Super Mario 64 foi o jogo que fez eu me apaixonar por videogames. Antes dele, eu gostava do passatempo, mas depois dele, eu simplesmente entendi o que essa mídia era capaz de entregar.

Seu gameplay segue sendo refinado, com controles simples, porém que permitem muitas possibilidades - é aquele jogo absolutamente fácil de jogar, mas dominar já demanda - o tipo de jogo perfeito para transformar uma criança, capaz de zerar esse jogo sem problemas, em um gamer obcecado pelas 120 estrelas.

Seu level design e fases é outro ponto alto. É tudo perfeito, criativo, e cheio de vida. É impressionante como cada vez que se visita a fase (e você faz muito isso), ela ganha novas camadas e interações. É tudo realmente muito bem feito, e ajuda demais que o jogo é lindo, não só pelos gráficos serem de ponta para época, mas pela escolha artística mesmo; de maneira que o jogo consegue se manter bonito mesmo em uma tela full hd.

A trilha sonora...; bem, eu não sou bom em analisar a qualidade musical de nada, mas sentir uma música bem feita, isso eu sinto. E meu Deus, que trilha sonora maravilhosa! É só bonito, não sei explicar de outra forma.

Talvez o único ponto negativo aqui seja sua câmera; mas honestamente, me parece anacronismo punir um jogo de 1996 por não ter a melhor câmera do mundo, especialmente porque ele foi desenvolvido para o N 64 (com aquele controle desenhado para um alienígena jogar), então ainda não existia o conceito de duas lavancas; e considerando o que foi entregue, e que tem jogo moderno que com muito mais, entrega muito menos, eu vou fingir que não vi esse problema.

Enfim, tudo isso foi só para dizer que este jogo segue entre os melhores dos melhores; e deve seguir assim por muitos anos.

I’ve wanted to play Super Mario 64 ever since I was a little kid. For almost all of the years I’ve been alive, I’ve heard the same phrases used to praise Super Mario 64 over and over again. Whenever someone talked about Super Mario 64, they always mentioned how it revolutionized video games as a whole with its jump from 2D to 3D, how much freedom the game gave you, how great the controls were, and how most of their childhood memories associated with the game were spent roaming Princess Peach’s Castle. Because of this constant praise, I kept getting more and more excited to play Super Mario 64, and now that I’ve actually played it, it didn’t live up to any of my expectations.

At least 90% of my time spent playing Super Mario 64 was spent getting frustrated with the game rather than having fun with it. While the controls on land are mostly great, Mario has a tendency to slip as he’s landing on the ground, and while that isn’t a problem in most cases, it makes jumping onto thin or small platforms incredibly annoying. The other methods of controlling Mario, such as swimming and flying, are janky and feel like they’ve been made to work against their levels rather than with them. Speaking of which, many of the levels in Super Mario 64 are straight up not fun to play, as making even one slip-up causes the player to instantly die. This, combined with how the levels feel as if they punish letting the player approach levels creatively and instead reward sticking to the most obvious path, makes me wonder how so many people have championed Super Mario 64 as a game of freedom.

While I do respect Super Mario 64 for how innovative and revolutionary it was at the time, I barely had any fun with the game itself, and while I do know that 3D Mario games have gotten better with the releases of the Super Mario Galaxy duology and especially Super Mario Odyssey, I can’t imagine someone picking up Super Mario 64 and having just as much fun with it as someone did back in 1996.

look, i get it. mario 64 was an influential title and it's importance and presence in video game culture even to this day is commendable. mario 64 provided a very solid foundation for future 3d platformers to build off of, including its own romhacks that expand on not just mario's movement capabilities and level design, but also its coding thanks to the decompilation of it. speedruns and analysises of this game are incredibly fascinating to watch, and seeing the culture around this game grow and evolve is something i'm glad to witness.

but the camera controls suck dick and that's why this doesn't get the full five stars. rainbow ride is also the stuff of my nightmares. i'm sorry.

I have a lot of respect for Super Mario 64, but when it comes to actually playing it, I'm kinda mixed.  And it was when I was trying The Lost Levels that it finally clicked what I don't really like about Mario's movement: the momentum.

In TLL and SM64, it takes a second or so for Mario to accelerate when you push the stick, and since his jump distance is tied to running speed, jumps from a standstill are often limp.  Coupled with a lack of affordances (double jump, hover, etc.) or steering ability while airborne, and I grit my teeth every time I leap across small platforms over a bottomless pits. 
This is among other annoyances like bonking, tight wall jump windows which causes bonking, and a blurry line between air kicks and dives when pressing B in the air.

Contrast this with Banjo-Kazooie, where Banjo instantly accelerates to top speed when you push the stick to max.  With a very generous hover that also pushes Banjo to top speed, you can make some decent vaults from any amount of buildup.  You can also roll from standing 'cos of this, unlike Mario's dive.

