Nostalgia Factor: High. I played a lot of this game as a kid.
Difficulty: Medium. There are some tricky challenges later in the game, but much of the difficulty comes from the cumbersome movement and camera issues.
What a gem. After a recent 120 star playthrough, I felt some of that nostalgic gloss melting away, but I still rolled credits feeling confident that SM64 is a fantastic game. In ‘96, Super Mario 64 blew us all away. The graphics (for the time), the full 3D “open area” level design, the vibrant colors, the music and sound effects, Charles Martinet’s Mario voice debut – everything about SM64 cast a spell on a whole generation of gamers. It was magic.
I have a distinct memory. I was 7 years old at my local Walmart, holding a Nintendo 64 controller in my hands for the first time. I didn’t understand what the extra grip was for, but I had never felt such an ergonomic controller before. I was playing Super Mario 64 on the N64 demo station they had set up in the electronics section. To save floor space, they mounted a big CRT high above the locked glass cabinets that displayed all of the games. I still remember the neck cramps from keeping my head cranked back, playing whatever demo games they had available for as long as I could (sorry, I was that kid that never knew when to pass the controller). In the game, I was just running and jumping around in front of Peach’s castle, unable to fully grasp what I was seeing. Behind me, several people were watching me play. A young guy in his 20s said to his friends, “How could graphics possibly get any better than this?”
I laugh about it now. Obviously, graphics have improved beyond anything we could’ve ever imagined back in the 90s, and every new generation of games seems to receive this same praise. How could graphics possibly get any better than this? But, hopefully my story helps to communicate just how much of an impact SM64 had in the 90s. It was an early 3D pioneer that influenced games for many years after its release.
The visuals are, IMO, still quite good for an early 3D game. We saw further improvements with Ocarina of Time a few years later, but there is still much to appreciate about SM64’s visuals. Allow yourself to travel back in time for a moment, and you may catch a glimpse of the awe and wonder I experienced as I watched SM64’s cinematic intro for the first time. Dynamic camera angles capture Lakitu flying around in front of a fully 3D castle and under the bridge. He flies up high for an aerial shot before zooming in quickly onto a warp pipe that summons our hero. You can hear sounds from the waterfall in the distance. Birds are chirping. Mario appears so lifelike. He bobs up and down as he breathes. His cartoony movements and animations were unlike anything we’d ever seen before. Again, it was magic.
Of course, one of the most common criticisms against SM64 today is that these visuals have aged poorly. With our modern gamer’s eyes using HD displays, Mario looks clumpy and the environments look blocky. Some objects use ugly flat sprites instead of 3D polygons. Some levels have unimpressive skyboxes that blend poorly with the obvious square boundaries of the level that just seem to be floating in a void. The first time I saw SM64’s Bowser, I was amazed and intimidated. The first time my 6-yr-old daughter saw SM64’s bowser, she laughed! She said, “He looks funny!” Oof.
As much as I cherish this game, I have to concede that the visuals have not aged well, just like many other early 3D games. But, with that being said, I believe it’s the stellar gameplay that has given this game such a lasting legacy. The N64 was the first mainstream console to introduce analog stick controls, and SM64 showcased the analog stick extremely well. Players could run “full throttle” or press the stick lightly to reduce Mario’s speed, with full 360 degree control. Mario now had a full moveset including a long jump, triple jump, backflip, wall jump, punches and kicks, and the classic ground pound.
Mario does not move like a fat plumber in this game. He is a flipping ninja. Mario’s incredible movement is one of the reasons that SM64 has persisted as such a popular game in the speedrunning community. The top SM64 speedrunners are absolute psychos that take advantage of bizarre glitches and pixel perfect tricks to accomplish some mind-blowing world records. Compared to other contemporaries, like PlayStation’s Tomb Raider (1996) with movement that seemed much more rigid, SM64’s movement allowed so much more freedom and unpredictability.
One of the major flaws in the game includes the very frustrating limitations of the camera (Lakitu, you’re fired). As a kid, I don’t remember having any issues with the camera. I just accepted whatever weird or bizarre angle Lakitu was giving me and ran with it. Sometimes the camera would be stuck facing Mario thus forcing me to run or jump forward without being able to see where I’m going. In some cases, attempts to change the bad camera angle are met with an obnoxious buzzing sound.
In my most recent playthrough, I found myself fighting the camera in almost every level. The camera was OK in the bigger and more open areas (the Bowser levels were great, because you had full 360 control), but it was particularly horrible in tight spaces or near a boundary wall. One of the most egregious camera quirks was how Lakitu would slowly rotate the camera as you’re trying to walk across a narrow plank. No, of course you can’t just walk in a straight line with ease, that would be silly. Instead, you have to perfectly adjust the analog stick to accommodate Lakitu’s gradually shifting angle. The “Mario camera” mode could sometimes come in handy in these situations, but sometimes not.
Another major flaw in the game is Mario’s inability to consistently reverse his direction without falling off a ledge. There were so many times in game where I needed to adjust Mario’s position on a narrow plank or ledge, but instead of simply reversing his direction as I intended, Mario would take a rounded turn like some kind of airplane. This of course led to Mario plummeting off the ledge to his death. I later discovered that Mario’s momentum needs to be below a certain threshold to achieve a clean reversal without any kind of lateral movement. You have to wait at least a full second between each careful tap of the analog stick to avoid the deadly airplane turn.
The incredible soundtrack from Koji Kondo is another bright spot. This man has produced so many classic video game soundtracks. Some of the most memorable pieces from SM64 include “Inside the Castle Walls,” “Dire Dire Docks,” and the super zen “File Select” track. I’ve also really enjoyed the trend of folks using the SM64 soundfont to create new music or to cover songs (entire albums even) from pop/rock artists. The iconic SM64 sound lives on.
In many ways, SM64 was 3D gaming’s Citizen Kane. While it does have some flaws and may not hold up for everyone today, the sheer amount of influential “firsts” that SM64 introduced continues to command our respect. Mario fans and retro gamers should do themselves a favor by taking SM64 for a spin.