Super Mario 64 was one of those games I’d hear lots of praise for, but I always thought looked very outdated and was only overhyped through nostalgia. However, after playing this for myself for the first time 26 years after its release I can honestly say it deserve the praise it gets.

This game has aged surprisingly well, with the controls feeling very fluid and I was honestly impressed whilst playing how many different jumps and ways of gaining momentum this game had, with all the different actions allowing you to traverse levels in many different ways. The fact you have to replay the same courses would give the impression that it gets repetitive, but ultimately improved my experience as it helped me learn the maps better and made annoying courses more enjoyable as you know where you’re going after awhile. My only criticism is that the controls for throwing Bowser aren't good, as there's no actual way to know where you're throwing him if you spin too much, meaning his final fight was a bit of a pain to get through.

Overall, a really impressive game even for today and provides a really enjoyable experience which had me playing for hours on end, I'm happy to finally understand why this game gets the love it does.