And where any slanted surface could become a ramp via ground pound or dive, in BK it's either a slope Banjo can walk on, a slope Kazooie can walk on, or a slope neither can walk on, and it's this determinism that I find so appealing in BK/DK and the lack of it so off-putting in SM64. 
All-in-all Mario feels more like a physics object than your typical mascot platformer (including himself in Odyssey).

Does this mean I prefer to do precision platforming in BK?  Not really.  Doing tight maneuvers isn't what I come to the genre for, and even after all the time and thought I've put into both games, I'd still consider myself somewhat casual.  And do I think SM64 is an outdated clunker of a game?  Nah, it's just not my flavour.

Even after 20 years, its style of movement is still pretty unique, and there's clearly an appeal to its high skill ceiling judging by the speedrun/ROM hacking scene.  I don't have the speedrunning gene though, so for now I'll just continue to admire it from afar.

It took a bootleg Switch port with 60 fps framerate and camera control for me to stop worrying and love Mario 64. This game is a hood classic for a reason.

It's the non-handholdy nature that's missing in later Nintendo games. M64 isn't afraid to leave you one-on-one with the world that doesn't have a defined easily predictable structure and layout. It will cleverly nudge you in the right direction, but this never feels condescending. There is a confidence and trust in the player that they will come in grips with controls and figure out what's required out of them on every stage of the game. The learning curve of controls is also something entirely unique to this era of gaming, Physical and weighty player characters in games is something I find a lot of enjoyment in so Mario where every move has to be a commitment is something right up my alley.

It's the level design that holds it back in my opinion with most levels falling in just kinda ok category. Though there are great exploration stages (hazy maze cave, cool cool mountain, tiny huge island wet dry world) and linear platforming gauntlets (tick tock clock, all bowser stages) amongst levels that don't have much in the way of interesting platforming or problem solving.There are a few stages which are just generally tedious to clear with rainbow ride being the biggest offender here. Also I understand that N64 cards had limited storage, but the lack of variety in music really started to irritate me when I heard Slider for the 50th time.

Overall tho I'm glad that I familizarized myself with one of the gaming touchstones and had a good time while doing so. It's a good game.

Eu sei da importância e do amor que esse jogo tem, tanto pra indústria quanto para os fãs.

Mas acreditem, eu não curti mesmo. Não gostei das fases, do controle, quase nada. É muito bacana que M64 fundamentou toda a franquia 3D a partir dele, mas infelizmente como jogo, definitivamente não gostei.

E não é que tenha algo objetivamente ruim: é algo completamente atrelado à minha experiência. Comecei várias vezes, desde seu lançamento, e nunca terminei, justamente porque sempre perdi parte do fôlego e me desmotivei logo após as primeiras fases.

This game had an undeniable impact in the industry, and is still a good play experience today, but it has not aged well compared even with other plataformers of it's time. Mario controls a bit clunky, the movement that was so praised back in the day does not feel the same anymore. The level design is great, but again is flawed in small aspects of visuals and some unfair obstacle placement here and there.

Overall is still a very nice and fun game to play, but it clings a lot to it's status in the gaming world.

To talk about Super Mario 64 without lavishing it with undying praise is fruitless. This game's reputation precedes itself: it defined the childhood of millions, it defined an entire genre, it defined the entire industry at arguably the most important moment of its advancement.

I do not deny any of these things. However, I have always despised the idea that a game must be considered in the context of its own time. Regardless of how important or revolutionary this game was in 1996, the fact is I played this in 2020; the industry has evolved drastically in the last 24 years, as have our standards.

Super Mario 64 is a game that I do not think someone can fully enjoy in a modern context. While it is important to consider the history of any title to understand the limitations of what its creators could and couldn't do, that does not excuse it from criticism. Most of the discussion I have witnessed regarding this game has been with those who grew up with it, defending it, or if they do take issue with it, mostly forgiving it because it was the first of its kind. In my opinion, this game has aged poorly. That doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it, that only means that I do not consider it to be one of the greatest games of all time, and I don't care if my negative opinion on some of its aspects are taboo; I will say them regardless.

So I guess I should start with what I like about it. For me, the shining achievement of this game is its abundance of secrets. Exploration is more satisfying here than in any other 3D Mario game (admittedly, I have yet to play Sunshine). The more open levels like Big Boo's Haunt, Wet-Dry World, Hazy Maze Cave and Whomp's Fortress are the best courses because of how they throw you into a large spaces with multiple, smaller areas to explore at your own pace. The hub-world abides by this idea as well, and is my favorite part of the game easily. Slowly unlocking more of Peach's Castle, figuring out what's behind every door, uncovering all of its mysteries, it's mesmerizing. I find it incredible how I've played dozens of 3D games, and Mario 64 has captivated my imagination more than most, and I mean that with the upmost sincerity. I'm sure there are still things about this game that I didn't know about, and that excites me.

