Oh boy... If I had a nickel for every time I've beaten this game... Well, to be honest, I wouldn't have a single nickel, but that's besides the point.
Super Mario 64, one of the highest grossing Mario games of all time, continues to get sales for the DS version, and through virtual console, it has aged roughly and nicely, and it's stuck with us over the years.        For my first review, I did Super Mario 64 Multiplayer, and this game is believe it or not, created by the same person, and he has even created a multiplayer version of this one, though not as up to date as SM64 Multiplayer.      Somehow Skelux managed to take everything SM64 did right, and ramp it up too 11. Every time I turned around in this game, I found something new! There was always something to surprise me and make me want to keep playing.      I don't know where to begin to describe how much I love this game, but in my reverse order of ratings, I will start with Difficulty.


DIFFICULTY     [ 8 / 10 ]

I will NOT go lightly here, this game's difficulty is stupid hard, but everything else makes it so worth it, some of the trouble comes with the camera, which is a curse Skelux seems to have with his games, for example, in Sky Island Resort, there is a mission where you are required to reach the top of the windmill, but the camera makes this absolutely and utterly aggravating, and I definitely recommend coming into this game with a fair amount of patience, which isn't hard for me, as a Gamer who has 106%ed Super Meat Boy.   Some of the tricks required to do certain things in missions are incredibly precise, and/or outright poorly placed, making camera movement a given, if even possible.   I have to give the Difficulty an 8/10.


DEPTH       [ 10 / 10 ]

The depth is a masterpiece, everything about this game leaves you on your toes, there are so many unexpected secrets to be discovered, so many little details and hidden content it is overwhelming!  The difficulty goes hand in hand here, making it a given to come back to a hard level once you have gained more experience, from then, you gain a WHOLE NEW perspective on the level, and how it works, you come up with more ideas on how to complete it, and get that star, making it SO satisfying when you do.   There are a TON of cool things hidden throughout the Tower courtyard, such as a hidden Mountain Town, or a hidden cannon.    This game feels very fleshed out, and polished to near perfection I could die, I love the depth in this game to depth [I'm punny] and I certainly can't see myself running out of things to do.  To top it all off, if you manage to pull a godly trump card and gather all the stars in the game, you will be rewarded with one final secret, that just puts the icing on the cake, and is completely worth it, from what I've seen from friends, though I have never personally reached this point yet.  Depth gets a perfect score of 10/10, which is a first for my reviews.


STORY         [ 5 / 10 ]

Alright, I stated in my last review that Super Mario 64 had a pretty basic story, which is true, However, in this game that statement is not the same, Princess Toadstool isn't even kidnapped in this one, and behind the scenes, in each world there is something going on, some sort of event, or something. Every character in this game has something funny or interesting to say, and every world has some interesting lore behind it.   One of the most unexplained things lore wise, is the fan named Purgatory world, it is a bleak, lifeless world, with nothing but a few Boos and some pipes and mushrooms, literally, nothing is here, and there is no where else to go but forward, forcing you to walk slowly, to a seemingly bottomless pit, which you jump into, supposedly ending Mario's life.   This world programming wise replaces the Mario Head from the original, and is only encountered when you lose all of your lives.    For the large improvement in story quality over the first game, I give the story a 5/10.


ADDICTIVENESS            [ 8 / 10 ]

Although not for the faint of heart difficulty wise, it certainly doesn't mean you shouldn't whack yourself in the head and call your mother Samuel, and give it a go.   It's EXTREMELY addicting, and it does everything the first game did, and makes it 10 times better.   I love some of the tricky jumps in this game, while I absolutely DESPISE others.   I loved showing off to my peers by doing a super tricky jump, then asking them to do it.   This game is like the gift that keeps on giving, and I can't get enough, I give addictiveness an 8/10.


SOUND               [ 9 / 10 ]

This game...Oh buddy, it took music from SO many games that have amazing soundtracks, and made them absolutely amazing, just listen to this game's spin on Super Mario Galaxies' Comet Observatory, that track is like my SM64 Water Level track for this game! I love it and I can't get enough of it!  This game has such an amazing soundtrack, and I could never do it justice, just give it a go yourself, you won't be disappointed, I can assure you that.    9/10, they did near everything to perfection.


GRAPHICS        [ 7 / 10 ]

This game has some fairly decent graphics, they made some changes that I simply adore, such as changing the Pink Bob-ombs to Blue Bob-ombs, and having the Pokeys use their Paper Mario textures, it looks pretty dang good, but at the same time, I highly disliked some graphical uses, such as the Evil Sun texture, it doesn't look like it fits in, and I also dislike the change in Mario's shading in later versions of the game, but a lot of this is up to opinion, and I suggest you try it out yourself and see what you think.   They were pretty nice, so I give the graphics a score of 7/10.


OVERALL      [ 9.7 / 10 ]

This game might be a bit too hard to be a legit sequel to Super Mario 64, but it's certainly not so difficult it rivals Super Mario 74, which is a hack of SM64 designed to be very difficult.   I consider it a real Mario Game in my books, and nothing about it is profane, and it is completely safe for family play, and I recommend that you give this one a go, it's definitely a legendary experience, that you won't regret, but as I said in my last review, go in with an open mind, and you will enjoy it a lot more.   All in all, I give this game a 9.7/10, not perfect enough to be perfect, but pretty darn close.

This is your FIRST review? Damn, you do it better than I did even after I started dividing mine into subsections.

It's nicely written and divided and you don't spare the details about what you didn't like! However, I would have love just a few more details about sound and graphics. What was you favorite track? How do graphics compare to the original Super Mario 64 and to other N64 games?

janus :   2nd Review, actually.    When I reach 20-40 depending on how well they do, I might do them in Video Form.  Thanks for the feedback, if you'd like to read my first review in the series, here's the link: https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=86107

loganvllach : It's still pretty impressive. I even saw a few improvements from your first review; you give more details here

Those first two sentences got me into this review XD Like janus stated, this is impressive for your second review. You're a natural at reviewing! You knew how to get readers into the game and incorporate humor into the review. But you didn't use too much humor so the readers can still take you seriously.

I disagree with the game being too hard to be an official sequel to Super Mario 64 because sequels are supposed to get pretty hard compared to their predecessors. I've noticed that with quite a few Mario games, especially the first "Super Mario" ones (Super Mario Bros, SMB2 Lost Levels, SMB3, Super Mario World) Super Mario 74 is definitely too hard though XD

Continue reviewing!