Whenever I try and collect my thoughts on what I consider my favorite game of all time, it always comes to a neck-and-neck race between several contenders. Do I give it to A Link to the Past, the game that so defined my preteens and holds up so well today? Or perhaps Dark Souls, which has become my modern equivalent for "that game I just can't get sick of". Super Mario Bros. 3 is certainly up there, but it falls to the trend I see a lot of these games seem to fall for: they are either older games I used to play, or newer games I play now. Newer games are obviously fresher and easier to play, but have yet to feel the weight of time diminish them to their core aspects, yet to truly measure up to that most difficult challenge great art must face in its version of the silver years. Likewise, I don't feel particularly compelled to play older games outside of the occasional revisit, and always through quite a lot of "being in the mood" adaptability going on. When the mood hits, it can be a blast, and I can often go through a series at a time, but without the correct, most of these games can feel rather like chores to get through. Well, except Super Mario 64. I've beaten Super Mario 64 nearly every year since college. Going back in and getting those 120 stars doesn't ever seem to get boring, no matter how many times I try for it. I've played mods, played for better times, practiced jumps and tried to break the game. There is something so fun about just being Mario in Mario 64.
Super Mario 64 is legendary in the history of gaming, and largely for good reason. The transition from 2D to 3D was notoriously difficult for games, and several franchises didn't survive the migration. Mario 64 is considered the standout success along with Zelda: Ocarina of Time of 2D to 3D conversion stories, and it isn't a coincidence. Mario had the benefit of belonging to a genre that had potential in the 3D realm. Platformers were really built around a few simple mechanics: physics, jumping, powerups, and obstacles. 3D, 2D - it didn't matter, what mattered was how they were approached. The pieces were there inherent in the genre, but most games still struggled to properly move into the new graphics. Crash Bandicoot found its solution by creating a semi-linear approach to level design, allowing you minimal y- and z-axis range in favor of walking forward (and occasionally backward) down a virtual hallway to the end goal, jumping over pits and enemies as you went along. It was a neat trick, and it worked remarkably well. Super Mario 64 decided to rewrite everything about Mario up to this point. From the multiple powerups of Super Mario World before it, now we have only 3. No longer are we limited to running in one direction to the end goal, but rather have an entire open level to explore and platform through, but now there are far less of them. Mario 64 stripped away a lot of what had made Mario such a success up to this point, but in its place it innovated. 3D worlds hadn't been so explorable before, and replacing end-of-level goals with discoverable stars (6 on each level, plus one for collecting 100 coins in the level) allowed that exploration purpose, giving reason and motivation for exploiting Mario's moveset. Now Mario could do a double and triple jump by consecutively jumping in time, each jump getting higher. He could do a back flip to get hard to reach places, or, if you were a skilled player, you could use the side jump which required running and cutting backwards and then jumping to do a quick high jump without halting momentum. Dives, kicks, and punches allowed for quick movement and new ways of dealing with enemies. The game came well equipped with the tools needed to truly exploit its new areas, to find new and fun ways to get Mario where you wanted him, to be creative while doing it. Playing as Mario feels damn near a medium in and of itself, something all subsequent Mario games would continue. You could spend countless hours just running around Peach's Castle, practicing your jumps and still having fun.
The game follows the basic Mario beats: Peach is missing and Bowser is behind it. Collect 70 stars to battle him for the last time and save the day. There are 120 stars total in the game, and I'll be damned if I can play this game without going after every last one of them. This game is a completionists dream, a camp I don't even consider myself apart of yet can meet here on the fields of Bob-omb Battlefield. There are 15 stages total, each a pocketed little world with 5 exploration based stars, 1 red coin collecting star, and 1 100 coin collecting star. As you collect stars, the game will give you slight hints as to how to get the next star by way of star quest title, but after that you are left to discover it yourself. Occasionally, you come across the rediculous obtusely hidden stars such as the one on Whomp's Fortress hidden in a completely unhinted breakable wall (seriously, it looks like very other wall), but by and large each star is fair and should take you no longer than 15-20 minutes to gather, once you know where to look.
