As a kid and as an adult, Mario games have always felt the same way to me.
#SUPER MARIO 64 LAST IMPACT FINAL BOSS REMI SERIES#
Nintendo’s series have always shifted from decade-to-decade and game-to-game, but this game feels strange. And I’m not talking about the gameplay or the controls, I’m talking about the vibe. Mario 64 does not feel like it fully belongs in the same series as Super Mario World, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario 3D Land, and the rest of the series’ history. Honestly, I’m just gonna cut to the chase here. While some series made the jump from 2D to 3D with an attempt to emulate exactly how their 2D games played, Nintendo felt that Mario 64 would inherently have to play differently from the games that came before.Īnd with hindsight, I think it’s fair to say that the end result does not feel at all like the games that came before, or after. The game’s worlds are wide-open playgrounds, but they always felt like surreal, disjointed dreams.īecause Mario 64 was a “first” in so many ways, it’s not surprising that it’s a departure from previous Mario games. They’re not linear, skill-based obstacle courses, as players were used to. You have the freedom to do things at your pace, discover different corners of the world, and tackle things in whatever order works for you. This means that you spend your time exploring the levels like giant playgrounds. Super Mario 64 is the first major Mario game to be rendered and controlled in 3D, and is also the first major Mario game to be a “Sandbox Exploration” game. I imagine it may be the same case for you. I’ll admit up front that nostalgia, and being young when I experienced the game, are big factors in this. Or at least, playing it seems to invoke a variety of feelings in me. Super Mario 64 seems to play with an strangely wide swath of emotions. Right? Why was it like… that? Why was it…weird? Why does it feel so different from other Mario games? If you’ve played it, I think you know what I’m talking about. And each time, it brings the same question. For the past year or so, it seems to pop back into my brain almost every day. Now, thanks to the popularity of Mario 64 in the speedrunning, glitch-exploiting, and VGM remix communities, the game feels like it’s been brought back onto the forefront of my mind. I wasn’t great at completing games (I’m still not) but I had my torn-up little Player’s Guide and I pushed through to the end. I certainly played it a lot when it released. If you had asked me years ago what my favorite childhood games were, I don’t think Mario 64 would have even come to my mind. I can’t stop thinking about Super Mario 64.
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