Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64, 1996)

 

It's "Mar10 Day" and I've been wanting to do something Mario-related on this particular day for a while. Too bad "Mar10 Day" isn't more of a thing. Nintendo started to try and make it a thing and then just kinda abandoned it, I think, much like they abandoned trying to stay ahead of the competition's tech level somewhere around 2005.

This is a game that meant a lot to millions of kids in 1996. It isn't hyperbolic to say that it was the biggest video game of all time at that moment. Nintendo Power sold many games to people over the years, with things like Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario RPG, and Killer Instinct getting the mega-pushes of mega-pushes. And yet none of them got the GIGA-PUSH that Super Mario 64 got in the months leading up to the launch of the Nintendo 64.

This is still, to this day, probably my favorite 3D Mario game (though Mario Galaxy got close), and I'm long overdue for a replay of it. I've beaten this game all of twice ever previously: Once in 1999 when I finally got an N64, and once in 2012 or so on the Wii Virtual Console where I got all 120 stars. Now I play it a third time to talk about it here. Just beating the game (70 stars) and trying to do it fairly quickly. I'll also be looking at some of the Nintendo Power coverage to see if I can evoke some twinges of nostalgia over just how beyond-hyped people were for this.

One of the simplest title screens ever, yet... take it from me here, seeing this firsthand for the first time in 1996 was more exciting than literally anything in modern gaming. I guess you had to be there. Maybe things like Mario Odyssey have a similar effect on kids of the modern era? I don't know, but with this game, it was because of how new the technology was that this felt like such a massive leap from what we already had. It being Mario (with all the nostalgia and happy feelings that entails) was just icing.

The first screen is legendary because you can move a cursor around to prod and pull on Mario's face. It's all in 3D and it gives you a chance to play around with the new N64 analog stick before the game even starts. It's little things like this that demonstrate how genius Miyamoto and friends actually are. They didn't NEED to include this, but they did.

The file select has one of my favorite file select themes ever:

...right up there with Secret of Evermore and Elemental Gearbolt in its relaxing, warm, promise-of-what-will-be.

Never understood why the Princess signs the letter both "Princess Toadstool" AND "Peach"...and says both in the narration. Is Peach her first name? A nickname? Why'd she say both? WHY?

Another bit of genius is having you start outside the castle, where you can run and jump around in an open space uncontested and get to know the controls. Which is very much necessary since these controls, and the 3D environment to begin with, were so novel in 1996. The PS1 had a few rudimentary 3D games before this, but no one had analog stick controls to interact with 3D environments.

Bowser has invaded Toadstool's Castle and taken her prisoner. Usually he just kidnaps her and flies off in an airship or something. This time he's going for broke! Well, all of this is just backdrop for us being able to make use of the castle as a hub world.

Nice bit of nostalgia here. The wall artwork instantly gives this game so much personality and vibe. Most games would just have blank walls in here. There's so much EFFORT put into every little thing in this game.

Of course, the real meat of the game, and the actual gameplay, is found in the many painting levels found all over the castle. It's Portrait of Ruin all over again. I love this idea and it facilitates so much creativity in the level design. It's also good for lazy developers, since you don't have to worry about continuity of your locations and biomes.

Bob-Omb Battlefield is the first portrait level, where pink bob-ombs are laying siege to a mountain of black bob-ombs. What does all of this mean? I don't know. Maybe one of the bob-omb types likes its bread with the butter side up, and the other likes its bread with the butter side down.

It might not look like much in 2025, but in 1996 it was a magical thing to jump on goombas in 3D.

While it technically isn't the "first star" I usually get this one first by freeing the chain chomp. Which isn't easy while it's trying to chomp you.

At the top of the mountain is King Bob-Omb. This level is so easy and so charming, it's kind of ridiculous. Pretty much the perfect thing to pull people into the game and teach them how to play it.

I immediately THROW HIM OFF THE MOUNTAIN. Turns out that's not how you win, you just have to do basic body-slams up there.

Another fun thing to do here is the footrace with Koopa the Quick, which basically involves running to the top of the mountain. His name is a BALD-FACED LIE and you have to pretty much fall off the mountain and completely fail to lose this race.

After getting ALL of Bob-Omb Battlefield's stars (well, except the one that isn't reachable yet) I go for one of the castle's hidden zones. Jump into the stained glass window on the right and...

...hidden slide level. This game really encourages you to check EVERYTHING that looks slightly out of the ordinary. I kinda like the idea that the Princess had a mega-slide installed in the castle just for the fun of it. Hell, if I had my own castle I might get a slide installed too.

