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What were your impressions of Mario 64 when it was released?

AC!D said:
My friend got an N64 on Japanese import, way before the official UK release. I was really excited to play it, but as soon as I began playing it was just the biggest dissapointment.

The move to 3d meant losing the tight, precise, twitch controls of the earlier games. We kept falling off ledges due to the rubbish camera.
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The first experience I had was with the game was when my babysitter (I must have been around 6) brought over his n64 with that game and goldeneye.

We played the crap outta it. It got to the point where we loved the game so much we got our own n64 and mario 64 later that year. We used to play the game so much and marvel at the details (such as mario sleeping while on the slide).

I remember it wasn't until we owned the game and I was trying to out for the first time with my dad did I realise there was a "z" button. THAT blew my mind, there was never buttons BEHIND the controller back then.
 
I didn't read the whole topic so I might be the first one to say this but: I didn't like it. SM3 was one of my favorite games ever and the turn to 3D just didn't feel right to me. And to this day I have a hard time enjoying 3D platformers.
 
Yes, I was very impressed with the 3D of the game, and It was a shiny moment when my friend brought his console to my house on launch day.

But after the initial moments, I guess I thought it wasn't legitimately a Mario game. I felt (perhaps correctly) that by going to 3D we would actually be losing some elements of gameplay. So I walked away thinking "neat trick, but Mario 64 is an impostor to the throne".

However, I rediscovered the game in 2000, and had a blast getting all the stars. It turned my opinion around. It was a real Mario game, every bit as full and fun as a 2D entry, but different.
 
I was around 12 and I had been reading about it in magazines since it launched in Japan I finally got a chance to play it at Best Buy a few months before the U.S. Launch and it was love at first sight. It truly seemed revolutionary and even casual observers and people who don't play video games at the time were mesmerized by it and would stand by the booth to watch it in motion.
 
AC!D said:
My friend got an N64 on Japanese import, way before the official UK release. I was really excited to play it, but as soon as I began playing it was just the biggest dissapointment.

The move to 3d meant losing the tight, precise, twitch controls of the earlier games. We kept falling off ledges due to the rubbish camera.
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They totally nailed the controls in that game. 3D platformers before Mario 64 were complete garbage in comparison.
 
It was fun, but overrated. Reading all of these magazines, I expected to be in gaming heaven as soon as I touched the joystick. It was fun, but due to the hype, I wasn't able to have as much fun as I should have with it.

One thing I didn't like about it was turning it into a collect-a-thon. I much preferred those Marios where you had to try to get the end of the stage.

Now one Nintendo title that DID delivery everything I expected and more was Starfox 64. Now that game was just amazing.
 
kevm3 said:
It was fun, but overrated. Reading all of these magazines, I expected to be in gaming heaven as soon as I touched the joystick. It was fun, but due to the hype, I wasn't able to have as much fun as I should have with it.
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Something like that. I never really understood the greatness of it, I mean, I played 3D platforms before this game so it wasn't really a new experience as many tout it as.
 
Every Mario game is a collect a thon even NSMBU and 3D land requires you to look for all the secret coins and shit to unlock more levels and secret worlds. Mario 64 had the best presentation. It really pushed the envelope in a way no Mario game has done since and that's partly due to being limited by weak hardware.
 
Anticitizen One said:
Every Mario game is a collect a thon even NSMBU and 3D land requires you to look for all the secret coins and shit to unlock more levels and secret worlds. Mario 64 had the best presentation. It really pushed the envelope in a way no Mario game has done since and that's partly due to being limited by weak hardware.
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Pre-Mario 64 games were not collect-a-thons at all, though. That's why people are calling it that.
 
Pretty much blown away at the time, just running around outside the castle, and swimming in the water.

Banjo Kazooie that followed a couple of years later was decidedly better though.

The game that actually wow'ed me most when I saw it was F1WGP.
 
