Re-View – Super Mario 64

For a lot of people, Super Mario 64 is the definitive N64 title. It was a big hit, marked one of the most successful transitions of a well-known video game character to 3D, and was owned by everyone and their mum. There have been a number of successors, from Super Mario Sunshine to the Galaxy series, and now that we’ve reached this point, I had to wonder if the original Super Mario 3D platformer was still as fun as I remembered.

From a modern point of view, it still has the foundation of a good platformer. Mario is well suited to such games; his jumping is easy to grasp and he’s well suited to acrobatics based exploration and puzzle solving. It still has something in the way of design that’s commendable for a platformer; most levels have a unique theme, from navigating the machinery of a clock to hunting for pirate treasure, each able to provide rewards for effort and exploration. Many of Mario’s foes also made a good transition to 3D, from basic enemies like the goombas to the infuriating hat-snatching Klepto.

Oftentimes the game will just cease to be fun, even though it’s clearly trying hard to be.

Although these features aren’t bad, the standard of the collective product is, upon reflection, less impressive than I remember. Let’s compare it to other 3D platformers of the time. Spyro 2 and Banjo Kazooie had similarly well designed levels and mechanics, but they also enjoyed a colourful and funny cast of characters, with designs that seemed to fit the blocky graphics nicely to provide humour and playability that combined with the gameplay to help make the overall experience timeless. With Super 64 Mario, nobody really has any personality, and the only established drive for progressing is the gameplay itself. Yes you need to rescue Peach, but we never see her, and Bowzer is only in the game for about 20 minutes, most of which is spent bragging. You keep playing because you want to get stars and reach new areas of the castle, but if like me you found everything as a kid, this will quickly get mundane.

There’s also a lot that unfamiliar players will dislike about this game. Something I found to be a constant annoyance was the camera controls. The camera will stop turning if you get too close to a wall, and sometimes will refuse to shift at all when you need it to, like when you’re walking along a narrow edge. Other things the game tries to do don’t quite measure up. The swimming and flying controls in this game are important for increasing the variety of worlds and puzzles, but the former is slow, and the latter requires teeth grinding repetition. Usually I wouldn’t put this down to bad design, but let’s look again at contemporary titles for comparison. Banjo Kazooie’s swimming and flying controls weren’t much better, but the scenery complemented them more. In the underwater levels you didn’t have as far to swim, and it was easier to go higher when flying. I appreciate how Mario is supposed to be able to nosedive, gain momentum and then swoop back up Batman-style, but this is a gameplay element which just doesn’t seem to work. Oftentimes the game will just cease to be fun, even though it’s clearly trying hard to be.

While we’re talking about gameplay, I should mention the boss fights. Most of them revolve around grabbing the boss from behind and throwing them, and while a handful require different tactics, you can guarantee that down the line there’ll be an identical one in a different colour. Level themes and gameplay become repetitive generally, even if there are parts where the game shines. I loved the obstacle courses of Lethal Lava Land, but I would rather play newer Mario games that use basic elements like this to really play to Mario’s strengths. Super Mario Sunshine remains my favourite because the platforming controls were complemented by levels that seemed to have this more in mind. New features like Fludd added to the experience instead of making it awkward, and to top it off there was a decent cast of characters that brought life to the already beautiful scenery.

The sad truth is that if you’ve already played the game, it can be difficult to enjoy once your nostalgia kick runs out. You will remember how to solve the puzzles and find each star, the experience will bore you and the controls will frustrate you. It hurts when you realise that the game was bested in its own time by other, much more fun 3D platformers which remain thoroughly enjoyable even now. Unless you’re either curious or fancy a trip down memory lane, you’ll likely find this game to be retro without being timeless; a worn stepping stone from which Mario has-a-moved on.