While not the first game of its kind, Super Mario Bros. would set the standard for the 2D platforming genre with its momentum based running and jumping, strong level design, and plentiful secrets. It paved the way for a highly successful series of games and influenced the creation of many other games like (and unlike) it. Few franchises have the reputation for codifying a genre in the way Super Mario Bros. did. Even fewer can say that they did it more than once. Much like how its 1985 predecessor broke ground for the 2D platformer, Super Mario 64 would do the same for the 3D platformer.
As the franchise progressed through the late 1980's and early 1990's, the Super Mario platformers began moving towards more open forms of progression. Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced world maps for multiple potential paths through an area, and Super Mario World expanded on the concept with secret exits in courses and even more branching paths through Dinosaur Land. Meanwhile, the otherwise linear Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island would remove time limits and encourage exploration through its many hidden collectibles and more open courses. Both of these lines of thought come to roost in Super Mario 64, a game which embraces open progression and play in a 3D space.
From the moment you start up a file, Mario is allowed to let loose with an expansive set of acrobatic abilities. Gone are the days of just one or two ways to jump. We now have double and triple jumps to leap high while on the move, long jumps to cross gaps and go fast, wall kicks to scale vertical surfaces, side somersaults for quick airtime after changing your direction, and a backwards somersault that's perfect for performing at a standstill. Each of these gives Mario more ways to traverse his environments and more ways to move at different speeds and situations, something made all the more relevant thanks to the analog controls this game helped to pioneer. Walking, running, turning, all of these are dictated by how far you push the analog stick. A quaint concept nowadays, but one that is pulled off exceedingly well in this first attempt. To this day, Mario feels inherently fun to control, one of the keys that makes playing even the most simple of areas enjoyable.
Super Mario 64 is mindful of the fact that it is one of the first 3D games, and the philosophy of acclimating its players to this new form of play permeates throughout its design. Beyond being a hub for accessing courses, Peach's Castle is a peaceful playground where Mario can practice his moves. You pull off all of Mario's jumps, climb treats, swim in the moat, pretty much anything a player needs to get used to the play controls. The punch and kick mechanics give an option for fighting enemies that can avoid potential depth perception issues, and the dive move is as useful a way to damage and grab objects on the go as it is a way to get an extra burst of horizontal movement. The camera, a concept we generally take for granted in modern games, is turned into an actual character, and moving it is made akin to moving the in-universe cameraman. Courses start as more wide-open spaces so that players can acclimate to the controls whereas later courses incorporate more challenging platforming segments. It's these touches that made such a new experience accessible, and while modern games can assume more players are aware of these concepts, Super Mario 64 made the right decision for the time in a way that I highly appreciate.
Power Stars are your primary goal in Super Mario 64, replacing the course clearing of prior entries. Power Stars are found by reaching specific areas of a course, completing challenges, collecting coins, and defeating bosses. Rather than visiting a course once and being done with it, the 15 main courses each have multiple objectives, encouraging players to visit multiple times and giving plenty of opportunities to learn their layouts. This is complemented by smaller, one-off sections that generally focus on shorter challenges or linear platforming. Some repeated objectives, such as the many missions involving collecting eight red coins, give new areas a sense of familiarity - even if you don't have your bearings, you at least have one objective to go for while you adjust yourself. And if any one level or mission is too much, you can always try going somewhere else - only 70 of the game's 120 Power Stars are needed for completion, meaning that there is a lot of room for forging your own path - it's the Super Mario World map philosophy pushed into a new direction. Of course, even the 120 Star run is satisfying in its not too long, not too brief length, though it does take some time and practice to nail it just right.
