I already knew plenty of things about this game before starting it. I watched hours of SM64 content on YouTube, especially speedruns. It's unfortunate, but hey, doesn't mean I didn't have fun!
I played an unofficial PC port of the game called "Super Mario 64 Plus"
The best additions of this port are the improved movements with Mario, and free camera control.

I've seen everyone and their mother complain about the game's controls, and how poorly they have aged. I guess this port did a wonderful job fixing the controls, because they didn't bother me at any point 👍

Yes. I threw the baby penguin in the void after his mama gave me the Star 😈 evil laugh

"Inside Peach's Castle" and "Dire Dire Docks" are my 2 favorite pieces of music in the game. It's just so good, and I'm not surprised they have become so iconic.
I like how peaceful the exterior of the Castle is. No music, just the sound of waterfalls, birds & grasshoppers. Very calming ❤

For a game released in 1996, there were very interesting ideas in the level-design:
- The fact that they were already messing with the gravity, way before Sunshine & Galaxy (the tall pillars in Shifting Sand Land)
- In Tiny-Huge Island, the way you teleport to a shrunken version of the level gives the illusion that Mario shrinks after entering the green pipes. It was pretty cool.
- It's cool how some level's layouts change depending on how you enter the paintings! Whether it's Wet-Dry World with the water, or Tick Tock Clock with the pendulum's speed.

I also liked how you can revisit every World to collect more stars, once you've unlocked each cap (vanish, wing & metal)

In the end, the levels I was the most excited about are the ones that I never saw in any% speedruns (I never watched the 100% speedruns of the game).
I'm mainly thinking about Tall Tall Mountain, Snowman's Land and Tiny-Huge Island. These were total surprises compared to the other levels.

I stopped the game after defeating the final boss that becomes accessible once you collect 70 stars. I made sure to do several stars on each World to experience a wide variety of levels. I'm not going to aim for 100% completion tho.
I don't know if I would have enjoyed the game as much if I played it vanilla. This PC port made the adventure quite enjoyable !

----------Playtime & Completion----------

[Started on April 28th & finished on April 29th 2024]
Playtime: 12 hours
70 stars collected and Final Boss defeated.