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Super
Mario 64
As expected, Nintendo blasted into their latest console,
the N64, with their “main man”, the king himself: Mario.
Fleeing from giant snowballs while fighting enemies simultaneously,
flying through 3-D environments, and exploring the dangerous
ocean floor is just a small portion of the gameplay throughout
Super Mario 64, and as usual, Mario sets out to
do the impossible.
And it starts like this…
| Software
Specials |
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Stats
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Genre:
Arcade
Release Date:
Available
Publisher:
Nintendo
Developer:
Nintendo
ESRB:
Everyone
System:
Nintendo 64
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The journey begins when Mario visits one of his old friends,
Princess. When he arrives at Princess’s castle, Mario
discovers that the sinister and vile Bowser has kidnapped
her - once again. Attempting to save this “damsel in distress”,
Mario has to leap through paintings on the wall, which
leads to a variety of different eye-popping and twisted
worlds in search of the 120 power stars. Gathering the
power stars can lead to other treks throughout the castle’s
amazing thirty levels. Some daunting adventures in these
worlds include: attempting to mount an ancient and colossal
pyramid while dodging hair-raising twisters; racing one
of your old buddies Koopa Troopa up to the top of a gigantic
mountain trying to beat him to one of the power stars;
and searching for sunken treasure within one of Bowser’s
pirate ships.
What is that?
During your perilous travels, you can discover meritorious
and worthwhile items such as Mario caps -these will give
you a special ability for a limited amount of time, varying
from his metal cap, flying cap, invisible cap to caps
that give you access to the games’ secret areas. Take
it from me, there is nothing like soaring through the
air with the flying cap!
Well, it beats 2-d
You can see how large a leap Mario took from the SNES
to the N64. The scenery in particular is an obvious starting
point, with some fairly realistic light sources not seen
in earlier examples of the series. This game doesn’t just
consist of a flat landscape. The fact that stages are
complex with cliffs, hills, bridges, water and, of course,
enemies just adds to the enjoyment. However, the one thing
that kind of annoys me about this game is that most of
the structures and characters are made entirely of polygons.
I understand that this game was a launch release title
but I had hoped that Nintendo would be able to get past
your conventional “block-graphic” games - to my disappointment
the game is somewhat like a math lesson in geometry.
He can do what now? Mario’s actions and control
add to the game’s edge. Sporting his ubiquitous red plumbing
suit, Mario is able to perform several moves such as:
giant leaps over lengthy areas, tip-toe over willowy bridges,
back flip over enemies, double-jump his way up cliffs,
and crawl, like a baby, over slippery ridges. While I
wasn’t able to engulf my opponents in flames, I was still
able to execute a couple of different attacks including
your typical punching, kicking, and jump kicking or stomping
on your foes. All of Mario’s movements are done with style,
grace and are graphically solid. Mario’s moves have changed
drastically, shifting from just trampling on your adversaries
to a full-out assault. While I was able to jump all over
the map, if Mario landed on the edge of something, an
error would occur. For example, I jumped from a floating
platform to the edge of a floating staircase and Mario
would go into this mode of constantly jumping up and down
until he fell off. While this was happening, I was not
able to do anything besides watch until he perished down
below.
Are
you telling me I’m not blind?
In many 3-D games, the gameplay becomes more of an annoyance
than fun especially when it is not possible to make
out what you are doing because of bad camera angles
or just plain bad design. This is not the case for this
particular game. The gamer has the ability to use Mario’s
first person view and third person views. With the game’s
controller setup, it is exceptionally easy to change
views or carry out moves during the actual gameplay.
With the simple touch of a button you are able to change
the view to the left, right, up and down. Even though
I was able to change the camera angles and views in
a diversity of directions, I would occasionally be stuck
in a spot because of a glitch in the views and I would
be unable to catch sight of anything at all, just a
black screen.
What’s in it for me?
Besides the fact that I wasn’t able to change the game’s
difficulty level, the game has many levels, which increase
in difficulty. The tasks change from flying through
circles of coins to launching Bowser into gigantic spiked
bombs. Nobody expects the real concept of Super Mario
titles to change. The game unquestionably lives up to
a Mario title and also has some extra bonuses, one of
which is to meet Yoshi on top of the castle after
collecting all the 120 power stars. What is the point
of meeting Yoshi exactly? It might be the fact that
he gives you 100 lives (no questions asked =0). Oh yeah,
I forgot, when you enter the game you are capable of
molding Mario’s face. Which is nice because everyone
wants to mess up Mario…
Sounds check anyone?
I’m probably not the only the person who can recall
the “great” music in previous Super Mario titles. It
was exasperating and very repetitive. This game, music-wise,
isn’t much better. There are only a couple variations
of music throughout the game, which eventually becomes
tiresome. However, I do credit the sound effects. There
is a wide variety of different sounds, such as when
Mario performs certain actions, when attacking enemies,
etc.
In conclusion, Super Mario 64 is, all and all,
a decent title. It gives more of that great adventure
game experience fans have come to expect, it has fairly
decent graphics, and the sound is o.k. I would recommend
that if you plan on completing this game, you buy or
borrow it from a friend because it can be very time
consuming, especially if you are trying to collect all
the stars and secrets.
Concept
Good gradual increase in difficulty, and good
control. |
80
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Gameplay
Basically the same as other Super Mario titles.
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70
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Graphics
Too many “toy blocks” for me. |
75
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Sound
I’ve heard better, and lack of variety.
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64
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Technical
A couple glitches, nothing too bad. |
84
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Overall
Worthwhile
to try if you are an adventure fan. |
75
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