TL;DR – Super Mario 64 is a classic to the point that this review is superfluous. With that being said, I only actually got to the credits this week because I was evidently a very slow child. It’s still a great platformer with a solid OST, stable frame-rates and no glitches although the camera is much more of a hassle than I remembered. I’d recommend it to basically everyone.
Super Mario 64 is one of the most famous games ever made and a memorable part of my childhood, albeit one that didn’t get resolve until the year 2024. I was on the fence about whether to even bother writing up a short review of this one, considering how exceedingly famous it is and consequentially how pathetically low my search engine result ranking for this game will be. Then again I have no readers, and nothing better to do so here we are. It turns out Super Mario 64 is a great game and still holds up pretty well (basic visuals not withstanding I suppose), with the exception of the camera. Everything else from level design, to the difficulty, to the soundtrack and even the controls has been done well. I’m actually surprised I never got the ending to be honest, considering the fact that getting the credits to play only took me… maybe a dozen hours?
Oh well, weird lapses in judgement aside I can safely reiterate that Super Mario 64 remains a great game with just the right amount of challenge across it’s 15 courses. The initial four are pretty easy and outside of some tricky parts where you need to shoot yourself out of a cannon with precision, there really isn’t too much challenge here. Once you start unlocking the latter stages however, things get a bit more challenging as the game loves to enforce some surprisingly precise platforming onto the player. One thing I should’ve mentioned earlier is that each of the game’s 15 courses contains 7 stars (no, not 6). When you enter a stage, you select which of these stars you are aiming for. These stars sometimes involve changing the level slightly, but generally there are 7 objectives within the stage. With two of these objectives always being “gather the 8 red coins” (that are scattered around) and gather 100 normal coins, however it pleases you. The remaining 5 stars will generally be hidden around the level, sometimes in the possession of bosses or requiring some environmental chicanery to unlock. To spice things up, Super Mario 64 locks segments of the overworld (Peach’s castle) behind minimum star requirements and locked doors. To unlock these doors, you’ll need to collect enough stars and then defeat Bowser. Each time you face off against the loathsome lizard is largely the same, although he gets new attacks with each encounter. For the standard 70-star ending, you’ll need to beat him 3 times across 3 separate levels. There are also 3 types of cap that can be obtained, each of which acts as a temporary power-up and requires you to activate a switch in one of the game’s many bonus levels. You’ve got a flight cap, a metal cap and an invisible cap which let you fly, walk in water (instead of swimming) and go through certain walls/objects respectively.
While these power-ups are cool, the main reason they work is that the game is able to successfully juggle some light puzzle elements with solid platforming and a mix of enemies and different objectives. Most of the time, these objectives aren’t too difficult. Yet the high quality OST track, balanced challenge and way that each stage successfully has it’s own theme makes the whole game a pleasant experience to play. These themes range from a water world centred around a ship that may or may not have sunk (depending on the star), to rainbow rides in the sky through to simple grassland courses and a desert level with an explorable pyramid. As for progression, the fact that you only need to gather a certain amount of stars, while having multiple courses unlocked at a time is a great idea. For the simple reason that it’s very hard to get stuck in Super Mario 64, with the range of stages available letting you focus on the ones that you actually want to do. Even the frustrating camera angles aren’t able to hold Super Mario 64 back, and the fact that you have essentially unlimited continues (at least if memory serves – the game isn’t particularly challenging) means it’s hard to stay mad at Super Mario 64. If you’re really struggling with a certain level’s obstinate platforming requirements, then you can always just jog on to another stage and come back to that one later. Plus as mentioned there are multiple hidden stages, and “free” stars given by talking to one of the various instances of Toad stuck in the walls. As such progression is nearly inevitable, yet the game is able to keep players playing due to the variety in objectives and solid control scheme which makes exploring the levels (and castle) quite fun.
To give some examples, one world (or course) can only be accessed by repeatedly “killing” a certain enemy, while others are hidden behind seemingly normal walls or are only revealed in a mirror. Some stages require you to stare at the ceiling, or enter an inconspicuous hole in a wall. Generally speaking the castle, while quite small in reality does a great job of making the whole experience feel like a unified whole. As for the stages, the modest changes that occur between each star do a great job of making them feel larger and more varied than they actually are. Plus having to track down secret stages to unlock the power-ups which are required for certain stars is a prudent move, as it forces the player to engage with exploring the castle even if they aren’t so inclined. Even smaller touches such as having the camera be controlled by a floating NPC (that you can occasionally see) or having Mario take a nap if you leave him alone for a little bit of time show that Super Mario 64 is a game that was made with a lot of attention to detail, in spite of the exceedingly modest polygon budget.
Which isn’t to say that the game is flawless, because that would just be silly. Every game has flaws, except maybe for Tetris. In Super Mario 64’s case, there are three that stood out to me. One that’s quite inconsequential but still bizarre is the way in which the game just resets how many lives you have every time you save and exit the game. It’s not a huge issue, but if you’ve gone out of your way to gather 1-ups and extra lives then… too bad! The game doesn’t care, and if you leave the game and come back to it then you go back to having 4 lives in reserve for some reason. Another issue that’s more of an issue is the way in which Mario can’t just turn around if he’s in motion, even if it’s a very slight motion. This isn’t a big deal, but for precision platforming it makes the game more of a pain than it has to be. If Mario is still, then moving back will cause him to turn around and move backwards. If he is dealing with the slightest bit of motion, then he will move forward in a radius and then start moving backwards. When the platforms are oh so small, this can and will cause you to fall off them (and probably die). Again a relatively small issue, but one I wanted to mention. Alongside the game’s biggest issue, which is a somewhat annoying camera. For the time the camera was fine, but by modern standards the lack of full rotation and fondness for awkward angles make platforming a chore sometimes. As mentioned, some of the platforming is exceedingly precise and with the inclusion of momentum physics and important of hitting a jump at the right angle or speed having an inconsistent camera can be a real issue. Even relatively basic areas like the boss fights against Bowser or jumping up a pyramid in the desert stage can really screw with the player, setting them back a bit. Does the camera ruin Super Mario 64? Of course not, but it’s by far my biggest gripe with the game.
But notwithstanding those modest issues, Super Mario 64 is just a great game. It’s a 3D platformer that shows everyone else how it’s done, with a solid colour palette, smart stage design (some levels even change based on how you enter them), memorable soundtrack, varied enemy roster, deft handling of an overworld that’s fun to explore and an intuitive control scheme. In conclusion then, this review is pointless but you should still give Super Mario 64 a go if you haven’t already tried it. There are plenty of small touches that truly make it something special, and even if you don’t get that far then you’ll be able to enjoy the first few stages which are all fun to play and do a good job of letting you just get on with the game. Those who can stick with Super Mario 64 will find a rewarding platforming experience, that isn’t afraid to force you to explore a level of repeat a particularly tricky jump to get the reward.