Surprisingly, the platforming is really good too. The stars in courses like Shifting Sand Land, Tick Tock Clock, Rainbow Ride, and the Bowser levels where platforming is the focus over exploration are the most satisfying to collect.

Unfortunately, when the courses don't do either of these things well, or when they try to do both, they are exceptionally dull. Most of the levels have very boring layouts and don't have interesting level themes to make up for it. This is one point that I would be willing to be more forgiving of since they likely had no idea how to make 3D spaces interesting, but when I see how creative courses like Big Boo's Haunt, Tick Tock Clock and Tiny-Huge Island are, I can't help but wish that the entire game could be that way.

What makes these boring levels even worse is the abundance of padding. On top of being kicked out of the level every time you get a star, it's clear that they tried to squeeze ever last drop of potential out of each world. Every course has a 100-coin star, an 8-red coin star, multiple courses have a slide star, multiple have a pick-the-chest-in-the-right-order star, multiple have you finding five objects in a level. The castle gives you a star for catching the bunny twice, a star for doing the secret slide twice (although one is a time trial to be fair), and even gives multiple stars for talking to toads. Even the courses themselves feel padded; there are two snow levels, three water levels, four generic grassy/building levels, and even an entire lava level when the Bowser stages are pretty much exactly the same. There is a lack of creativity when it comes to objectives and level themes in Mario 64; I much would have preferred the game have less objectives and worlds overall if it meant the ones that we did get were much more interesting.

Lastly, my greatest point of frustration throughout the game was the terrible controls. The controls of Mario 64 have been idolized since its release, and that idolization is no small part due to the amazing work that is done in the speedrunning community, and it may seem sacrilegious for me to say that this gold standard of control is shit, but let me suggest this. Mario's MOVEMENT is great. Chaining together triple jumps, long jumping across huge gaps, pulling off a backwards summersault at the perfect angle, nailing the precision required to wall jump, it feels great to master. But Mario's CONTROL on the other hand, is terrible. The weird stuttering he does on ledges, the inconsistency of grabbing on to ledges, how every surface that isn't completely flat is a slide, how Mario has to be at a complete standstill in order to turn around, the horrendous wing cap, and especially the camera have all caused me to repeat certain objectives sometimes over a dozen times. I won't lie, this is easily the hardest 3D Mario to any% and I find that difficulty refreshing. However, 90% of deaths didn't feel like me being bad at the game, but they felt like it was because I wasn't in complete control of what I was attempting to do. What I find most irritating is how the camera refuses to give you the right angle; they commit so hard to the diegetic Lakitu camera and make it impossible to go through solid objects, despite the fact that it is completely capable of doing so in "first-person" mode.

But even with these complaints, I still got all 120 stars, and it was a satisfying journey. I think Super Mario 64 still has enough going for it to make it a worthwhile experience, and I'm glad it's finally off my bucket list. But it's not great, not even close. I had a lot of fun and there's a lot I enjoyed, but I stand by this being easily the weakest 3D Mario except for Odyssey.

Super Mario 64's historical impact is undeniable, but even more than that is the impact it had on several-year-old me over two decades ago. It felt at the time like a revelation, a sign of the potential of videogames to build immersive environments, living worlds littered with secrets and promise. I'd go on to 100% the game many, many times through my teenage years.

Returning to the game now, over a decade since I last played it, it's unsurprising that Super Mario 64 doesn't hold quite the same sense of wonder that it did when I was young; it has been outdone many times over and so cannot possibly hold that same sense of promise. The potential of the medium has been pushed so much further since its release.

If there's any individual regard in which Super Mario 64 does hold up however it's in the expressiveness of Mario's moveset which puts most 3D platformers of the era to shame, and is deeply enjoyable even now; the moveset is so varied, offers so much flexibility, and often leaves you with multiple solutions to any problem.

Sadly the controls aren't great. This moveset is wonderful for exploring some of the more open areas in the game, but when it comes to treacherous precision platforming they can struggle at times. This isn't aided by the horrendous camera controls which made me deeply thankful for the now-industry-standard of dual analog sticks, so often you end up desperately trying to wrangle the camera angle into any vaguely helpful position only for it to then send you flying into a pit regardless.

All of the above makes me very fond of stages like Bob-omb's Battlefield that act as safe little sandboxes to mess around in, whilst making me tire of the game's near-fetishisation of bottomless pits in the later levels that undo all your progress at a moment's notice. Rainbow Ride and Tick Tock Clock are particularly at fault here, although at least you can skip those levels if you're not interested in 100%ing the game.

Bottomless pits and dreary swimming sections aren't the only problems I have with the level design with going for 120 stars leading to a lot of repeated content, a few different levels making you to take the exact same route at the beginning for 3 or 4 of their stars. That said there are moments of magic that still persist. Controlling how high the starting water level is in Wet-Dry World (incidentally one of my favourite safe-sandboxes in the game) will never stop being cool, no matter how many years pass. There are moments here that have and will continue enduring for a long time.