Published by: Nintendo
Reviewed by: Pascal "Saturnman" Vellet
System: Nintendo 64
Genre: 3D Action
Rating: 8 out of 10
Summary:
Super Mario 64 is the logical progression of the MArio series while setting the graphical standards for future N64 titles. However, the game is NOT as revolutionarly as many are claiming.
The Review:
It's hard not to be cynical about most video-games magazines. Here is an area of journalism which has loose ethical standards and worse, is completely dependant on the video-game industry. Basically, if the industry doesn't come up with anything interesting, then game mags have nothing interesting to report, and consequently, they'll stay on the shelves of most bookstores. So for the sake of their survival, game mags seem to have no problem continously hyping games to maintain interest among their readers. Certainly many people remember the hype surrounding such turkeys as Clay Fighter, Rise Of The Robots (2) , amd Bubsy The Bobcat/ But even when the hype is warranted like it was for the original Street Fighter II, or Sonic The Hedgehog, there's an awful tendency to exagerate and make otherwise excellent titles bigger than life (video games never are, anyway). This was somewhat the case with Sega's Nights on Saturn, and the same thing happened with Super Marion 64.
Beyond the hype, Super Mario 64 is actually quite a game. Not only does it look good, but has most of the key ingrediants that makes a video-game enjoyable to play. The simplest way to describe SM64 is to say this is Mario in 3D. Now that statement in itself is quite revealing. Those who never like Mario games before will most like not change their mind with this sequel. SM64 has basically the same play mechanics and core gameplay as all MArio games. You still walk, run, jump, fly, swim, collect coins, pick up enemies, search for powerups, encounter familiar enemies, and you still have to save the princess! So SM64 isn't revolutionary and it certainly didn't invent the wheel. However, this game's greatest achievement is to have made that old Mario gameplay work in 3D, and that should be great news to Mario fans. This new Mario adventure has significantly less levels (15 levels or so) than previous Mario games, but there's more to do in each of them, so it evens out. In fact, in the move from2D to 3D, there has been some adjustments to gameplay. You no longer move from left to right in search of the exit (or exits). You're free to roam in large worlds where your goal is to find a number of stars in each world (the stars could be considered as the level exits). Those stars are usually not hidden, but have to be earned by either collecting a certain number of coins, performing a special tas or helping a friend.
As mentioned before, the play mechanics are very much like they were before. In fact, one can easily recognize that some Mario moves come directly from Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, and even Super Mario Land 2 on Gameboy! Howeverm SM64 brings a couple of new ones. Basically, they're all special jumping techniques.
Sounds effects are quite good. It's still the standard Mario fare, but with everything in high quality and sounding very crisp. Mario also talks! Super Mario 64 has a series of voice samples for Mario with an obvious Brooklyn accent. There are the simple gaspings, screamings and some more specific samples, like "Mama mia!" and "Here we go!". It all sound a bit corny, but it fits the nature of the game pretty well. The music, on the other hand, gave me mixed feelings. It all sounds pretty good, yet I'm somewhat disapointed there's still not much musical diversity om Mario games. In fact, SM64 even manages to throw in those classic Mario tunes. There's nothing wrong with nostaligia, it's just that basically, every other Mario game has done it before, so I've been listening to those same Mario tunes for the last ten years. I think it is reasonable to ask for something different for a change!
In terms of visuals, SM64 delivers. In fact, as a vasis of reference, this is the antithesis of Nights's graphics. Instead of detailed, undulating and colorful scenary, everything is more blocky, angular and blurry. While this may sound less ambitious or impressive, it's actually a conscious choice to sasve power and memory in order to draw far into the horizon (something Nights can't boast) and the end result is pleasing to the eye (and also less distracting...). As the flagship N64 game, SM64 is a showpiece of many special effects. Transparencies are abundant, anti-aliasing eleminates some of the "stairway" effect (but far from completely), dept-cueing completely prevents polygon folding and sevel pixel-filtering techniques allow a generally cleaner picture than in most Saturn and Playstation games. No doubt about it, technically and visually speaking, SM64 is excellent stuff. However, skeptics will quickly point out the less marvellous side of the graphics. The game tends to slow down, there are some clipping problems and "pop-ups" are still evidnrt. Those flaws are actually minimal excpet maybe for the "pop-up", which is significant when you're going in circeles, looking for coins, and out of nowhere, they appear just in front of you.
But make no mistake about it, this latest Mario adventure does have its fair share of flaws. The biggest and most obvious one on the list has to do with the various camera angles. On the first levels, there's no real problem. But on later ones, in moretight quarters, it becomes a pain. Not only do the wierd pre-set camera angles are already a nuisance, but they never seem to adjust correctly to your position. In fact, sometimes you get the feeling when the going gets tough, the game is like a deer in the headlight! And the manual override for the camera angles is hardly any help. It is too complicated for its own good, and besides, the new camera angles you can choose are never entirely satisfactory. Expect this general problem to cause a lot of frustration and probably, many lost lives.
This game has the same major flaw as previous Mario games; a lack of replay value. There is a lot to do in SM64, and any serious gamer will take at least one or two weeks to completely beat the game (find all stars). But because the real fun factor lies in finding secrets, once they are all discovered, there's no real point to play the game again. Actually, this deficiency could have been easily solved with some kind of two-player game as an option like all fighting games have. So if you're looking for a long-lasting challenge, any decent fighting game is a better bet than SM64.
Another problem is when your feet are not on the ground. Flying has been purposely programmed to require some skill and practice, but to the option of some of my friends (with whim I have often played this game), it is just too difficult to master, thus to enjoy. But another problem with flying has to do, yes, with camera angles. While in the air, the camera is directly behind Marion, but at a certain annoying delay. It's like being stuck in the last wagon of a roller-coaster. When you go down and the front end (Mario) suddenly goes up, you can't see what's up there, because from your view of things, you're still going down! This makes precise flying manoeuvres particularly tricky. Swimming also suffers from some of the same flaws, but to lesser extent. Everything is at a much slower pace underwater, giving you (and the game!) more time to adjust. Inertia still requires some getting used to, though, and getting out of the water is actually a lot more difficult than it should have been.
More minor complaints would be that later levels are less fun to play than the first ones (underground levels are downright boring). Also, bosses are too few and could be considered lackluster, with the possible exception of Bowser himself, but the game makes you fight him many times throughout the game, which is ultimately disappointing (Who's the end boss? It's Bowser again!)
In the final analysis, Super Mario 64 is a very good game. It does have its flaws (I felt it was important to talk about them, since on one else has dared to), but they are outweighed by the general technical and design quality of the game. This is by far the best N64 game (true, there aren't a lot of N64 games to begin with). But most importantly, it is also one of the best games of 1996.
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