Support NeoGAF

[Moon_frogger]

my honest first impressions? that the graphics weren't as good as nintendo and silicon graphics had led us to believe they would be, that the game played nothing at all like a mario game, leading me to view it as some sort of spin off or side game that happened to have mario characters. That the camera and movement were fucking weren't very good.

I got over this over the years and grew to appreciate mario 64 for what it is, the grand daddy of 3rd person platforming games. it truly does have some brilliant design but I'm glad that 3d world finally FINALLY made strides to break away from the it's design template and hopefully mario will never, ever go back to it.

 

[slapnuts]

Hmmm...Im not sure which game blew me away more Wave Race or Mario 64...because when i bought the N64 console...i bought both games at the same time and man...First time i played both games they truly truly made me stand up and say OMG!! I believe the first Turok game made me do the same lol

But Mario64 was something special i must say and was probably the most impressive game just inching out over Wave Race for me...both were 3D perspective and had such a soothing bliss type Euphoria.....I literally mean Euphoria...as if it were a drug playing it...it jus totally immersed me into its world.

There are not too many games in my long life of gaming that had made me feel that way, very few games had that type of impact on me the first time playing them....Although i do remember my Amiga 500 games giving me similar feelings the first time i played games on that computer.

ANyways..yeah Mario64...what a game and so much memories!!

 

[WarpathDC]

The comments about not being impressed with the graphics clearly saw this years after launch.

 

[shandy706]

Yep

Got it in '96 for my birthday. I was 14.

 

[Neff]

The comments about not being impressed with the graphics clearly saw this years after launch.

I think that's a safe statement. There was was little if anything that looked as good as SM64 at the time, not on consoles at least.

 

[Xando]

It blew my mind when i first played it (was about 8-9 years old).
I remember it was the first time i played with a analog stick and i was blown away by the 3D circle running.

 

[PKMNTrainer]

The single most awe-inspiring moment in video games for me. Made me never want to touch a 2D game again, that is until I realized that many of the following 3D games for the 64 weren't nearly as enjoyable.

 

[cacildo]

it was too much. Simply too much

And try to play it today and you will discover that.... IT STILL AWSOME

 

[El-Pistolero]

It is still my favorite 3D Mario to this day. Enough said!

 

[revolverjgw]

Mindblowing freedom and range of movement, closet thing to a real virtual world at that point. But Mario's voice was so offputting, I remember being greatly disturbed by that. I expected a gruff dude from Brooklyn, not... whatever the hell he's supposed to be. He sounded and still sounds creepy.

 

[Aeriscloud]

I distinctly remember playing Nights into Dreams earlier that summer or fall at a friends house and that blew my mind, but when I saw Super Mario 64 I was in complete awe. I was 10 at the time. There was absolutely nothing like it. Nintendo took the brilliance of the 2D games and somehow made it 3D, and even though the the objective of the game had changed, at least by level, they really recaptured the look and feel. Sure we didn't get as many powers as world or three, and yeah we couldn't ride Yoshi but it didn't matter because it looked and felt new and GREAT.

 

[Ganondorfo]

OMG, is this real life, thats what I thought back then in 1996.

 

[TGO]

The comments about not being impressed with the graphics clearly saw this years after launch.

Saw it before launch, play it on a kiosk during launch and finally had a good hands on a month later.
I was impressed by Wave Race 64 but not Mario 64.

 

[Norns]

"this blockbuster video is fucking freezing"

 

[Kotetsu534]

I didn't get into gaming until later in that gen and began with the PSX (child of 1991). Of all the "legendary" games I've since gone back to - including Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Super Metroid, FFIV, FFVI, Mario 1, Mario 3, Super Mario World - Mario 64 made by far the least impression on me. I thought it played worse than many of the 3D platformers I'd grown up with (Spyro, Ape Escape, Crash) and was much less fluid than the 2D games. I can understand why it was incredible in it's time though.

 

[PhantomZone]

I thought it was a different spin on the Mario formula, but in saying that i still pine for the 2D mario days, i want the same magic i had in Super Mario 1 and 3.

 

[Sorcerer]

My hype level was through the roof and after playing it lived up to that hype and then some.

Unfortunately the game was so good it made the subsequent drought brutal and many titles released afterwards could not compete with it.

 

[added_time]

It's definitely the most blown away I've ever been by a video game. I remember just staring at it in disbelief. When I first controlled Mario and had him climb a tree and run in circles, I loved the feeling of freedom.

Sadly, I think video games have never lived up to the promise that I thought Mario 64 was bringing with it.
As an example of this, I distinctly remember playing a Crash Bandicoot game a few years later and feeling so disappointed that even though the game was technically 3D, you had to move straight in one direction in a kind of closed in tunnel. It felt like the biggest slap in the face after playing Mario 64.

 

[Astro Racer]

It made it hard for me to play PSX games afterwards.

 

[TaiKH92]

This, I had only played 2D Marios before so it blowed me away

edit: though the 2d marios nowadays have kinda aged better

 

[Eddie Griffin]

I think that's a safe statement. There was was little if anything that looked as good as SM64 at the time, not on consoles at least.

