Mario 64 - initial thoughts

[marurun]

Have you tried Super Mario Sunshine, marurun?

I have not. Mario 64 is my first foray into 3D with Mario. All the GC and Wii Mario titles hold their value VERY well, meaning I tend to pass over them for cheaper fare.

[AppleQueso]

Have you tried Super Mario Sunshine, marurun?

I have not. Mario 64 is my first foray into 3D with Mario. All the GC and Wii Mario titles hold their value VERY well, meaning I tend to pass over them for cheaper fare.

Galaxy 1 is $20 new right now. Go pick it up!

[BogusMeatFactory]

Dire Dire Docks sounds like a generic 80's synth pop backing track. I'm occasionally finding tunes that are OK, but compared to other Mario tunes, they are rather non-memorable. I'm not familiar with the N64's audio capabilities, so I can't say how this game compares to others on the system. I'm playing Mario 64 on the VC and my wife is playing the first N64 Zelda. Majora's Mask is on the backburner for her when she finishes the first one.

I actually can't argue about the music thing. Aside from the music in bob-omb battlefield, every other song is very forgetful.

With music capabilities, I always reference Banjo-Kazooie for having some of the best music in any game, even today. They really made some amazing stuff there that flowed together and transitioned beautifully.

[AppleQueso]

With music capabilities, I always reference Banjo-Kazooie for having some of the best music in any game, even today. They really made some amazing stuff there that flowed together and transitioned beautifully.

The channel fading stuff is really nice. Greg Wise has a very distinct style with the Banjo games.

Have you ever been to his website? There's some beta music and unused tracks from Banjo on there.

[jay_red]

Even though I had an n64 during that generation (as opposed to the PS1) I never had Mario 64, when I did try it, I found it to be kind of difficult, and it didnt hook me like other people. My Wife, on the other hand, had this as a kid as well, and she loved it, she remembers seeing the graphics for the first time, and not being able to believe that games could look like that. She had gotten all the stars multiple times, and could do most levels purley off memory. I played it for a few minutes recently testing out a controller, and it has held up pretty well IMO. it doesnt look too dated (some n64 games look terrible now) and the controls are tight and responsive.

Did you get Diddy Kong Racing as the pack-in title?

I dont remember having a packin title at all, I got mine a few years after it came out, I only remember it having the purple controller pack in.

[ZeroAX]

I think you are failing to give the game some credit for how it changed, NAY, paved the way for TRUE 3D platform games. Simply adding a feature or using a technology for the sake of ticking a square on the back of the box is not enough to make a good game. The game must make all features a part of its core.

This is Nintendo back in the 90s, when they were still a power house of innovation and paving the way forward, something only Sega could rival them in. When every other developer who was making platform games thought of just making a game where you run down a corridor (even Sega ended up just doing that with Sonic, even though the original 3D Sonic game, seemed to be much more open focused than the Sonic Adventure games ended up being), Nintendo thought about what purpose does a 3D world serve in a platformer.

And the answer was simple. Exploration. Yes Tomb Raider did that too, but don't forget the guys at Core Design, being a British development team were probably more influenced by adventure games than platformers, so its exploration was more "how" to get somewhere (finding the right way).

On the other hand when Super Mario added puzzles to its exploration mechanics, it made sure to keep the simple, as a platformer of its kind ought to (not comparing it with puzzle platformers and Metroid of course), BUT it made sure that the core part of Super Mario 64's gameplay was that the challenge in fun wasn't so much in finding how to get somewhere, but actually getting there. Hence the timed jumps, the repertoire of acrobatic moves.

Another thing which was new was 3D movement, so a lot of the gameplay ideas where about actually using that 3D movement to your advantage (hence the spinning eye enemies, or the bully bosses in the lava stage).

The camera was just a growing pain, but again it was much much much better compared to other games from its time, and many since. I have big problems with a lot of PS2 games cause of their shitty cameras, but Mario 64 only gave me slight problems with that, and Zelda OOT probably nailed it.

[pierrot]

So this was your first 3D Mario game experience? I don't think it's fair to say it doesn't play like a Mario game if this is your first 3D Mario. It's a 3D platformer, of course it doesn't play like a 2D platformer. You have to go into it knowing that.

I don't see how it's unfair to critically approach the first 3D Mario platformer as if it were the first Mario platformer in 3D. It was the succession of the standard Mario franchise. It deserves to be pitted against the earlier games. They are not apples and oranges.


I remember renting an N64 with Mario 64 when I was eight, and I ended up taking it back the next day because I spent 30 minutes or so just wandering around the foyer, trying to figure out how to get to the first level, before I just gave up on the game. (Because how am I supposed to know that the fucking painting is a damn door!) I've always hated Mario 64 because of that. Even when giving it a chance since learning how to get to the first stage, I get really bored, really quickly. I'm going to second the camera issues. The camera is still bad in Mario Sunshine, and it's far worse in Mario 64.

You, sir, are gross.

I don't think he's all that large.

[marurun]

Did some more playing today. Got the red wing cap. Flying is a frustrating mechanic. No sir, I don't like it.

[ZeroAX]

Did some more playing today. Got the red wing cap. Flying is a frustrating mechanic. No sir, I don't like it.

Now there's a legitimate complain against the game, if I have ever seen one.

Simply put, they screwed it up....BAD. They tried to make him control like a plane, but that isn't fun in such tight stages if you ask me.

[lwcook]

Did some more playing today. Got the red wing cap. Flying is a frustrating mechanic. No sir, I don't like it.

Now there's a legitimate complain against the game, if I have ever seen one.

Simply put, they screwed it up....BAD. They tried to make him control like a plane, but that isn't fun in such tight stages if you ask me.

Agreed. It's very much a "concept=awesome; execution=awkward." Revolutionary still, because the variety in gameplay was terrific, but yeah...still a bit of a pain.