Super Mario 64 (N64)

Hey, welcome back, it's Super Adventures 9th birthday etc. But never mind that, I've got TERRIBLE NEWS for you. Some quirk of Blogger has retroactively screwed up all my damn 256 colour images, removing shades and leaving them more dithered than they should be.

It only ruined little bits of them, only a few of the colours, but ideally you want your screenshots to be 0% ruined.

So I've got GOOD NEWS for you: mecha-neko wrote a thing and I did a thing and over Christmas we replaced something like 14,000 images over 1000 posts. So now the site is entirely fixed... or mostly broken, or somewhere in between. Why not click a few old posts and find out! I mean after reading this one.

Developer:

Nintendo

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Release Date:

1997 (1996 in Japan + US)

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Systems:

N64, DS, iQue Player

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This week on Super Adventures, it's Super Mario 64!

It's a game that needs no introduction, so instead I'll start off by talking about how much I hate 3D platformers. Actually I don't hate them, as long as they keep their distance and don't bother me, but they've never been my genre. I like 2D platformers, I like games where you wander around in 3D, but somehow when you combine the two I lose interest. Maybe it's because I don't like slipping off narrow platforms and misjudging depth.

Actually I will give the game a bit of an introduction, because I like trivia. Super Mario 64 was designed by pioneering Nintendo game genius Shigeru Miyamoto, who's been making Marios since the first Donkey Kong arcade cabinet. He'd already set the template for the 2D platformer genre with Super Mario Bros. so they were hoping he could pull off the same trick in 3D. And he did... though he took a few months longer than planned. Unfortunately Mario 64 was meant to be the big launch title that got people buying the Nintendo 64, so they had to delay the console for months as well. They probably made the right choice though, as the PlayStation and Saturn were well established even before the delay and the N64 needed to show off some actual magic to lure people over to a cartridge-based machine without videos, voices or CD music.

Personally I love the N64 and I've got a lot of nostalgia for it, but Mario 64 not so much. I've maybe played the game twice and the furthest I've gotten is the stone slab boss that falls on you. But some people seem to like it, and it's "acclaimed as one of the greatest video games of all time", so I'm going to give it another few hours to win me over.

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The game begins with Mario's giant 3D face, showing off what the N64 can do compared to the SNES and PlayStation. Smooth polygons that don't constantly wobble!

This floating Mario head is really similar to the 'Mario in Real Time' interactive system Nintendo used to have set up in trade fairs. They had an actor wearing a rig that controlled a real time rendered 3D face that could chat with the audience... in 1992 (you can see it in action by clicking this YouTube link).

That actor was Charles Martinet, who reprised the role for PC game Mario's Game Gallery in 1995, before making his proper debut in Mario 64 a year later. Then he never stopped. In fact I think he holds a Guinness World Record for playing the same character in more games than anyone else. This isn't the 64th Mario game by the way, but he's way past that number now.

One thing this has over Mario in Real Time, is that you can drag bits of his face around and lock them into place. Mario doesn't mind, he's transfixed by the sparkly glowing stars orbiting his head like little fairies.

It's not the most powerful face editor I've ever used, but it's pretty simple to use and you can create all kinds of faces with it as long as you want them to look like a melted Mario toy.

By the way it's playing a proper classic Mario tune right now, the theme from Super Mario Bros. in fact. But even when it's not remixing old themes it's a still a legit Koji Kondo soundtrack. Mario's voice is also perfect... as long as you compare it to what came after and not what came before. For the previous six years Mario had been pretty firmly established as sounding like Lou Albano or Bob Hoskins, but Martinet decided to go with a softer high-pitched tone and so that's what Mario's had for the last two decades (I liked the gruff voice better).

Super Mario 64 DS (DS)

The DS version also lets you play with Mario's face, but the system's new gimmick was drawing on the touch screen, not the polygons, so it lets you destroy a drawing instead. You can just flay the lines right off him.

It's a shame they only made the one remake as they had something going with the name. First there was an arcade game called Mario Bros., then the series jumped to consoles with Super Mario Bros. The 'Super' part stuck around after that, so when the Nintendo 64 got its Mario game they called it Super Mario 64. They had to drag the whole title across for the handheld game because it was remake, so it became Super Mario 64 DS.

