A port of Super Mario 64 included in Super Mario 3D All-Stars, built upon the Shindou Pak Taiou Version and its enhancements, also featuring updated textures and a higher output resolution. With a timeless control scheme that’s featured in every one of his 3D outings since, Super Mario 64 marked Mario’s glorious debut into the world of 3D. Wall jump, backflip and even fly as you explore paintings around Princess Peach’s castle to collect Power Stars and stop Bowser!
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While aged in some ways (namely in camera control) it is still mostly a joy to play and something everyone should experience at least once. However, the final few stages, namely Tiny-Huge Island, Snowman's Land, Tall Tall Mountain and especially Rainbow Ride, feel almost unfinished with poor level design and questionable collision, with Rainbow Ride being painful with how awful it is. Also, the final boss sucks. But still, the rest is near flawless and having one of the best soundtracks in the whole franchise.
It's very clear this game defined the 3D platforming gaming industry back when it released. For the time of it's release there are lots of amazing feats that were handled here when it debuted. That said I can't help but feel like the levels after you reach the clock tower upper area of the castle just aren't as good as the lower floor levels. And there are some parts of levels that just feel sluggish to go through. With that said this is a nice comfy game to go through.
This game is the reason 3D platformers are the way they are. The first of it's kind, Super Mario 64, got so much right when there was no blueprint to work from. For that reason alone does it deserve legend status. The movement (for its time) is crazy for what you're able to do and chain together, let alone in a 3D space. The worlds all have such a unique feel to them making you want to go explore every corner for a red coin or a star. The puzzles are doable, yet when you get one you've been trying to figure out it fills you with accomplishment rather than facepalming that you missed it. The last 10 or so stars for me, I personally found very challenging to scrape together which added to the accomplishment of clearing the game. While the first half of the courses are indeed very iconic, the latter half are much more difficult and choosing to engage with the harder courses surprised me by how difficult and frustrating the ending of this game could be. I think it did reveal a few flaws in the movement towards the end for me. Trying to move the other direction often had Mario move in a circle to get to that direction, causing him to fall off many platforms a substantial amount of times. In a modern game, this probably wouldn't be an issue, but you also can't blame the clunky controls because it really was the first time something of this scale was done in a 3D space - they got it right for the most part. Hard to not give this one a 5 star rating from me, even if parts were frustrating due to the controls.