Super Mario 64 (N64)
Pub/Dev: Nintendo
ESRB: K/A/Players: 1

With the launch of the Nintendo 64, Nintendo once again turned to their superstar to launch the system.  However, Nintendo had a console that was designed for 3D graphics and gameplay, so Mario’s 2D adventures would not be a sufficient way of showcasing the power of the hardware.  Something new would need to be created to compete with Sega’s Saturn and Sony’s Playstation, consoles that had beaten Nintendo to the punch with their own 3D games.  Luckily, Nintendo’s experiment paid off, in the form of the marvelous Super Mario 64.

The game opened up with Mario’s face, which players could manipulate if they grabbed parts of it.  This clever minigame served as a nice way of introducing Mario’s new look alongside showing off a bit of foresight into allowing gamers to fiddle with these newfound polygons that would revolutionize gaming forever.  Once the game started, a traditional Mario plot ensued – Bowser kidnaps Peach, and Mario has to save her.  Nintendo decided to run with the secret aspect that has always been in the background for Mario’s latest quest by utilizing Power Stars as its primary collectible.  As Mario explored Peach’s castle, he would uncover paintings that led to gigantic worlds packed full of Power Stars – 7 in each world, to be exact.  Six would be given short hints as to how to find them, while the seventh required 100 coins to make appear.  The castle itself held 15 Secret Stars that would require extra effort from the player to track down without guidance. These Stars were needed to make further progress into the castle.

The worlds themselves took on common platforming tropes, like two ice worlds, two water worlds, a desert world, a lava world, etc.  It was the excellent execution of these stereotypes, though, that made them so memorable.  The first water world, Jolly Roger Bay, was a fog-filled cave.  As Mario poked around, he discovered a vast underwater canyon, with a sunken ship at the very bottom.  As players sunk deeper into the depths, a large head could be seen inhibiting a window.  With some careful prodding, the head would reveal itself to be a giant eel, and would swim around in the canyon.  Players who went into the eel’s former lair would find a platforming challenge to get at a Star.  The ship will rise up following the Star’s removal, and additional challenges would revolve around the ship and the eel.  And that’s half of the stars here.  Three others lurk in the bay, alongside the 100-coin star.  Further exploration would uncover a cave in the canyon, where another star could be found.  Another required finding a Pink Bom-Omb to enable a cannon, which Mario could enter and try to snag a Star perched on a spire.  The last would require a new power-up in order to snag – the Metal Cap (I’ll get to that momentarily).  There’s all six Stars for one of the 15 worlds.

Mario lost all of his earlier powerups for Mario 64 – only the 1UP mushroom would make a return.  In their place, Mario was granted a wide plethora of moves, gaining the ability to punch, kick, long jump, wall jump, triple jump (with greater height with each jump), backflip, sideflip, dive, slide, do a ground pound in midair, sneak, pull off handstands, and pick up new items to gain additional talents – Caps.  To use them, you’d have to enable them.  This worked like the !-Block Power Switches in Mario World: you had to find their hidden activation room, clear the obstacles, and stomp the switch.  Suddenly, the power-up boxes would appear in their respective stages, and Mario could swap hats and take on new traits.  There were three in total – the Wing Cap, Metal Cap and Vanish Cap.  The Wing Cap is probably the most fun, as it allowed Mario to soar in the skies.  It worked a bit like Mario’s Cape powerup in Mario World, dive to gain speed and then lift Mario back up to gain extra air.  The Metal Cap had a ripping musical theme and was the closest to a Starman in Mario 64, as it granted Mario invincibility alongside its extra weight and nifty sheen.  The Vanish Cap allowed Mario to become invisible, slipping through special walls he normally wouldn’t be able to.  All three had their uses, and were great additions to the Mario universe.

Many of Mario’s enemies would make the leap into 3D – Goombas, Koopa Troopas (who were rare, but coughed up the awesome ability to surf on their shells!), Lakitu (who served as both a foe and as the camera operator), Spinies, Chain Chomp, Pokeys, Shyguys (Fly Guys to be exact), Wiggler, Thwomps, Boos, Bom-Ombs, Piranha Plants, Bullet Bills, Snifits (apparently renamed Snufits for American audiences, but I’m ignoring that), Swoopers, Monty Moles, and of course, Bowser himself.  Three notable omissions are Bloopers (who would return in Mario Sunshine) and Cheep Cheeps (who would replace the Bub enemies here in SM64 DS) and Buzzy Beetles (who would pop up in Paper Mario games, returning to the main series with New Super Mario Bros.).

As I mention here, I think Mario 64 is the pinnacle of the series.  I won’t repeat myself again here (I’ve already blabbed enough, I think :p ), but I really do adore this game.

With the launch of the DS, Nintendo remade Super Mario 64 for its launch.  The big selling point was that the game was no longer a Mario-only affair, as Luigi (whose absence from Mario 64 was quite noticeable), Yoshi (becoming much more than an end-game cameo) and Wario (entering his first major Mario platformer as a protagonist…which, so far, has been his only excursion into this realm) joined the familiar plumber as playable characters.  The graphics saw a massive overhaul, becoming much more attractive than the N64′s.  A bunch of new content and extra Stars were also added in.  Unfortunately, this remake sullied a lot of what made Mario 64 so charming.  First off, the DS has no analog stick.  To try to make up for this, Nintendo allowed gamers to use the stylus, which was not a suitable replacement for me.  It may be that my left-handedness doomed me, but I hated using the stylus to control the game.  The digital pad tried, but it too failed at recapturing Mario’s smoothness from the N64 original.  The lack of refined control made simple tasks become more difficult, and I found it more frustrating than fun.  Secondly, the game suffered from a Donkey Kong 64-style of character switching.  Mario, Luigi, Wario and Yoshi all had unique talents, and each could use a bonus ability, now powered by a Power Flower.  Mario could inflate a la Super Mario World’s P-Balloon, Luigi would gain the Vanish Cap, Wario the Metal Cap, and Yoshi would gain his Dragon Breath from Mario World.  Mario was the only one who could grab a Feather, which would allow him to gain access to the Wing Cap.  Unlike DK64, which had swap barrels in their levels, you had to track down caps floating around the level in order to become other characters, which became a bit of a bother.  It also overcomplicated the game’s mechanics.  Why not allow all four to use the same powers?  In my opinion, this isn’t worth the time to play…unless they remake it again for the 3DS, which does have an analog nub…