To give credit where credit's due, this game has a lot of great qualities like the art style and its unique gameplay, but it just isn't for me. I finished World 3 but just didn't feel like continuing. Simply put, I just don't really find the game to be that fun. I'm not particularly fond of the level design or gimmicks and I feel like I could just find more fun in different platformers. It's a shame because I wanted this to be a great 2D Mario game (since my opinion on most 2D Mario's is pretty negative) and a great first impression for the Yoshi games, but this didn't do either for me. Instead, this game was more tedious to me and annoyed me more than anything. Overall, I'm disappointed this game didn't click for me but I didn't really find it fun as unfortunate as it is.

Super Mario 64 is a game that means a lot to me.
It was one of the first video games that I came into contact with! Back when Google Videos was a thing, I remember coming across a TAS Speedrun of this game, and that's how I was introduced to it. I thought that all of the tricks the guy was doing, like backwards long jump, was all part of the game. Silly old me.

I remember when I was in the 4th grade, I used to play with some friends of mine roleplaying us going to various locations in Super Mario 64, and exclamating stuff like "Oh, it's too hot!" or "Brr, it's too cold!" depending on the painting we went to.
Good times.

Funnily enough though, I wouldn't get around to play the original Super Mario 64 until many years later. Before then, I only had access to the DS version, which I'll review one day.

In spite of the many stories I have with this game, and how much it means to me, it's interesting I don't consider Super Mario 64 to be one of my favourite games of all time. I think it mainly stems from other games just having an even bigger impact on me.

Mario makes his jump to the 3rd dimension, having full analogue movement and being able to do all kinds of moves! We've got the Double and Triple Jumps, the Wall Jump, the Long Jump, the Flip-Jump, a 3-hit punch combo, a Jump Kick, a Slide Kick, and for shits and giggles, we've got the Breakdance move, which I only use to make fun of the game's enemies. lol

It may seem complicated at first, but because all of these moves are tied to only 3 buttons (A, B and Z), you'll get to understand how Mario plays in no time. He's really fun to play as, and I'm glad Nintendo made him how he is!

The level structure has seen a bit of change from Mario's 2D titles. Instead of going to a stage, getting to the goal post, and moving on to the next stage, now in a level, you have Power Stars to get!
Power Stars are scattered all throughout the levels, and to beat the game, you only need 70 of them, out of 120.
Because of this, you have a lot of leeway in how you want to approach levels.

Levels are naturally designed to be sandbox-like in nature. So it's up to you on what you want to do, and how you want to explore a level.
Stages in general, aren't really too big, so most of the stars are easily obtainable.

All of with the exception of the 100-coin Stars. It's exactly what you think they are. They are stars that only appear when you gather 100 coins, and there is one of these in each of the game's 15 levels.
Now, not every one of these stars is hard to get. There are definitely some levels where it's easier to get it than others, like Course 2.
But some of these are an absolute grind!

So, here's some tips from someone who has played this game too much:
1. If you're going for 100%, make these the first stars you get!
I know that sounds odd, considering they're the most pain in the ass to get, but trust me, if you take care of them ASAP, you can comfortably go through the rest of the level without many problems.
2. Red and Blue Coins are extremely important!
Red Coins give you 2 coins, and Blue Coins give you 5. Whenever you see a Blue-Coins button, make sure your surrondings are clear, and that you immediately book to the blue coins that spawn so you don't miss any of them.
3. Unlike other stars in the game, 100-coin stars do not kick you out of the level, so that means you can get the 100-coin star of that level and get another star, like the Red Coin star of that level. 2 birds in 1 stone, as they say.

Outside of that, Princess Peach's Castle acts as your hubworld, and it's relatively small, but pretty fun to travel through. You need stars to unlock more levels, but many of the stars early in the game are relatively easy to get, so this shouldn't be much of an issue.
There are also the 3 Bowser levels, that you'll need to beat. These are more linear than the game's main 15 levels, and they are a great platforming challenge, with a fun boss at the end.

Which leads me into my next point, the boss fights!
They're okay. Yeah, most of these are very simple and don't provide many interesting mechanics or gimmicks. Outside of the Bowser fights... there's not many other bosses that will challenge you.
Even Bowser himself doesn't get challenging until you get to his final encounter.

Bowser's model does look a bit funky, but the rest of the game is actually pretty nice to look at! Yeah, some of the game's textures are a bit too simple, but for a Nintendo 64 launch title, I'd say the game's charming low-polygon look still looks decent to this day!

Continuing with the presentation, there's also the soundtrack. A lot of songs here are very iconic and well composed!
But... there's a lot of repetition, especially later in the game. No, game, I don't need the final 2 levels to have the same goddamn song.

Also, this game was the first one to have Mario speak!... in a mainline title.
Charles Martinet does a really good job as Mario, inventing the iconic voice we still hear today, even if now we have a different voice actor for Mario.

Additionally, this game was also one of the first games to include a manual camera. Actually, I think it may've been this game that named the concept as a "camera", because Super Mario 64 contextualizes it as a Lakitu recording Mario's adventures on television, and that is really charming!
The camera itself is not bad, but it certainly can get stuck easily in tight spaces. I'll give the dev team some slack, because this was one of the first games to have a manual camera, but it definitely is one of things that hasn't aged gracefully.

In conclusion, there are a lot of things I love about Super Mario 64, but there are also some growing pains in this title that future games would fix. I have a lot of nostalgia with this one, so that's probably this review came out as big as it did, so despite the criticism I have with this game, it still holds a special place in my heart.
Rock on, Super Mario 64!

I will never forget mine and my brother's disappointment with Super Mario 64. We could not believe this game was not similar to Super Mario World. At that point, our experience with Mario was with the 2D formula: get to the end of the stage, beat the boss in the castle, go to another world. Super Mario 64 was clunky, confusing and even frustrating in the beginning. The idea of 3D games was interesting in the magazines, but nauseating in real life. It didn't take long for me to fall in love with this game and to start appreciating the new. I still don't understand how we got this game instead of something more similar to Crash Bandicoot, but after some years and some playthroughs, I love Super Mario 64 more and more.