Level design in Mario 64 is incredibly well executed, if graphically dated. Dated may be an understatement here. Several levels and a lot of in game objects look more akin to a mid-90s tech demo than a fantastical world. Rainbow Ride is just floating grey platforms over a murky skybox, and several moving platforms on various levels are simple rectangle objects with a checkered pattern on them that seemed prolific in the early days of computer generation. One level is a box room full of water with massive windows that I swear was the testing grounds for their swimming physics. There aren't that many tech demo styled levels, however. Several, like the excellent Tic Tock Clock are built stylistically around their design, being the inside of a clock with moving gears and keys as platforms. Tic Tock Clock is probably the most difficult level in the game, but also the most rewarding for how mony moving platforms there are, and how many different tricks you can pull to ascend the writhing clock. Several of the levels in this game have become iconic now, such as Bob-omb Battlefield, the first map, that gives you an open green field to play around in with little goombas waddling around, and a mound to climb with a mini-boss at the top. When Mario 64 keeps to the basics such as this, the aesthetic truly works and gives an evocative, childlike excitement and sense of place. Nothing visually here ever quite matches the design of games like Spyro, but it does far more than just a competent job. They create proper difficulty escalation as you unlock more levels, giving you stars for platforming challenges, collectible quests, and exploration of every nook and cranny of the map.
Mario 64's greatest accomplishment outside of basic level design is its controls. It is also its most dated aspect. Using the joystick to run around as Mario, and combining it with the various attacks and moves Mario has in his arsenal feels extremely good and responsive. Mario has a tendency to not like to turn around if he is under the influence of even the slightest momentum, but it doesn't take long for this to become a second nature concern. The challenges here are usually platforming obstacle courses with multiple paths. Later games such as the Mario Galaxy series would siphon you through a relatively linear set of challenges, but Mario 64 would rather set the obstacles up and let you find your own path through them. It encourages creativity not by prompt, but by design. Sure, you could crawl to the edge, backflip up, and make your way up that tower that way, or you could attempt a wall jump into a flag pole and get there that much more efficiently. It's about how you get up there, not that you get up there at all, allowing for all difficulty levels to enjoy, and it is the controls that allow this to execute so well. The real issue with Super Mario 64 is the camera. The newly ventured 3D world was still figuring out how exactly you go about showing the new polygons within the camera's frame. Crash's linear levels allowed for a camera on rails, but Mario 64 needed far more freedom than that. Interestingly, they gave it a physical avatar and physical presence in the world. Lakitu, one of the most frustrating characters in the 2D Mario games, is now Mario's camera man, and you can direct him with the C-buttons around Mario. This means that telling the camera to turn will sometimes cause it to get stuck on walls or wedged between Mario and other objects. As interesting and funny as it was to give Mario's camera a physical avatar, in practice it's annoying to wrestle with while trying to complete precise platforming challenges. Not only that, but it doesn't move smoothly around Mario, but rather in quarter-of-a-circle chunks. Precisely angling the camera behind Mario becomes a chore into itself, one you are not likely to win. Playing levels several times over to collect all of the stars does allow you to somewhat memorize the layout of levels, allowing for you to platform even when things are obscured just from memory, but I can't say this is optimal game design.
Super Mario 64 may not have aged perfectly, but it is uninhibited fun from start to finish. Even camera wrestling can't diminish the pleasure of finally landing that dive-to-long-jump you've been trying in order to get that star just that much faster. The game isn't difficult in and of itself, but rather a toolbox of fun tricks and moves that create that ever pleasing self imposed challenge. Its legacy may be tarnished in the eyes of those who cannot get past having minimal control of the camera, but it's a lesser evil than most older games are burdened with. Mario's first outing in 3D has aged extremely well, and still, even as I've completely memorized the game, never ceases to put a smile on my face during my annual playthroughs.
10
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