Meccanical
Member
'Wow it's 3D! So immersive!"
That's it.
Seriously the ambiance outside of Peach's castle was pretty damn good.
That's it.
Seriously the ambiance outside of Peach's castle was pretty damn good.
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What were your impressions of Mario 64 when it was released?
- Thread starter urfe
- Start date
revolverjgw
Member
No music, just the sound of birds, water and footsteps. Loved it
Ivan el Trolazo
Banned
loved it, mainly for the sense of freedom which you couldnt get in psx, except for ape escape....that first time looking at the ceiling window with c-up to activate the red switch...epic..wing cape on wii u with a huge world beneath you??? make it happen...
Meccanical
Member
Indeed. It's soothing.
There's a reason why people still speedrun Mario 64 and enjoyed it on DS, while Crash 1 and B&K are dead and forgotten.
Crash 1 dead and forgotten? On PSN it's broken 500,000 sales in PAL regions.
Phil0sophy
Banned
I remember thinking "This is the best graphics ever, seriously they will never get any better than this, its impossible."
Oh how naïve I was lol.
Oh how naïve I was lol.
revolverjgw
Member
Crash isn't forgotten, it's held in high regard and popular. People would be falling all over themselves fumbling their wallets if a kickstarter or something for a legit Crash game by a good dev ever started up
LegendofLex
Member
Honestly?
I was just really amazed by the fact that I could do something like swing Bowser around by the tail in a video game. I had no real concept of what was going on in any of the trailers, and N64 was my first (owned) console, so no real metric against which to measure the game (I'd played parts of SMB1-3/World and DKC1-3 at various points, but owning them is something else entirely).
I didn't care about graphics. I didn't care about controls. I didn't care about 3D. I didn't care about open world. It just looked like fun.
I was just really amazed by the fact that I could do something like swing Bowser around by the tail in a video game. I had no real concept of what was going on in any of the trailers, and N64 was my first (owned) console, so no real metric against which to measure the game (I'd played parts of SMB1-3/World and DKC1-3 at various points, but owning them is something else entirely).
I didn't care about graphics. I didn't care about controls. I didn't care about 3D. I didn't care about open world. It just looked like fun.
Solid Samus
Banned
I played games before Mario 64 but Mario 64 turned gaming into what'll probably be a lifelong hobby for me. The hours I put into that game as a kid... I don't think I've ever surpassed it, even with games that lasted me hundreds of hours like New Vegas. And every time I'd pick up the final star, I'd start a new save file and keep on playing
Conor_Fool
Banned
Well I was only about 3 or 4 when I started playing it, so it was more just open world fun for me than platforming. I spent more time throwing that baby penguin off the edge than I spent obtaining stars, haha
You must be new to gaming...
To Far Away Times
Member
Same here, except I was only 5 and it was Crash Bandicoot that blew my mind. But when my Dad said we were buying it one day my mind imploded and exploded simultaneously: "You mean I can play this at home, WHENEVER I WANT? WITH NO QUEUE? ON THE HOME TV?". Up till then I had only gamed on my original brick GameBoy.
I have fond memories of the Mario 64 demo unit as well. Obsessing about getting through the big star door and then jumping across to the peach picture without falling. Unfortunately my parents didn't want to spoil me with 2 consoles so I just imagined that Mario 64 came to PS1 and even ran around imagining I was playing the demo (in my head the demo only contained the outside running around section lol).
It absolutely is, theres no discussion there. Everyone has an opinion, but Mario 64 is by far and large much more revered than Crash fucking Bandicoot. Its not even close. One of them is highly HIGHLY regarded, was highly scored and will be remembered forever. The other is Crash..... a decent game, but nowhere near Mario 64.
Gaming history will remember (and does remember) Mario 64 as a genre defining platformer of its time.
Yep. And I was already 29 years old. After a childhood of playing Coleco Head-to-Head Football, teen years playing Atari 2600 and Intellivision, college and mid-20's playing NES and SNES, it was like the long wait had finally ended.
I know I'm swimming against the tide with this, but Mario 64 just left me feeling disappointed. The 3D was really impressive at the time, but once you got past that, it just didn't feel like a Mario game - that tight 2D platforming I had come to love the series for was gone, and in its place was something that looked awesome, but felt loose and sloppy compared to the older games. (And I should say here that this isn't a flaw in Mario 64 specifically - all 3D platformers feel looser and less precise than their 2D counterparts to me. The only 3D platforming that ever felt on par with the 2D stuff for me was Maximo vs. Army of Zin.)
Yeah, I realize I'm an outlier on this one, but hey, you did ask.
EDIT: Reading the last few replies, maybe I'm not as much of an outlier as I thought. I didn't expect that.
Yeah, I realize I'm an outlier on this one, but hey, you did ask.
EDIT: Reading the last few replies, maybe I'm not as much of an outlier as I thought. I didn't expect that.
Moff
Member
never was I hyped for for a game than this. it came out a few months before in the US and in japan, so the european magazine were stuffed with previews. I read all of them, I was so incredibly pumped.
but my extremely high expectations were still exceeded, my mind was blown away by this incredible, revolutionary and game-changing piece of software.
but my extremely high expectations were still exceeded, my mind was blown away by this incredible, revolutionary and game-changing piece of software.
spookyfish
Gold Member
Crash was OK, once you get past the fact that he was a focus-grouped to hell character.
And I still say comparing Crash to Mario 64 is a bit disingenuous. GameFan did this all the time.
