Introduction

Welcome to my review of Super Mario 64, one of my favorite games of all-time, and it has been for several years! It was my first 3D Mario game I ever played. I fell in love with the unique gameplay it offers. Here’s what makes this game so legendary and lovable!

Story
7/10

Princess Peach got kidnapped again. But this time, she had baked a cake for Mario first, so it’s original. Well at least there’s an interesting plot with how Mario has to save her. He has to get Power Stars that unlock doors and keys that unlock different parts of the castle. He has to get 70 stars to break the curse of the endless stairs so he can face Bowser for the third time in the game.

Graphics
9/10

It blows my mind how this game looks. Again, I had never played a 3D Mario game before playing this, so I couldn’t believe I was seeing everything in 3D and playing these huge worlds. I love the detail on these enemies especially King Whomp and… ooh Bowser looks COOL! Too bad I have to fight him, right?

I still enjoy looking at the attention to detail in the backgrounds and other graphics for these courses. Wet-Dry World has a neat city background, and Rainbow Ride has rainbows everywhere for some reason! The stars are pretty, and it is so satisfying to grab one of those shiny yellow stars. Certain graphics such as the signs are nothing special, but that’s fine. The designers of this game clearly tried.

Animation
8/10

I really like the special effects this game has to offer, such as the sparkly-thingies that accompany Mario when he returns from a course. Mario’s movement is nice, and many animations make things in this game exciting. Riding on a Koopa shell is so hype! What an amazing explosion it is when Bowser hits a bomb. BOOM!!!

My only problem with the animation in this game is that certain things either don’t appear or don’t look right when they are far away. Mario’s face and head makes a weird shape when he’s facing the camera and he’s far away. Also, sometimes I can’t see something until I’m pretty close to it because it doesn’t load until I step into a certain spot. There’s a certain Bob-omb near the Chain Chomp’s Gate that appears at the last second. When I’m collecting coins for the 100-coin star, I sometimes can’t see rings of coins until I’m really close (usually a ring is when 8 coins form a circle). The animations are super cool when they show up though. One of my favorites is when Mario does the “I-got-a-star” dance.

Depth
10/10

This game is MASSIVE. There are 15 main courses which are pretty huge and 105 of the stars come from those levels, and there are several side courses which the other 15 stars come from. The Princess’s Secret Slide even has 2 stars! This game has a lot of really creative missions that make each level be time-consuming (unless you’re like me and you know plenty of shortcuts).

There are many boss fights, red coin stars, and secret stars throughout the main courses. Some stars require a Cap power to get (unless you’re like me and you know plenty of shortcuts). To top it off, each main course has a scavenger hunt where you have to collect 100 coins from the level. For some courses, this is challenging because they only have so many coins. Jolly Roger Bay only has 104 I think, and Dire Dire Docks is also low on coins. However, there are some courses that people can REALLY have a ball with when it comes to coin collecting. Tiny-Huge Island has a very generous amount of coins, and so does Tick-Tock Clock.

Difficulty
8/10

This game starts off pretty difficult. I remember when I first was playing this game, and I got stuck on the first star where you face King Bob-omb. It took me a while to figure out how to pick him up and throw him down to beat him. Bob-omb Battlefield is the first course in the game, and it still today takes me longer to finish than most of the courses. Everything is scattered throughout the course, and when you make a mistake, it can really cost you.

The rest of the game has a pretty balanced difficulty, and it gets more difficult as it goes. More crazy platforming, more fast-paced and strategic boss battles, and less room for error. Rainbow Ride is the last main course in the game, and after playing this game for several years, it’s still hard for me to beat it without falling off at least twice. And I take shortcuts, for pete’s sake. The final level, Bowser in the Sky, is very hard. So many crazy jumps and obstacles. And for the final Bowser fight, instead of having to throw Bowser once, you have to throw him THREE TIMES. After all these years, I am still TERRIBLE at Bowser throws. Oh man.

Addictiveness
10/10

I have come back to this game WAY more than any other. With the variety of missions, the timed challenges like racing Koopa the Quick and going down The Princess’s Secret Slide, and more, I am hooked to this game. I needed an excuse to keep playing it, so I have learned to speedrun it. It’s such a fun adrenaline rush, and I can now beat the game, all 120 stars, in a little over 2 hours. It’s fun to see what glitches I can do (this game is sooo broken), and the levels have so much fun platforming that never gets old for me.

By the way, about the glitches, one thing that keeps me coming to this game is that I know the backward long-jump (BLJ) glitch. So I can speedrun 120 star the normal way, but I can also beat the game with 31 stars in less than 25 minutes by skipping the last 2 star doors. But yeah, the game itself is incredibly fun with its loose controls and many missions.

Sound Effects
10/10

D’OH! I will never ever ever get enough of the Mario voice clips in this game! For almost everything he does, Mario speaks. I still laugh at the “HWHOA-WUH!” sound he says when he falls and/or takes damage. It’s satisfying to hear him say, “HERE WE GOOOO!” when I get a star.

The other sound effects are cool too. The enemies have some pretty funny sound effects, and it’s SUPER fun to break stuff in this game. There’s even a sound for when Mario slides down a hill or slope. And I like the swimming sound.

Music
8/10

The songs in this game are masterpieces. They are very energetic for the most part, and they all fit the levels they are in extremely well. The castle theme makes it great to be walking around the castle, so it isn’t boring. The Cool, Cool Mountain theme has a Christmasy feel to it, and it is great music for a snow level.

The music in this game can get repetitive quickly, though. The same theme plays for Bob-omb Battlefield, Whomp’s Fortress, Tall Tall Mountain, and Tiny-Huge Island. The same theme plays for Jolly Roger Bay, Dire Dire Docks, and The Secret Aquarium. The same theme plays for Cool, Cool Mountain and Snowman’s Land (OK, this one isn’t too bad with the repetition). The same theme plays for Hazy Maze Cave, Cavern of the Metal Cap, the Snowman’s Land Igloo, Wet-Dry World, and the Tiny-Huge Island Wiggler’s Cavern. All the Bowser courses have the same theme. And finally, for the most repetitive theme by far: the same theme plays in the Tower of the Wing Cap, The Princess’s Secret Slide, Vanish Cap Under the Moat, the Tall Tall Mountain slide, and ALL THREE COURSES in the very top part of the castle: Wing Mario Over the Rainbow, Tick-Tock Clock, and Rainbow Ride. That’s 7 TIMES that theme plays in this game. That’s a bit much.

Despite there not being a lot of songs for this game, the songs that are there are quite nice to listen to, and it isn’t actually that annoying to hear them again and again. It’s just crazy to me how much some of these themes play. Oh, and thankfully, there are some songs that just play once, such as Bowser’s final theme, and the music for Big Boo’s Haunt.

Overall Rating
70/80 OR 88% -- a B

This game hasn’t aged too well when you look at modern 3D Mario games, but it’s still a classic. It is one of the most iconic Mario games of all time, and it is extremely enjoyable to play and watch. I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Nice review! I was personally never really into Mario 64, at least not compared to the massive following it has. I'm not really sure why, it's just not my type of game I guess. I'm also horrendous with the camera so that might contribute a little to it. I can still appreciate it though for what it brought to the table at the time, setting the stage to really explore and develop 3D platformers.

Furret : Thank you! Yeah the camera can be a pain sometimes but it's nothing compared to the DS version. That one is a nightmare in every aspect. I can't believe that on the original version of the game, I beat the whole game with only the 1st person camera view That was hard since I really like seeing where I'm going.