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[Phediuk]

Judging from that Super Mario World topic, there seems to be a widespread conception of this game as a religious experience that was universally awe-inspiring, and that it was singularly looked upon as the greatest leap in game design history.

That doesn't really gel with my experience at the time, though. I remember being disappointed by Mario 64 when I first played. The graphics were nice but didn't melt my brain or anything; there had been much better looking games in the arcade for a few years by that point, and even on consoles, Mario didn't look that much better than Jumping Flash on Playstation. I found the open-world structure confusing and didn't like having to wander around the levels looking for stars. I just wanted a straightforward action game like the previous Marios. I also didn't like how they removed features from previous games, like fire flowers, invincibility stars, and Yoshi. Crash Bandicoot was more or less what I had envisioned a 3D Mario game to be, and so I liked that game a lot more.

I'm not saying I hate Mario 64 or anything; I came to like it after I played more of it. I may even like it more now than Crash. But my first impressions of it were terrible. Also, I fully admit that I was way more into the Playstation's library in general by that point and was getting more interested in more cinematic games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider. Mario felt a bit old hat even then.

So I want to know what other people thought about Mario 64 when it was brand new.

 

[jblank83]

 

[Leafhopper]

"Man this is really nice, the jumping amazing. All these powers are fun! Why does Mario need to punch stuff? Why is Mario so noisy?"

That was me at about age 5 when me and my big brother got a N64 for Xmas with Mario 64 with it.

 

[Xav]

 

[DNAbro]

Blew my 3 year old mind.

 

[bryanee]

Oh my gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd.

 

[Phediuk]

Oh wait, I forgot to mention I found Mario's voice really off-putting.

I mean now my mind is totally dulled to his voice, but at the time, I thought it was waaaaaay overdone.

 

[Aeana]

I was really blown away. I first played it at a demo kiosk at Toys R Us before the system was actually released, and I spent the entire day there playing it with my mouth agape. I'd never played anything like it, and it was so fun too.

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I ran in circles around the courtyard for like a half hour.

 

[PensivePen]

"This is pretty fun."

I did play the hell out of it though. It and Ocarina of Time were pretty much the only single player N64 games I touched.

 

[SerTapTap]

I thought it was great but really hard. I gave up on some stars because they required a wall-kick, I had to have a friend show me how to do it. (it's piss-easy I have no idea what was wrong with young-me).

Mario Kart was the first N64 game I played though (store demo), I don't honestly recall being super amazed by the 3D movement, but exploring and stuff, that felt really good. I really liked "exploring" in Yoshi's Island but there really wasn't much on my SNES that let me explore like that (I didn't play any RPGs until PSX).

Disclaimer: I was 7 when I got an N64 so my memory is surely fuzzy.

 

[Wolfgunblood Garopa]

The water. Next gen water.

 

[Jomjom]

Felt like I could die right then and have no regrets.

 

[Guevara]

I remember playing this in a game store. I was young and I had no idea it was even coming out.

It was the first 3D game I ever tried and I was awkward at it. For some reason I thought I could swim out to the islands away from the castle. Still though very mindblowing.

 

[LordGouda]

First post nails it for me.

 

[keidashxd]

OMG This can't be real!! I need that game!!

Those were my exact words.

 

[reektann]

Went to the local 'import' shop on the day their Japanese N64 showed up with Mario 64 and a whole bunch of us had our minds blown. A couple days later I imported my own.

 

[Darkroronoa]

This

Going from 2D gaming to 3D was mindblowing.

 

[jesu]

Never played it.

 

[sirap]

Blew my mind. I spent the whole day just OUTSIDE the castle. Couldn't believe I had the freedom to move in any direction I wanted.

 

[ElTopo]

Edit: I read the topic too fast and thought this was about Mario Kart 64.

It looked impressive at the time but I was more into FPS and the emerging Survival Horror games of the time. I liked it more when I was older and it's held up well I think.

 

[Abounder]

3D was great but I really loved the audio. Hearing Mario, the footsteps, just about everything added a lot to the franchise.

 

[Kabuki Waq]

My mind was blown when I saw it at a demo kiosk.

Absolutely floored. Cmon the first time the giant eel came out I was in awe.

 

[Silky]

/bruh/

 

[bobawesome]

 

[Scoot2005]

Nailed it for me. Scene by scene. Explosion by explosion. In my pants. Which were the pants of a 3rd grader. I bloomed early thanks to Mario 64.

