Imagine playing this when it just came out in 1996. At this point, the entirety of your 3D gaming culture is limited to shooters such as DOOM or Star Fox. If you were an avid gamer, maybe you played the primitive Jumping Flash, but for most, a platforming game that broke into the third dimension was barely imaginable.
First moving Mario in Peach's courtyard must have been a surreal and unbelievable experience for the gamers who had the chance to live this exceptional era. Learning to move Mario with your 360-degree joystick, moving the camera with the C and R buttons, learning to sideflip, backflip, triple jump, wall kick with the game's exceptionally responsive control scheme is a truly unique experience for new players even nowadays.
As a matter of fact, no other Mario game (except, maybe, SMW if you consider 2D games) has ever had controls this responsive and complex. I've been playing this game on and off since 2013, and speedrunning it since 2017, and I always find myself impressed by its advanced tech: speed kicks, slide controls, backwards long jumps, dustless movement and lag reduction add so much to the game which which has virtually no skill ceiling. How the hell did they do it so well for their first ever 3D game effort?
The camera is a common point of criticism by unexperienced players, which is understandable; the camera controls aren't communicated well with the player. However, when one learns to master all different camera modes, the camera feels excessively responsive and free, and you will face very few awkward situations, even less than in modern 3D Mario games with more fixed camera angles.
The core game's levels feel somewhat unfinished, which is the only thing keeping me from giving this a perfect score. Don't get me wrong: levels like Tick Tock Clock, Bob Omb Battlefield and Hazy Maze Cave are some of the most creative and beautiful level designs I've seen in 3D gaming and it still stands very well to this day. However, some of the levels feel limited and a large part of the castle is uncannily empty, with very few enterable paintings in contrast to empty ones. I've heard that the game was initially supposed to have twice the amount of stages, but they had to cut down due to time limitations (can't find a source that proves that but I believe it). As a result, the levels can feel as if corners were cut, and will maybe leave you desiring for more. The incredible and perpetually growing ROM Hacking scene of the game can leave you entertained and fill this longing for new and more complex levels. Kaze Emanuar's incredible console compatible ROM hacks push the limits of what is possible with the Nintendo 64 and with the game per se. This game unintendedly grew to have one of the most amazing modding scenes in all of gaming, with thousands of creators making new levels, retextures and gameplay updates for the game. Somehow, anything is possible in this game. Avid gamers even managed to reverse engineer the entire source code of the game, making this one of the most well-understood video games ever.
Still, the vanilla game holds no boring missions and will print itself in your memories with some of its unforgettable moments. There are so many ways to play this, even with an unmodified game cartridge.
I strongly recommend playing this on original Nintendo 64 hardware. Playing this the authentic way with either an OEM controller or a Hori Mini Pad on a CRT television is one of the finest gaming experiences one can live. Still, Emulator (Mupen and Project 64 especially) and Wii VC stand up very well. Just have some respect for yourself and don't play on Wii U or Switch.
It is inexplicable how influent this game is in the world of gaming. All 3D platformers and a vast majority of third person 3D games owe their success to the developments of SM64 in movement schemes and camera controls.
First moving Mario in Peach's courtyard must have been a surreal and unbelievable experience for the gamers who had the chance to live this exceptional era. Learning to move Mario with your 360-degree joystick, moving the camera with the C and R buttons, learning to sideflip, backflip, triple jump, wall kick with the game's exceptionally responsive control scheme is a truly unique experience for new players even nowadays.
As a matter of fact, no other Mario game (except, maybe, SMW if you consider 2D games) has ever had controls this responsive and complex. I've been playing this game on and off since 2013, and speedrunning it since 2017, and I always find myself impressed by its advanced tech: speed kicks, slide controls, backwards long jumps, dustless movement and lag reduction add so much to the game which which has virtually no skill ceiling. How the hell did they do it so well for their first ever 3D game effort?
The camera is a common point of criticism by unexperienced players, which is understandable; the camera controls aren't communicated well with the player. However, when one learns to master all different camera modes, the camera feels excessively responsive and free, and you will face very few awkward situations, even less than in modern 3D Mario games with more fixed camera angles.
The core game's levels feel somewhat unfinished, which is the only thing keeping me from giving this a perfect score. Don't get me wrong: levels like Tick Tock Clock, Bob Omb Battlefield and Hazy Maze Cave are some of the most creative and beautiful level designs I've seen in 3D gaming and it still stands very well to this day. However, some of the levels feel limited and a large part of the castle is uncannily empty, with very few enterable paintings in contrast to empty ones. I've heard that the game was initially supposed to have twice the amount of stages, but they had to cut down due to time limitations (can't find a source that proves that but I believe it). As a result, the levels can feel as if corners were cut, and will maybe leave you desiring for more. The incredible and perpetually growing ROM Hacking scene of the game can leave you entertained and fill this longing for new and more complex levels. Kaze Emanuar's incredible console compatible ROM hacks push the limits of what is possible with the Nintendo 64 and with the game per se. This game unintendedly grew to have one of the most amazing modding scenes in all of gaming, with thousands of creators making new levels, retextures and gameplay updates for the game. Somehow, anything is possible in this game. Avid gamers even managed to reverse engineer the entire source code of the game, making this one of the most well-understood video games ever.
Still, the vanilla game holds no boring missions and will print itself in your memories with some of its unforgettable moments. There are so many ways to play this, even with an unmodified game cartridge.
I strongly recommend playing this on original Nintendo 64 hardware. Playing this the authentic way with either an OEM controller or a Hori Mini Pad on a CRT television is one of the finest gaming experiences one can live. Still, Emulator (Mupen and Project 64 especially) and Wii VC stand up very well. Just have some respect for yourself and don't play on Wii U or Switch.
It is inexplicable how influent this game is in the world of gaming. All 3D platformers and a vast majority of third person 3D games owe their success to the developments of SM64 in movement schemes and camera controls.