Crash bandicoot.

Not to mention we ended up going back to having limited to no textures and the game ran horribly slow compared to everything else.

Camera was flawed

Movement input delays with buttons.

Nothing mind blowing about the game at all. It had a lot of issues. Im speaking from a '96 perspective as well.

 

[Garcia]

first post, totally.

FUCKING WOW.

 

[Lindsay]

The comments about not being impressed with the graphics clearly saw this years after launch.

Or played alot of games at arcades? There were a buncha real nice looking ones out at the time!

 

[timetokill]

Crash bandicoot.

I guess you can believe what you want, but Mario 64 looked and played SIGNIFICANTLY better than Crash Bandicoot. There's a reason why Mario 64 still appears on "Top 100 Games Ever" types of lists and Crash Bandicoot sits in the "Top 100 ... aw, who the fuck cares" lists.

 

[ZeroRay]

I told the story a few times here but in short, my mind was blown.

 

[The Real Abed]

This. It literally blew my mind figuratively. I'd never seen anything as cool as it. And it was so fun. That Toys R Us kiosk was like heaven.

 

[Marow]

"Hey, this is really fun!"

"Why is there no music when you play three or four players?!"

"I love the title screen music!"

"Battle Mode is soooooooooo fun"

"Is there a secret behind the Yoshi Egg?"

"Is there a secret behind the Green Thwomp?"

"Rainbow Road has a fun jump in the start, but wow does it suck"

I still mainly think the same today, especially about Rainbow Road which I think is the worst in the series. Plus, well, I find the controls rather slippery.

Edit... Wait a second... why did I read "Mario 64" as "Mario kart 64" this whole thread?!

 

[88random]

It was my first experience with 3D graphics and I thought it looked like crap. And I didn't like the game very much. Crash later did it for me.
Now I respect the game for what it is, but I'm not a big fan. SMW is still my favourite Mario game.

 

[Rolodzeo]

Obviously this.

 

[Farmboy]

Sorta agree with the OP in terms of the most initial of impressions. It just didn't feel as precise as I'd come to expect from Mario (reflected nowhere better than by the fact that you could now take six hits before dying). Also like the OP, the graphics didn't look that impressive to me either.

But then I entered the castle, followed by Bob-Omb Battlefield and my mind was straight-up blown by the sense of limitless possibilities. Ultimately, what we were witnessing was the birth of open world games.

Later 3D Mario's, especially the Galaxies and 3D Land/World, have taken things down a few notches in that respect and thus are better actual platformers, but Mario 64 will always be special because it offered up that glimpse into what 3D games in general could and would be.

 

[Acosta]

"Jesus, we went backwards in terms of graphics, this game looks ugly".

Nothing compared with my initial impression of Super Mario World, that was breathtaking for me.

(I was a day one buyer of SNES and N64, just in case someone thinks otherwise, but I was never too impressed by 32/64 bits 3D graphics back then).

Aside of that initial impression, I loved it, it was really fun and I could see the strength of going to 3D. But it has never replaced my love for 2D platformers.

 

[Mman235]

Movement input delays with buttons.

Dat input lag

 

[Eddie Griffin]

I guess you can believe what you want, but Mario 64 looked and played SIGNIFICANTLY better than Crash Bandicoot. There's a reason why Mario 64 still appears on "Top 100 Games Ever" types of lists and Crash Bandicoot sits in the "Top 100 ... aw, who the fuck cares" lists.

Theres a difference between objective facts and what nintendo fans though looked impressive because all they played before it was SM or SMS and nothing else.

Mario 64 ran slow at a low frame rate, despite having barely any textures, the game still suffered from blur. A lot of reused textures in, the world is virtually empty with not much going on screen, flawed camera controls that had issues, especially in areas were the camera moves itself, slowdown etc.

Crash Bandicoot could have more details on screen with more textures, more activity on screen, higher frame rate and ran faster, lack of fog, less blocky (by that I mean objects), no slowdown, more snimstion effects, etc.

To say Mario 64 ran better is crazy.

Subjectively, one could compare native shots and see Crash has more varied detail and clearly looks better imo and a lot of other peoples.

 

[Eddie Griffin]

Dat input lag

A gift doesn't show me anything.

 

[Mman235]

A gift doesn't show me anything.

Actually it does, because there's no way speedrunners could consistently pull off the crazy shit they do if lag was an issue.

Edit: and while it has drops at times Mario 64 actually runs pretty well for a 32bit-era game.

 

[KooopaKid]

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

.

It was amazing. 360 degree of control. Smoothness incarnate. Next-gen water effects. Myriad of different possible acrobatics. Only something like VR will be able to reproduce something like that.

 

[Winterfang]

I found it clunky, unfun and terrible. I still do now, the controls are pretty bad.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

I thought it was the greatest thing I've ever seen in a video game, at least until Ocarina.

Gameplay was just as astounding.

That and Ocarina was revolutionary and a glimpse of the future for sure.

