

Although, you control Mario so that really makes no sense. When the game starts, you see Lakitu flying around the castle holding a camera and some actually theorize that you’re technically playing as Lakitu. This was huge back in 1996 and the game’s camera was revolutionary. The obvious and most unique thing about Mario 64 was the fact it was in 3D. Like every other game in this series, the premise is simple, not important, and takes a backseat to the gameplay.

There’s very little voice acting and when you interact with NPC’s throughout the environments, all dialogue is in text form. Even the castle, itself, has stars hidden around. Mario must collect stars by finding them or completing objectives in each world and the stars are used to open doors and access new areas of the castle. Mario must navigate the castle and enter the paintings scattered to around which are actually gateways to various worlds. The castle is like a hub world and consists of a three floors, a basement, and even a courtyard. Mario receives a letter from Peach inviting him over to the castle for cake but when he arrives, he discovers Bowser has taken over the castle and imprisoned Peach within it using the power of the castle’s stars. Bowser kidnaps princess Peach and Mario sets out to rescue her. The story here is basically the same as previous games. For this review, not only did I play the original game, but Jeremy and I teamed up and played the Super Mario 64 Multiplayer v1.4.2 rom hack using the Project64 emulator, and I also played through the game again with the HD Texture Pack v1.5 using the Dolphin emulator, specifically the Ishiiruka build, along with Gecko codes to get it running in widescreen. This was the first 3D entry in the series and is often considered one of the greatest 3D platformers of all time as well as one of the greatest games of all time. Developed and published by Nintendo, Super Mario 64 was released in September, 1996. However, I’ve always heard this version was inferior to the original and in 2010, I finally got my chance to play it after I finally acquired the Nintendo 64. I would never get the chance to try the sequel, Super Mario 64, until I bought a Nintendo DS in 2007 or 2008 and played the DS version. It’s one of my favorite games of all time. I would play it a lot as a kid, even after I did beat it, and I still play it quite often, even to this today. The Super Nintendo was my gateway into gaming and Super Mario World was one of the first games I ever owned. When I first beat it I was so excited, I was jumping up and down, and I went and found my mom to tell her of what felt like my greatest accomplishment at the time.

My parents got me a Super Nintendo which came with the game in 1992, which means I was about one or two years old, and I don’t think I actually beat it, or at least beat Bowser, until I was about five or six. My first Mario game was Super Mario World and it took me a few years to actually beat it.