Just think how many more words would've been bolted onto the title by now if they'd kept remaking the game. I could've had a screenshot of New Super Mario 64 3DS U Deluxe here showing how you can use the unique features of the Switch to really mess Mario's face up.

That's a very polygonal save file screen. Right away it's making a statement that this is a 3D console for 3D things... just like the PlayStation. Though here's one thing the N64 has over the PlayStation: you can save without a separate memory card.

No CD quality audio though, or flashy pre-rendered cutscenes, plus Mario only gets a handful of voiced lines. The cartridge is only 8 megabytes big, so the game's only twice the size of Super Mario RPG and something like 250 times smaller than Final Fantasy VII.

Okay I picked a save slot and now I've successfully made it to the intro, which involves Princess Peach Toadstool formally inviting Mario to her royal castle to eat a cake she's just baked.

It seems a bit weird maybe that a princess is baking her own cakes, but some people enjoy cooking! She clearly enjoys it more than writing, as she's got her letter printed out with the game's default font. I just hope the Mushroom Kingdom postal service is quick enough to get it over to Mario before it goes stale.

Princess Toadstool trivia: this is the final game to call her Princess Toadstool. Plus she was apparently voiced here by the senior editor of Nintendo Power at the time, Leslie Swan, who also wrote the English text for the game. I know this is true because I read it off Wikipedia.

Alright now I'm in the game... looking at another note. Apparently using the controller is a piece of cake! Why is this game so obsessed with cake?

Three things I've noticed already: those fake 3D trees work pretty well, the animation is pretty good, and Mario arrived here for his appointment with royalty by jumping out of sewer pipe. Hang on, I just noticed a fourth thing: there's a tiny nondescript sign over there.

It was trying to avoid being noticed, but I spotted it and walked over to activate it. It was another tutorial message! 

Even when I leave the signs alone I still get interrupted by tutorial messages!

Turns out that a pair of Lakitus are operating the game camera, which is pretty revolutionary for two reasons. First, it means that this is perhaps the first use of an automatic camera that flies around by itself to give the player the best view. Second, it means that they'll be too busy to hover overhead and throw shit at me.

Though now I'm wondering, have the Lakitus had the Marios under surveillance this whole time, even in the 2D games? Were they just flying by, filming it all from side view? Or isometric view in Super Mario RPG's case.

Super Mario RPG (SNES)

Super Mario 64 wasn't the first game to feature 3D Mario platforming, as Super Mario RPG beat it by a few months, but the animation looks a lot slicker when the character's not limited to 8 pre-rendered directions of movement.

It seems weird to compare Mario 64 with Mario RPG as, well, it's an RPG, but they do have a few things in common. For one thing I'm wandering around exploring an open area right now, not running a narrow obstacle course.

Huh, there's no one here, the Princess must be in another castle. The cake was a deception!

Actually I met a Toad who explained that it's not really abandoned, everyone's just trapped inside the castle walls. Man, they let kids play these games? Toad wasn't voiced though, as it seems Peach is the only character who gets actual voice acting in this. Well besides Mario I mean, who makes a lot more noise than platformer heroes typically did before this point. Lots of 'wah's, 'yah's and 'hoohoo's as he leaps around.

Seems that Bowser's taken the Infinity Stones Power Stars and used their reality warping power to make his own world in the paintings and the walls. Now I have to jump inside the paintings and get the Stars back to save everyone! Though probably only the framed paintings, not this classic Mario level art that's all over the brickwork.

Super Mario 64 DS (DS)

The painted brick walls are a little different over in Super Mario 64 DS, in fact all the textures are. Plus the lighting. And the coins are proper 3D. Also I'm playing as Yoshi, because Mario got his dumb ass captured this time or whatever.

Super Mario 64 DS was a launch title for Nintendo's new handheld (like the original game was a launch title for the N64), and it shows off how far technology had come in eight years. It's got slightly better visuals in a much smaller package. With two screens!

Super Mario 64 DS (DS)

Down here on screen #2 there's a map of the level, showing how fond Peach is of that chequerboard pattern on her floors.

The screen also replaces the analogue stick for steering Yoshi around, as the DS don't got one. You either use the stylus, or put your thumb in the wrist strap and use the plastic pad, and it's... less ideal. I mean it works, but it leaves you doing everything else with the single hand you're holding the system with, and I quickly switched to playing with the D-pad instead. At least it finally answers the question of whether Mario 64 could've been played with a SNES controller, and the answer is: yeah, but you probably wouldn't want to.