Super Mario 64 exudes a particular atmosphere that feels born from its nature as an early 3D game. Peach's Castle is both this safe home base and this weird structure, more art museum than castle. You got your bright and cheerful levels mixed with levels floating above voids, serene water courses followed by whimsical snow levels followed by a stark desert, a pool of lava seeming to stretch near infinitely with platforms to bounce around, more surreal levels in clock towers and across elevated platforms in the sky. It doesn't quite have the sense of place that, say, a Sunshine or Galaxy or Odyssey might have (not even a 3D Land/World, and those games were deliberately more game-y!), but it ends up memorable on its own merits. This is complemented by Koji Kondo's wonderful score - I often associate each area just as much with its level design as I do its song in terms of the atmosphere it sets, and most of these songs scratch my nostalgic itch like nothing else.
Not all of Super Mario 64's elements have aged gracefully. The camera controls are mostly responsive if a bit rigid, focusing on fixed angles in its default mode and not always giving you the best angle for the situation. Mario has some great jumps, but the turn around he sometimes does when changing your direction can get in the way of the otherwise smooth controls. Bosses focus on teaching 3D control and moveset fundamentals and can come off as too simple. Not every mission is a winner, involving you finding obscure hidden spots on the map or very tricky platforming in a linear space or having very tight 100 Coin requirements. Even something as simple as being forced out of a course when you collect a Power Star or die without many checkpoint opportunities can be aggravating. But some acclimation to the game's expectations can help alleviate some of these. Experimenting with the two different cameras can give you a better perspective depending on the situation - I found myself using Mario cam pulled backwards when I wanted a more traditional "following behind the player" camera, in particular. The numerous missions take the pressure off of the harder challenges. I can pick and choose which Power Stars to go for without a particular objective walling my progression, and I can do them in a variety of orders. Sure, you start each course from the start every time you enter, but this gives you more chances to learn the layouts and the controls, letting the 100 Coin missions serve as the sign that you've mastered that course, much like getting a perfect 100/100 score in Yoshi's Island.
It took me until 2020 to really appreciate Super Mario 64. I always acknowledged it as an important game in my childhood, but I had this perception that it aged worse than it did. I beat the DS version in the 2000's, and I started the N64 version many times, but I had never done a 100% run or even seen beyond the basement for myself on Nintendo 64. But a chance playthrough around MAR10 Day gave me a different perspective. I gave myself the time to learn these courses, to get used to the controls, to understand what made the title tick. And it finally clicked. It's not without rough patches, but Super Mario 64 is a masterpiece, a revolution in its day that remains satisfying to this very day.
As the franchise progressed through the late 1980's and early 1990's, the Super Mario platformers began moving towards more open forms of progression. Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced world maps for multiple potential paths through an area, and Super Mario World expanded on the concept with secret exits in courses and even more branching paths through Dinosaur Land. Meanwhile, the otherwise linear Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island would remove time limits and encourage exploration through its many hidden collectibles and more open courses. Both of these lines of thought come to roost in Super Mario 64, a game which embraces open progression and play in a 3D space.
From the moment you start up a file, Mario is allowed to let loose with an expansive set of acrobatic abilities. Gone are the days of just one or two ways to jump. We now have double and triple jumps to leap high while on the move, long jumps to cross gaps and go fast, wall kicks to scale vertical surfaces, side somersaults for quick airtime after changing your direction, and a backwards somersault that's perfect for performing at a standstill. Each of these gives Mario more ways to traverse his environments and more ways to move at different speeds and situations, something made all the more relevant thanks to the analog controls this game helped to pioneer. Walking, running, turning, all of these are dictated by how far you push the analog stick. A quaint concept nowadays, but one that is pulled off exceedingly well in this first attempt. To this day, Mario feels inherently fun to control, one of the keys that makes playing even the most simple of areas enjoyable.
Super Mario 64 is mindful of the fact that it is one of the first 3D games, and the philosophy of acclimating its players to this new form of play permeates throughout its design. Beyond being a hub for accessing courses, Peach's Castle is a peaceful playground where Mario can practice his moves. You pull off all of Mario's jumps, climb treats, swim in the moat, pretty much anything a player needs to get used to the play controls. The punch and kick mechanics give an option for fighting enemies that can avoid potential depth perception issues, and the dive move is as useful a way to damage and grab objects on the go as it is a way to get an extra burst of horizontal movement. The camera, a concept we generally take for granted in modern games, is turned into an actual character, and moving it is made akin to moving the in-universe cameraman. Courses start as more wide-open spaces so that players can acclimate to the controls whereas later courses incorporate more challenging platforming segments. It's these touches that made such a new experience accessible, and while modern games can assume more players are aware of these concepts, Super Mario 64 made the right decision for the time in a way that I highly appreciate.
