Super Mario 64 will always be one of my favorite games of all time so I can't promise I'll be completely not biased but I'll give it a shot. Also this is only the second time I've ever written a review and the last one was four years ago so feedback would be appreciated.


Gameplay 7/10 -
Mario's move set is designed in a way where you have lots of movement options between the long jump, triple jump, back flip, dive, as well as the wall kicks. While most of the movement options are fun, the wall kicks can be finicky to work with sometimes where you just hit the wall swear you timed it and nothing happens. Finally while still talking about game play I want to mention that the camera is the main reason this section is not rated higher the camera can be the death of you when you try to turn it and it decides it doesn't wanna work with you they tried to prevent this by adding a camera option to always follow behind Mario but it's situational at best.


Graphics 6/10 -
This is admittedly where the game has aged the worst it clearly shows this was one of the first three dimensional games. The polygon count is extremely low on most character models, however to be fair to the game developers they weren't working with a lot and the game was a launch title so they were working with new hardware.


Sound 6/10 -
The tracks in this game are great to listen to while playing the game they fit the levels well, the only issue is that many tracks in the game are used in at least three levels so after a while the music can become repetitive. Mario's voice clips are very cheerful and enjoyable to hear, he also has idle voice clips which is funny to hear the first time if you were to walk away and come back to it.


Addictive 10/10 -
This game can be played so many times while getting the stars in different orders every time there's something about it that can drag you back in time and time again.
Something about the mostly up to you order of the stars makes replays feel fresh when you can go for stars you like first or maybe you feel like going after ones you don't like first just having that choice makes the game fun to replay. You don't even have to get the stars in the levels in order most of the time you can go out of order in the levels if you know where to find the star.


Story 4/10 -
The story is basic but that's to be expected with a Mario game. Princess Peach invites Mario to the castle for cake but when he get's there he finds Bowser has taken over the castle and it's power stars and it's up to Mario to beat Bowser and get the cake he was promised.


Depth 9/10 -
The game offers one hundred twenty power stars to collect as well as fifteen main levels that all feel big and expansive for the hardware it's on. With so many power stars it can be time consuming when you're new to the game and have to discover the secrets for yourself.


Difficulty 7/10 -
The game can be surprisingly difficult at times mostly when it comes to searching an entire level for one hundred coins and not dying to something along the way. Besides that most of the levels aren't that hard or time consuming besides the last two Tick Tock Clock and Rainbow Ride these two levels can be very challenging to scale to the top in search of stars but it feels very fun and rewarding to do so.


Overall 8/10 -
To finish I have to say this game is a major reason why three dimensional games took off the way they did and also did an outstanding job moving the Mario series to the third dimension, so even with it's flaws it will always be an iconic game.

I noticed that you gave the overall score an 8 in your review, but on the game page, it says you gave it a 10.

gamerforlifeforever : Thanks for pointing that out I probably started with a 10 then kept changing my mind as I started doing the review and forgot to change it to an 8.

I'm old enough to have played this game when it was brand new and it was absolutely revolutionary when it first came out. No one had ever felt like they were that completely in control of their character before in a game like that. The controller Nintendo came out with looked really weird and crazy when it first dropped but after they were really the first ones to debut a joystick and analog it has become absolutely the go to for all consoles. People can give Nintendo grief all they want but Mario games are always a must buy for whatever nintendo system they release and this was no different. It's likely my 3rd favorite all time behind Mario 3 and Mario Galaxy. All 3 are perfect 10's