tl;dr one of my favorite games of all time and the one that solidify my love for games in general. Still flawed and bugged in a lot of areas, but honestly probably one of the most important 3d titles of all time right next to quack(Quake) and elder scrolls.

When I was 5 I remember playing this for the first time. Mind you it wasn't my first title but rather my 4th title I ever played in my life up to that point. Something about this game back then that gave me a feeling that could be summed up in one word, "Explore". Mario 64 is very similar to how I felt playing mario world, there wasn't a crevice on that screen I didn't want to know more about.

As I went through each and every level and played through and mastered this game by the age of 10-12 I quickly realize something playing this title. My exploration appetite wasn't being quenched at all. I still wanted to see more. I felt as if there was more here that i was missing. Like another part of the game I didn't see prior.

This same feeling stuck with me a lot as a kid when I played videogames. I always felt that the devs had more in store for me and that there was something I was missing. Alas many of the games I played in that era really did not at all have more content in store for me to enjoy. In fact only 1 game did that and that was funnily enough diddy kong racing, but i'll cover that whenever i get around to writing that review some other time.

Mario 64 to me is a solid 3d platform and if i'm gonna be honest was definitely not the best of it's time in terms of variety and content. Hell not even in level design, many of it's competitors that took the stage after 64 blew it out of the water in several of the compartments I just talked about.

64 flaws are very prominent under a lens of critic. The platforms themselves being bland weird stone blocks that would fit a test level more then a mario game. Some levels having certain stars be a pain in the ass even if you're a grown adult. Some levels themselves felt incomplete or too small to really engage the player in any real meaningful way.

The charm honestly from this game comes less from the levels themselves and more of discovery said levels. Such as the mirror ice level which required you to notice something different about the mirror room, the sand level requiring you to take notice of a strange wall (Or be like a lot of players accidentally bumping into it after chasing the stupid fucking rabbit), or jumping into paintings small, large, or notice the differences on how you enter the level changing the environment.

Another thing that sets mario 64 apart is definitely the way that it controls and the open ended design of the levels. Most of the stars are designed around doing a specific task, but by no means tell you how to do it. This is basically the most open ended mario game to boot and if you really wanna see what you can and can't do in this game, look at a speedrunner. Those autist will show you why this game will never stopped being played by them. The controls also are so spot on that it allows these chads to do these feats.

Then there's the recent Pc port that I won't cover too much here, but basically allows you to make the game 10x better then it was on the original platform. As well as add 10x moar content then the original title and even added features that they always wanted to implement. Like split screen multiplayer as well as online multiplayer being as simple as clicking discord and playing said game.

I honestly think this is super important title that everyone should play atleast once. Just so then you can get an idea of what gaming was like in this era and why we should probably return to it.

Imagine Bubsy 64. Ok? Cool?
Get that out of your head, that's digusting!
Mario 64 is galaxies better than that. Slightly primitive and janky compared to more recent 3D mario games, it remains one of the better 3D platformers out there. 100%ing the game has always been fun for me, I do it every couple years, and still has some challenges to it. Some iconic Levels and Music also exist in here, and some of Mario's moves still feel great here.
The only couple things that hold this ever so slightly back is the camera and some of the jank, but once you're deep into playing this it doesn't really matter in the long run.
Lovely game, one of the best of the console, it's worth playing now.

Mario 64 is one of the most famous and influential games of all time. It is a pivotal game in the Mario series since it's the first 3D entry. At the time the gameplay and graphics were revolutionary but nowadays they are antiquated. I really wanted to like this game, I liked Ocarina of Time, but unfortunately, this game was frustrating. The camera is difficult to control and being the first 3D Mario game means the controls aren't as fluid as later games. Both of these aspects combine to create a game that is difficult for all the wrong reasons. The final boss, in particular, was annoying because I was terrible at timing the throws. Despite all that I still had some fun playing the game but in terms of frustration, it ranks up there with God of War (2005) and sadly I can't commend this game as much as others in the franchise.

