Part of growing up for me has definitely been finally admitting that Super Mario 64 is a legitimately special video game. Not even just for its historical importance, but for what it remains to be to this day. The level of freedom that the player has in which challenges they want to take on, the high levels of player expression that exist within its conceptually limited yet spatially broad acrobatics moveset, the way it's capable of being beautiful, whimsical, moody, or even haunting. I still find myself picking it up and playing it over most other 3D platformers to this day, the allure of its worlds dragging me deeper into my nth playthrough; it's just that intuitively enjoyable.

Sure, the controls take some getting used to, but Nintendo EAD was able to really get the controls down in a way that I don't think they've ever been able to fully replicate. It's less than ideal that stars kick you out of the stage, and some of the later levels don't really mesh with the control scheme in the same way the more exploration-focused early levels do, but none of that matters in the moment. Super Mario 64 lets you make what you want out of it, and that's what keeps it evergreen.