixed over time by the passage of time with game development experience. But at the same time the rest of the control setup fucking astounds me with how goddamn good it is and blows the vast majority of modern titles away completely, so there's kind of a balance. Still causes some unnecessary frustration though, it's definitely a mark against the game.

I have no problem with wallkicking in SM64 even without wallsliding so I'm not too sure what the issue is there though it's admittedly odd with all the Marios that came out later having it. What's your beef with the controller? Everyone memes up the N64 controller's design but it's not like SM64 requires d-pad access so your hands should be fine.

The design is definitely weird, but I see why they did it that way; they had success with the d-pad up until that point and they had no way of knowing if the analog stick would take off. My problem is the stick itself, it's really hard and it just doesn't grip as well as it should. I can only use it for like 30 minutes nowadays before my palm starts to hurt like hell

My problem is the stick itself, it's really hard and it just doesn't grip as well as it should. I can only use it for like 30 minutes nowadays before my palm starts to hurt like hell

The lack of a cap for it definitely does make it weird and I don't like that at all. You can get replacement sticks that have caps or fashion a cap yourself or something.

I'm curious as to how your palm is hurting from that though.

My problem is the stick itself, it's really hard and it just doesn't grip as well as it should. I can only use it for like 30 minutes nowadays before my palm starts to hurt like hell

The lack of a cap for it definitely does make it weird and I don't like that at all. You can get replacement sticks that have caps or fashion a cap yourself or something.

I'm curious as to how your palm is hurting from that though.

It's just the whole thumb area of my palm. Doesn't happen with the tiny switch joycons