Anyway time to jump into paintings.

First I have to find the paintings though. This castle's a little more elaborate than most Mario world maps, and I'm little concerned that if I keep going this way I'm going to end up in a Dark Souls level. It's just giving me that vibe.

Most of the doors here have been locked and require a certain number of Stars to open, but there's a definite keyhole on that one down there. A keyhole made for giants on a door barely big enough for a Mario. I can't help but notice that there's been no toilets behind any of the doors without locks on them, so apparently restroom privileges are only for Power Star or giant key holders.

LATER

Alright, I've located the first painting. Marching sapient bombs... creepy.

By the way, this shot makes something about the graphics really obvious: the game has no shadows, except for the circle directly under Mario's feet. The engine doesn't do Quake-style pre-calculated lightmaps, possibly because it came out the day after Quake and the technology was brand new (though Super Mario Sunshine doesn't use them either and that came out six years later).

Right, so there's two stars on this level, got it. Sorry, I mean on this course.

COURSE 1: BOB-OMB BATTLEFIELD

I've started off "smack in the middle of the battlefield", apparently. Looks pretty calm for a war zone though. In fact I'm not seeing any fighting, and the game's got a surprisingly decent draw distance so I can see a long way.

I guess these friendly pink Bob-ombs must be fighting the regular Bob-ombs when they're not on their break. They're a pretty cunning use of sprites by the way, as the pink bit is just a shaded circle. Okay, should I go down the path or fire myself out of the cannon?

Oh, the cannon did nothing. Well, I'll try talking to a Bob-omb then. Then I'll read those tutorial signs! So many tutorials in this game.

Super Mario 64 DS (DS)

Here's the DS version for comparison. It's looking very different now, with new textures and pretty pastel colours. Plus the DS doesn't blur its graphics like the N64 does.

This image isn't entirely representative of the handheld's visuals though, as each screen is only half the size and they're darker. In fact they're a lot darker on the original model DS I've got here, plus the colours are less saturated too.

Crap, I got a shiny golden coin for killing an enemy, but it went and slid down behind this fence! Man, that money had better not disappear before I figure out how to get this open. I don't know what the coins get me in this, but collecting a hundred of them is typically a good thing.

Wait, hang on, what happened to the money I picked up in the castle? I had four gold coins and now they're gone! Well okay technically it was probably Princess Peach's money, but I'm sure she would've wanted me to have it.

Good news, I've found a red coin! I've also managed to avoid being eaten by this Chain Chomp by just standing a little out of his biting range. The enemies aren't so curvy when they're modelled from polygons instead of circles, but I like his shiny chrome teeth.

There's a Power Star on display behind that fence back there and I have a theory that if I stomp the Chomp's post into the ground I'll be able to get it. I think I watched someone else do it once... or maybe I did it myself? It's been a while.

But before I do that I'm going to have to work out if I even have a stomp move.

I went to grab the red coin on the Chomp's post and the bloody thing took a bite out of my Mario! I seemed to get some health back by collecting gold coins though.

Wait. WAIT. There's health in a Mario game? And it's displayed in a wooden power meter shaped like his head? This is all very strange. At least I know what the red coins are for now. If I collect all of them from around the course that blue deflated star on the right will spawn a real Power Star. Not sure how many red coins I need, but I definitely haven't got enough yet.

Hang on, are these wooden posts here for me to practice my theoretical stomp move with?

I've figured out how how to stomp things! I figured I might get something for hammering all the posts down with Mario's ass, but it seems not.

I'm liking this butt slam move though, as it makes Mario drop right out of the sky where he is. I've been avoiding all the Goombas up to this point because it's hard to aim where I'm landing in third person, but this lets me line my shadow up right over their heads before I send my plumber hurtling directly down upon them.

Now I'm wondering how this compares to other 3D platformers from the time. I mean I'm sure this is going to be more sophisticated and fun than any of them, but how was the PlayStation doing in 1996?

Bubsy is 3D in "Furbitten Planet" (PSX)

Oh. Oh man.