Finishing this slide normally gets you a star, and finishing in under 21 seconds gets you another star. I actually got the speed run star first, which requires taking a shortcut right at the beginning. Surprised I remember all this after over a decade since I last played, and even more surprised to be able to just pull it off like this.

Next level is Whomp's Fortress, which I was never really a fan of. The game is so open that you can leapfrog right over this level, or any other level, and I usually did. However, playing it again now, I really under-sold it in the past. It's a GREAT level and the first challenge the game offers (the previous level is full of gimme stars).

It's another "climb to the top of the level and fight a boss" situation, which makes me wonder. When they first started designing this game, was the plan to have every level be like this?

This fight involves baiting the boss to try and fall on Mario, then stomping on his back before he gets up. Turns out if you run straight at him, you'll run under his legs as he falls. It goes from being a tough fight to being an incredibly easy one just like that.

The last Whomp Fortress star involves flying an owl (obtained in the tree at the beginning) up to a star in a basket. This is a really fun thing to play around with and I wish other levels had the owl. Yeah, this owl star single-handedly vaults the level up the rankings (and rest assured, I WILL be ranking the Mario 64 levels after this playthrough).

I already have enough stars to finish "world 1" (of three) by taking on the first Bowser level, but I've got a couple more levels to check out here first. Always loved the water levels in this game, even if the swimming controls are kind of...bad.

There's a hidden level right next to the main water level, and it's a "collect 8 red coins" stage where you swim around in a big room. It's an easy star that can get you acclimated to water controls, which makes me wonder why it's hidden in a hole in the wall rather than something obvious before the actual water level where you'd need these skills.

The game's tremendous water level music. It's nostalgia overload and one of the best tunes in the game. I just wish it had better levels to go with.

Jolly Roger Bay has that great music, and as a kid I really liked this one. Now, not so much. It's a weird level with some weird star objectives in it.

Namely, having to lure death-eels out and grab stars that are moving around while struggling with the swimming controls. Yeah, not really my favorite. That eel face is the cause of nightmares, too.

Even though they're the worst levels in the game, I'd rather this game have water levels than not have them, for variety's sake. And if I haven't already mentioned it enough, the ability to just skip levels that don't (heh) float your boat is HUGE in this game. In normal linear Mario games you'd have to beat the levels you aren't a fan of, while here you're totally free to go do something else. It's the Elden Ring principle where you never really get stuck in that game because you're never locked into doing anything to progress (until the last dungeon of course) and can always go elsewhere to progress instead.

A level I'm much more fond of, and my favorite level in the first world: Cool Cool Mountain. I've never seen anyone rank this as the #1 level in the game but it's ALWAYS in the top 3-5.

It's a snow level, and unlike the first couple levels you start at the top of a mountain and descend from there, giving it a whole new vibe. Mario 64 players: Don't lie, the snow level music is playing in your head right now isn't it?

There's a slide here that's much tougher than the first slide, due to having ice added to it. There's a star to be gotten from doing this, plus it's pretty much a requirement for the 100 Coin star this level has (since the slide has like 60 potential coins on it).

There's another star where you have to reunite a snowman's head with the rest of its body. Yeah, this level is insanely charming. This is actually a weak point though, because the snowman doesn't comply unless you hit certain invisible markers that cause the head to roll down the right path. I couldn't get it to work, which docks this level a bit.

Course, the most charming part of the level is rescuing the BABY PENGUIN. Apparently a lot of folks threw him off the mountain instead, judging from all the reading I've been doing about this game, and to that I say

"YOU HEARTLESS MONSTERS!"

Rescuing the wee man involves sliding down the mountain while carrying 'em. Unfortunately he can't gobble things up like a Baby Yoshi.

Reuniting the penguins gets me another star. Great level here, SO much funnukah.

Later I returned to get the last star, which was well-hidden on an ice bridge. I love this level, and it's got a certain magic about it.

That is, until you go SAILING OFF THE LEVEL on a missed jump. This game isn't good for people with fear of heights.

At 12 stars, the Wing Cap Course unlocks in the central hub area. This is another 8 red coin course, but it's pretty hard to do because the flight controls aren't great. In my case I just book it to the center and hit the big switch.

This unlocks all the Wing Cap blocks in the various levels, which gives you temporary power of flight. It's the single coolest thing in all of Mario 64.

