Super Mario 64

Overview:

Mario has moved into the third dimension with Super Mario 64. In this game you’ll navigate the plumber through worlds on the quests for stars. It all starts when Princess “Peach” Toadstool invites Mario to the castle with the promise of cake only to find out she’s been kidnapped, again, by Bowser. In each world you’ll have to gather enough stars to access Bowser’s Dark World in order to face him a few times to ultimately defeat him. You’ll have to go through Bob-omb battlefields, snowy scenery, super hot desert and lava lakes, a ghost house, clocks, and many more. Man this game just takes you everywhere. Not to mention moving Mario in this world is just smooth as butter with never any frustration of him not doing what you want him to. The only bad part will be the camera but give it some slack, this was released in 1996 and was kind of the first of its kind!

Visuals:

How is it the first game released for the Nintendo 64 is, not only, one of its best controlling games but also one its best looking games? Sure the game isn’t employing super detailed models or hi-res textures but what the game has is style. Mario 64 takes the world we had grown to love on the previous consoles and faithfully translates it into the next dimension with everything looking the way it should. The levels are all super unique and bring their own charm and pratfalls to the table. The enemies are all fun and zany as always but there aren’t enough of them. The character models all have that early 3D look to them but they never look too absurd. Man this game looks sharp!

Audio:

The same can be said with the audio. It takes everything we love about Mario games and adds another notch to them. The music for each of the levels is so memorable which will cause you to just randomly hum the tune. They’re that catchy. All the sound effects are great as well and they never outstay their welcome. It’s also weird to think the voice acting, what little there is of it, is pretty good and doesn’t come off too cheesy. I can’t tell you how many times I heard the “Dear Mario,” portion while playing this game but I always love the little “Peach” she adds at the end. Mario’s voice also is great with all the jumps and bonks of his head that’ll happen throughout the course of the adventure. A little shoutout to Bowser’s theme. That shit just slaps!

Completion:

I have never beat this game. I got pretty close a few times but never sealed the deal. This could be because I never owned it when the N64 was the current generation so I never got to sink too much time into it. I think I may have beat it when it rereleased on the Nintendo DS but I can’t remember. So far I’ve beaten one of the Dark World levels and I’m currently just amassing more stars to take on the next one. This game is just so good. It feels good to play. Looks amazing and, as always, just sounds timeless. This is a perfect game and was the first to release on the Nintendo 64. A strange and crazy feat!