I've seen Bubsy 3D before, these graphics aren't a shock to me, but I've never tried to play it before now. This is really bad. Mario can run in any direction, but Bubsy's locked to direction that the camera's pointing and the camera steers like a truck. It takes four seconds to get him to turn around 360 degrees and when I pull backwards he reverses, slowly.

It's also really keen for me to collect these atom pickups lying around everywhere. Mario 64 has its coins lying around and I grab them when I see them, but this feels like someone tipped out a box full of atoms all over the floor and now I have to go pick them all up. Even better, getting him lined up with the things is a pain in the ass and if I miss one I have to either circle around to take another pass or reverse.

Running around and jumping everywhere in Mario 64 is fun even if you're not doing anything, and I didn't quite realise how much that matters until now.

STAR GET!

Stomping the Chomp's chain released him and he smashed down the fence to repay the favour, letting me go right in and get the Star. Then he bounced off somewhere to live the rest of his life unchained, free to chase down and kill plumbers to his heart's content.

Right, now that's done I can get back to collecting the rest of the red coins.

Wait, what? What? But... what?

It kicked me out of the course after I collected the Star! Everything else I did along the way just got erased, those 15 gold coins I found, all the red coins I was collecting... I honestly didn't expect this. I suppose it makes sense though, as the Star is the goal of the level. There's no exit to reach and no time limit, so the only other ways to get out are to quit or to die.

At least it let me save, I like saving. Plus now that I've got a Star I can go open some of the other doors in the castle and play in more paintings. I was worried I might have to choose which door to spend it on, but it's more like a level 1 keycard that never runs out.

COURSE 2: WHOMP'S FORTRESS

I'm giving the second course a try instead, and I'm currently riding this rotating platform to collect the floating coins. This time I'm going to make sure not to get tempted by any Stars until I've got a full set of red coins.

That red line's a coin by the way, and there's another red coin just beneath it on that slope, but I don't know exactly where. The camera controls are a little dated, as you'd expect from a game at the dawn of camera controls, so I think I'm going to have to just jump off, see how far I've missed by, and try to do better next time. After I've ran and jumped all the way back up here I mean.

Even more signs! The tutorial never ends.

One sign told me about climbing, so I went up the pole and got a 1UP from the top, which is handy. I could always use more Marios. But when I jumped off he took falling damage! In a Mario game! Is that a thing that happens in the 3D Marios? Because I don't like it.

I figured that I could probably grab those coins down there if I fell off then pulled back again, so I gave that a try next. Didn't work though. In fact Mario carried on falling into oblivion and then got kicked back out of the painting. So everything I just did, all the red coins I collected, it's all been wiped.

EVENTUALLY

Took me a few tries to get that coin on the slope, and I had to get all the way back up to the rotating platform again each time, but I got it!

Now I'm a bit stuck though as I don't know how to get the 7th red coin on the floating island on the left. There has to be some way to get over there though, preferably without triggering the boss fight against that giant Whomp with the band-aid on its butt.

Crap, the Whomp boss is coming after me. If he beats me I don't get my red coins! If I beat him I don't get my red coins!

But I switched to 'Mario camera' for a bit to get a better look at my surroundings and I saw this arrow-shaped floating island full of coins right next to me! It has to be the right place to go, it's arrow-shaped. I just have to make sure that Mario's built up speed into a full run before I jump.

No! He fell short and slid right off the bloody level! It took me ages to get that red coin on the slope and now I need to get it again. Actually, screw it, I'm sick of this course now. I'm going back to Bob-omb Battlefield to play around there for a bit.

Oh, now I get it. The '2' above that Star earlier was actually a '1'. Also now there's six stars to collect instead of just one. I guess it just wanted me to focus on the 'Big Bob-omb on the summit' at first, to keep things simple for my first go, and I spoiled it by getting the wrong Star.

Well I'll go up there and sort him out now then. Let's see what a boss fight's like in this game.

COURSE 1: BOB-OMB BATTLEFIELD (AGAIN)

I don't like this guy. It's clever how he's made up of a combination of polygons and shaded circles, but I don't think it's very clever at all how he keeps throwing me off the summit. I always land somewhere safe, and there's a renewable heart below to recover my health, but if I leave the arena it cancels the fight!

The only real challenge here is to get Mario to pick him up when he's behind him. It's a little awkward as I have to be in the right place and facing the right way before he understands what I want him to do. Which is to throw this bomb off a hill.

