Super Mario 64 Review-   Super Mario 64 is the first  3D Mario game ever created and it was released for the N64 in 1996. It is considered one of the most revolutionary video games of all time for changing 3D gaming forever. It introduced a user controlled camera and introduced a huge world to explore.
                 A world that was never seen in a Mario ever before. Let's cut the bullshit and get to real business.
                
               Graphics- 7/10- It's kinda unfair for me to bash this game for its graphics because it was released  in 1996. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean I am going to give it a 10 simply because the graphics were breathtaking in 1996. We are not in 1996, but I am still respecting the graphics because of the impact they had.

               For 1996  everything was almost perfect except the textures. SM64 had really fuzzy textures, but that happened with most N64 games.
  
              Sound-10/10- Wonderful. I still remember  to this day EVERY tune of Super Mario 64. The soundtrack is just wonderful. Listen to Dire Dire Docks. It's like a bright light came and healed my soul of all the hate I had in it. Simply masterful. Another great tune is the Bowser Road tune.

              Imagine  being a 5 year old kid and exploring the Bowser Road for the first time in your life. Oh, the  Bowser Road with the lava. That brings so many painful memories, but it's OK, because the  Bowser Road tune makes me feel like a true winner.

              This is also the first game where Mario had a voice and it was just fun to listen to Mario make those noises. It was like the Mario character recieved a whole new life.  Mario was more lively than ever in Mario 64.

              Sound effects are great, nothing out of place. The noise that Chomp makes still pisses me off..

             Gameplay-9/10- Yeah, I am not giving Mario 64 a 10 in gameplay, but it's  still FUN AS HECK.  Mario 64 was an open world  game to an extent because you needed a certain number of stars to do certain missions.  The missions themselves are huge. In each world you need to collect 6 stars ( 7 if you count the 100 coins missions).

             You visit a lot of places, from a floating fortress to a land full of lava and bullies ( won't spoil the names even though most people should know what stages I am talking about). Mario had a lot of moves in this game, like his signature jumping , punching, double jumping, wall kicking, backflipping, sideflipping, jump kick, ground pound and my favorite, the long jump.

            Mario also has some other abilites like The Wing Cap that allows Mario to fly for a limited amount of time, The Vanish Cap which makes him invulnerable to attacks and he can also go through walls  and stuff like that to get to certain places. Finally, there is also the Metal Cap which makes him heavy and metallic. Even though Mario is heavier than normally, he can defeat enemies by walking into them, he can walk through fire, he can walk under water and he can also avoid water currents thanks to the weight.

             When you reach a certain number of stars, you  have to go Bowser and defeat him and so you get a key to advance further in the game. There are also bosses in the game besides Bowser like The Bomb-Omb King,  King Whomp, King Boo, Bullies and Eyerok ( awesome pun). The only problem with Mario 64 is the camera. It gets in your way a lot of times and it's annoying. You can control it thank God, but it can be a pain in the butt sometimes. Also, the game can be easy at times, but overall, the difficulty is just right.
       
              Replay Value-10/10- A TON of. There are a good number of secret stars all around the castle and even outside of the castle.
              I will tell you something you cool. After you get 120 stars, go outside the castle and go into the canon. Aim for the top of the castle. Guess who is there? YOSHI. Yup. He will give up 100 lives and you also get a cool star jump.

              FINAL VERDICT-NINE OUT OF TEN Despite being dated in some aspects, even after 17 years, Sm64 doesn't fail to be as fun as possible. It's a great game and there is also a remake for the DS which is the definitive version since you can play as Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Wario.  Let's not mention, more stars.

             
            

I started a new playthrough of this game just a few days ago. So much depth. I learned a few advanced techniques (Hold "Jump" and repeatedly press "Attack" to Jump-Kick up slopes, for example) and now already have 32 starts without even entering the basement. Honestly, IMO this game still is the best 3D platformer released in the last 15 or so years.

It plays great on the 3DS (the DS remake), one of my all time favorites!
Revolutionary at the time, not many games from the early 3D era hold up as well as Mario 64 !

       It's very great indeed. The thing is that after playing SM64DS and seeing the amount of stars you get in that game, I wished SM64 also had that many stars. Problem is that SM64DS is even easier so it's hard to choose which one is better.

It is so amazing to me that after all this time people still play Super Mario 64 and review it as well. I am one of those who still plays it also. It really is a true masterpiece but something that bothers me is that I just learned yesterday, SM64 wasn't the complete brain child of Shigeru Miyamoto. He actually got the idea and some design aspects from Argonaut's first ever 3D platform Yoshi game that was on Super Nintendo. Argonaut was a company back in the day which aided in the creation of Star Fox. It bothers me that Miyamoto would reject Argonauts idea only to turn it into his own. I guess they don't like it when other companies are better than them on their console. But who cares, Super Mario 64 is a heck of a game and I spent many hours trying to unlock Luigi... who knows... maybe I will someday. XD

I'm excited for it's future release on the Wii U VC, it's gonna be fun playing it on the gamepad!

o.O The DS version has even more than 120 Stars? I thought only Super Mario Galaxy 2 with 242 stars had more than 120...

             SM64DS has 150 stars. A lot of them are new missions  since now there are 8 stars instead of 7 to get. There are also secret places like in the garden with the boos and an other one is in the room where you can play mini games.

a bit off topic, but: What amazes me to this day is that Super Mario 64 DS is STILL 35 Euros... we are talking about a launch title for the original DS :D

       A bit expensive, but in my opinion, it's worth the value.