First played it in a Blockbuster Video. I was blown away by the movement. Didn't own it until a couple years later, but my brother, my friends, and I all loved it.

Really wish there was a way to bottle that feeling of excitement and amazement. Just doesn't happen too often.
 
Absolutely and completely blown away by navigating Mario in a 3D world. Seriously, I don't think I'll ever be able to replicate that feeling again.
 
The first time I booted up Mario 64 my jaw dropped. PERFECT mix of gameplay and graphics.
I didn't really follow video games back then so I only knew what to expect from the box. Also my family wasn't doing very well financially back at the time so we went from an NES and a Gameboy to a N64 which was crazy.

Edit:

gogojira said:
Absolutely and completely blown away by navigating Mario in a 3D world. Seriously, I don't think I'll ever be able to replicate that feeling again.
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I hear ya. I've never felt the same awe in videogames as I have when I played Mario 64 and OoT.
 
My first experience was at the BBC Big Bash at the NEC in 1996 (or 97). We went there on a school trip and Nintendo had a huge truck there with dozens of N64 demo pods and SNES pods.

My mates were playing Donkey Kong Country 3 but I stumbled across Mario 64, it was glorious. I had been reading Nintendo Magazine System for years so I knew all about the game, but playing it for the first time was better than I imagined.
 
AC!D said:
My friend got an N64 on Japanese import, way before the official UK release. I was really excited to play it, but as soon as I began playing it was just the biggest dissapointment.

The move to 3d meant losing the tight, precise, twitch controls of the earlier games. We kept falling off ledges due to the rubbish camera.
Click to expand...

This is almost exactly my experience too. I appreciate what the game did and the impact it had for loads of people, but I've always thought there must be something wrong with me for not getting it.

It felt like a backwards step after SMW to me, and SMW in turn I didn't think was as big a leap over SMB3 as I felt it should have been.

I had the reaction most people are describing for Mario 64 when I saw SMB3 for the first time. The scope of the world and map connecting the levels blew me away. I'd also already played the heck out of Tomb Raider so the 3D didn't make a huge impact on me.
 
I remember it clearly.

I was walking in a mall and there was a couple of people looking into a store window so I walked over to see what had everyone interested.
Mario64 in big screen glory...I literally stood there for 5-10 minutes just watching it...the graphics, the 3d...I honestly to this day consider this and my first impressions/game of Street Fighter 2 as experiences that will never be repeated for me.
 
I thought it looked like a real cartoon. Literally a cartoon that you could control. The giant eel was terrifying in the tv ads.
 
I didn't analyze things as much then I just knew I had to have it. I got it and collected all 120 stars and loved it.
 
Polybius said:
Pretty much this. So much so that I remember exactly where I was when I first played (Toys R Us in Charlottesville, Va). I don't think any game has ever blown my mind as much since.
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Me too, I was eight and had already played Super Mario Bros 1-3 and world, then seeing Mario 64 in Toys R Us for the first time simply blew me away. For some reason I think my imagination took over because I have an image stuck in my mind of the demo station being a two player split screen version of Mario 64 with a playable Luigi lol.
 
Pretty meh.

We didn't get Mario until March 1997 so we had already been spoiled by the much better, pretty much in every aspect, Crash Bandicoot 1.
 
We had this topic not too long ago. My post from that topic:

It's kind of weird that my experience with it wasn't really as great as everyone else. The 2D Mario games (and SMRPG) were a huge part of my childhood. I have no idea how many hours I spent on Mario 1, 3, and World, and playing 2 across the street at a friend's house.

My friend got the game before I did, I didn't get a N64 until 1998 or so. We had fun screwing around, getting the occasional star here and there, but it wasn't really an awe-inspiring experience for us anymore than Bug! was on the Saturn. Or for me, at least.