Off you go mate. It took a while to lure him close enough to the edge, but I managed it in the end.

Oh hang on, he just jumped back up and accused me of cheating. I just did what he was doing to me! Seems like throwing him on the grass a few times was all I needed to do, and once that was done I got my second Star (and was kicked out of the painting again)

When I jumped back in my next clue under the Stars was "Footrace with Koopa the Quick" and he wasn't hard to find as he was just waiting there near the start. So the courses change as you collect Stars it seems. I suppose when you can only fit a few tiny levels onto your cartridge you have really squeeze all the playtime you can get out of them.

Super Mario 64 DS (DS)

I decided to beat him up with Yoshi as well, to see how well I could do with the DS controls, and the dude started throwing bombs at me instead! It's not a problem as Yoshi can catch them with his tongue and spit them right back, but it did take me by surprise.

The dialogue's changed in the DS version as well. For instance, the Bob-omb King was impressed that I made it this far without a moustache.

COURSE 4: COOL, COOL MOUNTAIN

Racing Koopa the Quick was easy, staying on this ice slide on the snow stage is way harder. But I made it... eventually.

But then I found a mysterious arrow on the wall in the little room at the exit. It points up and it seems like theres a ledge up there to be reached, but no matter what I do I can't get close to it. Well I came a little bit close, but not close enough.

And now the camera's gone out through the wall just as I'm trying to do a three jump combo on top of a door frame. I'm going to have to tap the C buttons a couple of times to get it back around.

There's a few ways that Mario can get extra height, like crouching before jumping, doing three running jumps in a row, and by kicking off the wall, but I'm terrible at most of them. I suppose I'd do better if I actually took the time to practice them, but right now I'm more interested in finding the fun in the game, so I'm going to leave through the regular door instead and collect my Star. Only 116 left to get now!

LATER

Man, those staring eyes. Turn those headlights someplace else lady, I don't need them piercing my soul.

This little penguin baby's going to be traumatised for life. Also cold, lost and hungry, as I haven't seen any other mother penguins around (it's okay though as I'm in a painting and they're both just parts of the artwork... I think).

My next goal was to win a race against another penguin on that ice slide I barely made it down earlier. Unfortunately I only had the four lives and I managed to screw it up every time. On the same corner as well! 

And so Mario left the princess trapped inside a wall and went off to get drunk instead. Game over.

I'm not sure lives are really improving the experience to be honest, especially because I can just load my save instead. You know, if I wanted to.

Super Mario 64 DS (DS)

Instead I'm going to try my luck in Luigi's casino. There's all kinds of gambling opportunities available in the DS version's 'Rec Room', like roulette, slot machines, and this bloody 'match two' memory game that shows up in retro games sometimes. There's four characters to play as in the DS game and each of them has their own set of mini games in the Rec Room, so there's a lot to do here if you're bored of trying to get Princess Toadstool out of the wall.

There's a lot to do in the DS version in general as the game's got 150 Stars instead of the original's 120. But that means I'm 147 short of getting them all in this one!

Alright, I put the N64 game back on because I need a bit more time with it to make up my mind, and collecting 8 stars has given me the opportunity to go fight Bowser! Seems a bit early, seeing as he's the main antagonist, but I might as well give it a go.

First though I've got to run his gauntlet, so I paused to show the level off properly. The game's gone retro and given me a very linear obstacle course to beat here, full of moving platforms (and a flamethrower) with the added twist that I can accidentally walk off the side of the platforms if I'm not careful. And I'm not, so I did.

You know what would be nice? Checkpoints. Especially when I'm trying to grab red coins along the way.

The trick to fighting Bowser is pretty similar to the trick to fighting the Bob-omb King, as I've got to pick him up and throw him. It's a good thing Mario lifts really. This time though I've got to spin him around and let go at the right moment for him to fly off into a bomb. Hasn't been working great so far to be honest, though at least the game's not asking me to spin the stick so fast my controller will grind to nothing. It hasn't gone full Mario Party.
I did eventually get Bowser sailing off into a bomb, and the blast knocked him flying. Then he started floating into the air, his body disintegrating while also shrinking away to nothing, before finally exploding into a key. But he'll be back!

Hey I can use this key to open that door in the basement! Really hoping it's actually not Dark Souls down there.

