Super Mario 64 Is Still The Best 3D Platformer
- Thread starter soundwave05
- Start date
Mario 64 had mabye a handful of memorable levels with the rest being average or just plain poor. The mountain, the big/little level, the clock and snow levels were great; but others like the stage with the submarine hangar or the desert were lame. None of them compare to the level in BK with the huge tree and changing seasons.
Mario 64 is easily the best game I've ever played. The only other game that ever gave me "that feeling" was Zelda
oT, and I didn't get far enough in that game to fully appreciate it. Mario 64 was simply ingenious; pointing to this-or-that design element or level really doesn't do it justice. Never was the word "gestalt" more fitting for a game imo.
The game was just suffused with imagination in a way that no other game before or since has captured. What's a shame is that the gamers growing up today won't be able to experience that initial "wow" factor the way us older gamers did when going from the 2d Mario games to Mario 64. It was just a paradigm shift in every sense of the word. Yes, Tomb Raider did some of that as well, but it did no aspect of the genre better than Mario 64 did. I also feel that Banjo & Kazooie (sp?) ripped off a lot of Mario 64's design elements, some less subtly than others-- though this is just going by watching my friend play it (I never got into B&K). Let's be realistic-- it's doubtful that a game could come so close on the heels of Mario 64 and be THAT good, and from a company that just happened to be a second-party for Nintendo. There were definitely shared resources during development, I'd wager.
My bud just bought a DS, and showed me Mario, and I was filled with the same awe, wonder, and sheer joy playing it as I was the first time around 11 years ago. It's just an unparalleled game on every level. That's not nostalgia speaking imo. You can just feel the imagination oozing off that game. I guess the best way to put it is that when you're playing it, it's where you want to be.
That's one of the truest marks of great art in any field imo-- when you're observing, listening to, reading, or interacting with it, you're transported to a different place of the creator's making. Just incredible. I'd actually say that playing it for the first time at age 15 (which I did by renting out an N64 from Blockbuster w/the game for 2 weeks-- late charges ahoy! I cut school for those 2 weeks 
) ranks among the best experiences of my youth. It just broadened everyone's horizons, and as was pointed out, some developers are still playing catch up now, a decade later.
Just as nobody looks at a Picasso or a Rhodan and feels that somebody has "done it better", so I feel it will be with Mario 64 and games. It will be forever remembered this way, as it should be-- for the medium, I don't think it's a stretch to say that it's comparable to the aforementioned works of art.
I'm probably gonna make time for ZeldaoT during winter break, however, so there's a chance that Mario 64 will be dethroned as my favorite game ever, but we'll see. From the ~10 hours of it that I played, it definitely had the potential.
oT, and I didn't get far enough in that game to fully appreciate it. Mario 64 was simply ingenious; pointing to this-or-that design element or level really doesn't do it justice. Never was the word "gestalt" more fitting for a game imo.The game was just suffused with imagination in a way that no other game before or since has captured. What's a shame is that the gamers growing up today won't be able to experience that initial "wow" factor the way us older gamers did when going from the 2d Mario games to Mario 64. It was just a paradigm shift in every sense of the word. Yes, Tomb Raider did some of that as well, but it did no aspect of the genre better than Mario 64 did. I also feel that Banjo & Kazooie (sp?) ripped off a lot of Mario 64's design elements, some less subtly than others-- though this is just going by watching my friend play it (I never got into B&K). Let's be realistic-- it's doubtful that a game could come so close on the heels of Mario 64 and be THAT good, and from a company that just happened to be a second-party for Nintendo. There were definitely shared resources during development, I'd wager.
My bud just bought a DS, and showed me Mario, and I was filled with the same awe, wonder, and sheer joy playing it as I was the first time around 11 years ago. It's just an unparalleled game on every level. That's not nostalgia speaking imo. You can just feel the imagination oozing off that game. I guess the best way to put it is that when you're playing it, it's where you want to be.
That's one of the truest marks of great art in any field imo-- when you're observing, listening to, reading, or interacting with it, you're transported to a different place of the creator's making. Just incredible. I'd actually say that playing it for the first time at age 15 (which I did by renting out an N64 from Blockbuster w/the game for 2 weeks-- late charges ahoy! I cut school for those 2 weeks ) ranks among the best experiences of my youth. It just broadened everyone's horizons, and as was pointed out, some developers are still playing catch up now, a decade later.Just as nobody looks at a Picasso or a Rhodan and feels that somebody has "done it better", so I feel it will be with Mario 64 and games. It will be forever remembered this way, as it should be-- for the medium, I don't think it's a stretch to say that it's comparable to the aforementioned works of art.
I'm probably gonna make time for Zelda
oT during winter break, however, so there's a chance that Mario 64 will be dethroned as my favorite game ever, but we'll see. From the ~10 hours of it that I played, it definitely had the potential.