Crash didn't even come close to having an open, explorable world. It was "on-rails" 90 percent of the time. I will say, nothing looked prettier than Crash, and they at least made sequels that built on the first one's success.
But to me, the inconsistent controls and linear levels don't compare.
In Mario it was always amazing that you could somehow score a star on your own, completely independent of which "Star" you were playing.
Banjo-Kazooie was amazing. I still hate that a proper follow up hasn't been released.
A true story.. from my youth
I wrkd a job which was shift work, the guy i was on shift with had a n64 (BIG DEAL). we worked a late till 23:00, we wwre due backon at 6:00am, at some point during the shift it was agreed mario64 was going to be afterwork entertainment'.
hangovers were had and jobs were terminared.
thats how i fondly rembember m64
I wrkd a job which was shift work, the guy i was on shift with had a n64 (BIG DEAL). we worked a late till 23:00, we wwre due backon at 6:00am, at some point during the shift it was agreed mario64 was going to be afterwork entertainment'.
hangovers were had and jobs were terminared.
thats how i fondly rembember m64
Yep.
Pandemonium is the quintessential example of how to do platforming in 3D though.
NekoFever
Member
I don't think I've been as obsessed by a game before or since. I devoured every piece of information I could find on that game, to the point of reading a complete walkthrough of the import in a magazine. I can still tell you every time I got my hands on it before release, from the Japanese import in the local import store, through a trip to Disney World in 1996 when I played a demo kiosk at Innoventions.
And unlike most heavily hyped games, it completely lived up to my expectations. Still one of my favourites ever.
Also LOL Crash Bandicoot. ND-GAF so obsessed that it's rewriting history now.
And unlike most heavily hyped games, it completely lived up to my expectations. Still one of my favourites ever.
Also LOL Crash Bandicoot. ND-GAF so obsessed that it's rewriting history now.
MagnaderAlpha
Member
I never got the N64(I jumped from Genesis+SNES straight to PS1), so my opinion was based on the playing it at my friend's house. I personally didn't care for it. Then again, this was(to me) the derpy time when 3D gameplay had yet to be perfected. I always got a sense of wacky motion feel when playing 3D platformers, especially the whole ledge vertigo thing where I just couldn't time my jumps as good as I could in 2D. Even playing it on the DS, I still don't think it was all that. Might be good to those able to get into it at the time, but I think games like Sunshine and Galaxy(even 3D Land, and from how it's looking, 3D World) were much more fun 3D Mario games. Revolutionary? Sure, and I'll give it credit for that, but I personally don't find it a fun gaming experience.
MrCunningham
Member
I remember being excited by a lot of the preview footage and early screenshots. But my first initial impressions were at a game kiosk in a rental store, I remember not holding the controller right on my first play through. I would try and grip it like a regular controller and stretch my thumb over to the center stick, which was really uncomfortable. The game did impress me though.
But a few months later I remember getting Tomb Raider for the PC. Tomb Raider didn't look quite as good on PC because it had no 3D acceleration at the time (nor did my PC have a 3D graphics card) so I ran it in software rending mode with shakey polygons and unfiltered textures. But it played simaler enough to Mario 64 that it took some of my excitement away from it.
I didn't own an N64 until the awesomeness of Goldeneye convinced me to get one.
But a few months later I remember getting Tomb Raider for the PC. Tomb Raider didn't look quite as good on PC because it had no 3D acceleration at the time (nor did my PC have a 3D graphics card) so I ran it in software rending mode with shakey polygons and unfiltered textures. But it played simaler enough to Mario 64 that it took some of my excitement away from it.
I didn't own an N64 until the awesomeness of Goldeneye convinced me to get one.
Anticitizen One
Banned
It's funny because the newer mario games (Galaxy 1 & 2 and 3D World) have more in common with the original Crash Bandicoot then they do Super Mario 64.
jeremy1456
Junior Member
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I'm sure there are people who like Bubsy more than Mario World.
The justifications feel like they're choosing random aspects of Crash to champion. There are smart ways to do a linear 3D plat former, and there is the Crash way which makes it feel like you are running through a hallway. The enclosed environments have not aged well.This absolutely makes the game feel like a product of its time from an age where developers weren't quite sure how to implement 3D yet.
Mario 64 didn't make Crash feel unplayable by any means, but it definitely made Crash feel like it was a generation behind in my opinion.
Ivan el Trolazo
Banned
hallwayphobia and sm64 obsession are 2 faces of the same thing
Claustrophobia.
Again I reiterate it's a great game, but not as much of a pure platformer as its 2D predecessors were and its new installations are.
Actually, the hallway design allowed Crash to age better than other 3D platformers for two reasons. First, it allowed them to avoid the problems with camera angles that have caused major headaches in all other 3D platformers to date (except maybe Jumping Flash! and Mirror's Edge). Second, since Naughty Dog knew exactly what was going to be on the screen at any given time, they were able to maximize the amount of detail on the screen, creating a graphical look that far outshines all other games of the era and manages to impress even today. So no, we're not just picking random reasons for liking the game. Unlike some of the Mario 64 defenders who say they liked the game because they could spend hours pointlessly running around in circles and jumping off of walls and trees.
catpurrcat
Member
Yep same here! Had no intention of getting an N64 until seeing it at a big box store demo TV around release day. Immediately went to EB and put my name on a waiting list.
Thinking back I remember I didn't actually have the full money for it...sold my snes with classics like yoshis island, ff6, and mario RPG...all with box and mint.
So I guess you could say I was really impressed.
Which is why Final Fantasy 13 is considered a masterpiece.
Holy Order Sol
Member
crsh bdct pls