I got a free Super Mario 64 with my MyNintendo points yesterday. It's the first time in quite some time I played the game.
A. It actually looks better than I remember it looking. I think that's because it relied on very simple geometry and a very stylized world. It looks really good shrunk down on the Wii U gamepad, too. I only noticed a bit of aliasing, and usually aliasing in old games is ridiculously blatant.
B. I remember now why I had such mixed, ambivalent feelings about it 20 years ago. I loved and still love 2D platformers. Even in the late 1990s I felt Mario 64 was imprecise and I hated the camera. Yesterday and today I found myself constantly fucking up seemingly easy moves. Maybe I just suck at this, but give me a 2D sidescroller over a 3D game any day. I hate how much shit the New Super Mario Bros series gets here. I never played NSMB2, but I played the three other games and all three of them are vastly more enjoyable than Mario 64 or Mario Galaxy. I'd be more than happy if Nintendo just kept churning those out every few years until the end of time, but every time they come up everyone is like "Not another 2D Mario!"
C. I will say I like how short the game is. In two several hour play sessions I beat the game with 71 stars, don't intend to go back and finish it. I saw Yoshi on that roof many years ago, I don't need to do that again.
It was actually a pretty fun time and the game actually does hold up better than I thought it would, but I still can't help resenting that game for killing my beloved 2D platformers for two entire generations.