When I got my N64 Mario was bundled with it, so naturally it was what I spent time with initially. It still didn't really click with me as a particularly amazing game. Even back then I preferred the 2D Mario games to the more open design of Mario 64 - it never really felt "Mario" to me in the way those games did. (And after Sunshine I pretty much gave up on the series, I got Galaxy on a reluctant whim due to the reviews, fortunately it was amazing)

Now fastforward to a more present-day me, older, wiser, and more capable of critiquing the game. Without the "THIS IS MINDBLOWING" nostalgia glasses, I find the game to be extremely flawed from a level design and objective standpoint. The game doesn't really get "good" until you get to the upstairs levels, and the last ones (especially Tick Tock Clock, which is amazing) are where it actually starts reaching the pedestal so many people place it on.

On a more positive note, the controls are fantastic for a game from 1996.
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Me and everyone of my friends were completely blown away by it.

Amazingly, my parents were impressed with it too. This has happened THREE times:

-Mario 64
-Driving around in GTA 3
-Trying VR in the Oculus Rift Devkit.
 
It was my introduction to 3D gaming, my first experience ever.

I was around 8 years old when it came out.

The week it came out, a friend of mine (more like his parents, heh.) rented it and he was like the only one in school having one. So we were something like 8-9 kids in his living room to see the thing in action, trying it one after another.

Man, when I had the controller in my hand, playing in 3D for the first time with a Mario game that looked fucking sick for this time. It was magical.

I fucking died when I got the N64 with the game at christmas, my parents were always telling me the price was too high and that they couldn't afford it and I believed them. It was almost at NINTENDO SIXTY-FOOUUUUUR level.
 
I hated the N64 controller. I thought it was overpriced. All the games I'd seen looked worse than the PSX games. I thought Nintendo were losing it...

Then I played Mario 64. It wasnt enough to make me invest at the time but I was 15 in 96 and didnt have enough money to sustain two console habits (already bought a PSX) - now Mario 64 and GoldenEye are two of my GOAT

If Nintendo announced Mario 64 HD I would have to buy a Wii U. Its that simple. With Zelda WW they resurrected the old wrong title.
 
It was the last time I recall being in absolute awe at seeing a launch title on new generation of console. It had a massive impact on me at the time. From the first time that I saw it at a giant store promo display I was blown away. I loved everything about the Mario 64. An absolutely timeless classic.

Swimming for the first time and hearing this track: http://youtu.be/XRh0Z36RrWY. So many good feels.
 
Felt indifferent about it, only really gave it a try at a game store, the jump to 3d didn't really blow my mind like it did for other people at the time, but I remember I was really impressed with the smooth and fluid animations in the VF games (but not really into the genre) back then but didn't think the console 3d games were all that appealing in the graphical aspect, at least not until ff8 came out, I just thought they were a bit too ugly and blocky.

I did get to play mario 64 a few years later and really enjoyed it.
 
I remember it being shown on a TV programme in the UK called Gamesmaster and being utterly blown away. I can remember the presenter (Violet Berlin) saying something like "This is actual gameplay!" and I just couldn't comprehend how it would work as I'd never seen anything like it.

A local independent game shop got a Japanese console in with a copy of the game and I can remember going to try it out. I was just utterly amazed.
 
Well this is easily explained. After playing it at Toys R Us I begged my parents for one but to no avail. I already had a PS1 from playing Crash at Toys R Us, so they weren't going to budge.

I didn't get to play through it properly until 2003 through an emulator. Got all 120 stars.
 
I was very very impressed by the quality of the 3D and how it was used with the controls (analog stick and full camera control). This was brilliant, a revolution, the blueprint for every 3d action-adventure controls ever since.

But the game itself didn't feel like mario at all, I was very disappointed on this. Trying to recycle the same levels over and over again with dull star-collecting quests, I always disliked that. It's only now with the 3DLand series that 3D mario actually feels like mario.
 
For me it took the longest time to master the controls. The move to 3D was kind of hard for me. But I thought Super Mario 64 was mind-blowing. And it still is.
 
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