Super Mario 64:

 

Super mario 64 is one of the most iconic mario games in history as it was the first game starring mario in 3D. It was created for the nintendo 64 and released in june of 1996. This week I will taking a look and review this classic game. Now with regards to graphics  I will not be judging them from a modern standard.

Story: The story opens with mario appearing outside Peach's castle. Mario reads a letter from Peach inviting him for cake. As he enters the castle he is told by Bowser that he has captured Peach and locked away the stars and there's nothing he can do about it. So you must go through all the levels in an area collect the stars and of course beat the boss then go on to the next area then rinse and repeat. Until you fight Bowser in a final fight and win. When you beat Bowser yo get a little cutscene at the end where Peach congratulates then kisses you on your polygon nose and invites you inside for some cake. Now I don't think there is anything wrong with the story it's the kind of classic story you get from a mario game Peach is captured by Bowser you must rescue her which is fine and suprisingly doesn't get boring even after all these years.

Gameplay: Mario 64's basic controls are A=jump, B=attack, Z=crouch and C buttons control the camera. When you first start the game you appear outside the castle and are given a quick tutorial on the controls. When you enter the castle there is a door with a star on it. When you enter through the star door you must jump through a painting to start the level. Each level contains 6 stars and some contain secret stars and in total there are 120 stars. There are several areas a basement, a moat and a courtyard. Within each area there is a door with a large star on it that leads to the boss of the area, Bowser. Now the fights with bowser involve you on a small arena dodging his attacks then running behind him, grabbing his tail and spinning him round and round and throwing him into a bomb. After defeating the final boss, Bowser states that there are 120 stars. Within the game there are several hats that give you powers such as the metal cap which turns you into metal that allows you to withstand noxious gas, winds and walk underwater. There is the wing cap which allows you to fly and finally the vanish cap allowing you to become semi-immaterial and allowing you to pass through wire meshes. The enemies in this are very diverse and all look unique from the boos to the bom-ombs pink or black. And each enemy no matter what level provides a challenge.

Opinion: I personally love this game. It's really enjoyable as each level design is unique and even with the outdated just looks great. Also I enjoyed the design of the castle as each area looks different and sets the style for the levels to come. The game has a interesting control system with an easy to learn but hard to master controls, as the basic controls are just jump and attack but there are multiple combinations that can aid or damage your progress through the level as the wrong jumpat the wrong time can kill you. Another great thing about this game is the boss fights though they have same format the increased difficulty and the style of the level makes you forget the repetiveness. Although this game does have some problems such as camera controls as they can be quite awkward and when you're fighting Bowser and trying to throw him because of the angle of the camera you can't see the bombs and must make an educated guess of when to throw. Now another problem is that the controls aren't exactly perfected as like in most early 3D games the controls can be a bit sensitive and at certain times can cause deaths really easily. Now earlier I mentioned the flying cap the problem with the flying cap is that it can be really awkward to control the flying cap and you can't make accurate sharp turns.

Score: I will have to give this game a 9/10 because in spite of  the flaws this game is amazing for when it was released and has still some the best gameplay mechanics and design of the levels in any game I've ever played.