Power Stars are your primary goal in Super Mario 64, replacing the course clearing of prior entries. Power Stars are found by reaching specific areas of a course, completing challenges, collecting coins, and defeating bosses. Rather than visiting a course once and being done with it, the 15 main courses each have multiple objectives, encouraging players to visit multiple times and giving plenty of opportunities to learn their layouts. This is complemented by smaller, one-off sections that generally focus on shorter challenges or linear platforming. Some repeated objectives, such as the many missions involving collecting eight red coins, give new areas a sense of familiarity - even if you don't have your bearings, you at least have one objective to go for while you adjust yourself. And if any one level or mission is too much, you can always try going somewhere else - only 70 of the game's 120 Power Stars are needed for completion, meaning that there is a lot of room for forging your own path - it's the Super Mario World map philosophy pushed into a new direction. Of course, even the 120 Star run is satisfying in its not too long, not too brief length, though it does take some time and practice to nail it just right.
Super Mario 64 exudes a particular atmosphere that feels born from its nature as an early 3D game. Peach's Castle is both this safe home base and this weird structure, more art museum than castle. You got your bright and cheerful levels mixed with levels floating above voids, serene water courses followed by whimsical snow levels followed by a stark desert, a pool of lava seeming to stretch near infinitely with platforms to bounce around, more surreal levels in clock towers and across elevated platforms in the sky. It doesn't quite have the sense of place that, say, a Sunshine or Galaxy or Odyssey might have (not even a 3D Land/World, and those games were deliberately more game-y!), but it ends up memorable on its own merits. This is complemented by Koji Kondo's wonderful score - I often associate each area just as much with its level design as I do its song in terms of the atmosphere it sets, and most of these songs scratch my nostalgic itch like nothing else.
Not all of Super Mario 64's elements have aged gracefully. The camera controls are mostly responsive if a bit rigid, focusing on fixed angles in its default mode and not always giving you the best angle for the situation. Mario has some great jumps, but the turn around he sometimes does when changing your direction can get in the way of the otherwise smooth controls. Bosses focus on teaching 3D control and moveset fundamentals and can come off as too simple. Not every mission is a winner, involving you finding obscure hidden spots on the map or very tricky platforming in a linear space or having very tight 100 Coin requirements. Even something as simple as being forced out of a course when you collect a Power Star or die without many checkpoint opportunities can be aggravating. But some acclimation to the game's expectations can help alleviate some of these. Experimenting with the two different cameras can give you a better perspective depending on the situation - I found myself using Mario cam pulled backwards when I wanted a more traditional "following behind the player" camera, in particular. The numerous missions take the pressure off of the harder challenges. I can pick and choose which Power Stars to go for without a particular objective walling my progression, and I can do them in a variety of orders. Sure, you start each course from the start every time you enter, but this gives you more chances to learn the layouts and the controls, letting the 100 Coin missions serve as the sign that you've mastered that course, much like getting a perfect 100/100 score in Yoshi's Island.
It took me until 2020 to really appreciate Super Mario 64. I always acknowledged it as an important game in my childhood, but I had this perception that it aged worse than it did. I beat the DS version in the 2000's, and I started the N64 version many times, but I had never done a 100% run or even seen beyond the basement for myself on Nintendo 64. But a chance playthrough around MAR10 Day gave me a different perspective. I gave myself the time to learn these courses, to get used to the controls, to understand what made the title tick. And it finally clicked. It's not without rough patches, but Super Mario 64 is a masterpiece, a revolution in its day that remains satisfying to this very day.