SOON

Oh no, I used a thing in the basement and it drained the castle moat! Peach is going to be so pissed.

I wonder if this is going to be permanent now, or if it's going to reset when I load my save, like my lives count does. Incidentally, the way the game resets the lives count when you load is almost as dumb as the game having lives at all.

Hey, there's a secret passage down there! I found a small level hidden in a castle wall earlier and got a Star from it, so hopefully this will have some treasure for me as well.

I've found a switch! Finally! These coloured exclaimation cubes have been tormenting me as I keep seeing them around in levels but they won't actually do anything until I've hit the switch to make them tangible.

Turns out that these blue blocks get me the vanish cap powerup, which means that for a limited time only Mario becomes a ghost that can walk through fences. It's no fire flower or super leaf, but it's better that having no powerups whatsoever, which is where I was at before I found this switch. I think there's two more switches, one for a flying cap and the other for Metal Mario, and I bet those powers wear out in a few seconds as well.

Incidentally, this is another level that's a narrow line of obstacles, plus I also found an underground maze and an underwater stage earlier, so it not all floating island playgrounds.

THREE STARS LATER

I figured something out, something that changes everything: when I first jump into a painting I can decide what Star I want to go for and it'll set the level up in a way that makes that goal possible. I just chose to go for the red coin Star on Whomp's Fortress for instance, and look, it put a plank up here that I can kick down to make a bridge to the arrow-shaped island. I probably never had a chance to get those final red coins without this! Now, I wonder how I'm supposed to get that Star in the floating cage back there...

Oh for fuck's sake, I slipped off the level again!


CONCLUSION

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Well it's definitely better than Castlevania 64 and Carmageddon 64. Also Superman 64, despite sharing 90% of its title.

Super Mario 64 is basically the Doom of 3D platformers, as it cracked the code of how to make a game of its kind fun. It wasn't the first game to come up with the idea of jumping around in 3D, but it was so far ahead of the others that it might as well have been.

What's interesting about the game is how different it is from the 2D Marios. Nintendo could've made the levels a straightfoward run from start to finish like Crash Bandicoot, or they could've recreated the classic sideview gameplay with 3D visuals like New Super Mario Bros, but they didn't. Instead they decided to do something more unusual and immersive, that gave players more freedom to play, and ended up defining two new genres: the 3D platformer and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. I mean seriously, this has the same structure as Tony Hawk's, as you go through the level trying to complete a checklist of goals and collect a full set of items using the moves you've mastered. The main difference is that there's no score, no time limit, and no skate punk. Also no skateboard... well that I know of anyway. The way the game is I wouldn't be surprised at all if it suddenly dropped me in a halfpipe.

The game has some variety to it, and I suppose it has to seeing as it's set in 15 tiny worlds that you're expected to return to at least six times each. You're encouraged to explore and experiment much more than in the 2D games, and they've taken the timer away so you don't feel rushed while doing it. So far though it's mostly been about tutorial signs, coins and falling down slopes. I don't know what put me off playing the game back in the day (I vaguely remember being frustrated with the camera), but this time it was having to redo things over and over again that was driving me nuts. Even getting a Star puts you right back at the start of a stage! I've never had that much to replay, the courses have been small so far, but it annoyed me anyway. On the plus side you don't have to do all the challenges, so when you're stuck on a particular awkward or cryptic Star there's always something else you can be doing, and you're presumably spared from bashing your head against the worst of the brick walls unless you're going for 100% completion.

Reviewers at the time seemed to be of the opinion that Super Mario 64 was so good that all 2D platformers were now obsolete. Can't say I really agree with that, but I can definitely see why it got the love that it did, and that it still does. By the end of the SNES era everyone was dying to move over to polygons, and platformers like Donkey Kong Country had started cosplaying as 3D games, but this is the real deal and it works. It's a game designed to sell new consoles and it did it very well. Twice.

But what's even more impressive, is that it kind of got me wanting to keep playing this time. This is what I like about Super Adventures: writing about games forces me to give them a fair chance to win me over. It doesn't always work out (Ocarina of Time), but this time it did and I'm happy to reveal that Super Mario 64 isn't that bad after all!

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If you want to share your own thoughts on Super Mario 64 or guess what the next game's going to be, you can leave a comment in the box below.

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