Bob-Omb Battlefield in particular is a really fun zone to fly around with the Wing Cap, and I can finally get the last star here. The only issue with the cap is that it's difficult to maintain any sort of altitude or momentum with it. It's closer to the Raccoon Tail in Super Mario Bros 3 than the Super Cape in Super Mario World.

Next up is one of the most iconic levels in the game. The first Mario 64 level I ever actually got to play (at a store kiosk on launch day).

That's right, the first Bowser stage. The three Bowser stages in this game all have this insanely good music. The interesting thing is that the music feels different in each one, even though it's the same track. First one, it's foreboding and not knowing what awaits. Second, it's a challenge. Third, it's "you're on top of the world".

Bowser in the Dark World is just a straight obstacle course (in essence, a traditional Mario level) that challenges you to use all the skills you've learned so far. It isn't bad at all, but it seems daunting the first time through. That is a loooong climb.

Always loved this level, and even the basic platforming makes you Feel when you've got that music going.

There are eight red coins in this level and I made sure to grab all of them to get an extra star right before the boss. I'm well ahead of where I should be at this point (14 stars versus the 8 required).

The first BIG boss fight. Bowser is helpful enough to tell you exactly how to defeat him, if you didn't already know from watching the Nintendo Power VHS tape on this game that everyone got in 1996.

Remember that tape? It contained three RAD DUDES who Nintendo bussed to their HQ to try the game. I guess they were all supposed to be renowned game masters or something? I don't know what their deal was. This was in the era when Game Counselors (the NP 900 line) were revered for their scholarly knowledge of the games, when in actuality they were the 90's equivalent of people on message boards making you feel bad about doing a "quick google search" to answer your question. Only without the making you feel bad part.

I used to call that line regularly and talk to someone named Sarah who I liked (yeah, you could ask for specific counselors when you called). In retrospect I have no idea if it was one Sarah or several, given that it's the most common name in the English language. You could say I had a bit of a crush on this woman(s?) until I got cut off from calling the 900 line anymore. lol.

Grabbing Bowser's tail and rotating the stick until you hurl him off into the distance is one of the great iconic moments of Mario 64.

He needs to hit one of those bombs in the distance, and I was way off the mark here. One bomb hit is enough to win the fight, and there isn't much to it otherwise. He just sorta stomps around. Later fights with Bowser add in new moves like fire breath and earthquake stomps.

Bowser's dead, Mario. He's dead, and you killed him! You might be able to get off with the "juvenile rage" defense.

Murdering Bowser gets you the key to what is essentially "world 2", the basement of the castle.

The basement doesn't look like much, but it's my favorite third of this game. There are six levels down here: Three of them are great, two are good, and one is bleh, which is a very nice ratio.

In a dark corner of the basement lurks Toad. He likes it down here because it's closer to his home, Layer 1 of Avernus.

That's it for today, more on this game later. Before we go, time for some Nintendo Power shots:

I believe this was one of the preview issues hyping the game up. This game got SO MUCH coverage over so many issues of NP that it'd take a whole post to cover all of it.

I think this is the actual launch month issue. Forgot about all the N64 catchphrases like "Change the System" and "The Fun Machine"

"Gallery of wonders" is a good way to put it. I think they're actually lowballing the number of levels (pretty sure it's more than 15, it's like 20 if you factor in castle star courses).

Kind of surprising they'd lowball it considering how notorious NP was for highballing things during their hype trains (they said Donkey Kong Country had "100 levels" when it was more like 35, due to counting bonus rooms as levels).

Behold the hype train. They sold this like the Second Coming in videogame form. The funny thing is, they aren't even really overselling this. It really was an all-timer and something we'd never gotten anything comparable to before.

A look at the game's biomes. Most of these are in world 2 / the basement, part of why that's my favorite world.

I distinctly remember the end of this article: "Whenever he dodges an obstacle, he yells "Yippee!" Which is precisely what players will do when they get their hands on this solid-gold game!"

Given how many old family camcorder videos there are online of kids getting an N64 and this game and completely flipping out, they weren't wrong.

This page of screenshots sold me more on the game than anything they said did. The shots raise so many questions, and it looks like a game where you can just play around in the world and find all kinds of interesting and mysterious things. Indeed, it's a game where just moving around is fun.

One more tune for this one: The Wing Cap theme is pretty great, light and airy. Funny thing about this, I associate it with Chris Jericho's WWF debut because it was stuck in my head the evening that happened. It took me until that time in mid-1999 to finally get an N64, remember. In 1996 I only really saw bits and pieces of the game on the rental and playing it in various places.

TO BE CONTINUED