Pros: Fun and addictive gameplay, one of the best games of all time
Cons: Camera could use a little work
The bottom line: I consider Super Mario 64 to be one of the greatest games of all time.
This review is a part of Rock_On's 3rd Annual Nintendo Write Off. As suggested by the title, you had to write on something Nintendo. Whether it was a console or a game published/developed by Nintendo. Here's all of the participants:

Rock_On - Owner
Xeno3998
TheGeniusX
OneException
Minorthreat78
Titan45
Awoolcott
Stellarsight
Wandering_Mage
NetNut746
Pavona21
ChromeKiller
Swanton00 - Best of the bunch
PacManY2J
Jeremy1456
Mike_Bracken
T13Monkeys
Rice75
Kittyokc
32_Footsteps
StarSoldier1
Kjell1979
Bounty628
JiggyJay
Kenshin-Guy
Itltfan
Pixta
Rader6795
BaronSamedi3
Bowenkge

It's not very often that a game will keep me playing through it more then once especially when it's years old. Some that have done this are Phantasy Star 4 and Popful Mail. Super Mario 64 is another that has done this for me. Since the time I first played it, which wasn't to long after it's release, I've played through it twice and I'm on my third time now. SM64 offered a lot of freedom for it's time and still gives it better then a lot of games today. Being able to complete the game in almost any order you want, having fun and addictive gameplay and still being a lot of fun seven years later is part of what makes Super Mario 64 a revolutionary game and one of my favorite games ever.

Story

Princess Toadstool sent a letter to Mario inviting him to her castle for some cake. When Mario arrives things seem to a little quiet. Apparently Bowser, mortal enemy of Mario, trapped the Princess in the walls of the castle and stolen the 120 secret stars that protect the castle. Now it's up to the fat little plumber to retrieve the stars, defeat Bowser and save the Princess. So there isn't a big deep story, but that never stopped a game from being fun.

Gameplay

Super Mario 64 was one of the first 3-D platforming game the world had ever seen. And for one of the first, it was great. The graphics were amazing, not really like anything before. The analog stick on the N64's control proved to be better then the D-pad for plat formers giving the player better control of moving the character. Pushing the analog down very lighting will cause Mario to tip toe, pushing down a little harder would make him walk and holding it to the most it could go would make Mario run. This was something the D-pad could never do. Along with the new ways to move, Mario can also slide, double jump, triple jump, bounce off walls, punch, kick, pound, somersault and a couple of other crazy tricks. You will need to learn all of these moves if you hope to collect the power stars. The only part of the game that isn't nearly perfect is the camera. While it's not bad, it definitely could have been better. You use the four direction C buttons to control the angle of the camera. Left C to make it move left, right C to make it move right, up C for the camera to go very close to Mario and you can move the camera around with the analog instead of Mario which is helpful. Well, that sounds sweet and easy, but it's not all that way. Sometimes you won't be able to move the camera left enough and sometimes you won't be able to move the camera at all which can leave you with a bad angle. It's nothing serious and doesn't happen often but it is annoying.

In Super Mario 64, you'll enter 15 different worlds. Each world with a different set of enemies, numerous tasks and challenges and seven secret stars to collect. The worlds consist of places like snowy mountains, floating islands deserts, and much more. Each one contains multiple challenges to get a star. Reach the top of mountains, race against characters, defeat a boss, collect 100 golden coins and tons of other crazy things. Well, that sounds cool but going from level one to two to three and so on completing the seven challenges of each would get boring, but you don't need to worry about that with Super Mario 64. Your allowed to complete the game in almost any order. Yes, you have to start out with World 1 but once you get enough stars for the next world you can go there without finishing the first world. Each world has certain number of stars needed to get into it. So you can go and get a star from world one then go onto world two. Get a couple of more stars and go on world four. You can complete the worlds in almost any order you want since you only need 70 of the 120 stars to beat the game.

Throughout your adventures in the castle you'll be fighting a lot of Bowser's troops. So you should be ready for them by learning how to do your attacks. You can pound on enemies on the ground, jump kick float or flying enemies, punch them and more. When it's time to face the big bad Bowser, you'll have to grab him by the tail, swing him around and toss him into a bomb on at the edge of the arena. Besides your basic attacks you can also break these colored floating boxes to receive a power up cap. These boxes will all be camouflaged when you first see them and you won't be able to use them. However, when you find a the switch for each of the three colored boxes, you can activate them for use wherever they are found. You can get a green hat to become metal Mario and nothing will stand in your way, a blue cap to become invisible and a red cap to fly. All of these caps will only last for a short amount of time but they can be a great help.

Graphics

Back when the game was released, the graphics were considered incredible. The big 3-D worlds looked amazing. The trees, water, the castle, everything looked so good. There isn't much slowdown when a bit is happening on the screen so the framerate is good just about all the time. Though by today's standards the graphics are outdated, they still look good to me. The only bad thing would be that the characters are a little blocky buts it's nothing to bad.

Sound

While just about everything else in the game is near perfection, the sound is where the game falls a little short. The sounds of Mario's feet hitting the ground constantly might get annoying at times and the music is just all right, though it does fit the game. The voices are better though. While most of the little bit of talking there is in the game is in text, Mario does shout some lines like when he's defeated he'll say "Mama Mia." But the best part of all is at the title screen you hear Mario say "It's a me, Mario!" That one doesn't get old.

Final Comments

I consider Super Mario 64 to be one of the greatest games of all time. It's one of the few games that will keep me playing through it multiple times.

Release: August 31st, 1996
Developer: Nintendo
Console: N64 Only
Genre: Platformer
1 Player

Final Rating: 9.6/10