 

[MrCunningham]

I was 15. And I was impressed by the game when I first had a chance to play it at a Future Shop kiosk. Everything about it felt so new at the time, including the analogue stick on the controller.

Though to be honest, I didn't own an N64 until after the release of Zelda OoT.

Though, Tomb Raider came out about 2-3 months later and it did just about everything Super Mario 64 did. This is the first legitimate 3rd person 3D platformer that I remember playing from start to finish, I had it for PC and it was an awesome experience for its time Though I also did own Bug on the Sega Saturn.

 

[Maedhros]

Actually it does, because there's no way speedrunners could consistently pull off the crazy shit they do if lag was an issue.

Edit: and while it has drops at times Mario 64 actually runs pretty well for a 32bit-era game.

It only shows that input lag isn't that much of a problem if you adapt around that.

I have already played Gex by the time I've seen Mario 64. And I liked it more.

I even liked Crash more. The game that I loved on N64 was Mario Kart (and Mario Party), because they actually had 4 player multiplayer, which was a huge advantage over PS1 at the time.

 

[jblank83]

Crash Bandicoot could have more details on screen with more textures, more activity on screen, higher frame rate and ran faster, lack of fog, less blocky (by that I mean objects), no slowdown, more snimstion effects, etc.

Crash is also locked into specific camera angles. It's 2d with 3d models. You can do more when you don't have free camera rotation. Even today rotating the camera quickly will slow down rendering, as textures and geometry have to be quickly dumped and reloaded.

Theres a difference between objective facts and what nintendo fans though looked impressive because all they played before it was SM or SMS and nothing else.

I had a PC with a Voodoo 3DFx, a 3d accelerator card as expensive as a Playstation or an N64. Later I'd buy a Voodoo 2. Yet I still found Mario 64 impressive.

 

[Eddie Griffin]

Actually it does, because there's no way speedrunners could consistently pull off the crazy shit they do if lag was an issue.

Edit: and while it has drops at times Mario 64 actually runs pretty well for a 32bit-era game.

Mario does not run fast natively so a gift shows nothing. It runs slow. Either way, point is game is not even remotely technically impressive.

 

[riotous]

Couldn't stand it.

Never grew to like it either. I really disliked 3rd person games where the camera moves around. Was a PC gamer playing games like Quake at the time and just really didn't see the appeal of running and jumping with a spinning camera.

 

[CoG]

Old GAF here. Was a PC gamer in 96 can could not get over how bad the textures and linear filtering looked in comparison to what was on the PC at the time. I thought it was a killer game though and almost got the N64 just for it.

 

[rjc571]

I guess you can believe what you want, but Mario 64 looked and played SIGNIFICANTLY better than Crash Bandicoot. There's a reason why Mario 64 still appears on "Top 100 Games Ever" types of lists and Crash Bandicoot sits in the "Top 100 ... aw, who the fuck cares" lists.

Too bad Naughty Dog didn't throw together a bunch of empty levels filled with non-threatening obstacles and banal gameplay objectives such as "touch treasure chests in random order!", rather than creating tight, challenging obstacle courses filled with classic platforming challenges. Then Crash would've made IGN's top 100 for sure!

 

[KooopaKid]

Mario does not run fast natively so a gift shows nothing. It runs slow. Either way, point is game is not even remotely technically impressive.

How old were you in 1996?
Mario 64 was a technical marvel at the time. The fluidity of the animation in a 3D game was unrivaled. I remember a lot of PC gamers being even impressed by it at the time.

 

[Eddie Griffin]

Crash is also locked into specific camera angles. It's 2d with 3d models. You can do more when you don't have free camera rotation. Even today rotating the camera quickly will slow down rendering, as textures and geometry have to be quickly dumped and reloaded.




I had a PC with a Voodoo 3DFx, a 3d accelerator card as expensive as a Playstation or an N64. Later I'd buy a Voodoo 2. Yet I still found Mario 64 impressive.

This doesn't apply for numerous reasons. First of all anybody would have left you for saying crash is 2D, which shows you have no clue what your taking about. 2. Camera angles have nothing to do with what's going on screen and in motion. Mario 64 is empty, Crash has nearly 3x the stuff going on while still running smoothly with extra stuff in the background and forground. Its more machine nintendo
So camera and history changes nothing. At most its a small advantage. Mario 64 struggles with half the stuff as Crash with nothing going on in comparison running worse.

Why do you think so many reviewers praised Banjo so much?

 

[biggersmaller]

"What have I done?"

Spoiler

Saturn owner.

 

[Mman235]

Either way, point is game is not even remotely technically impressive.

If you think Crash is technically better that's one thing, but now you're just trolling; especially as you're comparing a pseudo 3D game with a limited camera and environments to one that has huge (for the time) fully 3D environments.

 

[SliceSabre]

I was floored as a kid. Mario punching things IN 3D AND IT LOOKS COOL!? Then I saw the first time you got to fly in the game and I was hooked this was the most amazing thing I had ever seen at the time and I had to have it.

Note I was 9 when this game came out.