 

[chubigans]

Played it at Blockbuster. It was already running so I jumped into the water world for the first time. I was completely floored, just utterly blown away. It was insane.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

Played it for the first time on the Virtual Console in 2007 with a Wavebird. Loved the music and the sound effects. The gameplay and level structure was really fun. Not nearly as good as the Galaxy games though.

That game, Metroid Prime and Twilight Princess were what signaled my transition into a Nintendo fan in late 2007.

 

[Mman235]

First post nails it.

 

[dietdracula]

The first time I played the N64 was at a demo kiosk in my local Toys R Us. I convinced my mom to take me there because I wanted a Lego set or something, but secretly I really wanted to marvel at the video game case. When I saw they had the N64 kiosk set up, I just stood there and looked at it.

Upon playing it, I felt so confused. It was my first 3D game, so I couldn't control it all that well.

I was in awe of what I was seeing. Mario was a living, breathing cartoon character that I had control of. It was magical, the kind of feeling that you typically only have when you're young.

 

[Rembrandt]

damn, this shit is dope.

wait

I JUST JUMPED IN THAT FUCKIN' PAINTIN'


Goddamn.

Game came out a year after I was born, though.

 

[OnPoint]

Absolutely this.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Mario 64 set the standard for player agency and freedom of movement. There really aren't many games that match it, even today.

It is euphoria.

 

[Megalosaro]

I fucking hated the controls at first. I kept falling off shit, it felt really imprecise and annoying. Fuck that first snow level

I also hated how few worlds there were, compared to SMB3 and SMW. I thought it weird how you had to replay every level multiple times.

But the game play was amazing. Never had seen anything like it. The level layouts and designs

 

[Leafhopper]

I JUST JUMPED IN THAT FUCKIN' PAINTIN'

Actually this too. Stuff was amazing.

 

[RP912]

It was amazing on the n64 and mindblowing on the ds.

 

[Coffee Dog]

.

you can look back and criticize mario 64 for a whole lot of things, but ultimately to many it was the door to a whole new world of possibilities.

 

[Seik]

Yep.

Especially since it was the very first 3D game I ever tried.

 

[SuperAngelo64]

Honestly, my very first thought when seeing the game was "That's what Mario is supposed to sound like?!?!" Obviously, I got used to it.

 

[Vestax]

I was blown away. I still remember it too, that's how awesome it felt. Loved my N64 to death.

 

[Redrop]

I think I was around six at the time, and it basically was all I thought about after first watching my family play it. I would make drawings about the power blocks, and I was enthralled by the worlds, trying to create some in my imagination. When I got to the ending, it was magical. The whole Yoshi thing also blew my mind, and I remember being committed to finding even more secrets after that.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

I saw an attract demo of Mario fighting Big Bully displayed on a 9 TV setup above a N64 kiosk at Best Buy. Had me awestruck

 

[ninjablade]

The graphics and gameplay were so ahead of everything it was really mind blowing.

 

[Anth0ny]

 

[Y2Kev]

Anyone who doesn't say this is lying

 

[Megalosaro]

Honestly, my very first thought when seeing the game was "That's what Mario is supposed to sound like?!?!" Obviously, I got used to it.

Actually, that was one of my first thoughts too. I used to thinking Mario should sound like the version from the SUper Mario Super Show, so I was pretty upset.

 

[NekoFever]

I was looking for this GIF as soon as I saw the thread title.

I'd seen most of the game by the time it came out here because we didn't get it until March 1997, and by then I'd seen basically everything in either magazines, the local import game store, or on a trip to the US (N64 was in Innoventions at Disney World), but even shorn of surprises, it was a revolutionary experience.

 

[redmetal86]

Slightly confusing. My first time playing it was after renting it from Blockbuster, along with Mortal Kombat 4. There was no manual, so my brother and I weren't really sure what to do, outside of what you would normally assume Mario could do ( run, jump, etc.). There were some save files on the game, so we spent a lot of time exploring the courtyard and jumping into various paintings. We then deleted one of the save files and started from scratch. After a while, we decided that we had enough, popped in MK 4, and started button mashing.

 

[mekes]

I really enjoyed the setup of the game, it made exploring fun and there was always a hint of excitement when you entered a different world. Collecting the stars had some addictive fun about it, its a game that I wanted to complete. Gameplay and music stood out more to me than graphics did, but the whole game presented really well. Zelda OoT was the game that wowed me with its scope.

 

[Stumpokapow]

mostly i just sat on the title screen stretching the hell out of mario's face