One of the best games of all time. Super easy to just jump in and have fun with the various worlds, from Bomb-Omb Battlefield to Snowman's Land to even just the starting front area of Peach's Castle. It's crazy how the developers at the time were able to perfect the movement to be so fluid that it ends up being one of the most popular games to speedrun to this day. So much so that people find so many new things about the game years after it's release from carpetless to parallel universes, to even outside of speedrunning like the unused Luigi model.

Perhaps the only negatives about this game are the camera controls in tight areas but I didn't find a issue with this all that much and it still holds up to this day regardless. Just like how the original Super Mario Bros. set the standard for video games after, this game set the 3D standard for video games.

Just around a year ago I've heard about Nintendo 64 for the very first time. I was not a big fan of Nintendo, had been completing some Switch hits by that moment. First Zelda from Switch online made me fall in love with Nintendo titles and woke up my interest to games from past generations. Back then I watched reviews of Nintendo 64 with calm excitement and just could dream about having my own console. A year later I've been already diving into Super Mario 64 collecting stars and trying to set princess Pitch free for another innumerable time.
The game is really great. After almost 20 years since its debut it still pulls you in. There are couple of reason for that. Firstly it's inventive and not tedious. There are bunch of mechanics and nice puzzles from the beginning to the end which you really like to master. Secondly level design is developed with huge attention to details, you really feel it. Thirdly it has a balanced level of complexity. To complete the game you need to collect major part of hidden stars. That means you really need to learn almost every course quite well, facing majority of the ideas which game has prepared for you. It's nice point in comparison with modern Marios. Where you can just run through majority of levels and so get to the final titles missing bigger part of content on this way.
I even don't take into attention how inventive it was on the date of its releasing. And what's curious it's played absolutely nice in techical aspect. Strange-looking N64 controller appeared to be a super comfotable pad. Analogue stick feels great. I really like it. The only problem you need to get accustomed to old-fashioned camera. But you don't notice any inconveniences with it after several hours of playing.
As other games from Super Mario series it opened up for me when you want to beat it 100% and need to collect all hidden things. This particular game was a real challenge for me. I decided not to use any help from Internet and just see how many stars I'll be able to find by myself. I even couldn't expect that I'll finish up with all stars except one. That took a lot of time and efforts but I'm really proud by this achievement. Only experience of previously completed Mario games gave me a chance to accomplish that. Also that just proves there are almost no silly unlogical puzzles in the game what is great.
Soundtrack is brilliant as usually. Some themes are so warm and return you back into the childhood. All melodies match the spirit of the levels 100%.
In general the game feels very holistic. Despite the world is very small it was still an attempt to build an open world which you'd like to discover. And team managed to build it.
Why the game is not ideal? In my analysis of the game during its walktrough I was permanently jumping between marks 9 and 10. So till the very last moment I was thinking about 10 but still it's 9. First of all I asked myself a question: will I play it again any time later? The answer is probably no. After beating it 100% I don't think I'll be happy to to try it again struggling with camera and solving puzzles which I've already solved before. Another thing there were couple of courses which I didn't like for their atmospere. It was so uncomfortable for me so I hardly forced myself to beat them. And lastly this last hidden star which I couldn't find without help from Internet.. It made me a bit disappointed. Even during the month of constant playing I'm not sure I could find it somehow :)
Also one curious observation I made during playing one of the courses. Game there was so similar to Zelda Ocarina of Time that it was even fun. Dungeon, darkness, spiders and ability to hit your enemies? For me Mario and Link have never been so close as now. Later I read that Ocarina of Time was built on the same engine SM64 had been. That explained a lot of things.
Finally I'd say don't be afraid to give this game a chance if you think it went outdated. Those generation games have their own charm and attraction. Maybe you needed to grow up that time to understand it better.. I'm not sure. But they give you a feeling modern games can only pretend to give.